Sober Disclosure

In this week’s episode, we dive deep with Christian, whose story takes us from military discipline to total chaos — and finally, into recovery and grace.

Christian once did so much ecstasy that he was literally kicked out of the Air Force. What followed was two decades of chaos — cocaine, crack, meth, heroin, and a long list of failed attempts to get clean through everything except AA. College couldn’t save him. Fraternity interventions couldn’t save him. Even outdoor rehab didn’t work. But divine timing and family love kept him alive long enough to find the program that finally stuck.

After being court-martialed and serving six and a half months in the brig, Christian returned home to Huntington Beach determined to start over — but success and busyness led him right back to old behaviors. A relapse, a suicide attempt, and a near-death seizure finally brought him to his knees in 2018.

When COVID hit, Christian found his way back to AA through Zoom in 2021, and this time, something clicked. Under the guidance of a strong sponsor, he began to truly surrender — even taking a year of celibacy to focus on spiritual growth and service.

Today, with four years sober, Christian lives by faith, accountability, and the motto: “What other people think of me is none of my business.” From raves and rebellion to recovery and rebirth, his journey is proof that no matter how far you fall, grace can still find you.

This week, we sit down with Emily — whose journey shows that sometimes the turning point isn't a dramatic bottom, but simply reaching a place where you can’t run from yourself anymore.

Emily came to California from Virginia wrecked by heroin addiction and years of toxic relationships. With nowhere left to turn, she took a desperate flight west with her ex-husband — and by sheer grace, crossed paths with Gene, a man from AA who would become her sponsor, mentor, and anchor. Gene welcomed her into his home and offered not comfort, but structure, discipline, accountability, and a spiritual foundation she’d never had before.

She started over with a get-well job at Fatburger, showed up to meetings every day, and began rebuilding her life from the ground up. And while she struggled deeply to trust women — or trust herself — Emily slowly learned to soften, surrender, and let the program reshape her from the inside out.

A pivotal chapter of Emily’s story came at two years sober, when she lost her brother to addiction — and only months later, her stepmom. She shares the raw reality of walking through profound grief without ever wanting to drink or use, and how the love and structure of AA became the safety net that carried her through. Instead of collapsing, she leaned into service, meetings, and her program — proof that a solid foundation in recovery can stand firm in the hardest storms.

Emily also opens up about how her disease showed up in early recovery — and how she needed someone who wasn’t afraid to tell her right from wrong. Gene gave her truth and tough love; today she has a woman sponsor who guides her with gentleness and compassion. Both styles, she says, were essential to her becoming the woman she is now.

Now building a life rooted in honesty, accountability, spiritual practice, and service, Emily is proof that when you stop running and say yes to guidance — life becomes something sacred, steady, and worth staying sober for.

In Part 2 of Sloan’s story—the first guest we’ve ever needed two full episodes for—we dive into the messy, hilarious, and deeply human side of growing up sober. Sloan got sober at just 16 years old, and in this episode, she opens up about what it was really like to navigate relationships, recovery, and self-worth while learning who she was without drugs or alcohol.

She shares stories about dating house managers in sober living, juggling crushes on friends who lived across the street from each other, and how she used relationships to fill the same void that alcohol once did. When Jimmy asks if she ever told her sponsor about these situations, Sloan laughs and recalls her sponsor’s advice: “You can do whatever you want—as long as you’re willing to accept the consequences.”

But what stands out most is Sloan’s honesty. She talks about how she used to conveniently leave things out with her sponsor, and how every time she finally told the truth, she’d end up on her sponsor’s doorstep—like the time she confessed she was dating someone with 36 days sober and got a literal nipple twist as a lesson in honesty.

Sloan reflects on how the secrets are what separate her from God and her fellows, and how living transparently—no matter how uncomfortable—has become the cornerstone of her sobriety. She also breaks down the importance of daily routine, prayer, and staying grounded in God’s will to keep her ego from spinning stories that feed old behaviors.

We also get into how perception changes in recovery—how the patterns she once laughed off as harmless look different now, and how she’s learned to take accountability for the examples she sets. Sloan opens up about the grief she’s endured in sobriety, including the loss of her best friend, and how service, faith, and fellowship have carried her through the darkest times.

Today, Sloan is a published author and a powerful recovery speaker who travels the country sharing her story and her faith. From dating chaos to divine direction, Part 2 is a powerful blend of laughter, vulnerability, and grace.

