Journey to the Sunnyside | Mindful Drinking & Alcohol Health

Today I’m joined by Megan Klein, founder of Little Saints. Megan built Little Saints after realizing the cocktail ritual she loved was starting to cost her more than she wanted to pay. She didn’t want to give up going out, having fun, or raising a glass at the end of the day. She just wanted alcohol to take up less space. In this episode, we talk about the work-hard, drink-hard pattern, why non-al...

Most people know drinking less can improve sleep, hangovers, and energy. But the bigger changes are usually the ones you don’t expect. In Part 2, we go deeper into the benefits that start to compound when alcohol gets smaller. We’ll talk about why the good parts of the night stick around, how your effort starts to count more, why you see more of the room in social moments, and how alcohol can affe...

Dr. Richard Louis Miller has spent more than 65 years in psychology, mind-body health, and behavior change. He is the host of Mind Body Health & Politics , the author of multiple books, and a longtime voice in the connection between the mind, emotions, stress, and the body. In this episode, Dr. Miller shares a simple but powerful idea: the mind is a tool, not the boss. We talk about how easy i...

Most people know the obvious benefits of drinking less: better sleep, fewer hangovers, maybe more energy. But those are not the most interesting changes. In this two-part episode, I’m talking about 14 unexpected ways life can get easier when alcohol gets smaller. We’ll look at the hidden domino effects most people never connect to drinking: morning anxiety, caffeine loops, food cravings, stomach i...

In this episode, I’m joined by Coach Jennifer Salzman, an ADHD advocate, mindfulness practitioner, and alcohol-free life coach. Jennifer spent years feeling uniquely flawed before receiving an ADHD diagnosis in her 40s. Looking back, she began to understand why alcohol had felt like such a reliable form of relief. We talk about the connection between ADHD and alcohol, why drinking can feel like re...

In this episode, I’m looking at why certain moments seem to come with alcohol already attached. A celebration, a game, a vacation, a hard day, a party. Most of us picked up those meanings long before we questioned them. This is about the invisible scripts that make drinking feel normal, and the simple question that can help you decide whether the script still belongs to you. CONNECT WITH SUNNYSIDE...

A lot of people know alcohol is taking up too much space long before they do anything about it. It might be the drink after work, the second drink that wasn't planned, the weekend rule that keeps bending, or the feeling that alcohol is doing more emotional work than they want it to. In this episode, I'm joined by alcohol coach Austin Karr, founder of 100 Days, to talk about one of the most useful...

In this episode, I talk about the social side of drinking less, and the fear that changing your drinking might change how you show up with other people. Will I still be fun? Will the night feel different? Will people notice? And do I have to change everything just because I'm changing this one thing? I also share a story from Thanksgiving that helped me see how a night can still feel full without...

My guest is Dr. Josh McConkie. He's an emergency physician and a military veteran, and he flew medevac missions in Iraq. We get into the moment when toughing it out stopped working for him, and what it was like to come home after that. We also talk about why alcohol becomes the go-to coping mechanism for so many high performers, and why shame keeps people stuck while ownership moves them forward....

In this episode, I’m talking about the moment most moderation advice skips: what happens after the first drink. For many people, the first drink is a decision. But the second drink is momentum. Once alcohol starts creating that feeling of relief, connection, confidence, or release, the next drink can start to feel less like a choice and more like a way to protect the feeling. We’ll look at why alc...

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Darcy Sterling, relationship expert, licensed clinical social worker, and host of We Need to Talk. We talk about what happens when one person in a relationship starts drinking less, especially when alcohol has become part of how a couple connects. For many couples, drinking is woven into date night, vacations, and reconnecting at the end of the day. So when one p...

In this episode, I’m digging into alcohol cravings and one of the biggest traps people fall into when they’re trying to cut back: negotiating with the urge. Maybe just one. Maybe only tonight. Maybe I’ll reset tomorrow. We’ll look at why cravings can feel so convincing in the moment, what’s happening in the brain and body when the urge to drink shows up, and how a simple practice that can help you...

