Secular AA's Podcast

For atheists, freethinkers, humanists etc., who are looking for relatable written versions of recovery a la Alcoholics Anonymous, reviews have varied widely through AA history. Seven million copies of Living Sober are in circulation, AA's 1975 offering of the practical experiences of hundreds of thousands of accounts and AA anecdotes from AA's first forty years is appreciated by many. AA...

międzynarodowa konferencja świeckich Anonimowych Alkoholików z wielką radością spotkała się z polskimi ateistami i agnostykami 12 czerwca 2022 Spotkanie to zostało zorganizowane przez Bernadettę oraz polskich Ateistów i Agnostyków w AA. Dziękuję Michalina za tłumaczenie oraz Bogdan, Michał , Anna za rozmowę. The International Conference of Secular Alcoholics Anonymous is so pleased to to have Athe...

Debra B moderates a panel on "finding our muse in recovery; can I be creative and sober?" Sri P, Kathleen F and Meagan P - who celebrates 13 years sober in AA - share what it was like, what happened and what it's like now. To visit our meeting live, check the meeting link below. We gather on Zoom the first Sunday of each month, generally UTC -5 (11 AM Pacific, 2 PM East, 7 PM Irelan...

The first Sunday of each month features the International Conference of Secular AA story time world tour. Every month, different home groups and AA communities from around the world take turns hosting an AA speaker meeting. This lets us get to know our fellow AAs and their journeys, worldwide.  Hosted by Kingston's Beyond Belief Friday nooner, we hear about and hear from the Broader Path grou...

Two speakers who will be part of the in-person 4th Biennial International Conference of Secular AA (ICSAA)  - Washington DC, scheduled for October 28-30, 2022 - give us a sneak preview from their 2020 "Addiction, Mental Health and Recovery in thee time of Zoom and social distancing" presentation. See what they got right about COVID life for people with substance/alcohol use disorder. See...

We hear from Ginny, Diane, Amber Brianna and friends - some from Kansas City We Agnostics meeting and others Zooming in. If there is a theme, this month it's where the healthcare profession meets secular AA and peer-to-peer support more broadly. We have people talking about the role of of treatment and medical intervention, and we have a healthcare professional who confronted her own alcohol...

Beth H from Arizona, (pen-name Beth Aich) tells her story with inspired We Are Not All Egomaniacs: Adopting the Twelve Steps for Alcoholics with Low Self-Esteem . Not everyone share's the Bill W narrative of Type-A self-centered person with a drinking problem who needs ego-deflation at depth to find and keep sobriety. Beth finds that when faced with distress some of us are fighters. But some...

On the first Sunday of every month ICSAA (International Conference of Secular AA) Zooms around the globe to bring secular AA storytelling from a different local around the globe. February 6, 2022 we have Georgia on our mind with southern hospitality from Megan, Christopher, Mary and friends. You need to hear it to believe it to understand life for freethinkers in the AA South. For more audio anywh...

Transpersonal-psychologist  John Welwood, coined the term,  “spiritual bypassing,”  He defined spiritual bypassing as using “spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep personal, emotional ‘unfinished business,’ to shore up a shaky sense of self, or to belittle basic needs, feelings, and developmental tasks.” This presentation is moderated by John R from the Freethinkers Living Sober group in Cotton...

The occasion:  International Conference of Secular AA December 11th, 2021  Stonehenge AA Freethinkers Step meeting started on Zoom in the pandemic. In this recording, we are treated to how this AA group runs their regular meeting. We kick off with Jeffery Munn's Staying Sober Without God: The Practical 12 Steps . We were pleased to present this meeting with simultaneous Spanish/English transl...

The International Conference of Secular Alcoholics Anonymous all day Zoom event's grand finale, held December 11th, 2021, was a reading from AA conference approved Living Sober with discussion to follow . Chairperson, Geri B of Las Vegas NV spoke about the value of the practical book of AA life:  Living Sober . This 1975 record of the first 40 years of collective AA experience (updated as nee...

Happy 2022 from the International Conference of Secular Alcoholics Anonymous (#ICSAA)  Our monthly world tour of International speaker meetings Zooms to the world in January from We Agnostics Hong Kong with Jim, Shari and John speaking to us. Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia, Mexico and members from coast-to-coast in USA, Canada, Shanghai and Hong Kong ,are in the house.  Every month it’s somew...

