Stay ConnectedSober Sunrise brings you AA Speaker Tapes from around the world. Rather than an AA discussion podcast, Sober Sunrise brings you speakers who share step-work, workshops, and general fellowship discussion points.
We are not affiliated with AA in anyway.
One of AA’s original members recalls how a living example showed him the difference between being forced to stop drinking and finally learning how to stop taking the first drink.
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Jeff shares a remarkable firsthand account of alcoholism and the earliest years of Alcoholics Anonymous. His drinking repeatedly carries him from his Brooklyn home into courtrooms, missions, psychiatric wards, and life on the street until a coworker finds him outside a flophouse, takes him home, bathes and shaves him, and introduces him to a small gathering of men demonstrating a new way of life. Jeff realizes that hospitals had taught him plenty about stopping temporarily; what he desperately needed was a way to stop starting again. He recalls learning early Twelve Step work through experience, the flood of requests for help following the Saturday Evening Post article, and how even an apparently unsuccessful call could plant a seed that later transformed an alcoholic’s life. With humor, humility, and more than 27 years of sobriety, Jeff contrasts the lonely man once talking to himself in a Brooklyn gutter with the husband, father, grandfather, and respected member he became through AA, faith, fellowship, and carrying the message.
Jeff W. from Los Angeles, CA, one of the original 100 AAs, speaking in Sacramento, CA - 1965
Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
In this Big Book workshop on AA Steps 10, 11, and 12, Peter explains how inventory, prayer, meditation, and intensive work with other alcoholics replace the noise of self with spiritual freedom.
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Peter presents a deeply spiritual and practical Big Book workshop on Steps 10, 11, and 12 of Alcoholics Anonymous. He describes Step 10 as a continuing way of life built around immediate inventory, prayer, honest discussion, amends, and movement toward helping someone else. In Step 11, Peter explores meditation, breath, posture, daily review, and the silence that remains beneath internal dialogue and external noise. Step 12 turns that spiritual experience outward through intensive work with other alcoholics, clear sponsorship, service, and carrying the common solution. Peter shares personal examples of resentment being removed, learning to forgive, moving beyond fear, and discovering that recovery is not about acquiring more knowledge or constructing a better identity. It is a process of subtraction—less ego, less attachment, and less self—so that a recovered alcoholic can live presently, experience God, and help another person awaken.
Peter M. from Union, NJ speaking about Steps 10, 11, and 12 at the Spiritual Awakenings Group in Bernardsville, NJ - August 8th 2006
Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
After getting sober at sixteen and reading thousands of Big Book pages in treatment, KC discovers why information alone could not relieve the obsession—and what changed when a sponsor finally walked her through the Twelve Steps.
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KC delivers a funny, passionate, and sharply focused AA speaker talk about developing alcoholism as a teenager, reaching the point where she asks her mother to install an alarm on the windows, and entering long-term residential treatment at sixteen. Although she completes packets, attends meetings, studies recovery concepts, and reads an accumulated 5,200 pages of the Big Book, KC remains frightened by how badly she still wants to drink. After leaving treatment, she finds a sponsor who explains the physical allergy and mental obsession in language that finally matches KC’s experience. The Big Book changes from something she can quote into a set of directions she can follow. KC describes moving rapidly through inventory, confession, amends, daily spiritual practice, and work with other alcoholics, while explaining why the common solution matters more than personal opinions in AA meetings. Her story is a powerful message about young sobriety, sponsorship, the Twelve Steps, service, and the difference between knowing recovery language and experiencing genuine freedom.
KC R. from Dallas, TX speaking at the North Eastern Conference of Young People in AA in Nashua, NH - December 30th 2007
Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
After seven years in and out of AA, Chris learns that attending meetings is not the same as working the Big Book, taking the Steps, and serving other alcoholics.
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Chris delivers a passionate and often hilarious Big Book-centered AA speaker talk about the difference between attending Alcoholics Anonymous and actively participating in its program of recovery. For seven years, he moves in and out of meetings without owning a Big Book, finding a sponsor, working the Steps, or accepting a service commitment. As his alcoholism progresses into isolation, financial chaos, depression, and a life-threatening crisis, Chris hears a voice telling him to return to AA. At a meeting filled with people carrying Big Books, members share the miracles produced by recovery instead of trying to frighten him with more war stories. They ask whether he is truly finished, guide him rapidly into the Steps, and immediately give him ways to contribute. Two weeks later, sitting on the tailgate of his truck beneath a full moon, Chris realizes that the obsession to drink and use has been removed. His message challenges members to offer newcomers a vision, carry the solution clearly, participate in service, and help other alcoholics find the spiritual experience promised in the Big Book.
Chris R. from Ingram, TX speaking at the Sacramento Spring Fling in Sacramento, CA - February 24th 2006
Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
After losing an entrusted diamond watch during a blackout, Stan walks into his first AA meeting expecting lunch—and discovers the fellowship, sponsorship, and Steps that change his life.
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Stan shares a candid and deeply personal AA speaker talk about growing up feeling different, searching for belonging through relationships and achievement, and watching alcohol gradually take control of his life. While building a successful career in luxury jewelry, his drinking progresses into nightly intoxication, blackouts, injuries, withdrawal, and a final weekend when an expensive diamond watch entrusted to him disappears. That loss forces Stan to recognize his alcoholism and make the phone call that brings him to his first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting—although he initially believes he is simply going to lunch. He describes receiving his first desire chip, finding the sponsor who guided him through the Steps, surviving grief and major career changes without drinking, and reaching ten years sober only to realize he needed to begin again. Stan’s story is a powerful message about belonging, humility, sponsorship, service, and why long-term sobriety still requires daily action.
Stan G. from Houston, TX speaking at Houston Roundup in Houston, TX - November 23rd 2000
Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
A veteran AA speaker shares how one desperate morning beneath the U.S. Capitol led him from broken promises and financial chaos into sponsorship, the Steps, service, and a life he genuinely wanted sober.
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Ernie delivers a warm and hilarious AA speaker talk about the respectable professional life he used to prove that he could not possibly be an alcoholic. Behind that appearance were repeated arrests, all-night drinking, punishing hangovers, broken promises, overwhelming debt, and a family preparing to leave. After a bleak morning beneath the U.S. Capitol, a chance conversation with another alcoholic brings Ernie to an AA luncheon, his first meeting, and a demanding sponsor who teaches him to follow directions. Ernie also explains how rapid material success allowed him to run past the Steps—and why pain eventually brought him back to the daily spiritual work of the program. His message is filled with Big Book wisdom, AA history, sponsorship, humor, service, and gratitude for the fellowship that taught him he was worth getting sober.
Ernie R. from Potomac, MD speaking at the Sandlapper Roundup VII in Myrtle Beach, SC - December 1998
Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
Lindsey and Nate each came into AA trying to look cool and remain in control; recovery began when they became vulnerable enough to admit they were falling apart and ask another alcoholic for help.
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Lindsey and Nate share two candid Alcoholics Anonymous stories about pride, powerlessness, vulnerability, and the spiritual solution they found through the Twelve Steps. Lindsey was introduced to AA at 16 but remained convinced that she was different, eventually reaching an emotional bottom after blackouts, destructive behavior, broken relationships, and repeated attempts to control her drinking. A call to the woman she least wanted to contact opened the first small door to hope, and a sponsor helped her examine the fear, selfishness, secrets, and need for control beneath her alcoholism. Nate describes using alcohol, drugs, relationships, and excitement to escape the discomfort of being human until withdrawal, homelessness, detox, and isolation left him unable to continue. Even after entering AA, he tried meetings without honestly working the program and blamed the fellowship when his life failed to improve. Both found relief when they stopped pretending to have everything together, accepted guidance, worked through the Big Book, and became accountable for the harm they caused. Together, their stories show how honesty replaces delusion, vulnerability breaks through pride, and God becomes real through love, repaired relationships, sponsorship, and helping another person.