🎧 Tune in for a conversation about love, loss, honesty, and what it means to truly grow up in sobriety—one truth and one prayer at a time.

Sloan is our very first guest whose story couldn’t fit into just one episode—because it’s that powerful. She got sober at only 16 years old and will celebrate 14 years on November 1st, 2025. Growing up in Wisconsin, there weren’t any adolescent treatment programs, so her parents did what they could—putting her in hospitals to detox. But even there, something sparked. She picked up the Big Book and saw the word sponsor—and in her young, addicted mind, she thought it meant someone would pay her. She told her parents she had to go to these “meetings” to find a sponsor, thinking she’d stumbled onto a get-rich-quick scheme.

At 15, she walked into her first meeting—a flooded church basement women’s meeting—after having her parents drop her off around the corner. The women there welcomed her with warmth and kindness. Someone got her a cup of coffee, someone offered her a cigarette, and no one told her she was too young. Sloan says what kept her coming back was that “we don’t shoot our wounded”—and that no one ever told her there was a time limit on being an addict or alcoholic.

But it wasn’t a straight line. Sloan did the 30, 60, 90-day dance for a while, facing five felony charges at just 15 for lying about where she was getting pills to sell—“I’ll lie when the truth would’ve served me better.” After being expelled, she ended up at a sober high school where she had to take drug tests to stay enrolled. She managed to get nine months sober before relapsing for two weeks—and she couldn’t drink enough to drown out what she’d learned in recovery. Her last blackout came on Halloween, ending with her stomach being pumped in the hospital. Ironically, her lowest bottom wasn’t the chaos—it was losing her job at KFC. That’s when she surrendered, even if she didn’t recognize it yet.

In early recovery, Sloan was wild—she admits she wasn’t doing the inner work, just showing up and fellowshipping. Her addiction shifted forms: sex, love, validation. Within her first year, she got kicked out of her sober high school after breaking a boy’s nose and managed to get herself blacklisted from all the men’s sober living homes. But she kept showing up—and the women in the program never gave up on her.

By three years sober, her untreated mental health nearly took her life. She put a gun in her mouth, and her mom walked in on her. That moment changed everything. Her sponsor—who had also gotten sober young—started bringing meetings to her in the hospital every week for over a year. Slowly, Sloan began doing the real work: healing, surrendering, and finally building a relationship with God. Her sponsor told her she wasn’t fully in God’s will until she was giving it away—helping others still in the psych ward, just like she once was.

This episode is raw, real, and full of hope. Sloan’s story shows that recovery doesn’t always look pretty—but grace finds us anyway.
🎧 Tune in to Part 1 of Sloan’s journey as we talk about getting sober young, surviving chaos, and finding purpose through pain. (And yes… we end on a cliffhanger that involves a titty twister—Part 2 coming next week!)

Robert just celebrated 11 years sober—and this was his first time ever getting sober. Before that, he had lost absolutely everything he had worked for. When he finally surrendered, he was scholarshipped into a program, and on his very first morning, they took him to a 7 a.m. meeting. He walked in and saw people smiling—truly happy—and in that moment, he was struck sober. He knew deep down that this was it for him.

Robert had tried getting “Jesus sober” before—turning to church, praying for strength—but it never lasted. The second he left, the relief disappeared. But when he walked into AA, something clicked. The fellowship gave him not just sobriety, but a God of his own understanding. Today, he gets on his knees and prays every single morning.

Growing up in the South, Robert never felt safe being openly gay. When he first moved to Thousand Oaks, he feared he’d be the only gay man in the rooms—like he was right back in the South, feeling like the outsider again. But through prayer, faith, and the love of the fellowship, he found belonging and a spiritual home.

When Robert came into the program, he had nothing—no job, no car, no money, and no connection to his family. In that first year, he learned humility, how to ask for help, and how to reach out when he was struggling—and every time, someone in AA reached back. For six years straight, he went to a meeting every single day. “I just wanted someone to point me in the right direction,” he says, “and that direction was always toward God.”

At 13 months sober, tragedy struck when his aunt, uncle, and cousin were killed by a drunk driver. Robert shares the painful realization that he was that kind of drunk driver—and how, by the grace of God, he was sober when it happened. He walks us through how his faith carried him through that unimaginable grief, and how he’s learned to trust that God’s hand is in everything—both the blessings and the heartbreaks.

