Rebellion Dogs Radio

Rebellion Dogs Radio fash back (#40 from 2018) NAADAC Houston, Renezvous With Madness Toronto

Sun, 12 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0400

NAADAC and Rendezvous With Madness bring two songwriters, two therapists, and one artist/photographer to Episode 40 of Rebellion Dogs Radio. a contemporary look at addiction, recovery and mental health – Episode 40 is a cross-border mental-health and addiction/recovery trip, from NAADAC (The Association for Addiction Professionals) October 5-9, 2018 in Houston Texas, to Rendezvous With Madness addiction & mental-health film and art festival in Toronto, Canada, October 10-21, 2018. But Joe - that's so last decade! Yes, and this episode still has that brand new show smell, relevant and entertaining.
This blast from the past episode is told by two songwriters, two therapists and one photographer - a story of the lived experience of moms, dads, addiction, mental health, recovery, treatment and art. I know, it's a lot for one show. It will all be clear in the interview with Dr. Laura.

Links and more about this show:

RebellionDogsRadio Episode 40 naadac-and-rendezvous-with-madness

Please join the conversation; for social media, contact info, links and show notes, info on Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life and other great books etc, visit:

https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/home-page

Feminists on Drugs with Trish Travis Ep 86

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 22:00:00 -0500

What a treat it is for Rebellion Dogs to be in conversation again with author, historian, and super-wise and enthusiastic speaker, Dr. Trysh Travis. Wild guess: you're going to love this...

"How I got from The Language of the Heart: the Recovery Movement from AA to Oprah (2009) to Feminists of Drugs: A History," Trysh Travis, PhD, talks about how her first book led to her latest work. None of us could believe it was a year ago that we were all together at ICSAA 2024 (the International Conference of Secular AA in Orlando), where Dr. Travis spoke to us about AA in the Age of Polarization.

As a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (Harvard), Trysh continues her work with time and resources to focus on her research within a collaborative, interdisciplinary environment. Trysh Travis focuses on 20th-century U.S. cultural and literary history, with a particular emphasis on gender and popular culture. Sub-specialties include the history of medicine, therapy, addiction, recovery, self-help, and the history of print culture, the evolution of book publishing/promotion and the role of reading in the lives of everyday people.

Dig in now for an hour or so - damn it goes by fast; we will have Trysh back and in the meantime, some of what was cut on the editor's floor for this epic discourse will find its way into a new episode about the impact of AA on the Plain Language Big Book.

Visit Rebellion Dogs Radio for links to everything we talk about in the show.

Mary and Joe really appreciated talking shop with Trysh Travis, and we hope you'll enjoy this energetic and poignant talk, too.

More Trysh Travis #WomenAlsoKnowHistory

Dr Adina Silvestri on Episode 85 IFS, Hypnosis, Microdosing + more

Sun, 02 Nov 2025 13:00:00 -0500

Mary C and Joe C in conversation with Dr. Adina Silvestri is what's on the menu for Episode 85 of Rebellion Dogs Radio.

Some of the topics we discussed with Dr. Adina include the evolution of therapeutic modalities and what's on offer today for people with Mental Health or substance use concerns: Internal Family Systems (adopted from attachment theory), microdosing for enlightenment and breakthroughs, trauma and emotional impasses, hypnosis, sound bathing and more.

In Adina's podcast, Atheists in Recovery, Joe was a guest on her show. John Sheldon had Adina as a guest for Episode 177 of the Beyond Belief Podcast.

Dr. Silvestri also reviewed 30 Things: Practical Advice for Living Well, written by William H. Schaberg and published by Rebellion Dog (2024).

https://adinasilvestri.com/counseling-services/

Therapies with Adina include:
Internal Family Systems Therapy
Brainspotting
Writing Bravely
Ketamine-Assisted Therapy
Therapy Intensive
Hypnotherapy
Imposter Syndrome Counselling
Group, Family and online/in-person therapy

Discussed on the show:

Sam Harris Awake App

Free Samples of Adina's Writing Through Grief and Loss: An IFS Journal for Healing

Episode 177 of Beyond Belief Podcast hosted by John Sheldon with Adina Silvestri

Adina Silvestri reviews 30Things: Practical Advice for Living Well by William H. Schabert (Rebellion Dogs Publishing 2024)

Trauma, 12 Steps, today's clinical environment with Dr Jamie Marich on Episode 84

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 23:00:00 -0400

This is Episode 84 of Rebellion Dogs Radio. Mary C and Joe C welcome Jamie Marich, PhD as her latest collaborative effort is published: Queering EMDR Therapy. Dr. Jamie will read a poem of hers that is published in this latest book.

We talk about the need for authenticity/integrity and its role in properly connecting in peer2peer, therapy and recovery, work, and community. And in a polarized environment, is our job to be truly authentic or avoid offending anyone? Well, that's a helluva question; let's talk about it.

We will look at this therapist/author's backlog of great books and her recent visits to ICSAA (International Conference of Secular AA) events in-person in Orlando (2024) and this September at ICSAA Virtual 2025.

For a complete list of links and show notes, visit Rebellion Dogs

Also,

https://jamiemarich.com/author/

Replay Leslie Jamison and her book The Recovering

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 22:00:00 -0400

Episode 38 of Rebellion Dogs Radio includes this interview with author Leslie Jamison at a Toronto hotel for her book tour. The Recovering is part memoir and part history of the Americana writers, creators, their work and their struggles.

Jamison’s 2024 latest Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story is also autobiographical, this time about love, parenthood and divorce. For our interview of this replay podcast (#38), Leslie had her beautiful baby in tow - a book tour during the realities of parenthood - and Splinters is about love and divorce and parenthood, full of lived experiences.

http://www.lesliejamison.com/#/news/

Replay from Santa Monica 2014 first secular AA gathering

Sun, 31 Aug 2025 22:00:00 -0400

Right now, we look ahead to 2024. Freethinkers in Orlando Alcoholics Anonymous are preparing to host the International Conference of Secular AA. This will mark ten years since our first International gathering of AA, for and by atheists and agnostics.

This show is a replay of Episode IX - highlights of the first ever We Agnostics & Freethinkers International A.A. Conference from Santa Monica California, November 6th to 8th, 2014.

Rebellion Dogs Radio # 9 includes segments from the keynotes given and a snap-shot of what was happening ten year ago, as all AA eyes were drawn to Los Angeles, historians, nonbelievers in recovery from addiction, fundamentalist AA's who overtly opposed Atheist/Agnostic AA at this critical juncture and the greater addiction/recovery community.

On the trip, I was one of several members who came a day early to visit the Pacific Group on the Wednesday night, to see what all the fuss was about. I stayed a day longer to visit my first (the first) Refuge Recovery meeting in LA.

Depending when you're listening to this, some of the Orlando ICSAA 2024 host committee will be sharing their recovery stories and updating us about the upcoming conference on the monthly ICSAA First Sunday International secular speakers Zoom Meeting January 7, 11 AM Pacific, 2 PM East, 7 PM UK/IE, 8 PM Central Europe. A link (if you missed it) to the ICSAA podcast can be found below. Registration for ICSAA 2024 is now open.

It's been a helluva decade.

A link to Rebellion Dogs Radio talk with Ward Ewing about his book 12 Steps to Religiousless Spirituality

Show notes and links from Episode IX from December 2014

More information about the September 20-22 Orlando International Conference of Secular AA

ICSAA audio archives: https://secularaa.buzzsprout.com/

Retro Rebellion Dog Key Players in AA History with Bob K

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 13:00:00 -0400

A significant portion of this Rebellion Dogs Radio Episode 20 was the first interview we conducted with recovery friend/history lover, and writer Bob K, also known as Bobby Beach, originally aired in January 2016.

It is with sadness that we share the news that Bob passed away at the age of 75 on August 12, 2025, in the early morning hours. This recording, the first of two on Rebellion Dogs Radio (the second being about his historical fiction called The Secret Diaries of Bill W.

The whole episode talks about history, the history of agnostics and atheists in AA, remembering Erinest Kurtz, PhD, who Bob and I share the honour of Ernie-Freaking-Kurtz having written the Forewords to our books (Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life + by Joe C, + Key Players in AA History, by Bob K).

So, let's remember Bob K. Feel free to fast forward to 20 minutes to listen to my chat with Bob.

