Drunk-ish - A Sobriety Podcast

We’re back with Margot Rose for Part Two where Margot takes us somewhere heartbreaking and profound—family, divorce, regret, and the kind of loss that changes the shape of your whole life. We talk about what sobriety looks like when the “easy button” doesn’t exist, how shame can shove people out of the rooms, and why sometimes you do what you have to do just to get through the day. And then—hope:...

I’m with Margot Rose this week, and let’s just say: if you’ve ever wanted a sobriety parade, you’re among friends. Margot and I go way back—16 years back—and we revisit the era when I was… not exactly a delight in sober spaces, and she was the rock-and-roll, sharp-edged voice I desperately needed. We talk Staten Island Ferry busking, the “white wine and coke” cocktail (please don’t), quitting coca...

Tamara Mello is back (again… third? fourth? who’s counting), and I’m thrilled because she just hit  three years sober with a January 2 sobriety date — which makes this time of year feel extra real. We talk about why “just moderate” can feel like a full-time job, why taking drinking off the table can weirdly bring relief, and how the holidays can either break you… or show you what you’re made of. P...

I'm taking one more week off for the holidays but next week I'll be back with all new episodes! This is a great interview with Kathleen Wilhoite — actress, musician, writer, teacher, and one of the most honest, hilarious, and compelling people I’ve met. We talked about getting fired from a movie before even filming ( swizzle sticks in a jean jacket were involved), and finding herself again through...

Tamara Mello came back a few days later to get a little more into dealing with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder along with her sobriety. It was a great discussion and worth bringing back especially right now around the holidays.

We're going back to the beginning with a fan favorite, my friend, Tamara Mello. Tamara is an actress (She's All That, Popular etc.), a mom and a jewelry designer (Grey By Tamara Mello on Etsy) and she's getting real on coming up on 3 years sober. 

This week I’m catching up with  Tara Motter , and it really does feel like a girlfriend hang… except with microphones and considerably more accountability. We talk about the whole “cool wine mom” era (oops), the way drinking can turn into your  entire  personality, and Tara’s truly iconic alter ego,  T-Rex . Tara also tells the story of the night she hit bottom—yes, there was a taxi situation, yes...

If you’ve ever wondered whether “drinking is just part of my personality” is a solid life plan, this episode is for you. I’m joined by the hilarious and brutally honest  Sean Daniels , a theater director who managed to get fired from his dream job for day drinking, then turned his mess into an Off-Broadway play and a whole nonprofit, the Recovery Arts Project. We talk relapse (so much more common...

If you’ve ever Googled “Am I an alcoholic?” at midnight (hi, welcome), you’re going to love this week’s conversation with the author of The Sober Diaries, Clare Pooley. We get into her days as “Sober Mummy,” why she once hid red wine in a coffee mug, the absolute  hellscape  of dancing in heels sober, and how quitting drinking somehow also led both of us straight into the arms of sugar. Clare’s st...

If you’ve ever taken an “Am I an alcoholic?” quiz and argued with every single question… you’re going to love this one. Writer and mom of two Dana Bowman joins me to talk about growing up with a “dry drunk” dad, becoming the straight-A, teacher-of-the-year perfectionist, and then secretly drinking her face off on the couch. We laugh about wine-mom culture, hiding bottles in boots, and that first m...

This week I sit down with Lisa Smith — author of Girl Walks Out of a Bar  and co-host of  Sober Living . Lisa and I get into everything from her New York lawyer days (including the part where she fully expected to die at 40) to the weekend routines she hid behind while her drinking spiraled. We talk about early sobriety, inpatient treatment, why some friendships shift and others surprise you, and...

This is the episode so nice I'm airing it twice! Comedian and longtime podcaster Greg Fitzsimmons joins me for a candid, hilarious, and deeply honest conversation about his decades-long journey without alcohol—and why he never calls himself “sober.” From getting drunk behind the bleachers at 13 to quitting after bombing a stand-up set in Boston, Greg opens up about addiction in his Irish Catholic...

I’m joined by the brilliant and hilarious Anna David, who’s (almost) at 25 years sober and has the receipts. We get into the infamous “Fix” headline fiasco, why community laughter can be medicine, and how she accidentally checked into the  other  Promises—think broken hoop, not Malibu tennis courts. Anna talks getting sober at 30, the power of 12-step, and how EMDR rewired her life. We also compar...

