My Dark Past Became My Greatest Possession - AA Speaker - Mark B.

My Sponsor Knows, But Not This Part - AA Speaker - Kane T.

Kane kept parts of his life away from the program until prison, sponsorship, and a Fargo home group started showing him that every little thing had to come into the light. ☀️ 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 Kane got sober on August 15, 1996, and opens this talk by crediting God, his sponsor, AA meetings, and the United States judicial system. From feeling like he missed the class on how to be cool, to drinking in high school, losing jobs, running from consequences, and eventually going to prison, Kane tells a story about trying to manage life one piece at a time. After treatment inside, a halfway house, mandatory meetings, and a sponsor who finally took him through the book, he found a home group in Fargo and learned that service was not beneath him. Setting up chairs, cleaning floors, listening to his sponsor, and showing up early became the small ordinary actions that helped give him a life. Kane T. from Fargo, ND speaking at the Central Pacific Group in Minneapolis, MN - 2000 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Sober Without a Solution - AA Speaker - Melanie S.

Melanie had treatment, meetings, chips, and even years without drinking, but the real turn came when someone finally showed her what it meant to have lost the power to choose. ☀️ 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 Melanie got sober sometime in October 2002, then picked 10-10 so she would not forget it. In this Dallas AA talk, she tells a sharp, honest story that starts with drinking at 10, feeling painfully different long before alcohol, and spending years in treatment centers, hospitals, relationships, geographical cures, and repeated attempts to manage what she could not control. After years around AA without really understanding her problem, Melanie finally sat down with a sponsor who qualified her as an alcoholic, walked her through the Big Book, and helped her see why the Steps had something to offer. From there, her story becomes one of sponsorship, amends, service, and carrying the message because, as she puts it, that is her job description. Melanie S. from Primary Purpose Group in Dallas, TX speaking at the SW Kansas AA Conference in Dodge City, KS - January 2008 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

I Wanted to Be Ordinary - AA Speaker - David B.

Dave was the first AA member in Quebec, but what finally reached him was simple: the Big Book described people who got sober, went to work, came home, and lived like ordinary human beings. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes [https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes] 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch [https://sober-sunrise.com/merch] 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter [https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter] Dave, 21 years sober and serving as Canadian trustee, tells an old-school AA story that stretches from childhood fear in Mexico City to boarding school, the Bank of Montreal, Quebec City, Winnipeg, Vancouver, and years of consequences he kept trying to outrun. He remembers the first beer that opened a whole new world, the rooftop story at Portage and Main, a secret marriage that somehow survived, a cerebral hemorrhage at 23, repeated hospital stays, and the final loneliness of a police station bullpen where the fight finally went out of him. From there, a phone call to the small AA office in New York brought pamphlets, a Big Book, daily letters from a sober woman who became his sponsor, and the beginning of AA in Montreal. David B. from Montreal, Quebec, Canada speaking at the 11th annual Alberta Conference Banquet/Speaker Meeting - February 27th 1965 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

I Lived the Twelve Steps Backwards - AA Speaker - Tarek K.

Tarek says he did not just resist AA. He lived the Twelve Steps backwards until alcohol stopped working and his life shrank to fear, isolation, and trying to control everything. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes [https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes] 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch [https://sober-sunrise.com/merch] 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter [https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter] Tarek, eight years sober from Soho Sober in London, shares with humor and honesty about the fear, people-pleasing, control, and emotional shutdown that drove his drinking. Alcohol first made him feel okay, but by the end he had money in the bank, unopened bills, a family upstairs, and a life narrowed down to work, isolation, and daily blackout drinking. After months of ignoring a sober therapist’s suggestion to try AA, he finally came through a 12-step rehab, got a sponsor, joined a home group, and started learning how to live through meetings, service, sponsorship, Step 11, and letting go of the outcome. Tarek K. from London, UK speaking at the Christmas convention of the Serenity Group in Stockholm, Sweden - December 15th 2012 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

The Window I Broke Cannot Be Replaced - AA Speaker - Terri K.

Terri says prison is where she found God, but the harder truth came years later: some amends cannot replace what was broken. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes [https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes] 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch [https://sober-sunrise.com/merch] 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter [https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter] Terri got sober on October 17, 1993, inside a maximum security women’s prison after a fatal crash at 28 ended the life she had been running on alcohol, attention, and self-will. In this AA talk, she walks through growing up with an alcoholic mother, blacking out from her first drunk at 16, becoming a young mother without the tools to parent, and finally finding meetings, honesty, sponsorship, and a God she could understand behind prison walls. Years later, with a marriage, career, and nearly 17 years sober, Terri still speaks carefully about the harm she caused and the kind of amends that can only be made through right living. Terri K. from Woodville, OH speaking at the 13th annual Woman to Woman Luncheon in Toledo, OH - August 8th 2010 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu