Shows / The Sober Creative Podcast
The Sober Creative Podcast
In this live Substack series, I explore intimate conversations with people navigating their sobriety journeys. Each episode highlights personal transformations, practical strategies, and the unexpected creative advantages of clear-minded living. These uplifting discussions reveal how sobriety enhances artistic expression, business success, and personal fulfillment. Join us to discover how these individuals are finding greater authenticity, purpose, and creative power through sobriety…
Episodes
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 076 - From Drinking to Flour: Noelle Richards on Five Years Alcohol-Free, Skull Cakes, and Feeling It All
Noelle Richards had their first drink at nine, a taste of scotch handed over in the hope they wouldn’t like it. They asked for more. Drinking followed them…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 075 - Can’t Stay Numb: Asa Anderson on Music, Mental Health, and Feeling It All
Asa Anderson grew up in an affluent neighborhood around Brentwood and the Palisades, where kids had more resources and easier access to substances. His parents…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 074 - Leading Through Recovery: Parker Gates on Honesty, Meditation, and Borrowing From the 12 Steps
Parker Gates was around 13 when he got properly drunk for the first time, in a field in Waco, Texas, with his two best friends. He remembers lying in bed that…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 073 - Non-Alcoholic Money: Greg Downs on Jail, Recovery, and the 12 Steps of Financial Sobriety
Greg Downs grew up on a dirt road in central Florida, a kid who never felt like he had a place. At the height of his career he was sitting in Palm Beach…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 072 - The Wrong Question About Drinking With Dr. Lucy McBride
Most of us know the moment. You’re at your annual checkup and the doctor asks how many drinks you have a week. You give a number, they type it in, and the…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 071 - Full Throttle With No Map: Steve Munro is 33 years sober, still redrawing the plan
Steve Munro 🇨🇦 spent 25 years drinking, using, and selling drugs before he hit the bottom that finally stuck: a seizure on his apartment floor after walking…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 070 - The Whisper Needs You Awake: Lisa Marie Simmons on Performing, Writing, and Drinking Less
Lisa Marie Simmons has been on stage since she was fifteen. She moved from Boulder to New York at nineteen to study theater and music, and she believed what a…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 069 - One Panel At A Time
For about twenty years, Tiffiny Yaxley was the one who made the party happen. Figure skater, geologist, entertainer, the girl who would moon a room full of…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 068 - What Alcohol Actually Does To Your Brain
Most of what I know about alcohol, I learned by living it. I know what nine beers a day did to my sleep, my mornings, my work, and my sense of who I was. What…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 067 - The Part Sobriety Didn't Touch
Steve [Sage-Outlaw-Caregiver] on the crash that came six years after he quit, and finding out at 40 that he was creative Steve didn’t take a drink until he was…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 066 - Walking Away From Normal
Erin Gregory Creative did not hit rock bottom. That’s part of why her story is worth sitting with. She grew up Irish Catholic, in a family where a drink was…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 065 - What Recovery Gives You Back: A Conversation with Hunter Biden
In this episode, Josh sits down with Hunter Biden, a painter and writer based in Los Angeles who built a first career in law and business long before most…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 064 - The Second Time It Stuck: Dana Kay on Becoming a New Person, Not Just Stopping a Behavior
Dana Kay’s first memory of alcohol is from a dinner party when she was five or six years old. She spent the night sneaking sips while the adults were turned…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 063 - Jomo the Meditating Monkey: Stillness, Sobriety, and the Busy Mind
Most guests on this show are people who found their way to sobriety and creativity through hard-won trial and error. This week’s guest is a small golden monkey…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 062 - Music Is The Centerpiece Of My Life, Alcohol Is Not
Jeff “H” Harrington has been playing bass and writing songs for close to 40 years. He grew up in Milwaukee, a city he describes as one of the heaviest drinking…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 061 - It’s Getting in My Way Now: Gary Allen on Slow Change and Building a Second Act After 45
Gary Allen had his first drink at 19, a pint of Harp he didn’t even like. He kept drinking it anyway, because for the first time, he felt like everybody else…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 060 - Chasing Curiosity Instead of Chasing Quiet: Bob Mathers Found There Was No Ceiling Once He Stopped Drinking
Bob Mathers spent 35 years being “Bobby Good Times.” He was the guy other people kept on speed dial for a good night out, the one always up for an extra day of…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 059 - From the Fog to the Fast Lane: Ian Fee’s Wild Ride to Sobriety
IAN FEE took his first drink at age one, handed a sip of beer by his own dad while sitting in a highchair. He grew up in the 1970s and 80s, when parents dipped…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 058 - Two Promises I'm Keeping
Jen Benford grew up carrying more than most people ever have to carry. Adopted at age two or three, moved through four homes before then, her aunt and uncle…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 057 - Sobriety at 15,000 Feet: My Trek to Machu Picchu