The inside joke of Bobby Beach:

The now-defunct TheFix.com (oh, how I miss this town-square of topical issues in the recovery community) first recruited me to write an article was early in the "Toronto De-listing Debachal." In May of 2011, Toronto Intergroup took draconian measures to eliminate growing atheism in AA by voting to remove the two (at the time) agnostic/atheist meetings: Beyond Belief Agnostic & Freethinkers Group and We Agnostics. TheFix editor knew or heard about me from somewhere, called me, pitched me and made an offer. The article would use this event as a news peg, and it was titled around the larger question: "Do Atheists Belong in AA?"

In the addiction/recovery/healthcare world, I use the pen name Joe C. They didn't like that; they wanted a full name. I asked, "Does it have to be a real name?" "No," they answered, "just a first and last name." So, I replied, "So, how about Jesse Beach?" This was a stroke of good luck; the article was all over social media, and I had complete anonymity in my AA hometown and Area.

Then we learned that the alleged "anonymous author" of The White Paper on Agnostics, a Mein Kampf-esque manifesto on how and why to rid AA of the infectious threat of freethinkers, and our meetings--the word around AA History Symposium was that this was Sandy Beach, conference speaker. So inadvertently, Sandy Beach and Jesse Beach were family, divided by a family squabble. Well, Bok K joined the fray, evoking the pseudonym Bobby Beach, which is right in Bob's wheelhouse for sense of humour.

Visit the writings of Bob K @ https://aaagnostica.org

Visit Rebellion Dogs Radio page for more bob k when we talk about The Secret Diaries of Bill W. This is also right in Bob's sense of humour wheelhouse.

EPISODE 72 The Secret Diaries of Bill W by bob k

More History: September 27, 9 AM at Secular Ontario AA Roundup in Ottawa, Canada https://www.soaar2025.ca/ Joe C on the history of agnostic and atheist (secular AA) meeting and gatherings in AA.

One Big Tent: The Language of the Heart shared at Vancouver 2025

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 12:00:00 -0400

Rebellion Dogs Radio episode 83 broadcasts within the 90 years of AA in Vancouver, Canada, from July 3 to 6, 2025, at the International Convention. Because COVID-19 prevented the in-person 2020 Detroit I C from happening, it’s been 10 years since we all met in Atlanta. Estimates put the attendance at 38,000 in Vancouver; others enjoyed 8 hours of hybrid “Language of the Heart” – the convention theme – by logging on privately or participating in watch parties with AA members at home groups, clubhouses, or online via Zoom and other communities.

"The Language of the Heart" was the theme for this quinquennial gathering, which featured a diverse program offering sessions on Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour, LGBTQIA+, young people's, women's, career-specific (pilots, lawyers, doctors, first responders) groups, and more. Atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers tended to the hospitality suite of the International Conference of Secular AA. They presented three panels for everyone: "We Agnostics," "One Big Tent," and "What Makes a Secular AA Meeting Format?" which were shared with over 2,000 AAs in attendance.

One Big Tent offers the experiences of Michel from Ottawa, Stephanie from New Zealand and Rady, presently in Cleveland. We’ll also hear from members from Ireland, Poland and around the USA. AA members came to learn more about “AA with—or without—God.”

Joe C participated in and recorded "One Big Tent." You can get your recordings of this or another 700 panellists and speakers who shared at the Convention Centre or in BC Place, the stadium, downtown, for a few dollars each. AA contracts the recording, and they will happily provide some or all of the recordings via CD or MP3.

Visit AA.org for AA International Convention FAQ

or visit/Google Multiview Recording Services

https://2025ic.sclivelearningcenter.com/MVSite/Default.aspx

You can buy individual meetings or packages of some or all recordings from 2025. Prices for panels range from $3 to $5 for convention panels to $10 for individual stadium sessions.

AA for agnostics and atheists, or secular AA, is part of AA as a whole, referred to as one of many special composition groups. For more information about secular AA (humanists, agnostics, freethinkers, atheists, or anyone who prefers a practical AA approach without a supernatural/religious component) visit Secular AA

https://www.aasecular.org/

Check out Rebellion Dogs Publishing online for our recent blogs, books, merch, upcoming events and links. For more expansive links and thoughts about Vancouver 2025, Language of the Heart, click HERE

We Agnostics Panel 2015 Atlanta

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 11:00:00 -0400

The magical mystery tour of AA storytelling came to Atlanta in 2015, where 60,000 attendees at the International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous gathered from July 1st to 5th. “80 years – Happy, Joyous and Free” was the theme.

Diggins, Big Mike, and Jeff Y spoke to 1,500 and 2,000 people at the We Agnostics Panel held at the Convention with three speakers.

2025's AA celebration will include a Secular AA Hospitality Suite, which you can find in your 2025 AA Vancouver program. We are open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; come and visit us. There will be another "We Agnostics" panel + all about being part of a secular AA group in another panel called "One Big Tent." Who knows what other panels of the 700 +/- speakers among our secular members will participate?
https://www.aa.org/international-convention

We Agnostic Panel 1990 Seattle AA World Convention

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 18:00:00 -0400

This recording is the first-ever "We Agnostics" panel at AA's International Convention, held in Seattle to celebrate 55 years of AA in 1990.

At the time of recording, we are a couple of weeks from the 90th Anniversary of AA, held in Vancouver, Canada, from July 2nd to 6th. There will be another We Agnostics Panel at 9:30 AM on Saturday, and also, "What is a secular AA format?" Friday afternoon and "One Big Tent" named after the Grapevine booklet of Atheist and Agnostic Experience, Strength and Hope. The International Conference of Secular AA will have a hospitality suite from Thursday to Sunday. Check the program for details and come see us.

This recording included Bruce and Sarah from the We Agnostics group in Seattle, Charlie P from Hollywood, Mary N from Florida and Phylis from New York.

We Agnostic Panel 2000 Minneapolis AA Convention

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 20:00:00 -0400

In 2000, Minneapolis featured the third rendition of non-believers at the quadrennial International convention of AA. In 1990 We Agnostics was part of the Seattle AA program. In 1995 We Agnostics was hosted by the San Diego AA World Convention; there has been such a panel every world convention since, in Toronto 2005, San Antonio 2010, Atlanta 2015. Detroit 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

When posting this, there are less than 70 days to Vancouver 2025, The Language of the Heart, July 3 to 6. Visit https://www.aa.org/international-convention for registration and information. In the Vancouver program, you'll find the "Secular AA Hospitality suite. " Come and visit us. We will have two freethinker/agnostic meetings in Vancouver: We Agnostics + One Big Tent. Hope to see some of you there.

Chaired by Bob F, NY City We Agnostics Group,
Gwen G,, Miami,
Fred C., British Columbia, Canada, sober for 48 years at the time. Sober from about 1952?
Richard B, Cleveland

Any locals, Rebellion Dogs is curious about any record of Fred, a freethinker in Canada AA from the 1950s. If anyone knows someone who knew him, we'd love to hear more about his biography.

VIsit https://aasecular.org for more information and recordings, and/or see more Rebellion Dogs @ https://rebelliondogspublshing.com

We Agnostic Panel 1995 San Diego AA Convention

Fri, 11 Apr 2025 15:00:00 -0400

The AA World Convention is a quinquennial gathering to celebrate the anniversary of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Since 1990, there has been a “We Agnostics Panel." At the time of posting, we are 80 days away from Vancouver 2025, July 3-6. AA World Convention with the theme “Language of the Heart.”

2025's AA celebration will include a Secular AA Hospitality Suite, which you can find in your 2025 AA Vancouver program. We are open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; come and visit. There will be another "We Agnostics" panel + all about being part of a secular AA group in another panel called "One Big Tent." Who knows what other panels of the 700 +/- speakers among our secular members will participate?

Rebellion Dogs will share some of these previous recordings. In 1995, in San Diego, we celebrated 60 years since Bill W. met Dr. Bob, the birth of AA. There is no society of one person; therefore, two sober people equals the birth of this peer-to-peer society.

The moderator was Jacques F, AAWS Director and freethinker from the Serendipity Group in Pointe-Claire, Quebec. Speakers included Merl E. from Hollywood We Agnostics group, Mel D from New York City and Linda F from the Freedom Group Tuscon AZ who had a coming-out as a non-believer at the podium.

Following the formal speakers, we heard from the crowd: Bill, Allan, Quad-A, Chicago, Pete, Matt, Norma Jean, Adrian, John, Katie, Carrie, We Agnostics of Passedina, CA, Elizabeth from Back to Basics in San Francisco and Melanie.