Lindsey F. from Portland, ME and Nate F. from Portland, ME speaking at the Portland Harbor Group in Portland, ME - November 28th 2012
Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
Don’s family once took him to the edge of the reservation and told him never to return; years later, Alcoholics Anonymous said “keep coming back,” and he knew he had found his tribe.
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Don, a member of the Mohican Nation and sober since August 10, 1978, uses the story of a boxing match to describe his long contest with alcohol. Every round brought more pain, his family eventually left the arena, and each attempt to return with a new strategy ended with alcohol putting him back on his knees. At his first AA meeting, Don found himself surrounded by white people who openly admitted their weaknesses and laughed about their lives, two things he could not understand. Still, he felt a connection that made him return. A demanding sponsor used Don’s anger to break through his resistance, introduced him to the first 164 pages of the Big Book, and offered to remain his friend whether Don liked him or not. Through the Twelve Steps, Don confronted childhood trauma, disclosed the secrets that had controlled his relationships, learned the difference between apology and forgiveness, and began repairing the harm he caused. A later sponsor helped him place the Steps within the four directions, reconnecting Alcoholics Anonymous with the Native spirituality and culture he had lost. After 32 passes through the Steps, Don describes a sober family, grandchildren growing up outside the cycle of addiction, and a fellowship that welcomed him home when he believed he no longer belonged anywhere.
Don C. from Colorado Springs, CO speaking at the 53rd ICYPAA in San Francisco, CA - September 3rd 2011
Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
At ten months sober, Liz hated AA meetings, hated the happy people in them, and was close to giving up; then the woman she couldn’t stand became the sponsor who led her through the Big Book and Twelve Steps.
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Liz, sober since July 20, 1993, shares how a painfully shy and self-conscious child discovered at 13 that alcohol could immediately provide the ease and confidence she could not find on her own. What began with a few beers grew into drugs, legal trouble, repeated DUIs, unstable living, broken promises, and a pattern of changing jobs before her drinking could catch up with her. At her final law firm, Liz entered a conference room expecting to help select a copy machine and instead found the partners and an intervention professional waiting for her. Treatment removed the alcohol, but after ten months of meetings without working the program, her mind still felt like silverware spinning in a blender and she could no longer keep living that way. The woman whose honesty made Liz uncomfortable became her sponsor, led her into the Big Book, and took her through the Twelve Steps. Through inventory, confession, amends, daily maintenance, prayer, sponsorship, and service, Liz discovered the peace that abstinence alone had never produced. Fourteen years later, she describes a life of marriage, motherhood, restored family relationships, freedom from other compulsions, and continued dependence on the actions that keep her connected to God and recovery.
Liz Y. from Atlanta, GA speaking at the New Year’s Eve party at the Northside Alcoholics Benevolent Association - December 31st 2007
Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
In this AA workshop, Frank says bottom is not a jail cell, divorce court, treatment center, or empty bank account - it is the moment an alcoholic realizes, “I can’t live drinking, and I can’t live not drinking.”
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Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day.
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If you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise.
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Frank, nearly 18 years sober, brings courtroom energy, blunt humor, and years of beginners-meeting experience to this two-part workshop on spirituality through the Twelve Steps. He challenges the idea that the purpose of Alcoholics Anonymous is merely to stop drinking, arguing that fellowship, meetings, slogans, and sober time can support recovery but cannot replace the actions in the Big Book. Through his imaginary test-tube exercise, Frank shows how alcohol initially appeared to dilute fear, shame, anger, loneliness, and the feeling of never being enough, before eventually intensifying everything it once seemed to relieve. From there, he describes bottom as a feeling rather than a location, explains why willingness must precede surrender, and presents the first three Steps as simple movements from honest recognition to accepting help. Frank also shares how outward success concealed family damage, secrets, and a deeply punitive idea of God, and how belief gradually moved from the AA group to a sponsor and finally toward a loving Higher Power. His central message is that whether someone has avoided the Steps for three days or 30 years, the grace to begin remains available.
Frank M. speaking on “Spirituality Through the Steps” at the Cajun Conference in Lafayette, LA - 1989
Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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