Over time, his life rebuilt itself piece by piece: a car from someone in the program, a job from another member, reconnection with family, and a sense of purpose rooted in helping others. Today, Robert gives back by showing up for the newcomer the same way people showed up for him.

🎧 Tune in for a powerful and emotional conversation about surrender, faith, and the kind of grace that only comes from hitting bottom and choosing to rise—with God and the fellowship lighting the way.

Alyssa has one year and three months sober—and she’s only 21 years old. She’s Breezy’s grandsponsee, and before getting sober, she had tried a thousand times but never made it past a month of white-knuckling. She’s never had a legal drink, yet her drinking nearly cost her her life. Coming from a family where addiction runs deep, she never saw alcohol as a problem—it was just fun, social, something to take the edge off her anxiety. But it wasn’t long before she was bleeding internally and had burst her small intestine, still drinking through it all.

Her turning point came when her boyfriend, who drank the same way she did, landed in the hospital. For the first time, he said they should go to a meeting. Alyssa told him he should go—but he asked her to come with him. That night, she admitted out loud, in front of a room full of strangers, that she was an alcoholic—and she cried. A group of women surrounded her after the meeting, and one invited her out for tea the next morning. For the first time, Alyssa felt love, connection, and belonging.

At first, she told herself she’d just make it to 30 days. But when she picked up that first chip, the feeling was electric—and she wanted more. The fellowship became her lifeline until she was ready to start working the steps. Over time, she and her boyfriend both got sober together, learning to walk their own paths but also show up for each other.

Alyssa shares what it’s been like getting sober so young—navigating birthdays, social pressure, and learning to love a quiet, peaceful life. When she turned 21, she celebrated by buying her dad a beer—using her ID for the first time in a way that honored her sobriety instead of threatening it. She talks about how she’s learned to move through fear and anxiety by leaning into prayer, calling her sponsor, and doing the next right thing—even when it makes her sick with nerves, like the first time she spoke on a panel.

Life hasn’t been easy in sobriety. Working in memory care, she’s had to face loss often. Her sister’s ongoing addiction has tested her faith—like the time she passed out high in Alyssa’s car on the way to detox. But through it all, Alyssa has stayed sober, found her faith, and started building a life: her first apartment, a car, a promotion, and countless “God shots” that remind her she’s right where she’s meant to be.

🎧 Listen in for a conversation full of heart, humility, and hope—about getting sober young, walking through fear with faith, and finding freedom one day at a time.

Sam has 9 years sober, with alcohol and cocaine as her drugs of choice. While she experienced physical bottoms, it was the spiritual sickness that nearly broke her—the slow erosion of her values, her morals, and her sense of self. She remembers stealing from a friend, blacking out on a family trip to Disneyland, and terrifying her loved ones when she wound up in Long Beach at a stranger’s house. That was the final straw for her family, especially her mom—who told her plainly: you have a problem with alcohol, and you need help.

Her sister didn’t even want to be around her anymore, a loss that would later become one of the biggest blessings in recovery when they rebuilt their bond. Sam reached out to an old friend, whose boyfriend connected her with a treatment program in Villa Park. Her dad picked her up at the airport, and in one of those surreal alcoholic moments, actually stopped at Vons so she could buy a box of wine before going into detox. Sam remembers thinking she could never fathom a life without drinking.

In treatment, everything began to shift. She found her first real friend in recovery—someone who later passed away from this disease—and she met Brett, who would become her husband. Grief could have taken her out, but instead, she leaned on meetings—sometimes two or three a day—and the fellowship carried her through. She also met her sponsor in a moment of vulnerability after making a “fool” of herself at a meeting. This woman related to her instantly and became a guiding light.

At four months sober, Sam started dating Brett. He had only a few more months than she did, and everyone swore they would take each other out. And for a moment, it looked like they might—when Brett relapsed on heroin just shy of two years sober. Sam had 18 months at the time, found his stash in their bathroom, and confronted him. Brett went back to detox, got sober again, and they made the decision to stay together. Since then, they’ve leaned into meetings and the fellowship as the foundation of both their sobriety and their relationship.

🎧 Listen in as Sam shares her journey of honesty, heartbreak, and healing—a story of rebuilding family bonds, finding love in recovery, and discovering that fellowship is the heartbeat of a sober life.

