The Sober Creative

For 32 episodes, I’ve sat across from creative professionals who’ve chosen sobriety and discovered something remarkable: clarity doesn’t diminish creativity—it unlocks it. I’ve listened to transformation stories, watched people articulate what they couldn’t see while they were in it, and built a community around the idea that removing the fog reveals the work you were always capable of. But I have...

Anna Gibson spent years on autopilot—smoking weed throughout her day, feeling the weight of a “demon on her back,” watching her writing disappear into unproductive fog. She knew she wasn’t doing anything. She’d smoke on the clock at her retail job. She’d look at her bag and see paranoia staring back. For someone who’d been writing professionally for over a decade, the creative paralysis was destro...

Ryan Lee spent his twenties chasing numbness—ecstasy, cocaine, alcohol, repeat. He kept his corporate job intact, hit his numbers, and convinced himself everything was fine. But underneath the performance, he was stuck. Personally stagnant. Professionally functional but unfulfilled. Using substances to blur the edges of a life he didn’t actually want. On March 14, 2021, Ryan found himself lying on...

What happens when you build an entire writing career in sobriety—placing 30+ pieces in major publications while navigating your daughter’s cancer treatment, solo parenting, and financial uncertainty? Elizabeth Austin shows us that the answer isn’t just about what you accomplish, but about who you become in the process. Our conversation this past week, Elizabeth was 10 days away from her one-year s...

What if everything you’ve been told about discipline is wrong? What if the reason you can’t stick to your creative practice isn’t because you lack willpower, but because your body is protecting you from repeating a pattern it knows will end in shame? This week’s guest on Clear Conversations understands this paradox intimately. Brian Maierhofer is a somatic therapist who spent years chasing creativ...

There’s a space between “rock bottom” and “business as usual” that rarely gets airtime in conversations about alcohol. It’s where most people actually live—questioning whether their drinking serves them, curious about alternatives, but not identifying with traditional recovery language or abstinence-only approaches. Denise Hamilton-Mace has built her entire platform in that messy middle. As the fo...

What if the thing you’ve been using to take the edge off is actually keeping you from the life you’re meant to live? This week on Clear Conversations, I sat down with Tyler Donohue , the writer behind Girl Resting , for a conversation that challenges everything we’ve been told about creativity, confidence, and what it means to live authentically. Tyler’s journey from social drinker to nearly two y...

What happens when partying stops being fun and starts becoming survival? Jason from The Monkeymind Meditation Club knows this turning point intimately. Eight years ago, he was the loudest voice at the bar, the first one ordering shots, the guy who’d party until morning without question. Two-day benders turned into three-day benders, then four. Until one day he woke up in London with no memory of h...

Derek MacDonald got sober, got broken up with, and moved across the country—all in the same week. Most people would call that rock bottom. Derek called it a foundation. Four and a half years later, he’s the creator of Becoming Unobstructed, a newsletter and podcast reaching readers in 32+ countries. He’s published 450,000 words in 18 months—the equivalent of eight copies of The Great Gatsby. And h...

Alicia Cook knows something most of us spend our lives trying to avoid: what it means to transform unbearable loss into art that heals others. After losing her 19-year-old cousin Jessica to a heroin overdose when she was just 20, Alicia could have let grief silence her. Instead, she picked up her pen and began writing—not about her own addiction, but about the devastation addiction leaves in its w...

What happens when the productivity warrior inside you finally surrenders? When chronic illness forces you to abandon every achievement strategy you’ve ever known? And what if that breaking point becomes the doorway to your most authentic creative work? Cali Bird lived the high-achieving life for decades—accountant, investment banker, IT specialist, all while nurturing creative projects on the side...

Paulina Pinsky got sober on December 22, 2021, after a panic attack in an Alabama gas station—days before Christmas, ending an engagement, and moving back in with her parents at 29. Most people would wait years before writing about that kind of rock bottom. Paulina started documenting it 70 days later. What emerged from that decision is newly sober , a newsletter that captures what’s missing from...

