Hayden Panettiere spent much of her life in public, but some of her most meaningful moments came when she stopped performing and told the truth. Senior Sober Curator Contributor Anne Marie Cribbin reflects on Panettiere’s openness about postpartum depression, addiction and the personal cost of refusing to pretend everything was fine.
In the final installment of this Nashville series, Lane Kennedy looks at Seasons 5 and 6 through the lens of grief, recovery, nervous system collapse, and the long work of rebuilding a life. From Juliette Barnes’ treatment and spiritual searching to Will Lexington’s body dysmorphia, Deacon Claybourne’s physical consequences of alcoholism, and the emotional aftershock of Rayna Jaymes’ death, Lane explores how Nashville becomes less about fame and more about survival, identity, and staying emotionally alive after everything falls apart.
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.
Brad Pitt’s revelation that he is no longer sober after seven years without alcohol quickly became a debate about relapse, moderation and who gets to define sobriety. Danielle Elliott Smith argues that we may be asking the wrong question entirely.
In recent years, the conversation surrounding sobriety, addiction, and mental health has become more open and essential than ever before.…
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.
Janey Lee Grace watches her younger self come alive on the big screen in WHAM! 10 Days in China and reflects on big hair, pop stardom, touring with George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, and the role alcohol was already beginning to play behind the scenes. Decades later, sobriety gives her a very different view of the young woman living inside that extraordinary moment.
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.
A box of LEGO bricks may not look like a recovery tool, but the lessons are surprisingly familiar: follow the instructions, take it one piece at a time, stay present and make room for play. Tamar Routly explores what a plastic brick from Denmark can teach us about building a sober life that actually holds.
Swiftie Liftie created a fitness community where Taylor Swift fans can show up without fear of judgment or getting it wrong. Swift Steps® brings that same spirit of belonging to recovery, using Taylor’s eras as a framework for healing from addiction, disordered eating, grief and the complicated work of becoming yourself again.
In Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic, Bunnie Xo shares her journey through childhood trauma, sex work, meth addiction and survival—and the choices that helped her build a new life in sobriety. Sober Curator Contributor Carolyn Bunn reviews this candid memoir about recovery, resilience and proving that your past does not get to write your final chapter.
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.
The ’80s brought us more than just big hair; it gave us movies that dared to show addiction without the glam. But did they really get it right? Dive into a sober rewatch and discover what these films missed.
A Machine Gun Kelly concert in Scranton reminded Julianne why sober community must be built with intention, compassion, and an open door for anyone curious enough to come.
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.
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.
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.
People started DMing Alysse after Season 1 saying they’d finally found a sober podcast that didn’t make them feel like…
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
It’s 7:30 a.m. on Halloween, 2017. While most parents are arguing about whether a sexy witch costume is age-appropriate and…
I recently packed my emotional baggage, pop culture references, and very sober opinions and headed over to the Recovery Rocks…
It is 9:47 on a Tuesday in May. You have eleven years sober. You also have nothing to do. The…
There is a specific kind of comfort that comes from finding out an actor you love has been sober since…