C.H.I.M.E. update Growing in Understanding January 2025

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 22:00:00 -0500

Connection

Hope

Identity

Meaning

Empowerment

These commonalities of most people who thrive (vs. cope) in recovery from addiction and mental health comes from the research of Mary Leamy, Senior Lecturer in Mental Health Recovery and Staff Wellbeing, and Associate Dean for Postgraduate Research programme, Kings College in London

https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/mary.leamy

A conceptual framework for personal recovery in mental health: systematic review and narrative synthesis, DR MARY LEAMY, et al

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22130746/

How CHIME applies to people in recovery has been the basis of research for Rebellion Dogs Publishing for three years. We continue to present and encourage participation in workshops with people in recovery, through 2025. Previous workshops have included Vancouver BC, Savannah GA, Kingston ON and presented at the International Conference of Secular AA in Orlando, September 2024.

Joe C is the author of Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life

Sober Love: Couples Getting Sober on Episode 77 with Dr. Joe Nowinski

Sun, 15 Sep 2024 21:00:00 -0400

Dr. Joe Nowinski's book ideas comes from working in the trenches, not from any ivory tower. Episode 77 of Rebellion Dogs Radio looks at a run-of-the-mill problem in early recovery that doesn’t get enough ink: if we are together in a relationship and you go to treatment and come home to stay sober, should I live a sober life too? It’s your problem. Well, that’s one way to look at it; others would feel we are in this together.

Here’s another case: a couple is together for a long time. Neither has ever had a legal or health scare because of using alcohol or other drugs. Still, their consumption has increased, and the relationship is suffering from some consequences. Should they consider being a sober couple, or is sober just for people diagnosed as severe on the alcohol use disorder spectrum?

Dr. Joe Nowinski has a new book (Johns Hopkins Press Health Book, September 10, 2024) called Sober Love: How to Quit Drinking as a Couple. This is from case studies over years of family practice as a clinical psychologist.

Former Chief Medical Officer of Hazelden Betty Ford says, “Dr. Nowinski is a highly qualified expert who uses the latest research and his clinical expertise to couples that recognize that alcohol has interfered with their lives." Dr. Marvind D. Seppala goes on to say, "Alcohol can undermine even the best of relationships. Sober Love delivers the information necessary to develop a plan.”

Addiction Medicine doctor Ray Baker says, “I am delighted to recommend this gem of a book! It offers the knowledge, tips and skills needed for recovery people in intimate relationships to interconnect on their mutual journey of growth. It’s one of a kind.”

If you’re a Rebellion Dogs Radio long-timer, you know Joe’s a repeat guest. Mary C and Joe C talk with Dr. Nowinski after reading his book. If you are new to Rebellion Dogs Radio, visit our website for links and further discussions:

Recovery After Rehab: A Guide for the Newly Sober and Their Loved Ones (2021) on Episode 62 & If You Work It It Works! The Science Behind the 12 Steps (2015) on Episode 12.

Plain Language Big Book - AA's more comprehensible message

Wed, 24 Jul 2024 15:00:00 -0400

What’s Different?

The first 164 pages are now 122 pages – by simplifying the language.
More “gender-balanced” – e.g. jaywalker is female; but not gender-neutral using “they”.
The wording of the Steps has not changed from Him/His, but in other places,gender-balanced He/Him/His “may have changed to God”.
Only “Dr. Bob’s Nightmare” is included in the stories (more on some problematic Doctor Bob language to follow).

Plain language interpretation reduced 164 pages by 25%—a noteworthy reduction. How Bill wrote does not fit in as far as a contemporary discussion about alcohol use disorder or addiction in general. Here’s an example: it is unimaginable to expect to hear or read this abstract and flowery description of alcohol use disorder at your doctor’s office:

“But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is finitely grave. We found that it is fatal. For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink again. And with us, to drink is to die.

If we were to live, we had to be free of anger. The grouch and the brainstorm were not for us. They may be the dubious luxury of normal men, but for alcoholics, these things are poison (“How It Works,” p. 66).”

Referred to in this show:

THE BLOG POST (Read on PDF or Website) includes AA membership from 2002 to 2020, which changed (+/-) over 20 years and more.

https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/blog/blog/7425695/plain-language-big-book-coming-soon-who-what-where-when-why

Biographies of the 28 AA stories in the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (and other AA stories)Referred

https://library.iusb.edu/search-find/archives/gcarchive/docs/ref-bb-authors.pdf

2020 Membership Survey from Great Britain General Service Office+

81% of newcomers and 94% of people sober 10+ years believe in a higher power (Great Britain and English-speaking Central Europe). Of those who believe, ⅓ believe in a religious god, ⅔ believe in a secular higher power. See page 11.

https://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/AA-Membership-Survey-2020.pdf

Other show notes....
https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio/blog/7438907/plain-language-big-book-episode-76-rebellion-dogs-radio

The year ahead Episode 75 AAs new survey and new literature

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 22:00:00 -0500

We look at history—why? Isn’t this a contemporary, or even future gazing look at recovery and addiction?

Well yes and yes. Yuval Noah Harari, PDH author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind says, “History is not the study of past; history is the study of change; it’s not about remembering the past; it’s about liberating ourselves from it.”

Episode 75 of Rebellion Dogs Radio explores three calls to action by Alcoholics Anonymous that need our attention in 2024:

1. New stories of AA diversity today are needed to update the 48-year-old Do You Think You’re Different? Let’s get our freak on; if you ever felt you can’t or won’t blend into AA, we want you to help demonstrate what we mean by, “We are people who normally would not mix. But there exists among us a fellowship, a friendliness, and an understanding which is indescribably wonderful.”

2. About our primary literate in AA—The Big Book + 12 & 12: rewrite it? Or reify it? Grappling with a need to adapt to changing times, being sensitive to change-resistant tendencies, the trustees’ Literature Committee is polling members, looking for their marching orders: preserve what’s written; or breathe fresh life into last millennium’s AA message and widen our gateway? Directly from AA’s General Service Office, we have these seven questions for you.

3. The 2022, much anticipated, AA membership survey is posted with current data on AA for all to see; counselors, healthcare and criminal court diversion professional who refer people to AA, the general public and last but not least AA members to show how we are doing, from our home groups to the USA/Canada General Service Conference at reaching all those who want or need AA to be available, equitably, and effectively. Our responsibility declaration nudges us to look at this new info, see who were are serving, who we may be failing and confront how, whenever, wherever, someone reaches out, we want the hand of AA always to be there (for everyone regardless of age, race, gender, creed, cultural touchstones). There’s information for the first time about USA/Canada AA’s use of online meetings and our preferences. It’s like those pioneering driving blind days all over again.

DIVERSITY: What makes you different?

If you are someone in recovery and you were helped by peer-to-peer, maybe AA specifically, did you immediately feel at home at your first meeting, or did you feel different that the group you were exposed to? If you felt or feel different, we have a humble writing assignment for you as our first topic.

The AA Literature desk wants your story, 500—800 words. DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DIFFERENT? is the 48-year-old pamphlet #13 that tipped the scale in my own should-I-stay or should-I-go sobriety. I found people (stories) spoken in my language for the first time in AA. If you do not know this collection of AA stories, click the link to read. Thirteen essays of people who felt marginalized, a teenager, atheist, clergy, high bottom, low bottom, movie star, person of color, LGBTQIA+, share the barriers and bridges navigated to find a rightful seat in AA. How timely to hear from a 15-year-old when I was a teenage alcoholic. I was happy to read what Ed the AA atheist and Jan the AA agnostic had to say about sobriety without an anthropomorphic personal higher power.

It's a great recovery tool; and it’s old. Today’s teenager doesn’t have any use for 1970s teenage angst; it could be unrelatable, leaving gender identification, pronouns et al alone for now—yes we need to attend to contemporary, sensitive, inclusive language, but—it all starts with a story, one person in recovery talking to another with alcohol use disorder. This

Retro Rebellion Dogs with Ep 19's Richard + Jack

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 01:00:00 -0500

From our Radio vault, Episode 19 features Richard, a Canadian Slam Poet, Comedian, pianist + Jack from LA, punk rocker, author, and recovering Big Book thumper. This show was recorded in the Fall of 2015. It is eight years later - both of these mavericks are doing their thing, in meetings and on stage. Visit our website for links if you connect with Jack, Richard, or both of these samples of recovery. I suspect that one or both are performing somewhere you could get to, or maybe in a meeting on Zoom or just down the road from you. Jack's book, A Principle of Recovery: An Unconventional Journey Through the Twelve Steps is only a click or two away, also

Most of all, how these people with addiction found recovery in the rooms and adapted what they found to fit their worldview and the life they lead, is a story worth listening to again... or again and again.

Also discussed on this podcast, Vancouver will host the International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous the first weekend of July, 2025. This quinquennial event has happened (almost) every five years since 1950. In 2020 we were supposed to be in Detroit but COVID, who remembers COVID and an in-person event of tens of thousands wasn't going to happen in Motown or anywhere. So, some restless folks are going to be eager to get out and share in the spectacle and spend the money already saved up in their Big Book sized piggy bank. That said, crazy as it might sound, it may not be too early to think about booking a hotel room or Air B'n'B because VanCity will be overcapacity, I am pretty sure of that. Also on the planning ahead front, the twice postponed 2020 and 2022 biennial International Conference of Secular AA had to funnel atheists and agnostics onto Zoom because Washington DC wasn't going to happen for the same reasons mentioned above. Orlando Florida, September 20-22 we--or some of "we" are going to to be all Goofy, Mickey and Minnie or Donald Ducky for the weekend. Info for Secular AA ICSAA 2024

For more on this Rebellion Dogs Radio classic, blogs, books, community and other ways to engage with time well wasted, visit Rebellion Dogs Radio for links and show notes or to comment. We are all in this together; Rebellion Dogs would enjoy hearing from you.
https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/

Bill Schaberg the sequal - 4 years after Writing the Big Book:The Creation of AA

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 21:00:00 -0400

It was the Fall of 2019, Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA by William Schaberg was about to be published and Joe C sat down with the author to talk about the soon-to-be-unveiled book born of eleven years of primary documentary research on Rebellion Dogs Radio, Episode 49. Four years later, more has been revealed and new insights gained. So listeners asked, “When are you two going to sit down again for a podcast?” Here it is.

This time around we look at new insights and speculation into early AA history. Bill and Joe share about their own recovery experience and reflect on changing AA culture through the years and what might inform the future of AA groups, members and culture.

We talk about The “God” Word: Agnostics and Atheists in AA
We talk about the upcoming ZOOM October 7th/8th ICSAA (International Conference of Secular AA).
We talk about the probable influence of the most popular New Thought books of the day and how this cultural phenomena informed our AA 12-Step suggested program of Recovery. Read “Bill W's secret bookshelf.”
We talk about the idea that and documentary evidence that supports the idea that Bill W thought he was done writing the Big Book--without the 12 steps or any step-by-step guide.
We talk about Episode 49: when we first talked writing Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA (click to read/listen)

Rebellion Dogs Radio always features rebellious music. Episode 74 feature a Toronto band covering a recently lost British icon who died, too young, but sober: Goodnight Sunrise covers David Bowie's Major Tom.

Rebellion Dogs thinks this Major Tom cover is amazingly artistic and new sounding - it may send you clamoring back for your original psychedelic era version (and that's okay, too). Visit Goodnight Sunrise, view their campy look at the music industry today in their video WAIT FOR IT. See this band live if you get the chance.

SHOW NOTES & LINKS EPISODE 74 of REBELLION DOGS RADIO

Replay Marc Lewis and Greta Vosper from 2015

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 22:00:00 -0400

Two Davids, facing two Goliaths of stubborn orthodoxy are the focus of Episode 17 of Rebellion Dogs Radio.

One rebel is Mark Lewis, who challenges the disease model of addiction.

Greta Vosper, atheist minister of the United Church of Canada, who at the time was facing a review of her peers who found her liberalism to be maybe too far to be called even progressive Christianity.

Looking back in 2023, these heretical views of not so long ago are today's contemporary views or worldview and/or substance use disorder and wellness.

Visit original posting for links REBELLION DOGS #17 August 30 2015

Visit Rebellion Dogs Publishing for the latest

REPLAY Prof TRYSH TRAVIS, Episode 34 Women in AA

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0400

Trysh Travis, is Associate Dean at University of Florida. She oversees Women’s Studies, is a cultural and literary historian whose work looks at the gendered history of medicine and popular therapeutic cultures. While working as a high school teacher, she earned an MA from the Bread Loaf School of English, followed by a PhD in American Studies from Yale University. She is the author of The Language of the Heart: Twelve-Step Recovery from Alcoholics Anonymous to Oprah Winfrey (UNC Press, 2009) and co-editor (with Timothy Aubry) of Rethinking Therapeutic Culture (Chicago, 2016). Her work has been supported by the Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and appeared in venues such as PMLA, American Quarterly, Contemporary Drug Problems, and Raritan: A Quarterly Review. With UF colleague Joseph Spillane, she is the co-founder of the translational humanities project Points: The Joint Blog of the Alcohol & Drugs History Society and the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy, where she currently serves as Managing Editor Emerita.

Dr Travis presented to AA History Symposium about the history or women in AA and gender politics. Originally, Episode 34, this recording inspires new listeners every month. See original show notes from Episode 34

This talk discusses the democratization of "We are all the same, we are all equal" in AA with "It's more complicated than that; there is gender politics and other marginalizing factors for some of us in and out of the meetings which needs to be addressed in a discussion of addiction and recovery."

Our musical guest is English art-rock band Moulettes

Replay Ep. 23 William B and Jackie B

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 11:00:00 -0400

William G. Borchert: September 9, 1933 - October 1, 2022 memorial will be on Zoom coming from Stepping Stones April 2 (first 1000 only)
ZOOM 867 0807 3394 Passcode 1962 7—8:15 PM New York time (UTC –4)

Who was Bill B? A New York newspaperman who got sober in the 1960s and would write some AA history including early AA + When Love is Not Enough, the story of Lois Wilson. Bill died in October 1922 and he is being honored by friends in recovery, so we are replaying this 2016 recording.

My Name is Bill W. (1989), staring James Woods as Bill W. and James Garner as Dr. Bob and When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story (2010) staring Winona Ryder - this is some of William's work. Having written 1000 Years of Sobriety (Hazelden), the stories of twenty members with fifty or more years of sobriety each, William Borchert's was our Rebellion Dogs guest as he had recently put out his autobiography that I had just read: How I Became My Father: A Drunk is not only a look at AA history by someone in the room, but a time-capsule of mid-20th century American life. I mention in the show that I talked much longer with William and I would post our discussion about the craft of writing and more about his autobiography. I went on to other demanding things and it did not happen. Maybe soon, I will post it.

Also on the show, a regular: Jackie B, playwright and AA historian. Jackie is part of a History: Steps, Traditions, Concepts presentation @ The Wilson House in Vermont, April 15/16 and on Zoom along with William Schaberg (Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA) and others.
More Rebellion Dogs Radio

The Secret Diaries of Bill W with bob k

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 12:00:00 -0400

Bob K's new book is out - The Secret Diaries of Bill W

In 1972 AA was learning to live sans-founder as Bill Wilson had been dead for a year. In Episode 72 of Rebellion Dogs Radio, The Secret Diaries of Bill W by bob k bring him back for another lap around the track. We spend, well pretty much the whole episode talking about all kinds of things but mostly Bob K and Joe C talk about writing, this, Bob's new historical fiction, mostly but it's a fun chat that we welcome you to join.

We touch briefly on other goings on at Rebellion Dogs Publishing, a new blog about service in recovery and a two-part series with Emotional Sobriety Podcast all about the Traditions and Emotional Sobriety. Details and links: https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio

Meet Michael, author of We Sober Agnostics (2023)

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 01:00:00 -0500

Michael is a professor, musician, journalist and author. Having just written a Living Sober-size booklet, Michael is our guest to make a case for AA for people, even if they are skeptical about the higher power stuff. He shares how in he neither looks for a war of worldviews nor bites his tongue. This first contemporary recovery print offering of 2023 is a great for secular AA Zoomers in search of new meeting starters. It's a good read for anyone new to AA, from one who has been there.

If his "AA can work" argument, or your personal AA experience aren't convincing, We Sober Agnostics shows us how to find SMART, Women For Sobriety or other peer 2 peer groups that might be a better fit.

Our musical guest Your EX and I (YXNI) from Montreal drop a 2023 teaser to their upcoming recording. This synth-pop tune is "For all the Loves" so, if that's what you're into, get into YXNI HERE

Links:
Amazon, We Sober Agnostics: The Survival Guide for Agnostics, Atheists and Non-Believers in 12-Step Programs

eMail WeSoberAgnostics@yahoo.com

Check out our liner notes and more RebElliOn dOgs RaDiO

Non-alcoholic trustee Mani Mehdikhani on what the 2020 AA membship survey tells us

Sun, 13 Nov 2022 10:00:00 -0500

Meet Clinical Psychologist at Greater Manchester West NHS Mental Health Foundation Trust, Mani Mehdikhani, one of AA Great Britain’s non-alcoholic trustees on their General Service Board.

Among other duties, Mani and his committee prepared the quinquennial AA membership survey which went out to Alcoholics Anonymous members in Great Britain and English-speaking Central Europe Region groups in 2020.

A remarkable thing happened as they prepared to put these questions before members: The COVID-19 pandemic. As members transitioned from primarily face-to-face meetings to online gatherings, here was an opportunity to collect data on how members were adjusting. The GSO Board did just that.

Here is what members told us.

Less than one-in-five (18%) Great Britain AAs had experience with online meetings, pre-pandemic. More members in the Central Europe Region were inclined towards online AA.
By the time the survey of 2020 was collected, 93% of members/groups were able to transition to online (Zoom, etc.) means of connecting with each other.
Early in our adaptation to online AA, members greatest concerns were: (i) helping newcomers, (ii) doing service work, (iii) sponsoring members and (iv) “carrying the message.”

Zoom was not a better way of doing things for everyone. And some members were already attending phone or video meetings anyway. A few months into lock-down the key drawbacks among people who were not in love with ‘the new normal’ were: (i) a lack of technical skills, (ii)online meetings not a suitable replacement for face-to-face (f2f) meetings (33-36%), (iii) concerns about privacy, (iv) no access to bandwidth or IT devices, (iv) group was continuing to meet f2f.

New questions were asked about higher power (beliefs and spirituality.

Last episode we explored survey results based on the written report. What added benefit came from speaking with the survey’s architect directly?

Well, personally, I had extrapolating some of this data from what it says to what it means; Mani’s scientific observations helped me reel-in some of the hypothetical conclusions I was already starting to draw. “That’s human nature,” he kindly suggested to me. But it was also reassuring to hear that the Board also did not have their full appetite satisfied and they would love to ask follow-up questions to try to direct their efforts most effectively.

The purpose of these membership surveys (in General Service regions such as Great Britain or USA/Canada) is: (i) inform the public and professionals that interact with alcohol use disorder about the demographics and other characteristics of AA members and meetings and (ii)use the data to inform the Board in terms of where their future efforts would best serve the membership of AA.

Mani and the General Service Board say they view with great interest how online AA will both aid the still suffering alcoholic but how virtual spaces will alter the service structure which has—based on geographical locations of members and their meetings before—divided groups/members by geography and how shall the service structure adapt to our more global makeup of meetings and member-interactions?

Review the entire 2020 Great Britain AA Membership Survey

Also discussed in this show: The 5th Biennial International Conference of Secular AA (UTC time schedule) Other time zones (North America) HERE

More of what goes on when "Rebellion Dogs our every step::
https://rebelliondogspublishing.com

Modernity and Fundamentalism in 12 Step Culture Today

Fri, 02 Sep 2022 14:00:00 -0400

With or Without God: the latest Alcoholics Anonymous Membership Survey from Great Britain identifies how many members are religious vs. secular.

Episode 69 of Rebellion Dogs Radio looks at our more enlightened understanding of AA members, at least a significant sample size: the findings from the Great Britain 2020 AA Membership Survey + English Speaking Central Europe meetings. We look, not only at this modernism movement that includes measurable assessment of AA members and AA life today, but we look at how progress is happening in AA, within the context of fundamentalism in AA. It is worth viewing both sides, what are the payoffs for those who embrace a strict orthodoxy and why is AA’s progress, too slow for some.

Rebellion Dogs Radio is a contemporary look at life in recovery, addiction, mental health and sober culture. Now with less dogma and more bite. A lot of podcasts I like the most, I listen to twice, to help absorb what I might have missed in a once-over. RebellionDogsPublishing.com is a hub too: stuff that we have written, stuff we love reading, links, resources, time wasters. Visiting Rebellion Dogs online, we post notices ahead of time or at least, links to listen/watch after the fact.

Help yourself to a PDF transcript of Episode 69 along with links from our show.

Our musical act is the Toronto/NYC trio ON with their 2022 new song "Underdog."
https://onmusic.ca/

Replay: Episode 41 Addiction & Recovery from Criminal Justice to Rock 'n' Roll (2019)

Fri, 05 Aug 2022 00:00:00 -0400

This blast from the past features two interviews by recovering alcoholics helping to overcome the stigma of addiction (and in some cases, addiction recovery) from the courtroom to the Rock 'n' Roll cabaret.

First, we talk with author, lawyer, former Attorney General Michael J Bryant on his second book, Mere Addiction. Michael offers an insider’s candid commentary about how abstinence bail conditions are a set up for failure and recidivism, leading many addicts/alcoholics to battle the stacked odds of overcoming addiction without support. One senior lawyer at my 12-Step home group calls making drinking a violation of an alcoholic’s bail or parole as the criminal justice system’s means of “manufacturing crime.” The defendant cannot likely succeed and new charges will follow. What a great system of "corrections."

Second, meet Lucy, addiction counselor by day, lead vocalist and bassist by night. I am working on a new podcast (Fall 2022) that will include new music from one of Lucy's music projects; get to know her and her story first, of addiction, recovery and return to front of stage.

Visit Rebellion Dogs Publishing for links and notes for books, music and rebellious good fun.

Sample or download Mere Addiction now

See/hear Lucy DiSanto talking addiction/recovery, counseling and rock 'n' roll

Replay: Episode 32 Generational Divide (2017)

Fri, 03 Jun 2022 13:00:00 -0400

Thanks for listening to Rebellion Dogs Radio: A contemporary look at addiction, recovery and mental health, hopefully with less dogma and more bite!
Douglas Coupland (author: Generation X) wrote, "The boomer generation is the one that unselfconscientiously uses pronoun 'We' when describing itself. X, Y and [generations] beyond flee the room the moment someone says, 'We.'"

"It's a WE program" is heard in a Zoom rectangle from one generation; "Do not include ME in your WE." replies the next generation, somewhere else on the screen.

Lately I have learned... maybe all over again, that people line up pretty fast on one side or the other of the debate as to "should recovery meetings be inclusive with 'we' language or should we each speak for ourselves only in first person language."

It's been hotly debated on Zoom meetings lately.

Anyhow; this is an episode about Generations, Generations Gaps and how we preserve the familiar to not disenfranchise an older recovery generation while speaking a contemporary vernacular to include today's newcomer to clean and sober life?

We... I mean I ... put current ages to generations and because this show first aired last decade and pre-pandemic (what did we know back then?) here's 2022 age ranges for generations:

Gen Z (1998 - 2012) are 10 to 25 years-old
Millennials (1981 - 1997) are 26 to 41 years-old
Gen X (1965 to 1980) are 42 to 56 years of age
Baby Boomers (1946 to 1964) are 58 to 76 years of age
Silent Generation (1928 to 1945) are 77 years-old or older.

Two generations that make up our founders are Bill and Bob and Jim B's gen: Lost Generation born between 1883 and 1900, and The Greatest Gen, from 1901 to 1927).

Show notes including a PDF transcript: Rebellion Dogs Publishing.com

Carl Erik Fisher author of The Urge: Our History of Addiction

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 16:00:00 -0500

Rebellion Dog Radio EPISODE 68 features guest, Carl Erik Fisher. A Columbia University Psychiatrist, host of Flourishing After Addiction podcast, author of THE URGE: OUR HISTORY of ADDICTION, Carl Erik Fisher talks about his research, his work and his lived experience.

Our musical feature on Episode 68 is Goodnight Sunrise with their song debuting 02 22 2022 "One Pill."

Carl Erik Fisher’s search for answers about mental health and addiction hasn’t been satisfied by science and medicine; our trip with Dr. Carl Erik takes us into a journey of history, art and philosophy. Sacred cows and wanting definitions and understandings be damned.

The Urge illuminates the extent to which the story of addiction has persistently reflected broader questions surrounding being human and care for (and connection with) one another. Fisher introduces us to the people who have endeavored to address this complex condition through the ages: physicians and politicians, activists and artists, researchers and writers, and of course the legions of people who have struggled with their own addictions. He also examines the treatments and strategies that have produced hope and relief for many people with addiction, himself included. Only by reckoning with our history of addiction, he argues—our successes and our failures—can we light the way forward for those whose lives remain threatened by its hold.

The Urge: Our History of Addiction reveals that the idea of disease and disorder is not a 20th century construct...

"In 1606 Parliament passed an 'Act for the Repressing of the Odious and Loathsome Sin of Drunkenness.' Religious writers of the seventeenth century had log been describing drunkenness as a problem of 'addiction': in 1609, the influential Puritan John Downame bemoaned the fates of those who 'addict themselves to much drinking' and lamented how 'many of our people of late, are so unmeasurably addicted to this vice.' Addiction was no longer just an action one did but also a condition: people actively 'addicted' themselves to something, but were also 'addicted' by something else acting on them - like, of course, gin.

Medical writers during the Gin Craze drew on these developments and began using the word 'addicted' to explain the impaired choice of habitual drunkenness..."

Enjoy this interview with someone who I hope will be offering sobering insights into the dialogue of addiction and mental health for some time to come.

Goodnight Sunrise, one of the most theatrical and engaging live music acts in Toronto, is missing their time on stage but they're "Not Dead Yet," as their last pandemic song reminded us. We always close with something musical and today it's their 2022 02 22 release "One Pill." Some acts I see in a lot of festivals and clubs I go to, seem to find it difficult to replicate on stage what they created in the studio. Goodnight Sunrise might have the opposite challenge: putting in a mp3 what we experience with their live performance. "One Pill" may have cured that problem for them. The song has some of that live energy.

It's a contemporary sounding song that draws on some great influences: An 80's list-song about craving altered states, Huey Lewis, "I Want a New Drug"; or an even further throw-back like the retro-psychedelic movement, these new-agers may still be humming the 1960's Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane anthem, "Go Ask Alice."

Here are the lyrics ...

One pill to make you stronger
One pill to wear you out
One pill to make you wonder
One pill to ease your doubts

Visit Rebellion Dogs Publishing for links, show notes and more.

Replay: Episode 53 is a welcome letter to anyone new to secular Alcoholics Anonymous

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 00:00:00 -0500

This show was first published when secular AA was just growing into the digital new normal of Zoom AA. It was an experimental time and since February 2020, more new varieties of agnostic, atheist, freethinkers, irreligious AA meetings had sprung up and stuck. Many of these new meetings have never had a brick-and-mordar home. They are the trend which is decade three of millennium # 3.

Episode 53 covers the basics of AA recovery without subscribing to the idea of a prayer-answering, sobriety-granting higher power. We read Reality Check: Being Nonreligious in America. It's a survey and report about life for atheists and agnostics in the Christian nation of the USA.

The survey reports that, people needed to be closeted about their beliefs, even with loved ones.

People got asked to go along with religious rituals and asked not to rock-the-boat... awkward.

People were belittled, ignored or discriminated against.

Does this sound anything like AA stories about nonbelievers getting the fish eye or cold shoulder? Episode 53 looks at this study and some recent AA history and how members are adapting. AA members are creating groups and writing literature to foster the community of AA without god or gods.

Recovery is more accessible than ever for a growing non-religious population who prefer a practical approach to faith-based recovery. It's not better, it's not revolutionary but it's legitimate and has a long, long track record.

This isn't a new fad; In 1965 Bill W was talking about now AA ought to get more accustomed to both atheists and non-Christian believers who were accounting for much of AA's growth. In San Francisco, years before the Monterey Pop festival that exemplifies the summer of love, Dr. Earle of "Physician Heal Thyself" infamy was writing Steps and opening the door people who weren't interested in Divine intervention and also to newcomers with drug problems other than alcoholism. AA was changing. AA was growing. Today, on zoom, there over a dozen secular AA meetings throughout any given day where people can find recovery without having to accept anyone else's beliefs nor having to deny their own.

We get whimsical and musical. It's fun. For links and footnotes, visit Rebellion Dogs Publishing's Podcast page, Episode 53

Replay: Talking to Writing the Big Book author William Schaberg in the Fall of 2019

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 20:00:00 -0500

Writing the Big Book: The Creation of A.A. by William Schaberg

We have to go back to 1979, the seminal scholarly account of early history, Not God: The History of Alcoholics Anonymous by Ernie Kurtz. It took 40 years for the next deep dive of this caliber. In 2019, Writing the Big Book: The Creation of A.A. by William Schaberg drew on over a decade of primary documentary research to compare with the stories we've all heard about the early days of AA.

This is a replay, originally Episode 49 from Rebellion Dogs Publishing, recorded just weeks before the book’s release. For news notes visit Rebellion Dogs Radio Episode 49.

What a CONCEPT: AA and Public Controversy

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 22:00:00 -0500

Alcoholics Anonymous starts the year—January 1, 2022—in self-inflicted public controversy:

"The way our ‘worthy’ alcoholics have sometimes tried to judge the ‘less worthy’ is, as we look back on it, rather comical. Imagine, if you can, one alcoholic judging another!" Bill W.

In the UK, AA’s General Service Office retaliation against it’s own group has created click-bait for media outlets. The Daily Mail and other news outlets are reporting that an AA “group is under threat after being censured for reciting the Lord’s Prayer,” and members of the group were “told by leaders it had become too Christian-focused and has been removed from the organization’s online directory.”

In January 2022’s podcast we look at a history of AA’s promise of love and tolerance and the habitual hiccup of AA bleeding deacons pulling the fire-alarm and turning on nonconforming or specialty group, a seasonal reoccurring turn from unity to tryanny. Joni Mitchell’s song, “Circle Game,” comes to mind:

And the seasons, they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We are captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return, we can only look
Behind from whence we came
We go round and round and round in the circle game

We do not devote an hour to fault-finding or laying blame. That would be more circle games, we think. We see a learning opportunity. Taking our own inventory, how does our intention of "love and tolerance of others is our code," blow-up into periodic bouts of dis-unity. Can AA live up to its own principles or is it impossible to transcend a human tendency towards tribal conflict? This is important to talk about it. So let's do that. We offer a historical review of policy and some of the patterns that turn AAs against each other.

For show notes links and a transcript visit Rebellion Dogs Radio Episode 67

Episode 66 Blast from AAs past. Listen to the Jim B Memorial Gathering

Wed, 29 Dec 2021 05:00:00 -0500

Jim B was 36 years, two months, four days sober, an atheist, and one of the first few dozen to get sober in Alcoholics Anonymous when he died September 8th, 1974. Jim B outlived both “official” founders, Dr. Bob and Bill W.

Listen here for the moving stroll down the lane of AA history.

For a twist to the story, visit Rebellion Dogs Radio page. As Jim B was drawing his last breathes in San Diego, across the continent in Montreal, a teenage boy is spared from death from asphyxiation, being found in the wee hours, laying face up in his own vomit in his high school arena. Thanks to the kindness of strangers and medical intervention, the boy is spared an alcoholic death. As an AA pioneer passes on, the same day, a recovery journey begins. Details of these overlapping AA journeys can be found in the link above.

This recording, the memorial service of Jimmy Burwell is a number of puzzle pieces of AA history.

Rosa Burwell, his widow was there of course. She has the distinction of being the first Southern California female delegate to the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Marge was only the second female California delegate; she was 11 years sober at the memorial and remembers being at Jim’s 25-year celebration, early in her sobriety.

Roy recalls Jim bringing AA to Philadelphia, Just months before this memorial, a telegram would be received, informing Rosa and Jim that 1,150 AA members celebrated the anniversary of the group Jim B started in Philly. The telegram boasted that they could have sold 1,000 more tickets if they had room for them all.

Eunice knew Jim from AA in Washington, saw him again reading the Steps in a meeting in San Diego. Eunice and Rosa became the best of friends.

Sybil C got sober in LA March 21, 1941, the first AA woman West of the Mississippi River. From the lectern, Sybil shared about early AA plays of the day (Jackie B, did you already know this?!? Jackie’s written a play about AA history that features Sybil prominently). As the story is told by Sybil, the LA play featured an unabashed atheist from formative New York AA. During a local performance, Sybil sneaked Jim B into the wings to come on stage, playing himself before an unsuspecting audience. The place went wild with enthusiasm.

Religionless Spirituality with Ward Ewing on Rebellion Dogs Radio

Thu, 02 Dec 2021 22:00:00 -0500

“A person’s spirituality, then, is built on three internal processes:

the way we perceive the world about us,
how we feel about that world, and
the choices we make—conscious and unconscious—in response to our perceptions and our sensations. These three processes are intertwined and naturally reinforcing.”

Rev. Ward Ewing, Twelve Steps to Religionless Spirituality: The Power of Spirituality with or without God (2021)

Ward Ewing is non-alcoholic (Class-A) AA trustee emeritus. In 2009 he was elected to chair the Alcoholics Anonymous General Service Board , which he did for four years before rotating out of the position. He's been a friend to AA since 1975 when he was looking for answers to alcoholism and it's effect on some of his congregants.

Non-alcoholics hold a unique role in AA. They can be the face of AA for media; there is no cloak of anonymity imposed on our non-alcoholic trustees. They offer expertise, experience and advice that our non-professional peer-to-peer fellowship benefits from: sometimes this expertise is in the area of communication, medicine, employee assistance, legal or finance expertise. Ward B Ewing was President and Dean of the General Theological Seminary in New York City when we was asked to consider serving as an AA trustee.

Ward has a new book: I like it, it find addresses some of the struggles 12-step communities and the larger community face; he looks at the growth appetite for spiritual values without religious dogma and in some cases, without gods. Ward Ewing spoke at We Agnostics and Freethinkers International AA Conference in Santa Monica in 2014, what became #ICSAA (International Conference of Secular AA).

Rebellion Dogs Radio's Joe C and Ward talk about his history with AA, about his idea of what "spirituality" is and is not, plus, what harm rigidity could bring to AA's future.

Our musical guest is Canadian indie band, Hotel Mira. For show notes including a link to Twelve Steps to Relionless Spirituality: The Power of Spirituality with or without God and other audio recordings, visit Rebellion Dogs Radio

Rebellion Dogs 56 Relatability and Accessibility of AA Literature

Sun, 14 Nov 2021 16:00:00 -0500

Alcoholics Anonymous prepares for the 2021 April General Service Conference. The program—at the time of writing—is now circulated, and Literature has a few items including a modification to Big Book text. There is a video accessible to members of groups (and anyone) who knows a General Service Representative. Our fellowship, right now, is looking at the book’s relatability and literacy as it relates to today’s newcomer. If you want to know the issues, we will share the link/video with you. If you have a connection to the original text, you are being invited to review the concerns shared by fellow members and weigh in. Issues of literacy an accessibility are being researched. Societal changes that might leave the book’s current wording offending or alienating today’s newcomers are being considered.

Edition Two of Alcoholics Anonymous came out in 1955, 20 years into AA. In 1976 the Third Edition was released and in 2001, our current, Edition Four came out. That was 20-years-ago. According to custom, it is time to talk about a new edition. The video by the General Service Office outlines concerns today, sometimes borrowing from our founder’s own thought about AA:

“Since the audience for the book is likely to be newcomers, anything from the point of view of content or style that might offend or alienate those who are not familiar with the program should be carefully eliminated,” Bill W in consideration of the Second Edition.

Gender-bias, hetro-normative, theistic and antiquated language, the book’s current literacy level and religious bias are worldwide concerns right now.

For those who find Living Sober more relevant changes are afoot here as well it offers a secular, rational and contemporary approach to AA sobriety. It's available to read online now at AA.org.

There's a lot going on and we seek your feedback, too. Have a listen, have your say.

Our musical artist is As Waters from the 2016 album of the same name. We feature "Hollywood Ending."

Visit our site for links to music, resources and video referred to in Episode 56 https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio

We Are Not All Egomaniacs Rebellion Dogs 64 with Beth Aich

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 18:00:00 -0400

Beth Aich has a bridge-building, gateway widening new book. We're Not All Egomaniacs: Adopting the Twelve Steps for Alcoholics with Low Self-Esteem busts the one-size-fits-all AA approach that assumes everyone in AA fits the narcissistic personality. Au contraire ; based on her personal experience an others first, people pleasing, never good enough, codependent just can't relate. Beth doesn't complain about Bill Wilson's view of the power-driving, yearning to to be top-man alcoholic archetype. But Beth she needed a way that worked for her.

"I spent many years trying to fit myself into the personality type of the alcoholic in the Big Book. I didn't know who I was so I went along with what they told me. But those words - selfish, self-centered, egomaniac - triggered me into a massive shame response. My training said selfishness is inexcusable and to always put other' needs ahead of my own. ... I had no sense of entitlement. I did not seek your praise or admiration. I just hoped you would tolerate me as long as I didn't bother you. That's why I'm writing this book - to help others like me build, not destroy their self-esteem. I hope AA won't be as uncomfortable for you after you read this." We're Not All Egomaniacs, pp 31-34

We talk to Beth Aich in Episode 64 of Rebellion Dogs Radio. Also, we talk about Dopamine Fasting. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reported out October 25th 2021 on their 2020 survey:

“Among the 29.2 million adults in 2020 who perceived that they ever had a substance use problem, 72.5 percent (or 21 million people) considered themselves to be in recovery or to have recovered from their alcohol or other drug use problem.”

We talk about optimistic varieties of recovery experience and how the lived experience of 21 million recovered/recovering addictions in the USA alone are having on recovery oriented communities and policy making. We have music. Beth Aich talks about codependency so we found a new codependent anthem from Toronto's Yukon Blonde, "Your Heart's my Home." It's fun, fast and (in)formative. We get the whole show in, in less than an hour.

See your show notes and links at Rebellion Dogs Radio Episode 64 page.

Episode 63: Emotional Sobriety with Dr Allen Berger

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 15:00:00 -0400

Rebellion Dogs Radio # 63 features Dr. Allen Berger. Here is one of many gems from 12 Essential Insights for Emotional Sobriety: Getting Your Recovery Unstuck:

“In our lives, emotional stability is achieved by becoming aware of our toxic beliefs and unenforceable rules, the idea that makes our emotional balance dependent on external conditions. We start to see how these ideas and rules emerge in our relationships with others (‘If you love me, you will do what I want you to do’) as well as in the lies we tell ourselves (‘The right person can rescue me from my troubles’).

Once we become aware of these unenforceable rules, we must surrender them. We need to move towards an attitude of ‘I’m okay even if this or that happens,’ and away from the idea that ‘I am okay only if this happens that happens.’ This is emotional freedom.”

From Chapter 15 “Paddling Our Own Canoe”
This is the latest from Dr. Allen Berger, 12 Essential Insights for Emotional Sobriety. Also on Episode 63, Dearly Beloved, Internationally enjoyed alternative rock band, but from Toronto Canada, provides our musical stimulation, going back to their 2016 Admissions album: Admissions is a great word... double meaning, getting honest or the gate keeper to be being let in... spooky.

The 12 essentials, in point form only:

1. Waking from our sleepwalking, 2. Living life consciously, 3. Discerning our emotional dependency, 4. Knowing that it’s not personal, 5. Realizing that no one is coming, 6. Accepting what is, 7. Living life on life’s terms, 8. Discovering novel solutions, 9. Breaking the bonds of perfection, 10. Healing through forgiveness, 11. Living life with purpose & 12. Holding on to ourself in relationships.

This 2021 offering is the next installment in what’s been a series of well-received books of sober second thought that we will discuss in this episode. Emotional Sobriety This one expands on something Bill W of AA wrote about in AA Grapevine, January of 1958, thirty+ years sober.

“Perhaps they will be the spearhead for the next major development in AA—the development of much more real maturity and balance...” The essay is called, “The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety.”

Allan and I got to know each other better as part of a foursome: Marya Hornbacher, John R of the Verde Valley Arizona Freethinker’s Living Sober group + Allen and I did a one-time Zoom Emotional Sobriety workshop, which became a five-part series with the four of us riffing off of each other and some great audience participation. That can still be enjoyed—if that’s what you’re into—@ FreethinkersLivingSober DOT org

Teamed up with psychotherapists and best-selling authors Thom Rutledge, Allen and Thom's podcast is called Emotional Sobriety - a deeper dive into what we discussed here on Rebellion Dogs Radio. Rumors are now circulating that Joe C will join Thom and Adam for an upcoming episode on their show, as their guest.

As "Rebellion dogs our every step," once again, we close with song. Music captures emotional range in ways Joe and Allen talk will not.

Dearly Beloved, with Rob Higgins on bass and harmonizing with co-vocalist Niva Chow, put out a 2016 album called, Admissions. The song is "I Tried to Leave."

Visit Rebellion Dogs Publishing Episode 63 for show notes and links for books, music, podcasts and more.

Recovery After Rehab: Dr Joe Nowinski on Episode 62

Sat, 14 Aug 2021 13:00:00 -0400

Joe Nowinski is back in Rebellion Dogs Radio sights as we think his new book satisfies a previously unmet need. Recovery After Rehab: A Guide for the Newly Sober and their Loved Ones is like the owners manual to your new sober life. "So, I'm finished my stint in rehab; what do I do now? What do I do first?"

For all the $$$ you spent and/or your health provider spent on your in (or out) patient care to treat alcohol use (or other drug) disorder, the $28 for this book will help improve outcome rates.

Do you want a 40% change at sustained, engaging recovery for an 80% chance? Some of that will be informed by decision you make in the first days, months and year of sobriety.

For those of us in long-term recovery the book offers some hows and whys with reporting on studies that define what habits lead to better outcome rates? How many meetings a month do I have to attend? How long do I have to keep going? Well, now there's some data on this, based on people a lot like us.

Recovery After Rehab looks into Medically Assisted Recovery, mental health, creating a recovery lifestyle, relationship damage and how to move forward, slips and relapse. There is a catalogue of peer-to-peer recovery fellowships, explaining SMART, Women for Sobriety and varieties of AA and other 12-step options.

This is Dr Joe's second visit. We cover his decades of clinical care and academic study of people with substance use disorder and how much more has been revealed so far this century.

Show notes @ Rebellion Dogs Publishing

Bigger than the Big Book? Are Zoom Meetings the single biggest breakthrough in Peer2Peer?

Tue, 20 Jul 2021 11:00:00 -0400

What will history record as the biggest game-changer in Peer 2 Peer support for people with alcohol and other substance use disorders? Was it a Big Book, or something bigger?

Is the breakthrough in connecting the still suffering with effective mutual support be defined by history as this era - the normalizing of online recovery meetings? What did the book Alcoholics Anonymous aim to do? Ostensibly the aim was to bring comfort to the inflicted when/where there is a barrier to personal connection between fellow sufferers. The question posed today is, "Now that we are bringing peer2peer comfort via AA and other online mutual-aid groups, does the Zoom meeting connect people better than a book, or better than any book?

Host of Here’s Tom With The Weather Podcast, David G has written an article for Rebellion Dogs through the voices of connected alcoholics around the world about Zoom AA. On Episode 61 of Rebellion Dogs Radio, David talks about how the community centre meeting pandemic closures that led to widespread replacement meetings of Zoom AA has normalized online connection and recovery. Now, we ask, "Is Online-AA here to stay; is it delivering Connection, Hope, Identity, Meaning and Empowerment* to more people with fewer barriers than books or face-to-face meetings have done, before?

Generally David’s hosting duties of Here’s Tom With the Weather has him pointing the microphone at others where he’s asking the questions. Today we point the microphone at David G and here what he has to say about why he thinks peer 2 peer style recovery entering the Zoom era could be reported by history to be the biggest breakthrough in carrying the message to the still suffering... bigger than any other development in mutual aid, bigger than any Big Book.

David’s Zoom journey has been global, clocking in at over 10,000 hours and in our hour of Rebellion Dogs around the globe trip, there’s a Nova Scotia reference; so today’s musical feature will be the East Coast’s Andre Pettipas and the Giants with their June 2021 pandemic release, “Homesick.”

For show notes and/or to download/read David G’s essay, “The Second Coming of Alcoholics Anonymous” visit Rebellion Dogs Radio https://www.rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio
*C.H.I.M.E. is an acronym referred to by David Best in Pathways to Recovery and Desistance: the role of the social contagion of hope previously covered in Rebellion Dogs Radio #48

Rebellion Dogs Radio 60 with Deirdre Sinnott

Sat, 03 Jul 2021 17:00:00 -0400

Rebellion Dogs Radio, Episode 60 features author/activist Deirdre Sinnott. July 6, 2021 marks the launch of The Third Mrs. Galway and we’re talking about writing, recovery and the adventures of Upstate New York’s underground railroad, closing in on 200 years ago.

“Antislavery agitation is rocking Utica in 1835 when a young bride discovers an enslaved family hiding in her shed, setting in motion the exhumation of long-buried family secrets.”

Our musical feature is Montreal punk band, Les Shirley released their debut album Forever Is Now in March 2021. Trio Lisandre Bourdgages (Drums), Raphaelle Chouinard (Vocals/Guitar) & Sarah Dion (Bass) offer up their new song, “Fuck It I’m In Love” (a clean version is available for your mom or sponsor, called “Forget It I’m In Love”).

Onrida County History Center is home to the hybrid Utica NY book launch Thursday July 8th, 2021 @ 6:30 PM EDT. Visit https://www.deirdresinnott.com/ for more up-to-date info or contact.

Rebellion Dogs Radio is a contemporary look at 12-Step life, substance use disorder and the broader community of addiction and recovery including the people, science and history that make up our community.

https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio for show notes and resources.

Rebellion Dogs 58 Summer 2021 The Millenial Era in Peer2Peer

Sat, 29 May 2021 15:00:00 -0400

Visit https://RebellionDogsPublishing.com for complete show note + links. Time for the tast of a new generation; the Peer2Peer world turns over the reins of stewardship to Generation Y - thank for your service Baby Boomer, it's the Millennial Era now.

This is Episode, Rebellion Dogs Radio # 58, we do an annul collection of what’s new, with AA’s second all-Zoom General Service Conference (USA/Canada), AA World Services, AA Grapevine, and the most recent—the 26th—World General Service Conference, we learn about AA outside the USA and Canada region.

There is 2020 Census Data coming out piecemeal. We will talk this new recovery community era. Millennials, quietly started turning 40-years-old last year—say what? The youngest Millennial is 25 this year. I know, we’re all getting older. They are the largest adult population in America now. Mover over Baby Boomer AA’s; there’s a new sheriff in town, Generation Y will take it from here. This Zoom meeting – zoom conference thing isn’t freaking them out. It’s greener, more time efficient, encourages team work, costs less, they can order shoes and cloths for home deliver during the meeting ... This is right up their alley.

Maybe that’s why the language of AA - once unchangeable because of it’s hallowed and nostalgic pedigree - is getting a facelift. Even some Bill Wisms are, as I suspect he would encourage, being modernized. Thought AA would never change? Whether that made you glad or sad, we were wrong. This isn’t the 20th century and a new generation has taken the helm.

Millennials; I see you. If you’re reading–and I know you are—yes, I’m a 1960 baby, I’m a boomer but we had our chance, it isn’t the founder’s generation to blame for a reified basic text, not a new publication of new works by AA Word Services since 1975-two generations ago—the blame for a stuck AA is Baby Boomers. We’re the ones who Bill W talked about when cautioning about fearing needed change:

“The essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails.”

Bill Wilson July 1965 when he knew he wouldn’t be around to captain the AA ship for long. So what I’m saying is we Boomers had out chance. We proved to no match for our own resistance to change. Millennials, you have the helm; I’m at service and in your debt.

The COVID pandemic effect has maybe sped up the process of AA getting unstuck. Everyone, everywhere is changing how we live, love and live in recovery; but demographic data from the 2020 US Census shows that 21st century America was already looking and acting differently and hold different beliefs, that the Christian primacy nation and recovery rooms of yore. Millennial stewardship of our meetings and fellowships will have a modern tone. This is their decade and same with the next one. The 20’s of this century will roar with non-violent communication. Annually, Rebellion Dogs re-calibrates our views based on what the latest statistics tell us about demographics and trends and what bearing this may have on our recovery. This is a popular show every year.

Rebellion Dogs 57 Inside Higher Palooza

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 00:00:00 -0400

I can never refuse a Higher Palooza!

While there's so much to dislike about a global pandemic, the Zoom-effect on AA, AA's subcultures and the greater peer2peer community as a whole, will likely mark this turning point in our history - for those who survive the pandemic - as ground breaking in the way connection can be maintained online while we're locked down at home.

One of the hand-down, no argument Five-Star bonuses from a year of living pandemically, is that Higher Palooza is here now, and maybe here to stay. Today we talk to a fraction of the helpful contributors to Higher Palooza #1 through #8: Thanks to Terry, Annie, Tracy, Bobby and Sally. This was fabulous.

Five from HP, via zoom from Dublin to Cleveland, we hear about the Palooza past and Higher Palooza future is put squarely at your feet - yep, you and me. Self-supporting is more than we who participate in AA pay our way; it also means we share the duties of involved in running meetings, events and outreach. Higher Palooza isn't just the cost of a Zoom account and website; it's time and talent, too. You got talent? You got time? Higher Palooza could use ya!

See, I rhymed something with "palooza" twice. That's talent, right? Higher Palooza needs people to find other people to share, hosts and co-hosts, poster makers and web away at website websitery.

But enough about the call to action, for now. Listen to, and enjoy and/or share, the podcast. Visit Freethinkers Cleveland for more Paloozing more of the time: 20 recordings to help you get through this day and the days ahead. It's like a mental/emotional and intellectual check up, from the neck up.

https://www.ftcleveland.com/higher-palooza HP I though VIII (at time of posting), you’ll find over 20 recordings to download or stream for free and information on upcoming events that promise to be more Higher and more Paloozer.

More Rebellion Dogs @ https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/

Every episode we serve up a dose of music-medicine, borrowing from IndieCan Radio's pool of the best music you've never heard. This week, it's Toronto's Sean Watson Graham and song we mutual-aid types will raise a coffee mug to: Your Life Is a Story