Sober Sunrise - AA Speaker Podcast

Leroy Y. from Van Nuys, CA speaking at Toluca Lake, CA - February 11th 2007 Visit our merch and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com Leroy shares his story of growing up in chaos, falling into addiction, and spending years in jails and prisons before discovering the truth about himself through the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. From overdosing in sixth grade to living under aliases and feeling deep shame about his identity, Leroy’s life was ruled by fear, violence, and spiritual emptiness until a sponsor finally guided him through the Big Book line by line. He speaks openly about relapse, loss, prison, and the moment of grace that pulled him back into sobriety, eventually rebuilding his life through amends, service, and the daily practice of the “four R’s”—remember, repetition, redemption, and rejoice. His journey shows how AA transforms a person from the inside out, turning liabilities into assets and giving him a life of purpose, joy, and freedom he never imagined. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Hollis D. from Staunton, VA speaking at The Summerfest 1999 in Eugene, OR - July 7th-10th 1999 Check out our new sober/AA inspired merch & support the channel 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com Hollis shares a powerful and often humorous account of his life in alcoholism and recovery, describing how drinking unraveled his priesthood, morals, health, and sense of self until he finally surrendered in November of 1977, and entered AA completely defeated. He highlights the life-saving impact of sponsorship, the Big Book, working all twelve steps—not just the first half of them—and giving the program away through service, from helping drunk priests get sober to building AA groups and studying its history. Hollis’s story shows how recovery rebuilt every part of his life, gifting him a loving marriage, a daughter he never expected to have, deep spiritual renewal, and a joyful commitment to carrying the message. His journey underlines the life-changing truth that AA isn’t just about not drinking—it’s a way of life that restores purpose, connection, and hope one day at a time. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Kenny L. from Houston, TX speaking at the Hong Kong International Convention in Hong Kong - November 4th 2012 Check out our new sober/AA inspired merch & support the channel 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com Kenny’s story shows how a man who could not stay sober for years—even with treatment, education, willpower, and every plan he could invent—finally reached the gift of desperation that opened him to a spiritual solution. He describes growing up feeling misunderstood, achieving academically, climbing career hills as a CPA and attorney, and still never feeling whole until alcoholism stripped everything away. His breakthrough came when he stopped trying to manage his life and instead became willing to believe he had a sick soul and needed power, not plans. A blinding white-light experience marked the turning point, and from that moment he began taking direction, helping others, and doing the spiritual actions in AA he had resisted. Through sponsorship, humility, and service in halfway houses and professional assistance programs, he rebuilt his life and even founded the Powerhouse Recovery Center—proving that when he stopped running the show and focused on helping others, a life beyond anything he imagined unfolded. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Robbie W. from Vineland, NJ speaking at the Aberdeen Wednesday Night Group's Quarterly Meeting in Aberdeen, SD - 2007 Check out our new sober/AA inspired merch & support the channel 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com Robbie’s story is a raw, powerful walk from gifted Catholic-school athlete to a broken young alcoholic whose drinking dragged him through jails, prisons, mental institutions, and homelessness before he finally cried out to God in a Kalamazoo detox at age 22. What saves him isn’t luck but the unwavering love of Alcoholics Anonymous—beginning with a pig farmer named Don who took him into his home, taught him the steps, and showed him he was worth saving. Through rigorous honesty, daily action, and sponsorship, Robbie rebuilt his entire life: returning to his parents with amends, becoming a husband and father, building a stable career, and spending his life carrying the message to newcomers. His central truth is that God never let go of him—and AA didn’t either—and that our job is to pass that same hope to the next suffering alcoholic. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Paul M. from Chicago, IL speaking at his 60 year sobriety anniversary at the Last Chance House in Chicago, IL - August 26th 2007 Check out our new sober/AA inspired merch & support the channel 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com This powerful gathering celebrates Paul Martin’s remarkable 60 years of sobriety, but even more, it showcases the timeless AA message he carried into the lives of the six men who spoke before him—each a sponsee or someone deeply formed by his guidance. Their stories reveal how they arrived in AA full of fear, ego, or untreated alcoholism, only to find healing through Paul’s unwavering emphasis on rigorous honesty, repeated step work, amends, and daily spiritual action. Together they show that sobriety isn’t sustained by meetings alone, but by practicing the Twelve Steps as a way of life—over and over—until sanity, humility, and usefulness slowly return. Above all, the evening honors the sacred community of Alcoholics Anonymous, where one alcoholic helping another becomes a lifeline, a spiritual path, and a living demonstration of the profound impact one dedicated sponsor can have across generations. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Jason B. from Memphis, TN speaking at Tennessee Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous in Memphis, TN -2009 Check out our new sober/AA inspired merch & support the channel 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com Jason’s talk is a powerful reminder of how early willingness, honest step work, and deep service can completely reshape a life. He shares how his drinking began young, escalated quickly, and left him spiritually empty—yet the moment another alcoholic carried the message, a door cracked open. With a sobriety date of May 16, 1999, he credits the Big Book, real sponsorship, rigorous inventory, and years of service for giving him a life of purpose, connection, and freedom. His journey highlights the importance of unity, showing up for others, and discovering a God of one’s own understanding, proving that consistent action in AA can turn a lost young man into someone who now helps countless others find sobriety. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Part 2 of Gail L. from Akron, OH speaking at the Swedish Serenity group's spring convention in Stockholm, Sweden - May 30th 2009 Check out our new sober/AA inspired merch & support the channel 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com Gail shares a heartfelt and often humorous walk through AA’s early history, shining light on the women who quietly held the fellowship together. With gratitude and decades of sobriety since 1978, she honors figures like Anne Smith, Lois Wilson, Henrietta Seiberling, Sister Ignatia, and the first sober women who helped nurture meetings, guide new drunks, open their homes, type the Big Book, and shape the spiritual practices that became our Steps. Through stories of sacrifice, courage, and grace—women sewing collars during the Depression, praying alcoholics into the rooms, taking in strangers, keeping Bill and Bob alive, and standing firm when AA wavered—Gail reminds us that AA’s birth was a collective act of love. Her greatest contribution is preserving this legacy so we never forget the “good old gals” whose faith and service helped millions find a life of recovery, one day at a time. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Joshua H. from Toronto, Ontario, Canada speaking at the Banff Roundup in Banf, Alberta, Canada - March 16th 2007 Check out our new sober/AA inspired merch & support the channel 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com Joshua shares an extraordinary journey of survival and transformation, describing how a boy who grew up traumatized, addicted, homeless, and completely broken found a new life through the Twelve Steps and the fellowship of AA. From childhood chaos, blackout drinking, psychotic drug use, and years spent in institutions and living in dumpsters, his life seemed hopeless—until a moment of clarity at 19 brought him into AA, where identification, honesty, and the Steps slowly rebuilt him from the inside out. Through rigorous inventory, amends, spiritual growth, and helping others, Josh repaired relationships with his family, became a loving husband, a dependable son, a sponsor, and a man who shows up for life. His greatest accomplishment is the redemption he never imagined possible: standing in the same city where he once slept in dumpsters, now sober, grateful, and surrounded by friends—choosing love, service, and life one day at a time. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Mike L. from Indianapolis, IN speaking at the men's St. Benedict retreat in McKenzie Bridge, OR - March 3rd-5th 2006 Check out our new sober/AA inspired merch & support the channel 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com Mike offers a deep, practical, and often humorous exploration of Step Three, showing how turning his will and life over to God wasn’t about a one-time emotional moment, but about a lifelong commitment to stop playing God, let go of old ideas, and follow spiritual direction through real action. He describes his early failures—treating God like a bellhop, being a “spiritual litterbug,” clutching old ideas like a monkey trapped by sweetmeats, and managing life with self-centered fear—and then explains how true surrender came when he backed his decision with inventory, amends, and daily willingness. His honesty about money, relationships, sex, resentment, and ego reveals how the Third Step reshaped his entire life: helping him become a better father, a respectful ex-husband, a responsible professional, a generous sponsor, and a man who contributes rather than takes. Mike shows that spiritual growth isn’t about gaining more—it’s about dropping the bricks we’ve been carrying so God can do what we cannot. His greatest accomplishment is learning to live as a steward of God’s power, free from the bondage of self, and grounded in service, humility, and real freedom. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Gail L. from Akron, OH speaking at the Swedish Serenity group's spring convention in Stockholm, Sweden - May 29th 2009 Check out our new sober/AA inspired merch & support the channel 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com Gail shares a heartfelt and humorous journey of recovery, showing how one grateful alcoholic with a simple willingness to say “yes” became a guardian of AA’s history. Sober since 1978, she describes arriving in Akron, discovering the power of our early roots, and unexpectedly being asked to help start an archives—work that eventually led to preserving Dr. Bob’s home, safeguarding original materials, and ensuring the fellowship’s story would survive for future generations. Blending her love of history with service, she walks us through AA’s early struggles, the Oxford Group influence, the humble beginnings of the Big Book, and the many slender threads that kept this movement alive. Gail’s greatest accomplishment is helping protect the legacy that continues to guide millions toward sobriety, one day at a time. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu