🧡New Merch!☀️We finally got around to releasing our collection of light-hearted, recovery-inspired shirts and mugs. It's a fun way to share the message and support the channel! 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch

Tom I. from Southern Pines, NC - speaking at the 22nd Annual Men's Fall Retreat in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada | September 17th-19th 2010

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Tom reflects on the strange transition from being the youngest AA member everywhere he went to now being “the oldest rat in the barn,” a role that carries both responsibility and humility. He emphasizes how deeply the Traditions have shaped his life—often more than the Steps—because they guide unity, relationships, and how we relate to the world. Through honest stories of anger, restraint, leadership, conflict, money, service, anonymity, and personal conscience, he shows how the Traditions protect groups and individuals from ego, gossip, power struggles, and misplaced motives. His biggest accomplishment is modeling what real spiritual maturity looks like: acting for the common welfare rather than himself, carrying the message across prisons, planes, states, and even to strangers in need, and demonstrating that AA’s strength lies not in rules but in humility, service, and the quiet grace of doing the next right thing.

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

🧡New Merch!☀️We finally got around to releasing our collection of light-hearted, recovery-inspired shirts and mugs. It's a fun way to share the message and support the channel! 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch

Paul M. from Oceanside, NY speaking at the 60th Gopher State Roundup in Bloomington, MN - May 25th 2013

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Paul shares a heartfelt, hilarious, and deeply spiritual talk that traced his journey from chaotic drinking in Northern Ireland and Rockaway Beach to a life filled with purpose, freedom, and service through Alcoholics Anonymous. With humor that disarms and honesty that cuts straight to the heart, he described the pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization of alcoholism—the seizures, blackouts, self-destruction, and the painful truth that he could not stop drinking on his own—contrasted with the miracle he found in AA, where “we drink alone, but we stay sober together.” He honored the power of one alcoholic helping another, the lineage stretching back to Bill W. and Dr. Bob, and the gift of unity, service, and recovery that transformed him from a man living under the shadow of a whisky bottle into a sober father, husband, and servant of others. Paul reminded newcomers that AA is hope in human form, that the Steps are not suggestions but lifelines, and that the real miracle is getting your life, your purpose, and your spirit back—one day at a time.

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

🧡New Merch!☀️We finally got around to releasing our collection of light-hearted, recovery-inspired shirts and mugs. It's a fun way to share the message and support the channel! 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch

Rick W. from Oxnard, CA speaking at the Youngs Peoples group San Diego, CA - June 6th 2006

Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com

Rick W., sober since 1977, delivers a no-nonsense, hilarious, and action-oriented take on the 12 Steps, recounting his journey from entering a mental institution to get certified "paranoid schizophrenic" to becoming a passionate recovery advocate. He shares raw stories of his drinking, including filling his car with vomit and Boone's Farm wine, to illustrate that alcoholism is an obsession of the mind that nothing can overcome but immediate action. Rick rejects slow step studies, challenging newcomers to "Do It This Weekend," asserting that the Steps don't need to be perfect, they just need to be done to the best of one's ability. This talk emphasizes the urgency of spiritual work and the fundamental principle that "It doesn't take much of a man or a woman to make it in Alcoholics Anonymous, but it does take them all."

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

🧡New Merch!☀️We finally got around to releasing our collection of light-hearted, recovery-inspired shirts and mugs. It's a fun way to share the message and support the channel! 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch

Julie H. from Dallas, TX speaking at the 3rd Anniversary of Primary Purpose Group in Marietta, Ohio - March 10th 2012

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Julie shares how she spent 13 painful years “in the rooms but not in the book” before finally surrendering to the simple, precise directions in the Big Book that gave her permanent sobriety since 2003. From her West Virginia moonshine roots to drinking six tallboys at 15, to years of relapsing, misery, and baffling failure despite “trying,” Julie revealed that her real bottom wasn’t losing everything—it was realizing she couldn’t stop drinking no matter how good her life looked. Her talk exploded with passion as she exposed how meetings, coffee, opinions, and “decorating for the party” never solved her problem—because no one ever taught her about the allergy, the obsession, the real problem, or the actual directions in AA’s textbook. With humor and toughness, she described how sponsorship, inventory, amends, and especially working with other women gave her the spiritual experience she chased for years. Her message burned with urgency: meetings don’t get us sober—steps, action, and carrying the message do, and her fierce love for the newcomer, her family’s healing, and her gratitude for becoming “a small part of a great whole” showed how the Big Book transformed a desperate backyard drinker into a respected, joyful woman living shoulder-to-shoulder on AA’s firing line.