While Alcoholics Anonymous is not affiliated with Al-Anon or other peer to peer support—including 12-step fellowships—there has always been cooperation, since our early days.  Today, many of us fall prey to more than affliction, simultaneously or one addiction at a time. Friends we haven’t met yet await us in many mutual-aid groups. At the 2021 International Conference of Secular AA we are pleased...

People, meet Brianna, Marsha, Lyra D, Janie B, Charlize and Adam M. "LGBTQIAP+, find out what it means to me!" From the OMAGOD room at the International Conference of Secular AA 2021, we heard from a sampling of Alcoholics Anonymous' gender and sexual identity members.  We can find sobriety in AA without accepting anyone else's beliefs  nor denying our own. "Love and toler...

North American and European youth join in for the 2021 International Conference of Secular AA ( #ICSAA ) to talk recovery over Zoom. Join Teun, Zoe, Adam and Lina, who kick off the conversation; joining in are fellow atheists, agnostics and freethinkers in Alcoholics Anonymous. AA is a peer-to-peer community where people get and/or stay sober. All AA groups are autonomous, secular AA appeals to pe...

William Schaberg wrote Writing the Big Book: The Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous (2019) after over eleven years of primary documentary research. William reflects on the three things the research revealed that drastically altered his core beliefs about early AA: 1.     Bill Wilson was a fabulous storyteller and not a reliable source for accurate historical details.  2.     No Hank Parkhurst—no boo...

The 2021 International Conference of Secular AA, December 11 2021, presents a third decade of the 21st century contemporary update from our 80+ year old text, Alcoholics Anonymous . From "The Doctor's Opinion" to "A Vision for You," we take to heart how the book wraps up: "... the book is meant to be suggestive only. We realize that we know only a little." And as...

Dr Paul F has worked as a physician in the field of addiction medicine and occupational medicine for more than twenty-five years.  His interest in addiction medicine has morphed over those years into a greater curiosity related to addiction recovery science and treatment.   Dr. Paul S, full-time addiction medicine physician, focusing on occupational and recovery medicine, this Paul is past Preside...

November's first-Sunday-of-every-month world tour of secular AA speakers travels North by North-West: Our Seattle AA coffee club features Lori, Bruce, Eric and Marilyn. Following  the speakers on this Zoom meeting November 7th, 2021, members from around the world chime in.  Part of AA as a whole, the International Conference of Secular AA is special-purpose AA body - like International Confer...

June 19th, 2021 was the first European hosted International Conference of Secular Alcoholics Anonymous (ICSAA) and it was two Zoom rooms, 11 AM - 11 PM. Attendees were largely delighted with the days events. The grande finale was an around-the-world AA discussion of the brief history of Zoom & AA, with opening comments by Mark from Tus Nua Freethinkers and Joe from Beyond Belief Agnostics &amp...

Our October 2021 world tour stop for our secular Alcoholics Anonymous speakers meeting is Glasgow, home to Happy Heathens. At the time of recording Glasgow offers both in-person and online (Zoom) AA for atheists, freethinkers, agnostics. Today with David in the secretary seat, we hear from a co-founder of Scotland secular AA, Dante as well as Karen who has found the Glasgow group because of the pa...

Every month the International Conference of Secular AA world tour brings you a local feel from different agnostic/atheist/humanist AA communities around the AA world. September 2021, hosted by Jenny, we feature the New Englanders: Dan found sobriety 50 years ago at the age of 27. His first International AA convention was Colorado in 1975. Several members of Dan's family found sobriety in AA s...

"i" stands for International; "PAN" stands for All Addictions (substance use disorder, process addictions) and this is a Zoomiverse only fellowship for anyone seeking recovery from anything by any means. For more information: eMail: freethinkingipan@gmail.com The primary purpose of iPAN is to provide a comfortable and safe environment for people to discuss whatever issue they m...

Angie A is secretary and host with speaker, Neil "Sam" Samworth, former Strangeways Prison Officer. Addiction, treatment, recovery, mental health, trauma, life on the inside will be the discussion kicking of Sam's comments and followed by Q and A from participants. Neil “Sam” Samwoth YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/hieOsLGS8so More International Conference of Secular Alcoholics Ano...

June 19, 2021 was the first All Europe International Conference of Secular AA. Held on Zoom in two rooms running 12 hours each, it was a day of many firsts, for Alcoholics Anonymous, for agnostics and atheists in AA and the greater recovery community. At 4 PM in the Tus Nua Room, there was a cancellation, a change of schedule and Chantal asked Zanner to tell her story. This is Zanner's story,...