The Drunkalogues

David G was raised in a religious cult where he learned early on to keep his family's membership secret.  It was a lesson that would serve him too well as his alcoholism deepened and yet he still managed to keep it from everyone close to him until the burden of his addiction proved too much.  He got help and came to understand that his self-worth need not be tied to his failure or accomplishments....

Jimmy Shin is a standup comic who produces The Shindig Show (which you can check out at The Comedy Store and clubs all over the US) but he really started out trying to become a lawyer. And when a felony drug bust ran that plan asunder, he found a different way.

Carder just published his first book - a memoire called Lost In Ghost Town - about his journey from an affluent childhood in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC to a dark stint of homelessness in Venice, California where he worked as a driver for the Shoreline Crips and there found a sense of place and self-worth that eventually fueled his recovery.  He now has a PhD in psychology and wo...

Renee Santos is a stand up comedian who grew up in Massachusetts where she found herself in the foster care system by the time she reached her early teens. Still she managed to get a full scholarship to college before migrating to Los Angeles to chase a career in acting. She describes her moment of reckoning as a spiritual bottom where she found a path to help in an awesomely unlikely way.

Kari grew up in Santa Rosa California where she fell hard for the theater scene - a passion that took her to Emerson College and on into the South for acting after.  The bug then brought her out to Los Angeles where she eventually found that same vital sense of energy and community in the world of stand up but not before she first endured a couple of dark phases and before the discovery of a form...

In Part 2 of this interview with guitarist and song writer, Anthony Rossomando, it all stalls out and the money dries up. But what in retrospect looks like a long quest for meaning somehow leads to sobriety and the now legendary collaboration with Gaga, Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt.  I had - in truth - forgotten how powerfully Shallow hit me when I first heard it in A Star Is Born, but man— this c...

Anthony Rossomando is a song writer and guitarist who is perhaps most famous for his work with the English rock band The Libertines and for writing (with Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt) the achingly beautiful song "Shallow" which became the centerpiece of the most recent remake of A Star Is Born.  In this first part of a two part interview he shares stories of the early years: his musical...

Katherine Wyrick hales from Little Rock, Arkansas where she first learned to party in her early teens and while life took her to boarding school in New England and on the road with her husband's band, it was only when she returned to Arkansas, had children and found herself on a kind of spiritual quest that she ultimately made her way to sobriety

Rami is a rapper who performs under the stage name Kosha Dillz.  He grew up in New Jersey and spent some time in and out of jail before getting sober and finding his calling in the world of music.  He won the 2009 Hot 97 Rap Battle at Giants Stadium.  He has performed with Snoop Dogg, RZA, Matisyahu to name a few and appeared  at Sundance and SXSW. Follow him @koshadillz You can support this podca...

John Gillen hails from Glasgow Scotland where he grew up in a family of coal miners.  Small in stature he left school at an early age to pursue a career as a jockey which eventually led to a very successful stint as the head trainer and manager of a prestigious thoroughbred stable in England. But when his drinking eventually got the best of him, he found himself homeless on the streets of Glasgow...

This is a very special episode. Zander Schloss - the bass player for the seminal punk band The Circle Jerks - brought his guitar to this session, and he not only tells an amazing story of his career in music, the steep toll of addiction and his hard fought journey thru recovery but he also plays original songs that reflect the long, complex path of his life.  This is a story of acceptance and surr...

Joshua Shea hails from Lewiston Auburn, Maine where he sat on the City Council and where his entrepreneurial spirit gave birth to the Lewiston Auburn Film Festival and Lewiston Auburn Magazine before his meteoric rise was undone by alcoholism and porn addiction.   He is the author of the memoir "The Addiction Nobody Talks About" and the upcoming book, "He's a porn addict. Now what?"  He reached ou...

Eric Hahn is a stand up comedian who grew up in a steel town in Ohio where he started drinking at age 12.  He narrowly escaped a career as a butcher before finding his way to Los Angeles via a lucrative career in the restaurant business which was upended when his employers saw his first stand up set on YouTube.  I realized Eric was sober via his hilarious twitter feed, and he shared with me here s...

Vincent Castellanos is an actor who appeared in Anaconda, Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive. He was born in Cuba and immigrated to Miami when he was 9 years old where he found a sense of excitement and belonging in the Miami night club scene of the late 70s.  He moved to New York to pursue a career in acting and dancing but ran afoul fo the hedonism of Manhattan in the 80s. Once he got sober he quic...

Beth Lapides created the iconic LA comedy show, UnCabaret, which had a Comedy Central special and a series run on Amazon Prime and recently celebrated its 25th Anniversary. Beth got sober 8 years ago and shares some amazing insights here about peace, acceptance, creation and the winding path that took her thru georgraphics, yoga, eviction and angel healing before sobriety.   

One of the joys of doing this podcast has been re-connecting with old friends. Jed and I went to college together and crossed paths from time to time in Hollywood. He's worked on SNL, been a talent manager, a music exec, and film and TV producer.  He is - in my mind - Hollywood royalty (tho I know he would object to that!) - and it was great to hear what has really been going on all these years.

Andy Haynes is a very funny stand up comic and writer who was selected for the New Faces Showcase at Just For Laughs.  He has also appeared on Jimmy Fallon and written for several television shows.  I just saw him tape a set for Comedy Central and found his brand of mid-life bewilderment so funny and all too relatable. I was introduced to him by Fielding Edlow who has been such a great supporter o...

Lori Marie is a stand up comic and host of the podcast "Me and My More Successful Friends". In sobriety she had to find out if she could get up on stage and still be funny when she was not getting loaded first.

Storyteller, writer and stand up comic Matt Gallagher (A Stumble In The Woods / Amazon Prime) takes us on a wild and hilarious trip from Atlantic City to Engineering School to Hollywood in an unlikely journey  toward stand up comedy, rehab and ultimately surrender.  

Demetrius Griffin is a native Angeleno whose long search for his tribe took him in and out of the Navy before landing him in the film business 15 years ago.  He wrestled mightily with addiction in a relentless cycle of incomprehensible demoralization before finally finding his real people in the recovery community of LA.

Lauren Morelli is a costume designer who grew up in South Florida experimenting in a range of addictive behavior from an early age. At 17 she found herself on lockdown in state run rehab and somehow found a spiritually and sobriety there strong enough she has stayed sober ever since.

Laura House is a comedian from Grand Prairie, TX who moved to Los Angeles in the 90s to develop and star in the MTV cult hit AUSTIN STORIES and has since written on many well-known TV shows including the Emmy Award winners SAMANTHA WHO and MOM. She has been sober for a little over 11 years, now-- and shares here the journey in recovery to reconnect with her birth mother and an entire second family

Drew Steckelmann grew up in Indiana where he grappled with his sexuality and his alcoholism.  After graduating from college, he moved to Chicago to pursue his dream of becoming a DJ and helped start the gay hip hop community movement: Banjee Report.  He now lives in Los Angeles where he is studying to become a barber while working on his return to music.

Jackie Monahan is a stand up comic whose debut album - THESE LIPS - is out now on Spotify and every other download platform.  She made a name for herself opening on tour for Amy Shumer, and is also an actor and writer whose films have premiered at Sundance.  Her 2014 movie The Foxy Merkins was nominated for Independent Spirit Award. She currently co-stars with Molly Shannon in the SXSW hit "Wild N...