I almost got off the bus. Sitting there before we took off, bags being loaded, heart racing, I seriously considered stepping out and calling the whole thing…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 056 - The Electricity Nobody Named: ADHD, Addiction, and the Power of Willingness
Jill DePhillip, CRNP-PMH has spent years sitting with people at the hardest parts of themselves. As a certified registered nurse practitioner in psychiatric…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 055 - Staying Alive Is Enough to Build Something Real
Marya Hornbacher came out of rehab in her mid-20s not knowing how to make dinner. She could earn a graduate degree, but she couldn’t change a tire or make a…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 054 - The Intelligence You Already Have: Jenn Ocken on Navigating Uncertainty Without Abandoning Yourself
Jenn Ocken is a photographer, brand builder, and the person who gave language to something she calls creative adaptive intelligence — the human capacity to…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 053 - The Reputation You Earn: James Martin on Sobriety, Creativity, and Building Something That Lasts
James Martin | Made By James has spent 20 years building brands for some of the world’s most recognized companies. But the most important brand he’s ever built…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 052 - When Your Work Ethic Outlasts Everything Else: A Conversation with Jessica Drapluk
Jess, The Creator is the kind of person who does not slow down. A family nurse practitioner, former pediatric oncology nurse, competitive hockey player, stock…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 051 - From Rock Bottom to Open Sea: How Cory Gerlach Used 18 Years of Sobriety as a Launchpad for Radical Change
Cory Gerlach did not follow the script. Teenage punk. Community college. Harvard PhD. Senior federal scientist. Congressional advisor on COVID-19. And then—in…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 050 - When Sensitivity Meets Sobriety: Jonathan Hoban on Managing the Nervous System Behind Addiction
Jonathan Hoban has spent years trying to understand why he kept sabotaging himself when things were going well. The answer wasn’t where he expected to find it…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 049 - From the Garage to the Page: How Shelly Built a Clear, Creative Life on Her Own Terms
There’s a version of Shelly’s story that looks like a series of detours. Mechanic to content creator. Dealership to Substack. Substances to sobriety. But spend…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 048 - Your Body Is Talking. Are You Listening? A Conversation with Carolina Wilke
Carolina Wilke has spent decades studying what most of us ignore. The signals our bodies send. The tension we carry without naming it. The emotions we skip…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 047 - From a 12-Hour Gaming Addiction to Six-Figure SaaS: A Conversation with Orel Zilberman
Orel Zilberman spent years inside the kind of addiction most people don’t take seriously. No substances. No rehab. Just a screen, a game, and a mind that had…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 046 - Being The Project Manager of Your Own Life: Kerry Hoffman on Proactive Sobriety and A Creative Life
Kerry Hoffman is a project manager. She builds systems. She connects dots. She is, by her own admission, very type A. So when she found herself going out and…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 045 - When the Addiction Doesn't Go Away — It Just Gets a Job: A Conversation with Doan Winkel
Some guests come to these conversations with a tidy arc — the fall, the turning point, the recovery. Doan Winkel doesn’t have that story. He has something…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 044 - When the Body Breaks the Pattern: Phil Powis on Health, Clarity, and Building What You Can’t Hide From
Phil Powis ❤️⚡️ walked into his mid-30s running a consulting business that looked like success from every angle. Over $100,000 a month. A growing reputation…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 043 - You Can't Pour From an Empty Cup. Becoming You Starts With Filling It.
Florence Acosta spent nearly 30 years giving everything she had to everyone around her. As a nurse. As a CRNA holding patients’ lives in her hands. As an…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 042 - From the Stage to the Page: Mary Peeples on Sobriety, Self-Reclamation, and the Courage to Create Again
530 days sober and still counting — this conversation will remind you what it means to come home to yourself. Mary Peeples has lived many lives inside one. The…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 040 - From Survival to Surrender: How a Landscape Painter Found Creative Freedom Through Healing
What happens when a creative person spends years completely shut down — unable to work, unable to feel, unable to create? For Justin Donaldson, a landscape…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 039 - Spiritual Awakening in the Shower: Elif Ahmad’s Non-Traditional Recovery Journey
Elif Ahmad didn’t walk into a detox center or sit in a circle of folding chairs to get sober. She stood in a shower, held out her hands, and asked the universe…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 038 - Living Above a Bar: A Dutch Medicine Woman’s Journey to Visibility and Sobriety
When the work of being seen becomes more important than the comfort of staying hidden Inge van de Graaf lives above a bar. Not near one—above one. The ground…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 037 - Mistaking the Absence of Pain for Joy (And How to Find the Real Thing)
Georgia Kohlhoff knows what it’s like to have food occupy every corner of your mind. As a registered nutritionist, personal trainer, and trainee…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 036 - Peeling the Trauma Onion: Paul Overton on 30 Years of Sobriety and What Comes After
Paul Overton quit drinking 30 years ago, though he admits he doesn't keep close track anymore. Growing up in 1970s California as a Gen X kid left to his own…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 035 - The Space Between: Sam Illingworth on Becoming Fearless with 18 Years of Clear-Minded Living
December 22, 2007. Sam Illingworth woke up in a hospital bed with his heart racing, his memory blank, and a doctor offering him the simplest advice he'd ever…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 034 - When Your Identity Falls Apart: Jake Summers on Relapse, Recovery, and Building a Creative Life
Jake Summers started drinking in high school in an alcoholic home where he “could basically do whatever I wanted.” He went to West Point hoping structure would…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 033 - The Mic is Flipped: Choosing No to Drinking Is Choosing Yes to Yourself
For 32 episodes, I’ve sat across from creative professionals who’ve chosen sobriety and discovered something remarkable: clarity doesn’t diminish creativity—it…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 032 - When Sobriety Cleared the Fog: How One Writer Went from Paralyzed to 3,000 Words a Day
Anna Gibson spent years on autopilot—smoking weed throughout her day, feeling the weight of a “demon on her back,” watching her writing disappear into…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 031 - From Cocaine to Clarity: Building a Life Worth Remembering
Ryan Lee spent his twenties chasing numbness—ecstasy, cocaine, alcohol, repeat. He kept his corporate job intact, hit his numbers, and convinced himself…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 030 - When Clarity Becomes Your Most Essential Creative Tool: A Conversation with Elizabeth Austin
What happens when you build an entire writing career in sobriety—placing 30+ pieces in major publications while navigating your daughter’s cancer treatment…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 029 - The Perfectionism Coin: Why Shame and Control Keep You Reaching for the Bottle
What if everything you’ve been told about discipline is wrong? What if the reason you can’t stick to your creative practice isn’t because you lack willpower…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 028 - The Middle Ground Nobody Talks About: Denise Hamilton-Mace on Moderation, Midlife, and Creative Clarity
There’s a space between “rock bottom” and “business as usual” that rarely gets airtime in conversations about alcohol. It’s where most people actually…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 027 - When Sobriety Reveals What You Actually Want: A Conversation with Tyler Donohue
What if the thing you’ve been using to take the edge off is actually keeping you from the life you’re meant to live? This week on Clear Conversations, I sat…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 026 - When Meditation Saved My Life: Jason’s Journey from Blackout Drunk to Guiding Others Home
What happens when partying stops being fun and starts becoming survival? Jason from The Monkeymind Meditation Club knows this turning point intimately. Eight…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 025 - When Everything Falls Apart at Once: Derek MacDonald on Building Creative Stability Through Sobriety
Derek MacDonald got sober, got broken up with, and moved across the country—all in the same week. Most people would call that rock bottom. Derek called it a…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 024 - When Grief Refuses to Be Silent: A Conversation with Alicia Cook
Alicia Cook knows something most of us spend our lives trying to avoid: what it means to transform unbearable loss into art that heals others. After losing her…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 023 - When Pushing Through Breaks You: Cali Bird on the Radical Act of Being Gentle
What happens when the productivity warrior inside you finally surrenders? When chronic illness forces you to abandon every achievement strategy you’ve ever…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 022 - Removing the Distortion: How Sobriety Unlocked Paulina Pinsky's Most Potent Creative Work
Paulina Pinsky got sober on December 22, 2021, after a panic attack in an Alabama gas station—days before Christmas, ending an engagement, and moving back in…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 021 - Finding Your Voice in Sobriety: A Conversation with Deborah Jeanne Weitzman
There’s a particular kind of courage required to strip away the masks we’ve worn for decades—the personas we built to survive, to please, to belong. For…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 020 - The Raw Chaos That Grows the Lotus: Stephanie Raffelock on Creativity and Sobriety
“I learned that creativity doesn’t come in a vial of white powder.” This wisdom from record producer Keith Olson after getting sober at Betty Ford became a…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 019 - Permission to Start: David Speed’s Path from ‘Not Gifted’ to International Artist
What happens when you stop waiting for permission to become who you already are? David Speed’s conversation reveals a truth that challenges everything we’ve…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 018 - From Overwhelm to Alchemy: How Sobriety Unlocked Kate Baily's Creative Superpowers
The fear haunts many creative professionals: What if sobriety kills my creative edge? Kate Baily’s story demolishes this myth completely. Nine years sober…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 016 - Finding God in a Motorcycle: How Sobriety Unlocks Sacred Systems Thinking
When Eric J Cunningham found himself hanging off his apartment lanai at the end of his rope—successful on paper but spiritually bankrupt—he couldn't have…
The Sober Creative PodcastEpisode 015 - From Liquid Courage to Authentic Connection: How Sam Bail is Transforming NYC's Social Scene One Sober Event at a Time
What happens when your vision for better social spaces becomes the catalyst for your own transformation? That's exactly what happened to Sam at Third Place…