In early addiction recovery, resentments can feel loud and relentless, bubbling up from old hurts, broken trust, and the raw unfairness of starting over. When substances are gone, the feelings they once numbed come rushing back, and resentment often becomes a way to protect pain that hasn’t yet found words. These resentments can quietly drain energy, distort perspective, and threaten recovery if they’re left unexamined. Our new Canadian friend, Brad Mansbeard joined us tonight subbing in for Jim.

The power came back on an hour before the show and the crew rallied to pull together ill prepared. It didn't hurt that we had one of our favorite friends on the show for the fourth time. When you make real connections in this line of work they're real, regardless of race, creed, identity, it doesn't matter. We all share the same affliction of addiction. We meet on this level playing field and share openly without fear of censorship or rebuke. This is how we heal. We share our feelings, we get them out there and take part in giving the same support we're getting out of opening up. We start to identify and not compare.

Where there's a Will, there's a way. No Will but boys found a way, somehow. We went back to the basics a bit tonight as we looked at different treatment/programs available to someone who wants to join our way of life. Why do we need all this? There is a mental health crisis all over the world. Addiction is referred to as "Substance Use Disorder". Addiction is terminal for many. Finding likeminded people isn't as hard as we think and when we do have more in you're life, we'll likely be more grateful for what we have through spirituality and faith.

Our friend Brad Manhands joined us as we looked at gambling from every possible angle. It's tricky. It's "legal", it's time honored and the house always wins. Lying, cheating, stealing all to cover bets. There aren't many successful gambling stories and they pale in comparison to the overwhelming amount of unsuccessful gambling stories. We dissected the physiological responses to gambling addiction in an attempt to better know how to safeguard our sobriety. As addicts, our default was gambling every time we used, especially today. So if you've been narcan'd 4 times, you might want to try something where less risk is involved. Problem is, we're desensitized to the idea of gambling if you were lucky enough to survive active addiction. We gotcha, we hear you, you can do this, we're here to help.

The team was back together for a full episode of fresh original content. We welcomed Colin M. into the fray tonight. We were honored to share in his early recovery and hear how he's overcoming real life, difficult situations. These things ran us back to the bottle or pill or needle and now, what a surprise, things are easier when you're not sabotaging your life. Our very own Jim Leibel celebrated 1,500 days of continuous sobriety tonight live on the program. Jim is a big part of our organization and is committed to helping the newcomer in whatever way is necessary. A true ambassador for recovery. Will's just... Will. We love him too. Thanks for your support and thank you Colin for your impactful appearance.

We kicked off our holiday shenanigans tonight as we gratefully welcomed a recored number in viewership for this show. The Canadian influence continued as we invited fellow brother in recovery, Brad the Canadian. The panel all identified with some part of his story and he had a great way of telling it. Dennis Leary made his yearly appearance. As did Tim's dad. Brad Mansfield from Wawota jumped in the trenches with the guys and told a story we all connected to on some level.

We celebrated Christmas Eve together by having a fun episode and looking at "The art of Losing". As we get older, we learn how to fall gracefully. The art of losing is about how we land. Whether we have a good landing or not is all about how we fall. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when, and when we fall are we prepared for the landing? It's all about having a good landing. Minimize the collateral damage, life is going to happen, if need be, we lean on one another when the weight is too heavy to bear. We dusted off the board games and played Christmas Recovery Jeopardy by light of our Christmas Trees and counted ourselves grateful for the moment. Merry Christmas everyone.

Our 4th season and the guys stumbled and fumbled their way into the New Year's End Zone into the new year in an act of sheer luck, perseverance, motivation... and a touch of class. Spoiler alert: the texting shorthand vernacular for bc is not British Columbia. It was a good show, the team were in rare form after and very long, and very trying bit of peak season podcast. Talkin' Trash runs twice a week. It's a podcast at its baseline, but we're producing crazy stuff.

Tonight we took a look at where our respective recovery journey's started. Were we forced in? Did we go voluntarily, had you finally had enough? As a team we stress mental health in recovery and sometimes that doesn't mean just diagnosis and prescription, albeit just as important. Sometimes to plan for the future, we have to learn from the past. We keep that door cracked so we can revisit our mistakes so that we don't repeat them. Be advised, this is an acquired skill. In early recovery, regret is in no short order. Living in the past is the best way to miss the present and make the same poor choices you did back then. We now take measures such as prayer or giving back to others, to ensure our own sobriety.

The team was shorthanded tonight missing a Canadian who will be back in the mix the next show which is just the 3 of us. It feels like our team can still land the plane with engine failure and no gear. Just 2-guys sobriety-and-fries for this trainwreck. The host, Tim, shared his true experience in giving being better than receiving. Will is clearly going stir crazy. Jim made in onto the program while the outro was playing, i think. Great show, good back and forth, and thank you to our recovery centers we didn't get to tonight. So check on the boys Sunday 9p and Wednesday's and check in next Wednesday as we invite former #2 NFL Draft pick, Tony Mandarich.