- 34 minutes 11 secondsI Wasn’t Crying About What I Thought I Was Crying About
You can spend a lot of time trying to fix the thing that seems to be causing your anxiety and still miss what’s actually underneath it.
For Matt, the panic looked like money, college costs, and the fear of letting his son down. But when the emotion finally came out, it opened into something bigger: grief, change, getting older, losing control, and realizing that some parts of life can’t be solved before they’re felt.
Matt and Steve talk about why sobriety can bring us face-to-face with emotions we used to avoid, numb, or drink over—and what changes when we stop demanding certainty and start dealing with what’s actually there.
EMPOWERED Voices: Recovery to ResiliencyA heartfelt podcast series that brings to light the challenges and triumphs of...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
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11 August 2026, 5:00 am - 35 minutes 51 secondsThe Problem With Being Good at Gutting It Out
Being able to gut through pain can look like strength—until it becomes the reason you stay in a bad situation longer than you should. Matt talks about hitting a wall during a difficult medication taper, changing the plan, and still feeling like a failure for not pushing through.
Matt and Steve look at how that same stubbornness shows up in health, work, and addiction. They talk about mistaking willpower for recovery, waiting until the pain becomes unbearable before asking for help, and why admitting that something isn’t working isn’t the same as quitting. Sometimes strength is recognizing when you’ve had enough and choosing a healthier solution.
EMPOWERED Voices: Recovery to ResiliencyA heartfelt podcast series that brings to light the challenges and triumphs of...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
📫 Get more honest conversations about sobriety delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to The Sober Friends Dispatch, our weekly newsletter where we go beyond the podcast to share real strategies for alcohol-free living. Join our community by clicking here.
4 August 2026, 8:00 am - 33 minutes 27 secondsI Felt Flat, So I Started Questioning Everything
After travel, disrupted sleep, and a difficult medication taper, Matt feels depleted—and immediately starts questioning everything. Does his work matter? Is the podcast helping anyone? Is something genuinely wrong, or is exhaustion turning a temporary emotional state into a verdict on his entire life?
Matt and Steve talk about the dangerous stories that can surface when they feel flat, including the old urge to fix the feeling or escape it altogether. They also look at the less dramatic tools that help: movement, routine, reaching out, changing up meetings, and remembering that progress sometimes means feeling bad without drinking, lashing out, or believing every thought that enters your head.
EMPOWERED Voices: Recovery to ResiliencyA heartfelt podcast series that brings to light the challenges and triumphs of...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
📫 Get more honest conversations about sobriety delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to The Sober Friends Dispatch, our weekly newsletter where we go beyond the podcast to share real strategies for alcohol-free living. Join our community by clicking here.
28 July 2026, 8:00 am - 35 minutes 10 secondsI Wasn’t as Bad as Them, So I Kept Drinking
As long as Matt wasn’t drinking like his father—and Steve wasn’t as bad as the people he grew up around—they could tell themselves they weren’t really alcoholics. There was always someone who had lost more, drank more, or looked more like the stereotype.
In this episode, Matt and Steve talk about how comparing your drinking to someone else’s worst consequences can keep you stuck. You don’t have to lose your job, your family, or everything you own before you’re allowed to admit alcohol is hurting your life. The better question isn’t whether you look like an alcoholic. It’s whether drinking has become a problem for you.
EMPOWERED Voices: Recovery to ResiliencyA heartfelt podcast series that brings to light the challenges and triumphs of...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
📫 Get more honest conversations about sobriety delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to The Sober Friends Dispatch, our weekly newsletter where we go beyond the podcast to share real strategies for alcohol-free living. Join our community by clicking here.
21 July 2026, 8:00 am - 41 minutes 37 secondsI’m Successful—How Bad Could My Drinking Be? | Mike Curry
Success can make a drinking problem harder to see. When you are still working, earning, providing, and checking the outward boxes, it is easy to use those accomplishments as proof that nothing is seriously wrong.
In this conversation, Matt talks with sobriety coach and podcast host Mike Curry about succeeding professionally while struggling privately. They discuss the limits of the “functioning alcoholic” label, the pressure to keep achieving, what alcohol quietly takes from relationships and integrity, and why recovery has to become more than simply removing the drink.
Learn more about Mike Curry and his work:
Website: https://www.mikecurrycoaching.com/
Podcast — Sobriety, Spirituality, and Sales:
https://www.youtube.com/@livethedreammedia/featuredInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikecurryofficial
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-curry-0b7689241/
EMPOWERED Voices: Recovery to ResiliencyA heartfelt podcast series that brings to light the challenges and triumphs of...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
📫 Get more honest conversations about sobriety delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to The Sober Friends Dispatch, our weekly newsletter where we go beyond the podcast to share real strategies for alcohol-free living. Join our community by clicking here.
14 July 2026, 8:00 am - 30 minutes 41 secondsI Got Sober. I Still Avoid the Phone
Sobriety can take away the drinking, but it does not automatically fix the part of us that avoids uncomfortable things. In this episode, Matt and Steve talk about the everyday tasks that can become weirdly heavy in recovery: making the phone call, going back to the dentist, dealing with money, choosing a contractor, or finally handling the thing we’ve been putting off.
This conversation is about the anxiety that builds when we avoid, and the relief that often comes from taking one small action. Matt and Steve get honest about how avoidance still shows up in sober life, why it can feel worse once you know better, and how breaking the task down can make the next right thing feel possible.
EMPOWERED Voices: Recovery to ResiliencyA heartfelt podcast series that brings to light the challenges and triumphs of...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
📫 Get more honest conversations about sobriety delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to The Sober Friends Dispatch, our weekly newsletter where we go beyond the podcast to share real strategies for alcohol-free living. Join our community by clicking here.