There’s a particular kind of courage required to strip away the masks we’ve worn for decades—the personas we built to survive, to please, to belong. For performer, teacher, and writer Deborah Jeanne Weitzman , that journey began not with alcohol, but with food, and evolved into a 40-year exploration of what it means to live authentically. In our conversation, Deborah shared her unconventional path...

“I learned that creativity doesn’t come in a vial of white powder.” This wisdom from record producer Keith Olson after getting sober at Betty Ford became a touchstone for Stephanie Raffelock—a reminder that authentic creative power emerges not from substances, but from facing “the raw chaos and mud that grows the lotus within you.” At seventy-something, Stephanie embodies “Ancora imparo”—still, I...

What happens when you stop waiting for permission to become who you already are? David Speed ’s conversation reveals a truth that challenges everything we’ve been told about creative breakthroughs: sometimes the most profound transformations happen not through dramatic moments, but through quiet, intentional choices that align your daily actions with your deepest values. David’s story dismantles t...

The fear haunts many creative professionals: What if sobriety kills my creative edge? Kate Baily ’s story demolishes this myth completely. Nine years sober, she's transformed from someone using alcohol to manage overwhelming sensitivity into a published author of two books, community builder, and creative force who describes her post-alcohol creativity as being " on steroids ." Kate's journey reve...

When Eric J Cunningham found himself hanging off his apartment lanai at the end of his rope—successful on paper but spiritually bankrupt—he couldn't have imagined that a windblown motorcycle tarp would become his gateway to divine presence. Eric, an ecological anthropologist turned UX researcher, discovered that his high-functioning alcoholism wasn't just numbing pain—it was severing his connectio...

What happens when your vision for better social spaces becomes the catalyst for your own transformation? That's exactly what happened to Sam at Third Place Bar —a groundbreaking series of alcohol-free pop-up events that have been redefining connection in NYC since 2022. Sam's story flips the traditional sobriety narrative. Instead of hitting rock bottom and then building back up, she simply asked...

Sometimes the most profound creative breakthroughs come not from what we add to our lives, but from what we courageously remove. Jules Cazedessus , author of "Sing the Body Politic," discovered this truth in her recent journey into sobriety—and the results speak for themselves. In this latest Clear Conversations episode, Jules shared how stepping away from alcohol didn't diminish her creative voic...

The most powerful creative transformations often begin in the darkest moments. For composer and arranger Matthew Goinz , that moment came staring at an empty whiskey glass in a bar, realizing his drinking had silenced the very voice that defined his identity—his ability to sing. What followed wasn't just recovery; it was a complete artistic rebirth. From failing out of college twice to performing...

When Kimberly Kearns woke up that November morning in 2020, hungover and filled with self-loathing after another night she couldn't fully remember, she made a decision that would change everything. After 20 years of drinking, countless attempts at moderation, and years of her husband asking her to slow down, she finally said the words out loud: "I need your help. I cannot do this anymore." What fo...

The Story Behind the Transformation Nick Neve's journey reads like a cautionary tale that transforms into a beacon of hope. In 2013, he was broke, burnt out, and working three jobs just to survive. But it was a single night—a night that ended with him unconscious behind the wheel, wrapped around a tree in Bel Air—that became the catalyst for a complete life transformation. What makes Nick's story...

In a world obsessed with productivity and endless achievement, Libby Walkup has discovered something revolutionary: the power of stopping time. As the creative force behind Unraveling, Unmoored , Libby's journey from burnout and generational trauma to what she calls "contemplative creativity" offers a profound roadmap for anyone seeking to heal through slowness and presence. What makes Libby's sto...

Five years ago, Ryan Conklin stood at the intersection of devastating loss and profound possibility. His dream job eliminated. His identity shattered. Everything he'd built carefully constructed around his career in the spirits industry—gone in a single day. But instead of numbing the pain, Ryan made a vow that would transform his life: "Stay awake for this." That same day he quit drinking, not be...

The conversation that changes everything often starts with admitting the one truth we've been running from. For Katie MacBride, that moment came at 23, in a hospital bed with a blood alcohol level that should have killed her—0.4, five times the legal limit. What followed wasn't just recovery, but a complete reimagining of what it means to create authentically. Katie, now a health science journalis...