Recovery Rocks

Lisa chats with Kristin Horstman , whose new podcast, Sunsets Are the New Happy Hour , is a neuroscience-informed discussion of sobriety and behavioral changes that can make a positive impact. Come for the chat on rewiring your nervous system. Stay for the sunsets and glimmers.

Before Recovery Rocks, Anna hosted Recover Girl, where conversations about addiction and recovery were less “before-and-after success story” and more “let’s unpack the human condition for 45 minutes.” This Thursday Throwback features musician Moby in one of the most thoughtful recovery conversations we’ve ever aired.  Moby talks about getting sober at 22 after years of chaotic drinking and drug us...

Fear of public speaking commonly ranks among the world’s top phobias.    And why shouldn’t it? Standing in front of room full of eager eyes waiting to hear something brilliant can be terrifying.    We both learned how to speak in front of others in 12-step meetings. Today, Lisa worries about being hit with a panic attack on stage (it’s happened before), while Anna panics about the memorization.  ...

Despite being so grateful for our sober lives, we still experience jealousy over big things (friends with great adult kids) and little ones (another author going viral). The difference is that we now have the tools to handle it gracefully…most of the time. Also, welcome to our new segment, Petty Resentments! First up: Why are we pressured to tip on what are essentially medical procedures?

Before Brad McLeod became one of recovery’s most inspiring voices, he survived an almost unbelievable series of hardships—including childhood instability, extreme isolation as a teen, addiction, incarceration and briefly sharing a jail cell with a murderer. Now he’s the founder of Sober Motivation and helps people around the world stay sober through honesty, storytelling and connection. This conve...

The Sober Curator ( thesobercurator.com ) is the place to find all things sober pop culture and more. It has you covered on book, movie, music, and TV reviews, sober travel and events, gift guides, and other tips for living your best sober life.  We talked all about it with our friend Alysse Bryson, the Sober Curator herself, who created the site for fellow pop culture, fashion, and entertain junk...

You know the birthdays, the ones with a zero at the end? Hitting our first ones in sobriety added a new dimension to the milestones. Lisa couldn’t believe she made it her 40th birthday and wishes she’d kept contributing to her 401(K) before that. Anna turned 30 a month after going to rehab and 50 in the midst of the pandemic. Despite the challenges, in the end we realized there’s always a reason t...

It’s the dreaded 8th Step in 12-Step recovery - making amends to those we have harmed. Anna and Lisa talk about their first experiences with it, as well as what “living amends” look like. And when an amends turns into a bitch session for the other person, we take it in stride, and maybe even have a laugh years later. Plus: how do you make amends to a no-longer-living grandmother you tricked into s...

What does the first Saturday night you stay home sober look and feel like? Just the prospect of it can send shivers down a newly sober spine. Lisa remembers a sense of relief, tinged with some envy knowing that her friends were out partying. Anna learned that boring wasn’t always bad and that maybe those people who’d been watching Saturday Night Live while she was out tearing it up were onto somet...

We catch up with Ann Dowsett Johnston ( anndowsettjohnston.com ), the author of the groundbreaking bestseller, DRINK: THE INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WOMEN AND ALCOHOL. Published in 2013, it will be mass-market re-released in the fall. In her 60s, Ann got brave again, followed her heart and became a psychotherapist. We dig into all of this, plus the return of Ann’s popular memoir writing course,...

Eric Zimmer went from homelessness, heroin addiction, and facing prison at 24 to inspiring global audiences with his podcast, The One You Feed , and his new book,  How a Little Becomes a Lot: The Art of Small Changes for a More Meaningful Life . Eric and Anna discuss how Eric’s podcast grew, why he didn’t focus it solely on recovery and what it took for him to decide on the book he wanted to write...

Business dinners often come with the expectation of drinking to loosen things up and get everyone feeling chummy. Defying that expectation can feel uncomfortable, but it doesn’t have to. Anna spent her first nine months of sobriety among the open bars of the most fabulous Hollywood events as Premiere magazine’s “Party Girl” columnist while Lisa’s nights out with her colleagues taught her a lot abo...

