Episodes
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In this episode, I spoke with Brendan from the Rainham Freethinkers Group located in London, England. I met Brendan at the online International Conference of Secular AA where I was working behind the scenes and he was participating in the panel about The ‘God’ Word Pamphlet. Brendan shares his story of recovery and his experience […]
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Happy New Year, friends. I want to begin the year by writing to you about AA Beyond Belief. These last five years have gone by so fast. It’s been like a dream. I never imagined that I would ever have such an experience, but it’s been an incredible ride, and I am honored to have […]
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Missing episodes?
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In this episode, we meet Jenne M., and Jim D., both secular members of Overeaters Anonymous. We talk about their struggles with food addiction, the difficulty they experienced as atheists in OA, their experiences starting secular OA meetings, and their website secularovereaters.org. Topics Discussed Jim’s Story Jenne’s Story What makes a secular OA meeting, secular. […]
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Colette’s date of sobriety is December 23, 2006, and on the date of this posting, she is celebrating fourteen years sober. In this episode, she shares her journey as a person in recovery from anorexia, depression, and alcoholism. Her’s is an inspiring story and she does a great job describing her early struggles as well […]
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Marty B. is a recovering alcoholic and a retired airline pilot. He got sober in AA and after his first year of sobriety, another pilot introduced him to Birds of a Feather, a worldwide network of AA meetings established for airline pilots and cockpit crewmembers. In this episode, Marty describes the unique needs of pilots […]
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In this episode, we meet Andy F., an agnostic who got sober in AA and is now writing a book about his experience overcoming his initial objections to the Twelve Steps. Key points and topics discussed Andy’s experience as a child in foster care. First doubts about God and religion. Mental illness and alcoholism. Time […]
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Glenn S. is a recovering alcoholic, a “Richard Dawkins atheist” who helped found three humanist AA meetings in New York City, and an artist who for twenty-five years brought a sketchbook to meetings where he took notes and sketched the people around him. The sketchbook helped him listen during meetings and resulted in a wonderful […]
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Luke Worsfold is an entrepreneur who fell into addiction as he began to equate his self-worth with his net worth. Quickly, his life spun out of control and he lost everything. In this episode, Luke tells the story of his recovery and how his podcast Lisa Inside Addiction inspired him to become an addictions counselor. […]
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In this episode, we meet David Whitesock, who shares his story of addiction and recovery, and how his journey led him to develop the Recovery Capital Index, a useful tool for measuring recovery capital. Key points and topics discussed Dave’s story of addiction and recovery. How studying architecture influenced the development of the Recovery Capital […]
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About a year ago, we posted Episode 137 about a secular Al-Anon group that started meeting in Boise, Idaho. That episode featured a conversation with one of the group’s co-founders, Kim L., who talked about the challenges with starting the meeting. In this episode, the group’s other co-founder, Chia provided an update on how the […]
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Listening is perhaps the most valuable gift we can give to another person, and it is a great strength of AA. People don’t necessarily need to have others solve their problems, but from being heard people can learn to face and resolve their own challenges. This episode is all about the importance of listening when […]
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In this episode, I speak with Mikey J. from Our Mostly Agnostic Group of Drunks (OMAGOD) located in Orlando, Florida, and now meeting online every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:00 pm Eastern. Mikey takes us through the history of the group and what they learned about hosting online AA meetings. Key Points and Topics […]
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In this episode, John Huey talks about his thoughts on COVID and alcoholism, and what the two have in common. He thinks back on friends who didn’t survive their drinking and realizes that we don’t think often enough about those who don’t make it. You can read more in John’s essay, A Journal of the […]
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John and Angela celebrate the fifth anniversary of AA Beyond Belief by taking a look back at when and how it all started. Key points and topics discussed Meeting Roger C. at the We Agnostics and Freethinkers International AA Conference. Roger encouraging John to start AA Beyond Belief. John explains why he started the podcast. […]
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Has COVID brought in a new era for Alcoholics Anonymous, or is it our responsibility to help bring one about? As meetings moved from church basements to Zoom, we are now hearing more diverse experiences from a greater number of people, as well as new ideas about the Steps or recovery in general. Maybe sharing […]
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In this episode, Angela and John have a discussion about making decisions and how they learned to make better decisions in recovery. Angela talked about how attending meetings and working the Steps helped her learn to become more mindful and less reactive, and John talked about the difficult decisions he had to make early in […]
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Our guest for this episode is Sarah Elizabeth from the Sober Gratitudes podcast. Now, I’ll tell you, this isn’t a typical episode for AA Beyond Belief, because Sarah doesn’t identify as either an atheist or agnostic. In Fact, she describes her experience as spiritual, and she attributes her sobriety to a higher power, which she […]
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Angela and I have a free-flowing conversation covering a variety of topics ranging from our memories and thoughts about or first AA meeting to whether AA Word Services should publish a new book that covers the program of recovery. We take a call from Fred in Virginia and respond to comments on Facebook and YouTube.
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Angela and I talk about friendships and how they were impacted by our drinking and what we learned from our friends in sobriety. When I got sober, I didn’t have any friends left from my drinking days, but Angela continued to maintain those relationships after she got sober. This was recorded from our Friday live […]
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Angela and I take questions from callers and the live chat on Facebook and YouTube, and then we ask each other a few questions. There is an interesting discussion about the importance of self-care, and the need for AA to modernize.
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