I chatted with Ian Harvey an IT consultant and full stack developer turned non-alcoholic beverage entrepreneur about all things NA. He opened NEØNI in September 2022 located in Waterloo, Ontario, one of Canada's first dedicated retail spaces to non-alcoholic beers, wines and spirits. Ian spends his time curating a selection of premium non-alcoholic beverages sourced from around the world. NEØNI at St Jacob's Market in Waterloo or visit online: https://www.neoni.ca/ You can connect with Ian on LinkedIn

My conversation with Jennifer Good, a non-drinking, carceral abolitionist and psychotherapist, took a beautifully meandering journey from discussing addiction stereotypes to what to do about the societal and personal harm that results. We muse about what the state of sobriety means, and how some definitions slip into purity culture.  Since the conversation behaved a bit like poetry, I've also included the poem Jennifer mentioned by the poet Rumi as an epilogue to the episode.

On this episode, I chat with Wendy McCallum, LLB, a Burnout and Alcohol Coach & Wellness Expert and the host of the Bite-Sized Balance Podcast.  We talk about burnout, medical and workplace responses to alcohol, the anxiety-alcohol connection, the harm factor scale and that alcohol is the only drug we have to justify not taking. We also talk extensively about the joy of an alcohol-free life.   Wendy teaches busy professionals (who are nearing burnout and often using alcohol to cope) how to reclaim time for themselves, reduce stress, build healthier habits, and increase their daily joy. No stranger to burnout, Wendy spent 12+ years working as a lawyer, then partner, in Calgary. As a busy litigator and mom of two young children, she struggled to find her “work-life” balance. In 2008, she left law to create a life she didn’t need to escape from. Alcohol-free since January 2018, Wendy is also a Senior Certified Naked Mind Alcohol Coach.  You can find out more about Wendy at www.wendymccallum.com and follow her at @beatburnoutandbooze on Instagram.

I had the pleasure of chatting with Elaine Alec in this episode where we talked about recovery, her work and book, unlearning white supremacy, decolonization and how we can work towards this together. Elaine is from the Syilx (Okanagan) Nation and Secwepemc (Shuswap) Nation and is a member of the Penticton Indian Band in the Interior of British Columbia. She has been a political advisor, Chief of Staff for the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations, Community Planner for her own First Nation, employee for the Province of BC and Federal Government and Entrepreneur. Elaine has spent over 20 years in over 100 communities across Canada to promote healing and wellness. She is a partner of an Indigenous owned and operated planning company called Alderhill Planning Inc. Elaine is a first-time author of “Calling My Spirit Back” a memoir about growing up as an Indigenous girl in Canada and the impacts of colonization. It also provides Indigenous knowledge, teachings on how to cultivate safe spaces for diversity and inclusion. You can find her at https://www.elainealec.com/

I enjoyed chatting with Liisa Ladouceur who helped establish Abandon, a project with a mission to normalize socializing without alcohol. Hangs, not hangovers. They produce non-alcoholic happy hours and other fun events, and share recommendations for the best non-alcoholic drinks in Toronto and beyond. Whether you're sober curious for one night,  don't drink alcohol at all, or simply enjoy delicious beverages and good times, they want to show you that you don't need alcohol to have a great night out. You can get in touch with Abandon Toronto by following them on Instagram @abandontoronto.

I had the pleasure of a long conversation with Patricia Ginn and Val Mondor about so many options for recovery and particularly Patricia's experience in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) where we talked frankly about the successes and failures of the program.  Patricia is a retired, proud Municipal worker. She grew up in a small village in Quebec where drinking was a sport and alcoholism ran rampant.  She is always open to speak about recovery and what it takes to survive going down the rabbit hole and back again. Val is a retired PBS video editor who loves to dance, garden and play pickleball. She grew up in an alcoholic family and found herself repeating those dysfunctional dynamics in multiple relationships. Patricia was a great sport knowing that I'm not a fan of 12-step programs and openly shared her experiences.  We also talked about alternatives:  SMART recovery  Women for Sobriety  Secular Organization for Sobriety  (Meetup based in Toronto) CAMH LGBTQ addictions programs  Serenity & Sobriety On the Land  Sober Voices  And although we ran out of time to talk more about gambling addictions, Patricia did mention a self exclusion program like Play Smart. You can find Patricia on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/sista.patricia.5

My chat with Casey Cannizzaro (he/they), a recovery & lifestyle coach, writer, and substance use disorder counsellor was lively! We talked about our journeys as bisexuals, our long list of books including:  Undoing Drugs Alcohol Explained And authors:  Jason Vale Annie Grace Gabor Mate And concepts:  Grey Area Drinking  https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/culturally-offensive-phrases-you-should-use-at And we also got into it about Alcoholics Anonymous, critically. So although we both acknowledge it can be helpful for some, we found there to be problematic features of the program.    More about Casey: He has been navigating substance use recovery for the majority of his adult life. He’s especially fascinated by the intersection of substance use and identity. He came out publicly as bisexual in 2019. He lives in San Diego with his partner, Shannon. They plan to move to Portland, Oregon in October. Casey serves on the Board of Directors of the secular recovery organization, Lifering, and is a member of the Bi+ Mental Health Justice Coalition. Follow him on Instagram or Medium @casey.honestly or hit him up on Facebook. Feel free to say hello - his DMs are forever open.

In this episode I'm chatting with Jarrod Collier, the founder of Strength in Time where he is encouraging people to connect and get support as well as show their sobriety on their sleeves literally! through his designs. We talk about depression and drug/alcohol addiction, suicidal ideation, incarceration, creativity and his experience of a divine intervention.  Here are a couple of links to some of the things we reference:  Semicolon tattoo: https://www.upworthy.com/have-you-seen-anyone-with-a-semicolon-tattoo-heres-what-its-about Elizabeth Gilbert https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/bio/  Jarrod plans on growing the Strength In Time community with events, meet-ups, and concerts as venues for us all to grow and network. You can connect with Jarrod here: www.Facebook.com/StrengthInTime www.Twitter.com/StrengthInTime www.Instagram.com/StrengthInTime

My conversation with Erica explores the romantic idea of the tortured artist and how alcohol has been portrayed as a necessary ingredient to the creative process.  We talk about Augustine Burroughs, Ernest Hemingway, the way alcohol somehow becomes the focus of the arts and culture world and how the experience of getting sober debunks all of these tropes.    Erica mentions the Artists Way as what helped her develop her writing practice and planted the seed for all the other changes that emerged for her.  Erica Richmond is the founder of Open Sky Stories and believes that words have the power to connect people. She lives in Peterborough, Ontario Canada with her two teens finding joy, adventures and stories in everyday life. Her published books include: Pixie and the Bees, a whimsical tale about learning to trust yourself while living with an invisible illness; The Mail Art Stories Project: Mail Art in the Time of Covid-19, a collection of mail art from around the world that chronicles the Covid-19 pandemic. Erica leads a variety of workshops that focus on exploring relationships with words, connection and healing.  Follow her on social media @OpenSkyStories and visit openskystories.com

McCauley Sexton is a content creator, accountability coach, harm reduction advocate, and public speaker. As the creator of "alternative recovery," a community of informal recovery meetings, he advocates for recovery and harm reduction from a place of compassion and understanding. We will be talking again, but in this episode, McCauley shared his story and we talked about harm reduction, compassion, anger and words, it's always about words!   You can find McCauley at https://www.sextonaccountability.com/, on Clubhouse @sextonsober, on TikTok @sextonsobriety and on Instagram @accountabro.