Who says you can’t go home again? You can. Sometimes it’s a choice, and sometimes it’s not. Lisa went home to her family straight out of detox and immediately faced the reality that she might have left the world of drinking, but it hadn’t left her. Anna learned what can happen when a family member asks if you mind if they drink, you say you do and they get mad. The ladies also veer into discussing...

Being a sober woman in a male-dominated corporate world can be challenging, to say the least. Toni Will, General Manager and Governor of a men’s professional hockey team, knows all about it. So do Lisa and Anna. They talk about how their sobriety gives them an advantage in dealing with the demands and frustrations of work, as well as going public with their sobriety.   Learn more about Toni here ....

It was bound to happen - an ex from our pasts would pop up out of nowhere. Lisa ended up rekindling an old flame that was more fun sober. And Anna found herself face-to-face with her first love. We talk about crazy run-ins, finding closure, and the universe bringing people back into our lives.

After dropping out of college, Nikki Mammano was an “it girl” kingpin in Waikiki’s drug trade. When it all fell apart, she landed in prison and then on the street, thieving and hooking to survive. Flash forward to today – Nikki is a PTA mom of two daughters living in the burbs. How did this happen? Her memoir, BREAKING GOOD, tells the tale and we are here for it!    Find Nikki’s book and more on h...

If rehab worked the way it’s supposed to…why do so many people end up right back where they started? After more than 30 years in the trenches of addiction treatment, Jimmie Applegate has some theories. In his recently released book Addicted to Failure: Why the Rehab System Doesn’t Work and What Must Change , he pulls back the curtain on the myths, blind spots and outdated models that keep people s...

What happens when your “journey of self-discovery” includes Burning Man debauchery, spontaneous decisions to move to other countries and the ingestion of substances you probably should’ve Googled first? We asked the best source on the topic— Carly Schwartz, a former top editor at The Huffington Post and Editor-in-Chief of the San Francisco Examiner all about it when discussing her upcoming recover...

Our resident Swiftie, Anna, is over the moon as we chat with Julianne Griffin, founder of Swift Steps , a recovery community for sober Swifties. We talk about what music, and Taylor’s music in particular, means to us in recovery and the power of a supportive community in staying sober. Find Swift Steps: www.swiftsteps.org Private FB Group Facebook Instagram YouTube TikTok

We both love to shop, but come at it from different places. No surprise it reflects our feelings of financial security. Anna has been buying things she loves to decorate her dream home. Lisa loves to pay bills. We save tons of money by not buying drugs and alcohol, and we didn’t get sober to feel deprived. So if it’s in our means, it’s in our basket.

Being in a human body means experiencing physical pain at some point. Handling it can be challenging for sober people. We talk about attitudes of people who don’t understand recovery, including many doctors, toward pain medication. And we both agree – there is no shame in taking prescribed medication to find relief. Of course, we’re careful to protect our sobriety when meds are necessary.

Friend and fellow sobriety author Kristin Casey hangs with us to talk about her books, CASEY DANCER: A MEMOIR OF DATING, STRIPPING AND A LITTLE HOT YOGA and ROCK MONSTER: MY LIFE WITH JOE WALSH, and much more. We talk about what our relationships were like before and after getting sober. Spoiler: once we learned to like ourselves, our standards got higher and our own needs took priority.

Baby, it’s cold and dark outside. Winter blues and seasonal affective disorders are real and we struggle with them. We talk about how we handle them. Anna does the bold thing, combining cold plunges and infrared saunas. Lisa tries to stick her body in the sunshine, now that she realizes how it lifts her winter mood. 

Open Instagram, Ruin Your Night? We love to hate social media. But it’s also a singular tool for staying in touch, getting the word out on things we care about, and even learning a thing or two. We talk about our early days on the socials and how we use it now. Sober tools can help – just like with a drink, before opening that app, maybe ask yourself why you want to log on and play the tape throug...

It’s the question many ask when getting sober: What am I going to do on New Year’s Eve if I’m not drinking? The answer is anything you want! No need to have FOMO – New Year’s Eve is a night for amateurs. And nothing beats waking up on New Year’s Day without a hangover. We take the opportunity to catch up on sleep. And we don’t make resolutions. Why make a declaration that we’re going to change on...