Author: Alysse Bryson

Anthony Hopkins just turned 50 years sober and published a memoir about it. Elton John launched his own NA champagne. Eminem calls sobriety his superpower. Jamie Lee Curtis says getting sober is the single greatest accomplishment of her life. These are not fragile people white-knuckling their way through a dinner party. These are sober celebrities in 2026 who have been doing this longer than some of their fans have been alive, and they are not slowing down. At The Sober Curator, we have skin in this game. I am about to hit 20 years without alcohol on May 1, 2026…

Because “I don’t drink” is barely the beginning of the story. There’s a thing that happens when you get sober. At first, you’re just trying to not drink. That’s the whole job. Head down, one day at a time, don’t pick up. But then — somewhere between month six and year five, usually — you realize something. Sobriety isn’t just what you stopped doing. It’s who you actually are. And turns out? Sober people are not all the same. Some of us are building zero-proof cocktail menus and have opinions about which NA gin is worth the price point. Some…

Sober Easter, Zero Hangover: Yes, It Can Actually Be Fun Here is what Easter for grown-ups usually looks like: bottomless mimosas, a ham nobody asked for, and at least one conversation you will regret by 3 p.m. If you are sober or sober-curious, you already know the drill. You show up for the deviled eggs and the Reese’s eggs, and somehow your empty champagne flute becomes a talking point. Hard pass on all of that. Sober holidays are not consolation prizes for people who “cannot” drink. They are a chance to actually be present for the good stuff: chasing kids…

One Peep at a Time. (Yes, I Went There.) It started, as most of my best ideas do, with a Google search that had absolutely no business leading anywhere useful. I was looking for a Peeps diorama set inside an addiction treatment center. Specific? Yes. Unhinged? Maybe. But if you have spent any time on this site, you already know that is basically my brand. What I found instead was a “Sugar Coma Rehab” diorama created by the staff and clients of Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute at United Hospital. Adorable. Impressive. Not quite what I had in mind. And then…

Pete Davidson’s Netflix “Podcast” Is Worth One Episode. Especially If You’re Sober. Let me get this out of the way first. Calling The Pete Davidson Show a podcast is like calling a croissant a piece of bread. Technically adjacent, sure. But not the same thing. A podcast, by definition, is something you can take with you. You can listen to it on a walk, in the car, while pretending to pay attention in a meeting. The Pete Davidson Show lives exclusively on Netflix. You can’t pull it up on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You can’t pop in your earbuds and…

George Clooney, Rande Gerber, and Mike Meldman gave the world Casamigos tequila in 2013, sold it to Diageo for a billion dollars in 2017, and apparently spent the years since asking themselves: what if we did that again but for people who don’t drink? The answer is Crazy Mountain. A premium non-alcoholic lager dropping in 2026 that wants to be your cold-one-without-consequences moment. And yes, the name is absolutely giving Yellowstone. The rugged mountain aesthetic. The “live wide open” tagline. The very deliberate cowboy-adjacent energy. The made in America stamp. All that’s missing is a Dutton family cameo and a…

Let me take you back to 2006. I got sober on May 1st, which means my first full year without a drink was also the year everyone was losing their minds over “SexyBack” and nobody had an iPhone yet. If I’m remembering correctly, I had a burgundy BlackBerry. MySpace was the social network. Tom was everyone’s first friend. And the concept of a sober lifestyle publication was so far in the future it might as well have been science fiction. There was no content ecosystem for people like me. No podcast library. No sober influencers. No beautifully curated corner of…

At The Sober Curator, we track public conversations around sobriety in pop culture — especially when high-profile figures speak openly about their recovery journeys. This spotlight is based on Charlie Sheen’s public interviews, documentary coverage, and recent projects. From “Winning” to Reckoning There was a time when Charlie Sheen’s addiction was treated like entertainment. Catchphrases. Headlines. Chaos packaged as spectacle. The “tiger blood” era became meme culture before meme culture fully existed. But behind the soundbites was a man spiraling publicly while millions watched. In recent years, Sheen has spoken more candidly about sobriety and accountability. Reflecting on his turning…

