Recovery Unfiltered

81:56

Breaking Through: Mental Health Insights from Both...

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/08/06

Send us a text What happens when our emotional development gets frozen by addiction? How do we learn to process feelings we've been numbing for decades? This powerful episode brings together voices of lived experience and professional expertise to explore the profound connection between mental health and recovery. The conversation begins with a fascinating examination of perspective in sobriety. Rob shares his belief that he's never had "bad days" in recovery, only "hard days" – a cognitive ...

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125:54

Breaking Free: One Woman's Journey Through Addiction...

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/08/06

Send us a text When Stefani stepped onto the softball field at Sacramento State on scholarship, no one could have predicted the dark journey ahead. Her story shatters the myth that sex trafficking only happens to certain types of people from certain backgrounds. Raised in a loving home with a law enforcement family, Stefani's path to addiction began subtly through a high school relationship. What started as experimental pill use spiraled after a sexual assault left her traumatized and withdr...

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159:11

Finding Redemption in Recovery

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/08/06

Send us a text Shawn shares his powerful journey from childhood exposure to alcohol through addiction, military service, and ultimate redemption through sobriety and family reconciliation. • Grew up with normalized drinking in his household from age five • Joined the Army at 23 partly to escape his destructive lifestyle • Faced consequences for drug use during military service but continued pattern after discharge • Lost relationship with his oldest daughter during active addiction years • E...

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37:01

What Does Love Look Like When Someone Won't Stop...

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/07/30

Send us a text The mountains speak to us in recovery. That special place where rivers merge becomes a profound metaphor for the spiritual transformation we undergo in sobriety—where God enables us to "match calamity with serenity." One host shares how returning to this sacred spot after gaining sobriety brought tears of gratitude rather than just momentary escape. What does love truly mean in recovery? Before sobriety, many of us believed we understood love, but as one host powerfully states...

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36:51

True recovery begins when you stop lying to yourself.

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/07/23

Send us a text What do you do when you can't directly make amends to someone you've hurt long ago? How do you release the guilt of harmful words spoken decades in the past? These questions haunt many in recovery, and in this episode, we unpack the transformative power of "living amends." The conversation begins with Larry sharing highlights from an AA convention in Canada, where a speaker's powerful message resonated deeply: "Higher powers will happen with or without me. Alcoholics Anonymous...

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61:55

From Street Drunk to Hospital Executive

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/07/16

Send us a text What happens when a homeless alcoholic who had resigned himself to "drinking and drugging to death" finds recovery and transforms his life completely? Paul story answers this question with raw honesty and profound hope. Paul takes us through his journey from a childhood of constant relocations to his early drinking at age 13, through failed suicide attempts, living in his car, and abandoning his family—to eventually finding recovery in 1988. With unflinching candor, he d...

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58:44

The Journey So Far: One Year of Recovery Unfiltered

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/07/09

Send us a text Fifty-two episodes. One year of sobriety stories. Countless lives touched. This special anniversary episode takes you behind the scenes of Recovery Unfiltered's remarkable first year. Larry and Rob, joined by their wives Katie and Bonnie, reflect on how a vision born from tragedy—a son lost to fentanyl—transformed into a beacon of hope for those battling addiction. The journey hasn't been without challenges. From setting up the studio (and carrying a surprisingly heavy ...

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139:44

Through Her Eyes: What It's Like to Love an Alcoholic

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/07/02

Send us a text What happens when the spotlight turns to those who've weathered addiction's fiercest storms—not as alcoholics themselves, but as the wives who stayed? In this powerful episode, hosts Larry and Rob invite their wives, Katie and Bonnie, to share their side of the recovery story. Katie reveals how family vacations became sources of resentment rather than joy as everything centered around Larry's next drink. "I had just become independent... doing my own thing," she explains, deta...

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129:11

The Valley We Had to Walk Through Together Changed...

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/06/25

Send us a text Larry and his daughter Maranda explore her perspective on his alcoholism and recovery journey, creating a powerful conversation about family healing, forgiveness, and moving forward together. • Maranda shares childhood memories of her father as a church deacon with an "open door" home for those in need • Larry's first drink came after gastric bypass surgery in 2007, setting the stage for his later addiction • The family noticed Larry's drinking worsening around 2014-2015 when ...

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76:25

Sobriety's Impact: A Father's Journey Through His...

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/06/18

Send us a text In this milestone 50th episode, we pull back the curtain on addiction and recovery through the eyes of a daughter as Larry's youngest, McKenna, joins the conversation to share her perspective on her father's journey through alcoholism and sobriety. McKenna recounts growing up with her dad "Larber," from their adventures showing livestock to the gradual shift as social drinking progressed into something more concerning. With remarkable candor, she pinpoints the moment reality b...