7 July 2026, 8:00 am - 35 minutes 13 secondsI Thought I'd Appreciate it Later
There’s a way many of us postpone our lives without even realizing it. We tell ourselves we’ll slow down later, appreciate it later, and be happy when things settle down. Then one day we look around and realize the years didn’t slow down while we were waiting.
In this episode, Matt and Steve talk about Father’s Day, graduation season, and the surprising realization that the moments we miss most usually aren’t the big milestones. They’re the ordinary things: rides to school, family dinners, sitting around the house, and hearing your kids call from another room.
Recovery doesn’t make life perfect, and it doesn’t stop time. But it does give us something many of us didn’t have while drinking: the chance to be there while life is happening.
Topics include:
• Why so many of us keep postponing happiness
EMPOWERED Voices: Recovery to Resiliency
• The trap of “I’ll appreciate this later” thinking
• Why ordinary moments become the memories we treasure most
• What surprised us about how quickly life moved
• Presence over perfection in recovery and parentingA heartfelt podcast series that brings to light the challenges and triumphs of...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
📫 Get more honest conversations about sobriety delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to The Sober Friends Dispatch, our weekly newsletter where we go beyond the podcast to share real strategies for alcohol-free living. Join our community by clicking here.
30 June 2026, 8:00 am - 48 minutes 4 secondsI Was So Tired of Looking Okay — with Brooke Taylor
Brooke Taylor looked successful from the outside. But behind the polished image was alcohol, pressure, and the exhausting feeling that nothing ever felt like enough. In this conversation, she shares what it was like to get sober before she felt ready — and why early sobriety felt more like punishment than freedom.
They also talk about the exhausting work of keeping up appearances, what it took to finally stop, and why getting sober doesn’t always end the search for relief, approval, or feeling like enough.
Brooke is the author of Healing the Success Wound (Hachette, May 2026), which explores what happens when we tie our worth to what we accomplish instead of who we are.
Connect with Brooke:
Website: Brooke Taylor Coaching
Instagram: @brookevtaylor
TikTok: @brooketaylorcareercoach
LinkedIn: Brooke Taylor
EMPOWERED Voices: Recovery to ResiliencyA heartfelt podcast series that brings to light the challenges and triumphs of...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
📫 Get more honest conversations about sobriety delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to The Sober Friends Dispatch, our weekly newsletter where we go beyond the podcast to share real strategies for alcohol-free living. Join our community by clicking here.
23 June 2026, 8:00 am - 31 minutes 33 secondsMost of My Anxiety Lived in the Future
Most of us spend a lot of time worrying about things that haven't happened yet. We replay conversations, predict outcomes, and try to solve problems that may never arrive. In recovery, that kind of future-tripping can feel overwhelming because alcohol is no longer there to quiet the noise.
EMPOWERED Voices: Recovery to Resiliency
In this episode, Matt and Steve talk about the connection between anxiety and control. They explore why the need to know how everything will turn out often creates more stress, not less, and how focusing on what's directly in front of us can bring some relief. Whether you're newly sober or have years of recovery behind you, this conversation is a reminder that most of life's problems can only be handled one step at a time.
Topics include:
• Future-tripping and anxiety
• The illusion of control
• Why uncertainty feels so uncomfortable
• Recovery beyond alcohol
• Staying present when your mind wants to race aheadA heartfelt podcast series that brings to light the challenges and triumphs of...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
📫 Get more honest conversations about sobriety delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to The Sober Friends Dispatch, our weekly newsletter where we go beyond the podcast to share real strategies for alcohol-free living. Join our community by clicking here.
9 June 2026, 8:00 am - 37 minutes 13 secondsThe Disease Model Doesn’t Let Me Off the Hook
In this episode, Matt and Steve talk about the disease model of alcoholism—not as an excuse, but as a way to understand why alcohol affected them differently than it does other people. The conversation starts with the idea of “getting better and leaving,” and turns into a deeper look at why staying connected still matters, even after years of sobriety.
They discuss personal responsibility, AA, the “built-in forgetter,” and the strange reality of still noticing alcohol in ways other people do not. The disease model may explain the problem, but it does not remove the responsibility to stay honest, stay connected, and keep helping the next person who walks in.
Click here to watch the full video referenced with Charlie Sheen. I don't have the link to the original podcast.
EMPOWERED Voices: Recovery to ResiliencyA heartfelt podcast series that brings to light the challenges and triumphs of...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
📫 Get more honest conversations about sobriety delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to The Sober Friends Dispatch, our weekly newsletter where we go beyond the podcast to share real strategies for alcohol-free living. Join our community by clicking here.
2 June 2026, 8:00 am - 31 minutes 20 secondsThe Voice Didn’t Go Away When I Got Sober
Getting sober does not automatically make the voice in your head disappear. In this episode, Matt and Steve talk about the part of the mind that used to minimize drinking — you’re not that bad, other people drink more, you’re overreacting — and how that same voice can show up later in sobriety as doubt, fear, or the feeling that you don’t deserve what you have.
Matt shares how anxiety led his brain to start filling in the blanks with stories: that his work did not matter, that the podcast was vanity, that he was somehow a fraud. The conversation gets into why those thoughts can feel so convincing, why we are often poor judges of ourselves in isolation, and why recovery requires learning how to question the voice instead of automatically believing it.
EMPOWERED Voices: Recovery to ResiliencyA heartfelt podcast series that brings to light the challenges and triumphs of...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
📫 Get more honest conversations about sobriety delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to The Sober Friends Dispatch, our weekly newsletter where we go beyond the podcast to share real strategies for alcohol-free living. Join our community by clicking here.
26 May 2026, 8:00 am - More Episodes? Get the App