Jenna has 11 years sober, and her story starts with a last drunk she’ll never forget: Four Lokos, weight-loss pills, sleep meds, and a desperate attempt to convince herself that everything she’d heard in AA meetings was wrong. But one morning she woke up, picked up the phone, and got honest about everything she was doing. At just 43 days sober she landed in the hospital with pancreatitis, where doctors told her if she hadn’t stopped drinking when she did, she could have died.

Her dad—an Al-Anon member for nearly 20 years—had always held firm boundaries. From her hospital bed, Jenna finally called him. Eventually he came, and she got to make her final amends. She also had three criminal charges hanging over her head. Instead of running, she chose to face them head-on. Within her first six months sober, she served 45 days in jail. Her sponsor told her to get a Big Book and be of service inside, and she did—taking her 90-day chip behind bars.

When Jenna was released, her dad picked her up at dawn. He asked if she wanted breakfast; she wanted a 7 a.m. meeting. From there, she started rebuilding: a pumpkin patch job, babysitting, and then, at six months sober, an honest moment in a job interview that led to her first real break. By one year, she was applying to work in treatment. Without a driver’s license, she promised the interviewer she’d get it within 48 hours. Seeing her dad waiting outside the interview impressed him so much he offered her the job—the start of her career helping others.

Jenna also shares candidly about her first year in recovery—hooking up with newcomers “left and right,” and how her sponsor never judged her, only offered suggestions. It was powerful to learn her lessons with someone by her side, ready to point her toward the right path.

🎧 Listen for a conversation about brutal honesty, second chances, and how integrity and willingness can turn even the messiest beginnings into a life of service and purpose.

Cesar has 2 years and 9 months sober—and we first met him at Camp Sober Fest. Randall, who’s now his sponsor, brought him to camp to find community. In this episode, Cesar gets deeply vulnerable about why he chose Randall, an openly gay man, to guide him through the steps. He talks about growing up bicurious but fearful, and how that fear fed into internalized homophobia. Sponsorship with Randall has helped him begin to break that down—and today they’re best friends.

Randall took Cesar through the Big Book heavy, with two simple rules: be of service and have fun. Cesar shares how he grew up in a Mexican household marked by beatings and how that left him self-seeking and hungry for attention. He spent most of his life on drugs, avoiding intimacy, and says learning to communicate and connect in sobriety—especially with women—has been one of his biggest challenges.

In his first year, Cesar stayed single and celibate, focusing instead on giving back at Geary House, where he was of service to newcomers. He also talks about rebuilding his life from scratch—losing his driver’s license after seizures, starting over at Subway and then a warehouse job, both thanks to people in recovery.

We dive into Cesar’s evolving relationship with a higher power, too. Coming in, he didn’t believe in God, and hearing others share about faith was hard. But over time he’s come to see a spiritual presence—“someone always looking over me”—guiding his path.

We wrap up with Cesar’s reflections on Camp Sober Fest, how it helped him get out of his shell, and why service and community remain his anchors today.

🎧 Listen for a conversation about faith, fear, friendship, and the freedom that comes from building a sober life one day—and one act of service—at a time.

Julian has 21 months sober, and this is his very first time in the rooms of AA. His journey started in the army, where drinking was the norm—and sometimes even encouraged. When his platoon wanted to promote him, Julian realized more responsibility would interfere with the one thing he wasn’t willing to let go of: his drinking. So he admitted to his officer that he had a problem, and they sent him to sober classes. In the military, alcohol and drugs weren’t exactly hidden—it was all about suiting up, showing up, and sweating it out until you could function again.

Julian opens up about the many layers of his story: identifying as bisexual and how that played out in his drinking, his trips to the psych ward, and his final blackout that lasted for days until his dad and brother found him and got him into treatment. That was the turning point, and he hasn’t looked back since.

This conversation gets personal when Jimmy asks why Julian is always so “weird” towards him in their meeting—and Julian reveals that he has autism and has often felt intimidated by how close everyone is. It’s a moment of honesty that says a lot about how we all experience recovery differently.

Julian also talks about the things he didn’t do the “right” way in his first year—like ignoring his sponsor’s suggestion not to date a newcomer. But today, he says he’s in the healthiest relationship of his life, and that breaking the rules didn’t mean breaking his sobriety.

🎧 Listen in for a conversation that’s raw, funny, and real—about the military, mental health, sexuality, and finding freedom in recovery on your own terms.