Most people trying to drink less focus on the drink. But for a lot of high-functioning people, that's only half the pattern. There's a whole cycle underneath it. You overdo it, you feel off, you recommit, you clean things up, you get that "I'm back" feeling. Then slowly, without really noticing, it starts again. And because life isn't falling apart - you're still working, still parenting, still sh...

A lot of people think the hardest part about changing their drinking is the alcohol itself. But honestly, for a lot of people, the real exhaustion comes from the constant mental negotiation around it. Should I quit drinking completely? Can I moderate? Am I overthinking this? Why does it feel so hard to “figure out” alcohol when everyone else seems fine? In this episode, I explore why our brains be...

In part two, Sunnyside co-founder and CEO Nick Allen continues his conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Egler, Chief Medical Officer at Noom, with a deeper focus on behavior change. They get into why willpower usually fails, how systems and structure make habits easier to sustain, and why tracking, micro habits, community, and even medication can help create momentum. If you’ve ever struggled to make hea...

In this episode, we dig into the strange grief that can show up when you start drinking less. Not regret. Not a craving exactly. More like the quiet feeling of missing something you’re genuinely glad you changed. We’ll look at why alcohol can become woven into your rituals, identity, stress relief, celebrations, and even the future you quietly imagined for yourself. And why feeling some sadness al...

In this episode, Mike digs into what anthropologists found after studying altered states across 400+ societies, why your brain can start moving toward relief before you even pour a drink, and how to tell the difference between a habit that enhances your life and one that has quietly become a requirement. From music and movement to the five o’clock pull toward a drink, this episode offers a differe...

Dr. Jeffrey Egler is the Chief Medical Officer at Noom, where he helps lead the company’s expansion from weight loss into healthy aging and longevity. In this conversation with Sunnyside co-founder and CEO Nick Allen, Dr. Egler breaks down what “living better, longer” actually means, and why the future of health may be less about waiting for disease and more about building health earlier. They tal...

Sunnyside helps you track, plan, and stay accountable, but the numbers are only part of the story. In this episode, I’ll show you how a quick daily reset can help you understand what’s happening underneath your drinking patterns, prepare for triggers, and make your plan feel more personal. This is how mindful drinking becomes something you practice in real life. RELATED ARTICLES FROM THE SUNNYSIDE...

When old patterns start pulling at you, it helps to have something deeper than a vague goal to come back to. In this episode, I’ll walk you through a simple statement of purpose that can help you reconnect with why you want to change and who you’re becoming along the way. This is a practical reset for the moments when mindful drinking feels harder than expected. RELATED ARTICLES FROM THE SUNNYSIDE...

Jon Paul Crimi is a former celebrity trainer and sober coach turned breathwork teacher who has worked with CEOs, Olympians, and Oscar, Emmy, and Grammy winners. In this episode, Jon Paul shares how his own struggles with addiction, identity, anger, and shame led him to breathwork, and why that first experience changed everything. He and Mike talk about emotional detox, the feelings we push down, a...

In this 10 Minute Monday, I’m talking about something I had to admit in my own life: sometimes the drink at the end of the day isn’t really about the drink. It’s about the need to shut off, exhale, and feel like the day is finally over. I’ll share why that kind of relief can start to cost more than it gives, and how to think differently about what you’re actually looking for in that moment. RELATE...

Join me for a conversation with Morgan Smith of Kalm with Kava, as he speaks from his farm in Hawaii about why people can have such different experiences with kava. Morgan has spent more than a decade studying the plant and working directly with growers, and in this episode he breaks down what kava is actually meant to do, why quality matters so much, and how to avoid misleading or low-quality pro...

A few months into drinking less, something happened that caught me off guard. Things got better, then better became normal, and normal started feeling a lot flatter than I expected. In this episode, I talk about why that can be such a vulnerable moment, and why people sometimes drift back right when things are actually going well. If you’ve ever thought, I thought this would feel better than this,...

Mike sits down with Geoff Cook, CEO of Noom and one of the biggest names in digital behavior change, and Nick Allen, CEO of Sunnyside, for a conversation about food noise, alcohol noise, GLP-1s and naltrexone, and the new science of comprehensive behavior change. Geoff has led Noom since 2023 as the company expands beyond weight management into a broader model that blends personalized psychology w...