Sober Awkward

The Share Shed – Sober Awkward Writing Competition Specials - Bodies Change - By Erin Every Thursday, we’re handing the story telling over to you. Over the next few months, Vic will be reading some of the incredible entries from this year’s Sober Awkward Writing Competition. Honest, funny, heartbreaking, hopeful, awkward and beautifully human, these stories come from people all over the world who...

For many LGBTQ+ people, the pub wasn’t just somewhere to grab a drink—it was one of the few places where they could safely be themselves. For decades, bars and clubs became places of acceptance, community and belonging. But when alcohol becomes woven into your identity and social life, what happens when you decide to stop drinking? For many people, giving up alcohol means changing what they drink....

The Share Shed – Sober Awkward Writing Competition Specials - Finally Meeting Myself - By Allyson Every Thursday, we’re handing the story telling over to you. Over the next few months, Vic will be reading some of the incredible entries from this year’s Sober Awkward Writing Competition. Honest, funny, heartbreaking, hopeful, awkward and beautifully human, these stories come from people all over th...

This week on Sober Awkward, Vic chats to Ben Gibbs from The Sober Boozers Club about the rapidly changing world of alcohol-free beer and whether pub culture can survive a generation that’s drinking less, drinking differently, or not drinking at all. Because let’s face it, Vic used to be the kind of customer pubs loved. These days Vic walks into a pub, orders one alcohol-free beer, has a lovely cha...

The Share Shed – Sober Awkward Writing Competition Specials - Alcohol, Motherhood and Me - By Emily Every Thursday, we’re handing the story telling over to you. Over the next few months, Vic will be reading some of the incredible entries from this year’s Sober Awkward Writing Competition. Honest, funny, heartbreaking, hopeful, awkward and beautifully human, these stories come from people all over...

As a special treat to celebrate the final episode of Series 13, I’m delighted to welcome Hamish back to the podcast for a proper catch-up. Yes, he’s still sober. Yes, he’s still awkward. And yes, he’s still as funny as ever. We chat about what life has looked like since leaving the show, how sobriety is going, and what he’s learned along the way. Hamish is proof that you don’t have to be a stereot...

The Share Shed – Sober Awkward Writing Competition Specials - No More Numbing Out - By Aliz, Texas Every Thursday, we’re handing the story telling over to you. Over the next few months, Vic will be reading some of the incredible entries from this year’s Sober Awkward Writing Competition. Honest, funny, heartbreaking, hopeful, awkward and beautifully human, these stories come from people all over t...

This week on Sober Awkward, Vic steps away from alcohol to explore another addiction that is quietly growing across Australia: Nangs. Nitrous oxide, often sold legally and delivered to your door within minutes, is commonly seen as harmless party fun. But for Sam Bramman, what started as a few nangs at a house party quickly spiralled into a devastating addiction that led to psychosis, hospitalisati...

This week in the Share Shed, one listener wakes up to discover he’d apparently spent 40 minutes running barefoot on a treadmill at 3am… after swimming in a stranger’s pool and blacking out at a party. The only problem? He remembers none of it. A hilarious story with a surprisingly thoughtful twist about sobriety, fitness, and what happens when one obsession gets replaced by another. The Share Shed...

This week on Sober Awkward, Vic sits down with TJ Power, a well-known neuroscientist, author of the Sunday Times bestseller The DOSE Effect , and the founder of the DOSE Lab. He is a leading voice in demystifying brain chemistry, focusing on helping people manage digital burnout, phone addiction, and overstimulation in the modern world. TJ shares his own story of changing his relationship with alc...

Today on the Share Shed we have one confession and one question. First up, a listener wakes up in Las Vegas with more than just a hangover… let’s just say Elvis may have been involved and somebody accidentally got married. Then we tackle a question many people quietly ask themselves: if your hands shake the morning after drinking, is that a sign you’re an alcoholic? The answer might surprise you....

This week on Sober Awkward, Vic chats to James Swanwick about high-functioning drinking, success, pressure and the growing movement of people choosing to live alcohol free — not because they’ve completely fallen apart, but because they simply feel better without it. James is an Australian stop drinking expert, author, investor, entrepreneur and former SportsCenter anchor on ESPN. He is the creator...