In this conversation with Rosebud Baker, we trace a line from grief to grace: a political-family childhood near D.C., the loss of her little sister, finding alcohol, and then finding a room where people spoke her language. We talk about the slow work of sitting with feelings, Al-Anon, the beginnings of stand-up and writing, sobriety since 2006, pregnancy loss, IVF, becoming a mom, and the memoir s...

This week I sit down with Jonathan Todd Schwartz, who went from daily sports bets and a secret coke spiral to embezzeling money from his high profile musician clients like  Alanis Morissette. We talk parenting while living a double life, the polygraph that blew everything up, and how it all changed. It's riveting from start to finish. You can follow Jonathan on IG: @therealjonathanschwartz You can...

This week on  Drunk-ish , I sit down with my friend Kate Anthony—author, divorce coach, and host of  The Divorce Survival Guide Podcast . Kate opens up about how playdates with wine turned into nightly drinking, the shame spirals at 3am (“Holy fuck, I can’t believe I drove”  ), and the moment she realized alcohol was the problem, not her. We talk parenting, hitting that “I’m done” wall, what final...

This week on  Drunk-ish I sit down with Brenda Wilhelmson, author of  Diary of an Alcoholic Housewife . Brenda opens up about juggling motherhood, her years of trying to “look perfect on the outside” while feeling wrecked on the inside, and the rocky starts that came before lasting sobriety. We talk about vodka martinis with dissertation-writing cousins, accidentally lighting her hair on fire at a...

Imagine getting sober before you could drive. That’s my guest this week,  Robin Reiser , who checked into rehab at sixteen and never looked back. Well… not willingly, anyway. Robin tells me about being busted by her parents after they found her diary (rookie mistake), what it felt like to think alcohol was her best friend, and the surprisingly relatable “not today” trick she still uses to quiet th...

Imagine getting sober before you could drive. That’s my guest this week,  Robin Reiser , who checked into rehab at sixteen and never looked back. Well… not willingly, anyway. Robin tells me about being busted by her parents after they found her diary (rookie mistake), what it felt like to think alcohol was her best friend, and the surprisingly relatable “not today” trick she still uses to quiet th...

Richard Taite is back for part two, and this time we go deep into what parents really need to know about kids and drugs today. Richard explains how fentanyl shows up in everything from fake Percocet to weed, and how to have the hard conversations with our kids. We also talk about parenting through addiction, whether sending a teen to rehab for weed is overkill, and why he believes early, honest ta...

Richard Taite might be the only guy who can tell me about running into Charlie Sheen in a crack-fueled hallway at 3 a.m., slam the door on his own intervention because “nobody gets sober on a Thursday,", and then casually mention founding one of the most successful rehabs in America. On this episode, Richard and I laugh (because sometimes you have to) about his six-month drug runs fueled by Big Ma...

Kim Evey is here, and let me just say: when your sobriety story includes Bartles & Jaymes in a high school bathroom, 99¢ store wine tastings, and accidentally peeing in your suitcase on Ambien… you know it’s going to be a good episode. We laugh about the “math” we used to do to justify three martinis before driving home  , the art of hiding booze in the kitchen cabinets  , and how motherhood m...

This week I sit down with my friend and working medium, Jane Morgan. Jane and I go way back to the days when she looked like the serene mom who had it all figured out… until she collapsed on the floor saying, “would someone take this baby? Because I’m freaking out." That’s when I knew we’d be friends for life. In this episode we talk about everything from family booze trees to postpartum meltdowns...

Jaime Hrobar is back, and this time we get into the relapse, the chaos, and the miracle of finding her way out. From salivating over a martini before the olive even hit the toothpick , to realizing beer at breakfast isn’t a marriage-saver , Jaime’s honesty about rock bottom is as sharp as it is funny. We talk Hot Tamales (yes, the candy that tried to kill her) , parenting through her son’s four-an...

This week on  Drunk-ish , I sat down with Jaime Hrobar, who has one of those “you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up” drinking stories that starts with champagne at age eight and somehow ends with guzzling vodka out of a Smurf mug. Jaime takes us through her wild ride from college bingeing to DUIs, marriages that didn’t survive the chaos, and the messy middle of trying to parent two kids—including a son wit...