Author: Alysse Bryson

Three memoirs came out this year from three people who could not be more different, and every one of them was writing about the same thing. We pulled the Sober Curator readers into a room and made them score it.

Hayden Panettiere died at 36. Brad Pitt says he’s drinking again. Two stories, one week, and a conversation the recovery community keeps getting wrong

Sober owned apparel brand Boring Boys just dropped a two-piece collab with The Bridge to Recovery, and $5 from every shirt sold goes to the nonprofit’s Life Saver Fund. Ice cream high fives, better days ahead, and proof that boring is the new cool.

In recent years, the conversation surrounding sobriety, addiction, and mental health has become more open and essential than ever before. The popular podcast Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard is one platform with many sober celebrity interviews. Known for his candid and empathic interviewing style, Shepard dives deep into the personal lives of his guests, many of whom are public figures who have bravely shared their journeys with sobriety and mental health challenges publicly. If you are part of the sober community, a fan of Armchair Expert, or a mental health advocate, this curated list of episodes is for you. We’ve gathered some…

Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear just dropped on Hulu, and nobody is calling it what it is: a sobriety documentary wearing a drum kit. AB stayed up way too late watching it so you can too.

Sabyn Mayfield went three days without speaking and came home with the song of my summer. The Season 1 favorite is back to break down “WORTHY,” his new single with Callie, the black-and-white video that needed zero notes on the first cut, and why the best art gets made when you stop keeping score.

I bought a tiny record player and two different brands of tiny albums, and discovered after filming the entire unboxing that one set doesn’t fit. My full review of the mini vinyl craze, plus the sober milestone gift idea hiding inside those blind balls.

**UPDATED POST – Original article was published in May 2026. This post has been updated as of August 10, 2026. Esquire published Ryan D’Agostino’s Brad Pitt cover profile, “A Monday with Brad Pitt,” on Aug. 10, 2026. During the interview, Pitt offered D’Agostino wine. When D’Agostino asked whether it was just for guests, Pitt disclosed that he had resumed drinking after seven years sober. A Quick Note From The Sober Curator Before anyone treats Brad Pitt getting off the wagon like it’s the latest TikTok trend: his decision does not need to become yours. Pitt told Esquire that after seven…

Nobody makes mixtapes anymore. So for our sixth anniversary, we made you one. Seven mini zines, printed on paper, nestled into a real cassette tape case, mailed to your door every month for six months. Volume 001 ships August 20.

Alysse Bryson is hosting her first retreat with Evolve Retreats. Cover Story runs November 1 – 4 at The Hermosa Inn in Paradise Valley, Arizona: four days of sunrise walks, sound healing, a professional photo shoot with Barbie Hull, and a live Sober Curator podcast recording in the desert. Early-bird pricing ends August 21.

There’s a raccoon named Jimothy in this episode. There’s also a 10X business scale-up, the reason sober people make dangerous entrepreneurs, and the AI conversation everyone’s tiptoeing around. Episode 7 is the sober business owners episode. If you’ve done the hardest thing already, press play.

I went to see Spider-Man: Brand New Day in 3D with my son and cried in my glasses. Then I remembered the guy in the suit is sober, founded a non-alcoholic beer brand, and just dropped limited-edition Spidey cans sold at movie theaters. Your friendly neighborhood NA beer has arrived.

Hasbro just launched Blooms by Play-Doh, the first Play-Doh line made for adults. We tested two kits, and this hands-on flower crafting experience might be the perfect sober anniversary gift. Honest review inside.

Skylar sent us two gourmand fragrances from the collection curated by Leah Kateb, the Love Island USA star turned Chief Creative Officer. We expected to love the cake one. We were wrong, and the twist involves being single forever.

Sober travel is the upgrade, not the consolation prize. Episode 6 has the airport hacks, the costume trips, and your invite to Cover Story, our first-ever retreat in Scottsdale.

We went to OCDcon 2026 in Seattle expecting free pens and left obsessed with Presently, a brand built by two sisters with OCD who turned real therapy tools into bracelets, keychains, and mirror clings. Skims-level neutrals, CBT-backed phrases, zero toxic positivity. Here’s why we’re hyping them on purpose.

Tiffany Jenkins flew across the country to accept the IOCDF’s 2026 Illumination Award and forgot to pack her clothes. The Sober Curator was at OCD Con 2026 in Seattle for all of it: the movie question everyone wants answered, worry scripts and hot dogs, the psych ward story she tells with zero filter, and a mother from Georgia turning unimaginable loss into a movement at the intersection of OCD and addiction.

The HER: Heal. Empower. Recover. podcast launches Aug. 2 at Inlet Theatre in Port Moody with comedy, a podcasting panel, a live recording and alcohol-free drinks. The evening will also raise funds for SHE RECOVERS and support its global recovery community.

Monica Madrid once danced on Soul Train, chased a record deal that ultimately went to Tupac Shakur and spent decades working in the mortgage industry. After getting sober at 40, navigating grief and listening to an inner voice that told her to teach football, she created Football Is Sexy—and discovered an entirely new purpose.

Comedian Stefanie Wilder-Taylor built a sobriety podcast that refuses to lecture. Alysse Bryson sat down with her this week. Here’s why Drunk-ish deserves a spot in your podcast rotation, and a few story hooks we’re not giving away.

I went to Seattle to dog-sit for four days. I came home with a $500 ice habit and absolutely zero regrets. Somewhere between day two and day four, a nugget ice maker humming on my friends’ kitchen counter rewired my entire beverage life. The GE Profile Opal 2.0 is the reason I now have strong opinions about ice texture, a side tank, and a very understanding mother.

I panic-bought two cases of the wrong Celsius flavor, and instead of admitting defeat, I invented the Dirty Shirley’s sober cousin. Four ingredients, a comically large tumbler, and zero regrets. Here’s the recipe.

A Notre Dame professor has spent six years asking his students one question: why do you drink like that? What he found didn’t come from the bar. It came from every movie and TV show we grew up watching. Ted Mandell joins us for a Backstage conversation that gets Sarah, Anne Marie, Tamar and me genuinely fired up, and you are going to want to hear all of it.

Alysse Bryson reviews Sunsets Are The New Happy Hour, Kristin Horstman’s weekly podcast on gray-area drinking and nervous-system regulation. A friend’s show, a fair read, and a recommendation for anyone curious, new, or bored at year twelve.

I saw “Union County” as a 15-minute short back in 2020, before Will Poulter and Noah Centineo ever signed on. Now it’s a Sundance feature opening August 14, and it still gets rural recovery right.

Somehow it took me years to find The Small Bow, A.J. Daulerio’s recovery newsletter, podcast, and daily meeting community. Or its crossover column with Oldster Magazine, “Ask a Sober Oldster,” now 35 installments deep. Consider this your formal introduction.

Some sober merch whispers. Soberminds screams, in the best way. Meet the graffiti artist and founder building a sober streetwear brand out of loss, grit, and a crown hoodie you’ll actually want to wear.

Laurie Woolever spent fifteen-plus years as the right hand to two of food media’s most complicated men, Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain, while quietly falling apart behind the scenes. Her New York Times bestselling memoir, Care and Feeding, finally tells the story she couldn’t tell then. Closing in on nine years sober, she’s proof the most interesting thing about her was never the famous men on her resume.

Alysse Bryson sits down with The Mindshift Podcast to talk about her 2006 sobriety moment, why “sober” does not automatically mean “present,” and how The Sober Curator became the home for people who are done with Day 1 content. Also featured: jelly Birkenstocks, a Muppet cameo debate, and one very memorable choir concert.

Senior Sober Curator Contributor Justin Lamb has reviewed more than 130 non-alcoholic beers for The Sober Curator since 2021. These are his ten best of 2026, spanning Double IPAs, pilsners, hazy NEIPAs, nitro stouts, and a peanut butter milk dark that deserves its own fan club. Find your perfect pour, then take the quiz to make it official.