This week on the Share Shed we’re talking drunk online shopping… you know, those slightly terrifying mystery parcels that arrive two days after a blackout. From sequinned capes and stuffed frogs in hats… to accidentally booking holidays to Spain you have absolutely no memory of organising. Basically: If you’ve ever opened your front door hungover and thought, “What in the name of Christ have I bou...

This week on Sober Awkward, Vic chats to Hattie Underwood, the London-based mum of two behind Sober Happy Free, who has recently been speaking out across the UK media about the worrying rise of alcohol delivery services. After loads of Sober Awkward listeners tagged Vic in clips saying, “You HAVE to get her on the podcast!”… here she is. Now five years sober, Hattie openly shares the raw reality o...

Not really a Share Shed today… But there was a story from this week’s podcast that absolutely refused to be squeezed into a normal segment. It needed its own space. Its own moment. Its own… spotlight. We had the incredible Shanna Whan on Sober Awkward this week, founder of Sober in the Country and creator of the brilliant #OK2SAYNO campaign… and somewhere in the middle of talking about life in rur...

It feels like this conversation has been a long time coming. Vic is genuinely honoured to have Shanna Whan AM on the podcast this week. Shanna is the founder and CEO of Sober in the Country, a national grassroots charity that’s been driving radical social impact and real change across rural and remote Australia over the past decade. Through laser-focused bush advocacy, peer-to-peer support, and a...

This week on the Share Shed we’re talking boundaries. Vic chats about caring from afar, therapy and emotional carnage with a side of bad decisions. Classic Share Shed. The Share Shed is where listeners send in their funniest, cringiest and most unbelievable drinking stories. It’s not about judgement, it’s about recognising how wild things could get when alcohol was in charge, and laughing about it...

This week Vic is joined by journalist and podcaster Katie Herzog to talk about the winding, messy road many of us take trying to figure out our relationship with alcohol. Katie shares what her drinking looked like during Covid, how it quietly ramped up behind closed doors, and the strange mental gymnastics of hiding drinking from partners and pretending your fine and dandy, when really... it's all...

This week’s Shame Shed is a more serious one. A parent writes in about the shame they carry from drinking while raising their kids, and the heavy weight of seeing it all clearly now they’re sober. If you’ve ever felt that knot in your stomach about the past, this one will hit home. The Share Shed is where listeners send in their funniest, cringiest and most unbelievable drinking stories. It’s not...

This week on Sober Awkward , Vic chats with Social Media Educator and (National Association for Children of Addiction) NACOA Ambassador - Sarah Drage about the strange and sometimes complicated world of sobriety on the internet. When we stop drinking, many of us head straight online. Suddenly there are sober coaches, Instagram accounts, communities, podcasts, hashtags, and an entire digital world...

A work Christmas party that escalated quickly… involving a Christmas tree, a taxi ride that didn’t go to plan, and a very unfortunate encounter with a dog flap. This week’s Shame Shed is a reminder that some people don’t “just have a few”… they fully commit. The Share Shed is where listeners send in their funniest, cringiest and most unbelievable drinking stories. It’s not about judgement, it’s ab...

Vic had to properly brace herself for this one… sitting down with Catherine Gray, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober . This is the book that completely changed the course of Vic’s sobriety. The one that, for the first time, made an alcohol-free life feel exciting rather than something to endure. So yes… she tried not to gush. No promises. As expected, Vic and Cath...

One man, one very confident walk home… and one slight issue with the fact he no longer lived there. The Share Shed is where listeners send in their funniest, cringiest and most unbelievable drinking stories. It’s not about judgement, it’s about recognising how wild things could get when alcohol was in charge, and laughing about it now we’re on the other side. If you’ve got a story you’d like to ge...

Vic sits down with William Porter to unpack one of the biggest traps in drinking culture, how alcohol became so normal we stopped questioning it. From cracking a Red Stripe on a train at 7.30am in London to planning entire nights around that first drink, this episode explores the quiet, creeping ways alcohol becomes the main event without us even noticing. They dive into where cravings really come...

This week in the Share Shed there is a message from someone who feels properly stuck. It’s whisky, and it’s creeping earlier. What used to be evenings has slowly shifted… to afternoons… and now sometimes mornings. Just a quick swig out of the bottle to steady the nerves. They’ve been listening to the podcast, quietly questioning things, knowing deep down something isn’t right… but still lying to t...