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.

In Part 2 of her Nashville series, Lane Kennedy examines Seasons 3 and 4 as the show moves beyond overt addiction storylines and into a deeper exploration of emotional capacity. Through Deacon’s long-term sobriety, Gunnar’s relationship patterns, Avery’s Al-Anon-like exhaustion, Juliette’s nervous system collapse, and the emotional weather surrounding Maddie and Daphne, Lane shows how Nashville captures the hidden cost of functioning long after the body and spirit have exceeded their limits.

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.

You know the feeling when you walk into a room and immediately know: these are my people. On Episode 3, I asked our contributors one simple question, why The Sober Curator, and what came back was funnier, messier, and more honest than I expected.

Stephen King has been sober for almost 40 years, and he still doesn’t remember writing an entire novel. Here’s the garbage bag intervention that started it, the fear that got proven wrong, and the 40-plus books that came after.

In Part 1 of her three-part series, Senior Sober Curator contributor Lane Kennedy revisits Nashville and discovers that the show was never simply about country music. Through Deacon Claybourne’s sobriety, Rayna Jaymes’ complicated love, Juliette Barnes’ family history, and the pressure cooker of the music industry, Lane explores how Nashville portrays addiction, relapse risk, inherited pain, recovery maintenance, and what happens when love is real but capacity is gone.

The original printer’s copy of Alcoholics Anonymous just sold at Christie’s for an estimated one to two million dollars. The Stepping Stones Foundation, the National Historic Landmark home of Bill and Lois Wilson in Katonah, New York, won the bid. It is going back to exactly where it belongs.

Sober Curator contributor Julianne Griffin, known as The Sober Swiftie, reflects on the emotional power of Taylor Swift’s “I Can See You” through the lens of recovery, visibility, and belonging. This piece explores what it means to feel seen, supported, and reminded that even when sobriety feels lonely, you do not stand in the hallway alone.

Most sober spaces ask you to show up and talk about the hard part. Backstage with The Sober Curator asks…

People started DMing Alysse after Season 1 saying they’d finally found a sober podcast that didn’t make them feel like…

Ashley McBryde’s NA-forward Redemption Bar is crossing the border this July with its first-ever Canadian pop-up at Cavendish Beach Music Festival in Prince Edward Island. For anyone who has ever loved live music and dreaded the drinking culture surrounding it, this one is for you.

Senior Sober Curator Patti Clark revisits Days of Wine and Roses, the classic film starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick, through the lens of childhood grief, family alcoholism, and long-term recovery. In this deeply personal reflection, Patty explores how the film’s unflinching portrayal of addiction mirrored her own experience watching her mother’s alcoholism unfold, and why its message about love, recovery, and the painful limits of saving someone still resonates decades later.

Senior Sober Curator Patti Clark reviews The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff through the lens of an Adult Child of an Alcoholic. This moving debut novel explores alcoholism, abandonment, intergenerational trauma, family survival, and the complicated work of healing without offering easy shortcuts. Heartbreaking, compassionate, and deeply resonant, The Bright Years is highly recommended for readers who understand the long shadow addiction can cast across a family.

Senior Sober Curator contributor Lisa C. explores the healing power of music in recovery and shares sober playlist picks that speak to anxiety, addiction, resilience, humor, and hope. From Cameron Whitcomb and LAPeCHE to Brian Tonart, MGK, and Jelly Roll, these artists offer songs that help listeners process hard emotions, feel less alone, and find the tracks that make them say, “Play it again.”

I listened to the audiobook on Audible, in Austin’s own voice, while I was packing up my house and cleaning out decades of accumulated life. Austin Rampt’s One Last Hit is eight rehab programs, a decade of active addiction, and one of the more honest addiction memoirs you will find. 3.5 out of 5 Sobees.

Senior Sober Curator contributor Anne Marie Cribbin reviews Lena Dunham’s Famesick, a memoir that explores addiction, chronic pain, rehab, fame, and the uneven process of telling the truth about your own life. Honest, complicated, and occasionally frustrating, the book offers a recovery-adjacent story for curious readers more than a traditional sobriety memoir.

If you know what the Big Book is to you, you already felt something when you read that it is going to auction at Christie’s on July 1. The original 167-page working manuscript, with Bill Wilson’s handwriting in the margins, is estimated at $1 to $2 million. The Irsay family is selling it last. Intentionally.

Good recovery writing has found a new home on Substack, where more than 200 newsletters now explore sobriety, recovery, sober living, creativity, relationships, money, identity, and life after alcohol. This curated list highlights 20 sobriety and recovery Substacks worth following in 2026, from big-name sober writers to storytellers, lifestyle voices, community builders, and beautifully specific people writing the truth one inbox at a time.

Some relationships make headlines not because they fell apart, but because they refused to follow the script. Over the past…

In the final installment of Recovery & Regulation: Watching Grey’s Anatomy Through Sober Eyes, Lane Kennedy explores why familiar shows can feel calming during stress, illness, and recovery. Through the lens of nervous system regulation, she reflects on how predictability, emotional continuity, and beloved characters can help the body feel safe enough to soften, settle, and stay present.

Giesen 0% is bringing non-alcoholic wine spritzes to Pride House LA/West Hollywood’s World Cup kickoff weekend, celebrating Pride Month, LGBTQ+ athletes, and mindful drinking in one major cultural moment.

Sober Curator Contributor Sarah Alaimo reviews the third and final season of Euphoria through a sober lens, unpacking its five-year time jump, Rue’s darker trajectory, Ali’s grounded recovery wisdom, and the show’s clearest argument yet: everyone is addicted to something.

Daisy Jones & the Six isn’t told like most novels. Taylor Jenkins Reid structures the story as an oral history,…

Nineteen sober pop culture words walked into a 15×15 grid. Your job is to find them before they find you.June’s…

Summer blockbuster season is here. But instead of buying a movie ticket, we made you a crossword.June’s Clued In is…

Justin reflects on the growing normalization of alcohol at youth sporting events, from coolers near the dugout to parents joking about needing drinks to survive tournament weekends. Through the lens of recovery, he asks what children absorb when adult socializing, stress, and celebration around kids’ sports become so closely tied to drinking — and whether the culture deserves a closer look.

I sat down at 8 p.m. and did not move until the credits rolled at 3 a.m. Apple TV’s Imperfect Women is a glossy, knotty thriller about three women, one murder, and everyone quietly addicted to something. The critics shrugged. I lost a whole Saturday night and regret nothing.

The internet swears his ageless face is a blood ritual. The truth is less supernatural and more interesting: Rob Lowe has been sober since 1990, and the story behind that decision says more about staying than quitting.

In this Sober Spotlight interview, Oskar of DEPTOS shares how recovery, mental health, fatherhood, and the rooms inspired his music — including the powerful lyric, “You don’t have to die to stop living this way.”

Brené Brown marked 30 years sober on The Curiosity Shop with Adam Grant. On foreboding joy, selective numbing, and why she still can’t watch The Office.