I Was in Prison Before I Ever Got to Prison - AA Speaker - Wallace B.

The Phoniest Man in Alcoholics Anonymous - AA Speaker - Lou F.

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

Joe & Charlie AA Speakers - Part 8 - Working the 4th Step - AA Big Book Workshop

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

I Was Stone Cold Sober and Stark Raving Mad - AA Speaker - Steve L.

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

Joe & Charlie AA Speakers - Parts 6 & 7 - We Agnostics & How It Works - AA Big Book Workshop

In Parts 6 and 7 of the Joe & Charlie Founders' Day series, willingness becomes action as We Agnostics leads directly into How It Works and the Twelve Steps. ☀️ 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 combined session, Joe and Charlie begin with We Agnostics and explain why the Big Book does not demand a particular religion, a polished understanding of God, or perfect belief. Instead, it asks whether the alcoholic can become willing to seek a power greater than human power. From there, they move into How It Works, the wording and development of the Twelve Steps, and the difference between reaching conclusions in Steps One and Two and making a decision in Step Three. They break down will as thinking and life as action, explain why self-will cannot solve a problem rooted in self, and show why the Third Step decision must immediately be carried into inventory. Parts 6 and 7 form the bridge between understanding the problem and beginning the practical program of action. Joe & Charlie speaking in Laughlin, Nevada, circa 1998 - "The Big Book Comes Alive" workshop tapes - Parts 6 & 7: "We Agnostics" and "How It Works" Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

It Was Never the Lack of What I Am- AA Speaker - John V.

John spent years believing he was unwanted because he was Indigenous, uneducated, poor, and unable to speak the way other people did. AA taught him that none of those things had robbed him of life nearly as much as refusing to accept himself. ☀️ 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 John shares how he arrived at his first AA meeting at 28 after seven years on Skid Row, unable to read or write, living in a mission, and interested mainly in the free coffee and donuts. A lawyer greeted him at the door, introduced him to people who treated him with care, and gave John his first experience of belonging sober. Although the desire to drink disappeared, loneliness, fear, and isolation returned after several years because he still had no program for living. A Step meeting and an unlikely friendship with a priest challenged John to become teachable, stop blaming his identity and circumstances, and begin where he was with what he had. From one underpriced house-painting job came a room of his own, a ladder, a business, a driver’s license, an 11-passenger station wagon, a wife, six children, and a life spent helping others. John’s message is not that AA turned him into somebody else, but that honesty, faith, and the Steps finally taught him to stop fighting the person he had always been. John  V. from Berlin, MA speaking at the 1st Atlantic Summer Roundup in Moncton, NB - June 23rd 1989 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu