Nearly 30 years after hearing Anthony Hopkins speak at a Los Angeles recovery meeting, Senior Contributor Lane Kennedy revisits that experience through his memoir, We Did OK, Kid. As Hopkins celebrates 50 years sober, Lane reflects on why getting sober is only the beginning—and what it really means to stay.

Senior Contributor Tony Harte reviews The Acts of Kenny Lambert by Kurt Rasmussen, an introspective novel about alcoholism, identity and one man’s uneasy entrance into recovery. Despite uneven pacing and an unresolved spiritual conflict, its final act delivers a compelling portrait of self-deception and change.

We opened this one up to everybody. Members, readers, the sober curious, the person who found us through a Brad…

Emily and Lindsay Stetzer built Presently Bracelets so the thing your therapist told you is on your wrist when your brain goes blank. OCD, anxiety, sobriety.

In her latest piece, Contributor & Swift Steps Founder Julianne Griffin shares a poignant reflection on betrayal and addiction, inspired by Taylor Swift’s “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.” Through a personal lens, she explores the loud silence that follows someone who disappears from your life. Julianne’s story reminds us of the unexpected ways sobriety can manifest in pop culture, and how music often narrates our deepest struggles. How has music helped you through tough times?

Theo Von never set out to become a recovery podcaster, but some of the most honest conversations about addiction and sobriety keep happening on This Past Weekend. These standout episodes from the past two years deliver vulnerability, unexpected wisdom and plenty of gang-gang energy.

Chelsea Clinton’s health misinformation podcast takes on alcohol myths with Columbia epidemiologist Dr. Katherine Keyes. Spoiler: the red wine study does not survive, and the data on high-achieving women and drinking will stop you mid-scroll.

That book in your head isn’t writing itself. Tawny Lara’s fall writing room runs Tuesdays and Thursdays, September 22 through November 19, with guided prompts, focused writing time, and a community of writers who get it.

After Hayden Panettiere’s death at 36, Contributor Carolyn Bunn returned to “This Is Me: A Reckoning” with a different perspective. As a woman in long-term sobriety who has also chosen not to have children, she reflects on addiction, postpartum depression, motherhood, identity and the complicated gaps we sometimes leave in our own stories.

Simon Dyson threw Ironman medals in a shoebox, drank to fix what could not be fixed, and got sober after a stranger prayed for him at Notre Dame. Then he rode 852 kilometers across the Karoo and came home with a farm to build for his son Billy.

Al Tapper never drank. His college roommate never stopped. Sixty years after Walt Disney fired that roommate from a Disneyland ice cream parlor, the story is a song in Tapper’s new Off-Broadway musical memoir, and Sober Curator readers get 20% off tickets.

Panel scores, fulls and halves only: “Running Point” S2 got a 3.5, “Your Friends & Neighbors” S2 got a 4.5, “Imperfect Women” got a 3.5. Senior Contributor Lane Kennedy tried to file a 4.75 and is now on strike. Which one did we get wrong? Give us your Sobees score and one sentence of evidence.

Aerosmith accidentally invented recovery coaching in the 1980s. Forty years later, coach Stephanie Hazard wrote the first mainstream book about it. Our #QUITLIT review of Making Sobriety Stick, including the Sobees score and the one chapter written for readers with decades of sobriety.

Before you surrender to pumpkin spice and sweater weather, late summer still has something to say. Senior Contributor Anne Marie Cribbin shares six Celtic-inspired practices for honoring the first harvest, staying present in sobriety and enjoying the season that’s actually here — peaches, cicadas, warm evenings and all.

After losing 105 pounds in his first nine months of sobriety, Justin Kinney looked like a recovery success story. Behind the transformation, however, were no rest days, too little food and a relationship with exercise that had become increasingly compulsive. He reflects on what it took to redefine fitness, discipline and true recovery.

Dopey Nation is turning recovery into a game show. On October 3, DopeyCon takes over NYC’s SVA Theatre with Katz’s pastrami, a stacked sober celebrity lineup including Hank Azaria and Carl Radke, and a shot at being pulled into the show yourself. Costumes strongly encouraged.

Senior Sober Curator Contributor Lane Kennedy spent the past year falling in love with Nashville while trying to find her own footing again. Hayden Panettiere’s portrayal of addiction felt almost unnervingly real. Now she understands why.

Alysse Bryson and Tamar Routly take on the hazards of podcasting sober. No blackout excuse. “Radical honesty” was never supposed to mean unfiltered.

Bianca signed up for Australia’s national electric skateboard championship without knowing what it was, trained for two months on a board limited to 42 km/h, and came last. Nine days later she hit one year sober. She is calling it a comeback story. She is right.

Packing a concert bag with purpose! Sober Curator Contributor + Swift Steps® Founder Julianne Griffin shares how Narcan & friendship bracelets are her essentials for making a difference. 🎶💜

Sober Not Mature headed to Austin for a weekend of tacos, barbecue, bats and sober community — and came home with the Sans Bar Academy Award for Best Podcast. Bill shares the story behind the unexpected win and what comes next for the now award-winning show.

Ronnie Marmo has never had a legal drink. On September 3 he turns 36 years sober, and that same night Bill W. and Dr. Bob opens in Skokie with Ronnie playing Bill. He carried the script around for a decade before he dared to stage it. We talked treasurer resentments, sitting at Bill Wilson’s desk, and why I was wrong about Jamie Lee Curtis.

Rich Roll has spent 1,000+ episodes proving recovery conversations don’t have to be preachy. We pulled the 18 best addiction and recovery episodes from the last two years, from Spider-Man’s sobriety to Episode 1,000. Bookmark accordingly.

Eliza runs the National Recovery Friendly Workplace Institute, which certifies employers as recovery friendly. If you have heard the federal…

Evan Cason’s memoir, *Beyond the Street Lamp*, offers a sincere look at the journey from gang life to sobriety. In her review, Patti Clark highlights the book’s heartfelt nature while also noting its structural challenges. Cason’s story is a poignant reminder of the power of vulnerability and honesty in the recovery journey.

Getting sober can mean rebuilding your social life from the ground up. Anne Marie Cribbin explores the rise of “third places” — coffee shops, run clubs, bookstores, gardens and other community spaces — and why belonging, not alcohol, may be what we were searching for all along.

In a thought-provoking piece, Senior Sober Curator Contributor Lane Kennedy takes us on a journey through unspoken questions in sobriety. Can psychedelics like iboga fit into a sober lifestyle? Lane explores Rich Roll’s candid conversations about his experiences and invites us to ponder the complex intersections of recovery and psychedelic medicine. Dive into the full article to explore these intriguing questions.

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.