Sober Sunrise - AA Speaker Podcast

DeAndre thought he already knew enough about the first three steps. His sponsor heard two sentences and saw the dry drunk coming.

☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive
More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:
https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes

🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch
Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear:
https://sober-sunrise.com/merch

🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter
Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates:
https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter

DeAndre, sober since May 29, 1991, shares a funny and direct AA talk about sponsorship, connection, accountability, and the danger of trying to run the show alone. He talks about leaving psych rehab, meeting his first sponsor Dennis, thinking he had already handled the first three steps, and slowly learning that real sponsorship meant letting another alcoholic see through his fear, resentment, secrets, and self-deception. DeAndre gets into the “stomach steps” of four through nine, looking for cosigners instead of direction, drifting from a sponsor, coming back, sponsoring others, staying available without playing God, and why helping another alcoholic keeps his sobriety from feeling shallow.

Deandre M. from Lancaster, CA speaking at the 12 suggestions meeting in Hermosa Beach, CA -  June 21st 2006

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

In the finale of the Joe & Charlie Founders' Day series, the written inventory becomes admission, willingness, amends, daily practice, and a message carried to someone else.

☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive
More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:
https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes

🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch
Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear:
https://sober-sunrise.com/merch

🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter
Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates:
https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter

In this final combined session, Joe and Charlie take the Fourth Step inventory into Steps Five through Twelve. They explain why self-appraisal alone is not enough, how admitting the exact nature of our wrongs begins clearing away what has blocked us, and how willingness in Step Six leads to the humility of Step Seven. From there, they move into the amends process, including becoming willing, making direct amends carefully, and allowing changed conduct to repair the past. Joe and Charlie then show how Steps Ten and Eleven keep inventory, prayer, and meditation active in daily life before bringing the workshop home with Step Twelve. The result of the first eleven Steps is a spiritual awakening, but the responsibility that follows is just as important: practicing these principles and carrying the message to the next alcoholic.

Joe & Charlie speaking in Laughlin, Nevada, circa 1998 - "The Big Book Comes Alive" workshop tapes - Parts 9 & 10: "Steps 5, 6, 7, & 8" and "Steps 9, 10, 11, & 12"

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Lou walked into his first AA meeting wearing one black shoe and one brown shoe, and heard something no one had told him in 28 years: “Welcome, you’re in the right place.”

☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive
More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:
https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes

🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch
Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear:
https://sober-sunrise.com/merch

🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter
Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates:
https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter

Lou, sober since November 16, 1963, shares a rapid-fire, Big Book-centered AA talk about growing up in New Brunswick, running across Canada, landing on Vancouver’s skid row, and returning to a family home with the utilities disconnected, furniture repossessed, and debts owed to 51 places. The morning after his last drunk, he heard that his drinking days were over, called AA from a neighbor’s telephone, and was visited by two men, one only 21 days sober. Lou talks about being confronted as a phony, making direct amends without loopholes, repairing his relationship with the mother he had harmed and left as a teenager, learning prayer, meditation, inventory, financial responsibility, and service, and building a joyful life with Linda. From skid row to helping hundreds through racing-industry recovery programs, his message stays simple: recovery is found in changing our reaction to life, carrying the message, and holding hands before someone is lost.

Lou F. from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada speaking at Comox AA Rally in British Columbia, Canada - 2000

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

In Part 8 of the Joe & Charlie Founders' Day series, Joe and Charlie slow down and make the Fourth Step practical instead of mysterious.

☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive
More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:
https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes

🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch
Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear:
https://sober-sunrise.com/merch

🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter
Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates:
https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter

In this session, Joe and Charlie work through the Fourth Step inventory in detail, using the Big Book's business inventory comparison to explain why the work is written, factual, and practical. They break down the meaning of a searching and fearless moral inventory, explain moral as truth rather than shame, and walk through resentments, fears, harms, and the instincts that get threatened. They show how resentments, fear, guilt, and remorse can block a person from God, and why the inventory is not about writing a life story or punishing ourselves. Part 8 is one of the most useful workshop sessions because it turns Step Four into something a newcomer can actually sit down and do.
Joe & Charlie speaking in Laughlin, Nevada, circa 1998 - "The Big Book Comes Alive" workshop tapes - Part 8: "Working the 4th Step"
Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Steve attended meetings almost every morning for 100 days, but without a sponsor or the Steps, he was stone cold sober and slowly losing his mind.

☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive
More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:
https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes

🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch
Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear:
https://sober-sunrise.com/merch

🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter
Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates:
https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter

Steve, sober since July 27, 1996, shares in Reykjavik about arriving in AA under court order, sitting beneath the coffee machine at his first meeting, and planning never to return. Instead, he attended that same meeting for nearly three years, initially hearing only that he should avoid drinking and keep coming back. At 100 days sober, alone on a business trip and mentally unraveling, Steve stood over a hotel minibar before returning home and making an elaborate plan to disappear using 13 old passports. One expired tourist passport and one more meeting placed him in front of a sponsor who immediately began taking him through the Steps. Inventory exposed the fear and resentment separating Steve from his father, while amends taught him to listen, become present for his dying mother, and finally love his disabled daughter without resentment. Steve connects those experiences to sponsorship, complete honesty, prayer, service, and the moment another recovering father was restored to his own son. His message is direct: meetings help us find one another, but the program of action is in the Steps, and desperation can become the gateway through which grace finally reaches us.

Steve L. from Redondo Beach, CA speaking at the Road to Recovery conference in Reykjavik, Iceland - September 17th 2010
Music: Deep by KaizanBlu