If you know Dopey, you already get it. The podcast has built one of the most fiercely loyal audiences in recovery media by doing something most recovery content refuses to do: tell the truth and make it funny. Dark, messy, deeply human funny. And now that same energy is coming off headphones and hitting a live stage in Los Angeles. Dopeywood Comedy 2026 goes down at The Comedy Store on April 12 at 7:00 PM, with every dollar benefiting The Dopey Foundation, the nonprofit behind the show. The lineup? Not a warm-up act in sight. Marc Maron, Margaret Cho, Bobby…

Welcome to the intersection of sobriety and stardom. Our newly remodeled Sober Pop Culture & Celebrities section inside the Entertainment channel now features 100+ famous people in recovery — organized by musicians, actors, reality stars, comedians, athletes, and authors. Because sobriety doesn’t belong in the margins.It belongs everywhere culture lives. For the past several months, we’ve been spotlighting one sober celebrity per week in the Monday edition of The Sober Sip — our email newsletter sent exclusively to our most engaged readers (the ones who open and read 3 out of 4 issues or more). We also feature that week’s…

Imagine if Sex and the City’s Samantha was an addict and her drug of choice was men. Go on a hilarious, inspiring, and, at times, shocking journey as Roxanne conquers her fears, changes her ways, gets closer to healthy relationships, and embraces self-love a little more each day. After years of working as an image-obsessed actress in Hollywood, Roxanne finds herself at rock bottom from a disease that is anything but glamorous. In her first year of recovery, Roxanne has to take accountability for her past. From tales of being mistaken for a prostitute at the Hotel Bel-Air to botching a…

It’s time to reclaim the day — and this year, they’re doing it in a Gilded Age mansion on Fifth Avenue. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. St. Patrick’s Day has become synonymous with one thing in America, and it’s not honoring the patron saint of Ireland. It’s binge drinking. Green beer. Sloppy bar crawls. Waking up on March 18th with zero memory of the “celebration” you supposedly attended. But here’s the thing: St. Patrick’s Day was never supposed to be about that. And for 15 years, Sober St. Patrick’s Day® has been on a mission to prove…

Welcome to Clued In, our brand-new monthly crossword puzzle series. Think of it as your sober brain’s favorite workout. Every month, we’re dropping a fresh puzzle packed with recovery terms, NA beverage brands, sober pop culture, and TSC insider references. The grid below is interactive. Are you more of an analog person? Grab a pen (or a pencil if you’re not that confident yet) and see how clued in you really are. Prefer Pen and Paper? We love analog living too! Clued In drops a brand-new themed puzzle the first of every month. Each issue dives into a different corner…

At The Sober Curator, we highlight public conversations around sobriety in pop culture — especially when high-profile figures speak openly about recovery. This spotlight is based on Cara Delevingne’s publicly shared interviews and statements. From Fashion’s Wild Child to Public Reckoning Cara Delevingne built a career on cool-girl chaos. Runways. Red carpets. Indie films. A reputation for being fearless, unpredictable, untouchable. Then, in 2022, photos of her looking visibly distressed outside an airport went viral. The internet speculated. The headlines multiplied. Concern grew. What happened next matters more than the photos ever did. In a 2023 Vogue interview, Delevingne shared…

There’s something deeply vulnerable about going home to get sober. Not the Instagram version.Not the “30-day reset” version.The real version. The one where you’re foggy. Ashamed. Unsure if your brain will ever work the way it used to.The one where you’re forced to sit across from people who remember you before the drinking — and watch them age while you’re trying to start over. That’s the heart of The Reservoir, now running Off-Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company through March 22. And if you care about recovery, memory, family systems, or simply watching some of New York’s finest actors do sublime…

There’s a new term taking over menus, group chats, and your For You page, and it sounds like something out of a nature documentary: zebra striping. But before you picture a trip to the zoo, let us explain. This is one of the biggest drinking trends of 2026, and if you haven’t tried it yet, you probably know someone who has. What Is Zebra Striping? Zebra striping is the practice of alternating between an alcoholic drink and a non-alcoholic drink throughout a night out. One beer, then one NA beer. One cocktail, then one mocktail. Back and forth, like the stripes…

A night of chills, thrills, and zero-proof drinks in the Emerald City Who says you need liquid courage to face the paranormal? Certainly not us. This sober squad recently hit the streets of downtown Seattle after dark for the Sinister Sins, Scandal, and Shadows: Seattle Ghost Tour from US Ghost Adventures, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. The Squad Myself, fellow Sober Curator contributor Carolyn Bunn, and two of my sober allies and besties, Barbie Hull and Nina Feldman, linked up for an unconventional ladies’ night that turned out to be one of the most fun nights…

When Brent Ogburn joined us on The Sober Curator podcast, he talked openly about channeling his personal recovery journey into his creative work. Now, his short film Turn Off is proof that those conversations matter. The film opens with a quote from the Big Book, page 17: “The feeling we have shared in a common peril is the element in the powerful cement that binds us.” And that line sets the tone for everything that follows. Turn Off is simple yet poignant in its delivery. We follow Jones through just one part of his first day at a treatment center,…

It started the way a lot of great things do — out of mild annoyance and a stubborn refusal to say no. People kept emailing The Sober Curator, pitching themselves to appear on a podcast that, well, didn’t exist. And after one too many of those emails, Alysse Bryson looked at Tamar Routly and basically said: “I guess we’re doing this.” Fifty-one episodes later, 23 participating Sober Curator Contributors, Season One is officially done. And this week’s finale is less of a traditional episode and more of a victory lap — with costumes, confessions, and a secret or two that…

Let’s cut right to it: if you’ve been Googling “sober curious” at 2 AM after yet another morning you’d rather forget, or you’ve noticed that your Sunday scaries have less to do with Monday and more to do with Saturday night, you’re not alone. Not even close. Nearly half of all Americans say they plan to drink less this year. Gen Z? Sixty-five percent of them are cutting back, with 39% going fully dry. This isn’t a fad. It’s a full-on cultural shift. And the sober curious movement is leading the charge. So what does “sober curious” actually mean? And…

It was a real treat to hop on a virtual chat with fellow sober Seattleite Casey McGuire Davidson, host of the Hello Someday Podcast. Casey also offers life + sobriety coaching for busy women who want to drink less and live more—without white-knuckling their way through it. Casey is a certified life coach, a wife and mom, a retired corporate ladder climber, recovering people-pleaser, and former red-wine devotee who’s been known to crawl into bed at 9 PM and whisper, “Don’t worry… you’re still a badass.” (Relatable.) When we first started messaging about what we could talk about, I told…

The rapper-turned-painter is channeling his darkest chapters into art that feels like a warning, a prayer, and a permission slip all at once. If you’ve ever listened to “Pursuit of Happiness” on repeat and thought, this song sounds like a party but feels like a cry for help, then you already understand what Kid Cudi is doing with a paintbrush. For the past year and a half, the man born Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi has been quietly painting alone in a warehouse studio, producing work that mirrors the same emotional tug-of-war that made his music a lifeline for millions. And…

The functional beverage space is booming right now, and it’s no secret that the sober and sober-curious communities are paying attention. Brands are popping up left and right claiming to deliver mood boosts, social energy, and that elusive “buzz without the booze” through adaptogens, nootropics, and mushroom extracts. Some of these beverages contain THC. Some don’t. And for those of us in recovery, that distinction matters. A lot. Enter Psilly Goose, a California-based brand making waves with their canned functional beverages. They currently offer two products: Euphoria, which contains hemp-derived Delta-9 THC, and Silly, which does not. For the purposes…

Recovery from addiction deserves recognition. So why doesn’t Hallmark have a section for that yet? Think about it. There’s a card for every occasion imaginable — your dog’s birthday, your coworker’s retirement, your cousin’s gender reveal (congrats, it’s a boy, again). But when someone you love hits 30 days sober? Or a year? Or five? Or when they’re in the trenches of early recovery and just need to know someone sees them? Good luck finding something in the greeting card aisle that says that. Enter the Recovery Cards Project, and honestly, I’m kind of obsessed. What Is the Recovery Cards…

Sometimes the best product reviews don’t happen at your kitchen counter. Sometimes they happen in a luxury cabin in the mountains, surrounded by a group of boss babes in sweatpants, with laptops open and brunch on the table. Let me explain. The workcation road trip with fellow Sober Curator contributor Carolyn Bunn couldn’t have come at a better time in my life. I’m in the middle of some major life transitions between work and home. On a clear, cold Pacific NW Monday, we packed up and headed to the Cle Elum Cabin for a social media retreat put together by…

All the wanderlust, none of the hangover. Pack your bags (carry-on only, obviously) and meet us at the SOBER AF Bottle Shop. Ready to explore the world without the booze? On Friday, February 27 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, The Sober Curator is taking over SOBER AF Zero Proof Bottle Shop in Tacoma for a night dedicated to all things sober travel. We’re talking books, packing hacks, crafts, mocktails, and a room full of people who prove every single day that you don’t need a drink to see the world. Whether you’re planning your next adventure or just dreaming about…

Here’s a Friday night plan that doesn’t involve a single drop of alcohol, a single awkward “no thanks,” or a single regret the next morning. Just your breath, your body, and a room full of people choosing presence over proof. On Friday, March 6, my cousin Ariel Young and I are teaming up for At Home in the Body: Sober Yoga, a yin and restorative session focused on welcoming you back home to embodiment. We’ll be at Yoga on Beacon in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood, a studio built on inclusivity and community where Ariel teaches regularly. And yes, there will…

Here’s the thing about kindness: it doesn’t require a Pinterest board, matching t-shirts, or a dramatic reveal set to an emotional piano soundtrack. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is just… be a decent human in small, unglamorous ways. February 17th is National Random Acts of Kindness Day, and before you roll your eyes at another made-up holiday sandwiched between Valentine’s Day chocolates and Presidents’ Day mattress sales, hear me out. In a world that can feel like a dumpster fire scrolling through your phone, intentional kindness is basically a radical act. So here are 17 ideas—one for…

Are you searching for honest, entertaining and thought-provoking sober lifestyle content? Welcome to the Sober Curator Podcast, where each episode offers fresh takes on sobriety as an empowering lifestyle, not just abstaining from alcohol. In episode 22, hosts Alysse Bryson and Tamar Routly, alongside contributors Dr. Sarah Michaud, Tony Harte, Megan Swan, Amy Liz Harrison and Carolyn Bunn, take a deep dive into Mel Robbins’ widely-discussed book, “The Let Them Theory.” But this isn’t just another book review — it’s an exploration into the philosophies, challenges and realities of setting boundaries in sobriety and life. Why Are We So Drawn…

For decades, April 20 has had a cultural chokehold. Merch. Memes. Smoke clouds drifting through popular culture like it owns the place. Meanwhile, sobriety — the thing that has quietly saved lives, rebuilt families, sparked art, launched businesses, and kept people here — has mostly been relegated to side rooms and whispered acknowledgments. Enter April 24. A date with a mission. A movement with momentum. A global invitation to celebrate sobriety out loud. Welcome to SOBER 4/24. What Is Sober 4/24? Sober 4/24 is a global movement designed to do one radical thing:celebrate sobriety as something joyful, powerful, and deeply…