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

🧡New Merch!☀️We finally got around to releasing our collection of light-hearted, recovery-inspired shirts and mugs. It's a fun way to share the message and support the channel! 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch

Hugh N. from Nashville, Tennessee speaking at Tennessee Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous in Memphis, TN - 2003

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Hugh describes growing up with a “hole in the soul,” living in fear and fantasy, losing control by age 16, and nearly dying during a blackout—yet that moment of utter defeat became the spark that opened him to AA. His story showed the life-changing power of unity and service, but also the deep transformation that only comes from actually working the Steps, not just talking about them. Through humility, sponsorship, daily discipline, and learning to stay on “his side of the God-line,” Hugh replaced self-will with a spiritual life that gave him peace, purpose, and love. Today he’s a sober husband, father, and steady member of AA—living proof that God’s timing is better than anything he ever planned, and that sobriety can turn a lost teenager into a grateful man with a family, a home, and a heart full of purpose.

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Tom I. from Southern Pines, NC speaking on the topic of "Working with others" at Melon City Roundup in Muscatine, IL - September 28th 2001

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Tom delivers a wise, funny, and deeply spiritual talk on working with others, grounding everything in his belief that alcoholism is a killer illness and that the only real protection we have is service—what he calls AA’s “90/10 program,” where recovery is 10% gimme and 90% give (to the fellowship of AA). With stories ranging from suicidal newcomers to tuxedo-clad doctors, burned mattresses, police calls, and miracles born from simple willingness, Tom showed that helping others isn’t about expertise—it’s about love, action, and walking “with” people, not on them. He tied this to AA’s early history, reminding listeners that the fellowship was built by drunks who carried the message house to house, long before treatment centers or court mandates. He warned that attitudes, complacency, and detachment can quietly erode AA’s spirit and that unity, responsibility, and engagement with families and the community matter as much as step work. Above all, Tom emphasized that we need the newcomer as much as they need us, and that giving ourselves away—living that 90/10—creates the new and wonderful world AA promises.

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Bart R. from Sedona, AZ speaking at the Big Book Serenity Breakfast in Minnetonka, MN - May 17th 2015

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From drinking in fifth grade and cycling through juvenile prisons to wrecked marriages, dry misery, and the belief he’d never be able to live sober, Bart discovered AA only when he’d run out of options—and finally met a sponsor who patiently walked him through the Big Book line by line. Through rigorous honesty, powerful amends, and a daily practice of surrender, Bart rebuilt not only his life but the lives around him, becoming a devoted son, husband, father, and messenger of hope. His talk radiated grit, humor, and deep spiritual insight, proving that real recovery isn’t just abstinence but a complete transformation of heart—one that turns broken men into instruments of God’s love, carrying freedom to the next suffering alcoholic.

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Keith L. from Wilmington, NC speaking at 25th Brazos Riverside Conference - October 19th 2002

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With the rhythm of a storyteller and the humility of a man transformed, Keith traced his life from a small-town Irish Catholic boy who couldn’t feel love, through war, brilliance, and despair, to the miracle moment when God and AA pulled him from suicide into service. His story held laughter at every turn—from “Brother Skunk” to mutant rosary beads—yet beneath the humor was the ache of a man who longed for connection and finally found it through surrender. Through the Steps, his sponsor, and the fellowship, Keith rebuilt his life, made peace with his father, and became a son who could both love and be loved. His reflections on grace, family, and the sacred gift of giving love captured the spirit of the weekend’s theme: that the miracle of AA is not that we stop drinking, but that we finally learn how to receive and share love.

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Mike C. from Escondido, CA speaking at the "Easy Does It Group" in Lemon Grove, CA - April 15th 2005

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After years of chasing differences, hiding emotions, and trying to fix life on his own terms, he hit a bottom in sobriety—sitting under a meeting-room clock, weeping uncontrollably, convinced sobriety wasn’t working. That day, a man’s simple message of hope—“You can get better”—sparked a transformation that began with a phone call and a willingness to take direction. Through years of rigorous honesty, step work, and surrender, Mike rebuilt his life, restored his family, and found the deeper freedom beyond mere relief. With humor and conviction, he reminded listeners that the real gift of AA isn’t just not drinking—it’s permanent sobriety and a “contented life,” earned through humility, amends, and faith in a loving God.

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Kelvin D. from West Fargo, ND speaking at the 60th Gopher State Roundup in Bloomington, MN - May 25th 2013

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Kelvin shares how a childhood filled with fear and abuse left him restless, disconnected, and searching for worth in alcohol, violence, and ego. From cutting himself to “let the demons out” to drinking Pine-Sol in desperation, Kelvin’s story showed the deadly grip of alcoholism and the miracle of grace that saved him. Through the Steps, sponsorship, and a second surrender, he learned that his real problem wasn’t alcohol—it was playing God. His talk, full of laughter, humility, and truth, revealed how AA repaired even the oldest wounds, teaching him to live as one of God’s kids—guided by faith, service, and love instead of fear and pride. “I get to remain here as one of God’s kids,” he said, capturing the essence of his powerful message: that through surrender, the broken become whole.

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu