Laughs without Lager

Send us Fan Mail Alcohol doesn’t have to “ruin” your life to quietly shrink it. We sit down with Ellie Crow from the Present and Sober podcast to talk about the moment she learned how alcohol works in the brain and body and suddenly couldn’t unsee it. When the “relaxing drink” is followed by stress hormones, anxiety, and that restless late-night agitation, quitting stops feeling like punishment an...

Send us Fan Mail Alcohol can look like comfort right up until it starts taking everything. We’re joined by Charmaine, a well-known Australian psychic medium, for a raw conversation about alcohol addiction, grief, trauma, and the hard moments that force real change. Her story runs through childhood harm linked to drinking, teen years where the bottle feels like confidence, and the kind of loss that...

Send us Fan Mail The moment you realize you can’t “just have one” can feel isolating, but it can also be the start of a life that finally fits. I’m flying solo on Laughs Without Lager and sitting down with Danny Shannon, a recovery advocate who speaks with raw honesty about addiction, total abstinence, and what it takes to rebuild from the ground up. Along the way, we also pause to celebrate a hug...

Send us Fan Mail “Am I boring now that I don’t drink?” That one thought can undo a whole week of feeling proud, especially when you’re six months alcohol-free and the party invites keep rolling in. We read a listener message from Mel and get honest about the weird social edge of early sobriety: the stigma, the self-judgment, and the fear that you’ll be less fun without a drink in your hand.  We ta...

Send us Fan Mail Wine o’clock can look harmless until you realize you’re using it to get through your life, not celebrate it. I sit down with sobriety coach and author Sarah Rusbatch to talk about “gray area drinking,” the space where you don’t identify as an alcoholic, but you also know your drinking has stopped feeling healthy, free, or optional. Sarah shares her path from early teen drinking an...

Send us Fan Mail Wine can sneak into your life wearing a friendly mask: playdates, dinner prep, “just one glass,” a reward for getting through the day. Kari doesn’t sugarcoat what happened when that mask slipped. She shares how drinking started young, followed her through a messy college era, and later threaded itself into motherhood and remarriage until it became an every-night habit she couldn’t...

Send us Fan Mail Alcohol didn’t start as a problem for Veronica Valli, it started as the promised doorway to fun, belonging, confidence, and connection. But after early blackouts, a drug-induced psychosis at 18, and years of anxiety and panic, drinking became something else entirely: survival. Veronica joins us to tell the unfiltered story of getting sober at 27, why she was convinced she’d never...

Send us Fan Mail Wayne is a FIFO underground gold miner from Western Australia, and his drinking story sounds like a lot of mine site and small-town stories until it doesn’t. He starts young in New Zealand, learns the weekend “outdrink your mates” rhythm, and carries it into shift work, Kalgoorlie pub culture, and the classic cycle of big nights followed by hungover days. Along the way there are b...

Send us Fan Mail A lot of people quit drinking and then hit the real problem: parties, stress, loneliness, and that loud inner critic are still there, only now you’re meeting them sober. I’m joined by Sarah, co-CEO of Behold Retreats, who shares how she went from a sales and finance lifestyle where cocktails were basically part of the job to a life built around clarity, nervous system health, and...

Send us Fan Mail Your life can look completely “fine” and still be falling apart every Sunday morning. We’re joined by Vic Van Stone from Sober Awkward, who gets brutally honest about binge drinking that hides in plain sight: the ladette years, the party reputation you feel trapped inside, and the way anxiety after drinking gets normalized until it becomes unbearable. If you’ve ever Googled why ca...

Send us Fan Mail You know that line people love to say, “I’m more fun when I’m drinking”? We don’t buy it anymore, and we’ve got the stories to prove why. We’re talking about the kind of laughter that actually lands, the kind you remember the next day, and why being alcohol-free doesn’t make life smaller it makes it clearer, louder, and way more connected. We share our biggest Laughs Without Lager...

Send us Fan Mail The lie that keeps most of us stuck isn’t what we tell other people, it’s what we whisper to ourselves when no one is watching. We’re joined by Ash Butters (Behind the Smile), who just celebrated six years sober, and she gets radically honest about how addiction works: the secrecy, the self-betrayal, the “crutch” behaviors that sneak in after we quit drinking, and the slow rebuild...

Send us Fan Mail A lot of addiction stories don’t look like the stereotype, and that’s why this conversation lands. We’re joined by empowerment coach, yoga teacher, breathwork facilitator, and public speaker Jourdi Blue, who opens up about the real timeline behind her sobriety journey, from a traumatic car accident at 15 to opioid addiction, rehab at 18, and years of “high-functioning” drinking th...

Send us Fan Mail He started drinking at 14, and it didn’t stay “just weekends” for long. Recovery Jimmy joins us from Glasgow to tell the unvarnished story of how alcohol slid from buzz to baseline, how secrecy and withdrawal took over daily life, and why so many men in recovery still feel pressure to keep it quiet. We talk about the moment the “stiff upper lip” finally breaks, and what changes wh...

Send us Fan Mail If you’ve ever been in a "situationship” while secretly hoping it turns into commitment, you’re going to feel seen. We’re talking about scarcity mindset in love, the kind that keeps you in an on-again, off-again situationship because it feels safer than starting over, especially when sobriety has changed how you date, flirt, and connect. From Sydney weekend reflections to the...

Send us Fan Mail Ever plan your grand return to wine, only to realize you want your mornings more than the glass? That’s where our guest, musician and trauma‑informed sober coach Danni, found herself after a “just twelve months off” pact turned into eight years of clarity. We dive into the messy middle—shame spirals, identity in the music scene, and the gut-punch of waking to calls you don’t remem...

Send us Fan Mail Dry January gave you a reset—now what? We dive into the messy, hopeful middle between a 30-day break and a stable, alcohol-free life you actually enjoy. From the sneaky “just one” voice to the myth of moderation, we break down how to move past willpower and build a foundation that lasts: real connection, daily tools that shift your state, and deeper work that heals the reasons you...

Send us Fan Mail What if the worst moment of your life played back to you on global TV—and it became the exact catalyst you needed to change? That’s the turning point Ashton shares with us, tracing his jump from a Johannesburg cubicle to Below Deck’s spotlight, the night that spiraled in a van, and the sober rebuild that followed. Join us for a clear-eyed look at how alcohol masks deeper problems,...

Send us Fan Mail Ever feel that sudden pull toward a drink on a sunny afternoon or a lonely weeknight and wonder why it hits so hard? We get honest about what cravings really are—quick promises of comfort wrapped in nostalgia—and how to meet the real need underneath without waking up to shame and headaches. Drawing on our lived experience, we break down the tools that actually help: play the tape...

Send us Fan Mail The calendar is sprinting toward a fresh start, but we’re not making resolutions—we’re choosing action. We look back at a year of sober wins and hard lessons, from funneling former bar tabs into a down payment to staying present during those nerve-wracking nights when teens push curfew and boundaries. The real headline isn’t perfection; it’s momentum. Sobriety didn’t just clear ou...

Send us Fan Mail Holiday parties, family tables, and New Year countdowns can feel like a maze when you’re choosing not to drink. We open up about what actually helps: the tiny moves that protect your peace, the scripts that end awkward pressure, and the plans that turn a long season into something you might finally enjoy. From the first work do to Boxing Day, we unpack real moments—food truck dela...

Send us Fan Mail We unpack how alcohol glued unhealthy friendships together, why sobriety exposed toxic patterns, and how learning to respond instead of react rebuilt our boundaries and our circles. Some ties faded, stronger ones deepened, and we found new friends who match our values, not our pour. • booze-bonded friendships and enabling • toxic comments normalized by drinking • fear of confronta...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you take the mic, skip the “liquid courage,” and tell the truth anyway? We open up about two moments that reshaped our confidence: MCing a 90th birthday with shaking hands and a full heart, and saying yes to a day at the races with people we barely knew. No shortcuts, no numbing—just the kind of presence that turns fear into evidence that you can handle more than...

Send us Fan Mail What if the ache you feel when life moves on isn’t a problem to fix, but a compass pointing you back to what matters? That question sits at the heart of this solo story from Meg, where nostalgia, fear of loss, and the bittersweet nature of change collide with the choice to live fully—without alcohol. We trace the hidden logic that once drove her to drink: the unbearable awareness...

Send us Fan Mail What if the school holidays weren’t a blur of recovery but a season you actually remember? We get honest about how alcohol once ran the schedule—stacking holiday programs to make space for hangovers, leaning on sleepovers and grandparents, and calling it “normal.” Then we map the upgrade: sober camping trips that count even when it’s just one night, late-night teen pickups without...