Scott turns the AA inventory from a one-time Fourth Step into a daily way of life, using the Big Book to explain why an alcoholic can be completely right about a resentment and still let it take him out.

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Across this nearly five-hour, five-part AA workshop, Scott presents inventory as an ongoing spiritual process rather than a single assignment completed early in sobriety. He compares the familiar version of Chapter Five with language from the original Big Book manuscript, explains the architecture of resentment, fear, and sexual-conduct inventories, and shows how Steps Four through Nine continue through the daily practice of Step Ten. Using stories from marriage, parenting, sponsorship, grief, work, forgiveness, and his own recurring defects, Scott argues that recovery cannot stop at uncovering and understanding the problem; the inventory must lead to application, prayer, amends, changed behavior, and service to another alcoholic. His approach is specific without becoming rigid: write in whatever order makes the work possible, bring repeated problems back through the earlier Steps, and ask what action would replace the defect. The result is a detailed Big Book workshop about moving from spree and remorse into surrender and commitment, allowing inventory to become a crowbar for the problems that emerge in sobriety, and discovering that Alcoholics Anonymous can lead the sufferer into a life larger than the one alcoholism took away.

Scott R. from Van Nuys, CA speaking at the retreat "The Inventory Process: A Way of Life" at the High School of Art and Design in New York, NY - October 14th 2001

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At seventeen years sober, Charlie thought he already knew what AA had to offer - until a nighttime plane crash and studying the Big Book line by line showed him that he had been living on one side of a three-sided program.

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Charlie, sober since March 22, 1985, delivers a funny and direct AA talk about the physical allergy, mental obsession, and spiritual condition beneath his drinking. He remembers discovering alcohol at 16, blackouts, pawn shops, courtrooms, a relapse at ten and a half months, and the promises to his father that he sincerely meant but could not keep. The deeper turn comes years later: although Charlie was surrounded by AA meetings, friendships, and service, he realized he was expecting the benefits of the entire recovery triangle while living almost entirely on its fellowship side. After surviving a nighttime plane crash, confronting the dishonesty and self-will still operating in his life, and following his sponsor into work with other alcoholics, he began studying the Big Book sentence by sentence. What he found was a program he describes as 500 feet deep - one that rekindled his sobriety, transformed sponsorship into the bright spot of his life, and showed him that a spiritual awakening remains available no matter how long someone has already been around AA.

Charlie P. from Austin, TX speaking at the North Scottsdale Group in Scottsdale, AZ - November 10th 2007

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Carla’s first real turn toward AA came when she went back to her sober neighbor instead of the store and began learning how to live with the head she had to take home.

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Carla shares with sharp humor and honesty about growing up restless and afraid, being institutionalized as a teenager, living on the road, becoming a mother, and watching alcohol defeat every attempt at a fresh start. Her first AA meeting only gave her another idea for controlling her drinking, but eighteen months later a sober neighbor arrived with a Big Book, a Twelve and Twelve, and a story Carla could recognize. After a difficult final withdrawal, Carla went to that neighbor instead of the store, found a home group, got a sponsor, worked the Steps, and felt the obsession begin to lift while making amends. She also speaks carefully about repairing her relationship with her daughter, facing a violent trauma at five years sober, finding a path toward forgiveness through page 67, rebuilding without drinking when sobriety still became difficult, and deepening her practice of prayer and meditation. This is an AA talk about showing up, allowing the awakening to continue, and discovering that the present moment might hold a possibility she once could not imagine: what if this goes well?

Carla R. from Tujunga, CA speaking at the Joy of Living Convention in Aspen, CO - October 5th 2013

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After 55 years sober, Mel brings rare firsthand AA history, hard-earned recovery wisdom, and one of the funniest definitions of emotional sobriety you’ll ever hear.

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Mel shares his journey from a fearful childhood in Nebraska and teenage drinking through military service, jail, hospitalization, and the surrender that began his sobriety at 24. He recalls falling in love with Alcoholics Anonymous at his first meeting, learning that sobriety meant facing life rather than escaping it, and remaining close to the fellowship for more than five decades. Mel also opens an extraordinary window into early AA history, including hearing one of the co-founders speak in 1951, contributing to the manuscripts that became Pass It On, spending time at Stepping Stones, and photographing one co-founder at the other’s gravesite. With humor, humility, and stories gathered across thousands of meetings, he explains how gratitude becomes action: receive the message, live it, and pass it on. Mel closes by singing his original tribute, “Once There Were Founders.”

Mel B. from Toledo, OH speaking at the Northern Colorado Intergroup "DecaDance" in Fort Collins, CO - February 26th 2006

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After nineteen days alone in a motel, Martin calls for AA help, accidentally reaches AAA, and realizes that tomorrow is too late—he needs the Alcoholics Anonymous solution now.

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Martin delivers a direct and urgent AA speaker talk about the difference between untreated and treated alcoholism. Although he recognized his bottom fourteen years before entering recovery, defiance, arrogance, and contempt allowed him to continue living through chaos, isolation, and loss. His final crisis comes during nineteen days alone in a motel, when he consumes enormous quantities of alcohol but discovers that it no longer provides the escape he needs. Martin mistakenly reaches AAA while attempting to call Alcoholics Anonymous, then calls back and insists that tomorrow is not soon enough. Two AA members arrive, return for four consecutive days, watch him pour away the remaining half-gallon, and become the tour guides for a journey into sobriety. Martin explains why knowledge, love, treatment, meetings, and belief cannot do the work automatically: AA has a solution, but the alcoholic must want it, work the Twelve Steps, seek spiritual power, and participate in recovery. His message is about moving from existence into life, regaining the freedom to choose, helping others, and discovering that what appeared to be his lowest point was actually the high point from which everything began to change.

Martin S. from Chicago, IL speaking at Herrington Recovery Center in Oconomowoc, WI - August 20th 2005

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With 32 years sober, Wesley explains why AA’s Twelve Steps must become an everyday way of life—and how success, ego, and complacency can quietly lead an alcoholic back toward bondage.

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Wesley delivers a passionate and humorous Founders’ Day AA speaker talk about the difference between abstinence and genuinely living the Alcoholics Anonymous program. Sober since November 13, 1947, Wesley recalls spending his first four and a half years preaching the Steps to everyone else while continuing to lie, cheat, steal, and harm his family. A direct confrontation from his sponsor sends him back to the Twelve Steps in their numbered sequence and begins the spiritual transformation he had avoided. Wesley also describes how later success tempted him away from meetings and service, allowing self-importance to progress into complacency, apathy, and dependence on himself. Drawing from the Big Book, the Twelve Steps, the Twelve Traditions, AA history, and 32 years of experience, he explains why recovery requires continuing deflation, personal responsibility, unity, love, and service. His message is a powerful reminder that gratitude means giving something back—and that the program works in family life, business, community, and every other human relationship when its principles are practiced rather than merely discussed.

Wesley P. speaking at Founders’ Day in Akron, OH - 1979

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After eight months of repeatedly restarting his sobriety date, Sean asks another man to sponsor him and begins following the Big Book directions that finally make AA a way of life.

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Sean shares a funny, energetic, and deeply moving AA speaker talk about underage drinking, punk-rock identity, and arriving in Alcoholics Anonymous at eighteen without understanding why he could not simply stop. For eight months, he attends meetings, marks days on a calendar, drinks again, and repeatedly starts over. The turning point comes when Sean asks another man to sponsor him and is taken through the Big Book with simple directions: where it says pray, they pray, and where it says write, they write. He describes the men who kept him company through early sobriety, the Steps that introduced him to a practical spiritual life, and the danger of drifting away after success made him believe he had outgrown the basics. Sean returns to the program through renewed Step work, sponsorship, meetings, and service, eventually discovering that there is no “advanced AA” beyond its literature and helping another alcoholic. When severe illness and loss strike his family, the fellowship he once treated as a social experiment becomes the grace that helps him remain present, useful, and sober.

Sean C. from Santa Cruz, CA speaking at the 34th Annual All California Young People in AA Round-up in Santa Clara, CA - February 25th 2006

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After believing his life was over, Reid finds hope in Alcoholics Anonymous and discovers why working with other alcoholics is essential to his own recovery.

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Reid shares how he arrived at Alcoholics Anonymous after psychiatric hospitalization, broken relationships, and the complete loss of hope. At his first meeting, he recognizes that his real problem may finally have a solution. His sponsor immediately puts him to work helping newcomers, providing rides, studying the Big Book, and making commitments that require him to show up for others. When meetings and service positions alone no longer relieve his despair, Reid returns to the written program and begins carrying its message into a county treatment center. Through intensive work with other alcoholics, he discovers the difference between simply attending meetings and experiencing the spiritual change described in the Big Book. Reid explains why helping another alcoholic remains vital to his recovery and why every opportunity to carry the message gives him another day of life.

Reid M. from Greensboro, NC, speaking at the 32nd Annual Ventura County Convention in Ventura, CA - September 4, 2010

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After years of anger, isolation, and drinking, David discovers that lasting recovery begins with finding peace within through the Steps, fellowship, and service.

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David shares how childhood pain and resentment left him unable to accept the love surrounding him, while alcohol offered a temporary sense of belonging and escape. As his drinking slowly damages his marriage, family, and hope for the future, he reaches a point where he can no longer continue alone. Treatment introduces him to the Twelve Steps, and the West Oak Lane Group teaches him to listen, become useful, and accept unconditional love until he can love himself. Through inventory, amends, faith, Al-Anon, and service to other alcoholics, David finds the inner peace he had searched for throughout his life. Approaching 22 years of sobriety, he celebrates the restored relationships with his wife and children and the freedom of becoming one among many in Alcoholics Anonymous.

David M. from Bear, DE, speaking at the 42nd Annual New Hampshire Convention in North Conway, NH - April 12, 2008

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A former Broadway actor and television director explains how running out of plans opened the door to surrender—and helped him rebuild the family alcoholism had nearly destroyed.

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Scott brings humor and honesty to his story of alcoholism, surrender, and recovery. Despite professional success as an actor, director, and writer, his drinking leaves his family isolated and his wife and young sons deeply affected. After finally running out of plans, he reluctantly enters Alcoholics Anonymous and begins working the Steps with a sponsor. Through inventory, amends, service, and fellowship, Scott learns how to repair his relationships and become present for his family. With nearly 20 years of sobriety, he shares how surrendering his career expectations taught him humility, why alcoholism mainly rests in the mind, and how AA gave him a life far better than the one he had tried to design for himself.

Scott R. from Sherman Oaks, CA, speaking at the San Diego Spring Roundup in San Diego, CA - March 25, 2005

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