Returning sexy guest Ben Appel recently wrote about genderism and other political ideologies infiltrating Alcoholics Anonymous, despite its 10th Tradition prohibiting alignment with outside issues. But what is a “Tradition” anyway? Ben and Nina possibly violate the 11th one (“always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films”) in an attempt to describe the wacky, brilliant, not-really-a-cult-except-sometimes, life-changing, spiritual, occasionally smelly world of 12-Step recovery programs. Corinna learns the difference between AA and Al-Anon; Nina wishes she believed in god and says “irrational problems demand irrational solutions”; and Ben talks about compulsive praying and his upcoming book, “Cis White Gay,” along with a ton of other interesting topics. Another great episode! Keep coming back! 

Links:

Ben Appel: https://www.benappelwrites.com/writing

How Alcoholics Anonymous Lost Its Way by Ben Appel: https://unherd.com/2023/05/how-alcoholics-anonymous-lost-its-way/

Our Wilfred Reilly episode: https://www.heterodorx.com/podcast/episode-82-hoaxes-wokeses-and-other-folkses-with-wilfred-reilly/

AA’s 12 Traditions: https://www.aa.org/the-twelve-traditions

Synanon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanon

Alcoholics Anonymous: https://www.aa.org/

Al-Anon: https://al-anon.org/

The Serenity Prayer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer

Nina’s Adventures book: https://store.ninapaley.com/product/ninas-adventures-book/