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98:42

Motherhood, Addiction, and the Courage to Choose...

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/06/11

Send us a text At just fourteen years old, Christy found herself pushing suitcases out of her window, running away with a boyfriend to Texas, and soon after, discovering she was pregnant. This moment would be the first of many life-altering decisions that shaped her journey through addiction, motherhood, and eventually, recovery. Christy's raw account of growing up too fast pulls no punches as she details her early introduction to methamphetamine, the painful choice to place her daughter in ...

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36:43

Milestones and Mountains: 14 Years of Recovery

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/06/04

Send us a text Birthdays in recovery are powerful milestones that remind us of both how far we've come and the work that carried us here. In this deeply personal episode, we celebrate Rob's 14th sobriety birthday with surprise calls from sponsees and friends while exploring the universal principles of recovery that apply to healing of all kinds. Through heartfelt conversations and raw reflections, we uncover the striking similarities between physical rehabilitation and addiction recovery. Bo...

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39:27

What Happens When Guilt Drives Your Amends?

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/05/30

Send us a text Larry and Rob explore the concept that relapse is not about external triggers but rather a reflection of one's spiritual fitness and how thoroughly they've worked on their recovery. • Discussing a member who relapsed and questioned whether to make amends again • Sharing stories of transformation, particularly focusing on Nathan's physical and spiritual growth • Examining the Big Book's guidance on spiritual fitness and the alcoholic mind • Exploring when making amends might ca...

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39:29

When Guilt Destroys What Sobriety Built

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/05/28

Send us a text Ever wonder if "coming clean" about your past might actually do more harm than good? This provocative episode of Recovery Unfiltered tackles one of recovery's most challenging dilemmas: when making amends becomes a selfish act rather than a healing one. Larry and Rob dive deep into the concept of spiritual fitness and what happens when it's lacking. Through candid conversation and powerful examples, they demonstrate how relapses aren't triggered by external factors but by spir...

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35:17

Sober Out Loud

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/05/21

Send us a text Larry and Rob explore the transformative power of willingness in recovery and the emotional impact of recording vulnerable stories. • Reflecting on the powerful episode with Kim and Mike that brought unexpected tears • Larry's sponsee Blake making progress through steps 4-7 of the program • The critical importance of willingness as "indispensable" in recovery • Developing a genuine relationship with God requires action, not just prayer • Getting honest with yourself is the fou...

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127:39

She Never Gave Up On Him, Even When He Gave Up On...

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/05/14

Send us a text How does a marriage survive the unthinkable? In this powerful, emotional episode, Mike and Kim open their hearts to share their 18-year journey through grief, addiction, and eventual healing after losing their son Michael in a tragic accident. When devastation struck their family, Mike spiraled into addiction while Kim struggled to hold everything together. Their raw honesty about rock bottom moments—from Kim finding Mike with drugs to contemplating suicide—reveals the brutal ...

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29:27

Sobriety Birthdays: Celebrating Recovery Milestones

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/05/07

Send us a text Standing at the metaphorical "edge of the sidewalk," where addiction and recovery intersect, requires a profound choice about which path to take. This raw, honest conversation delves into the significance of sobriety birthdays and what they truly represent beyond simple abstinence from alcohol. We explore the emotional complexity of recovery anniversaries, particularly the tendency to relive painful memories during the weeks leading up to these milestones. This phenomenon, com...

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46:14

Healing the Open Wound: The Power of Sponsorship

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/04/30

Send us a text Sometimes God moves in unmistakable ways. For Larry, it happened during a Saturday morning meeting when a newcomer named Blake shared his story. A warm feeling washed over him—what he calls "God's spiritual two-by-four"—and he knew instantly he needed to sponsor this man despite his previous reluctance to take on sponsees. This powerful moment opens a deeply authentic conversation about what makes sponsorship work, fail, or transform lives. Rob and Larry explore the critical t...

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71:19

When the Light Returns: A Journey Through Darkness

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/04/23

Send us a text Grief has no timeline, but what happens when it consumes your entire life for 17 years? In this raw and unflinching conversation, Mike and Jason share their parallel journeys through unthinkable tragedy—both losing teenage sons in the same accident in 2007. Mike's candid testimony reveals how alcohol became his only coping mechanism after his son Michael's death. "I felt that there's no way I could ever be okay again with this tragedy," he confesses, describing years spe...

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60:20

When Your Past Shapes Your Present: A Story of...

Recovery Unfiltered ·

2025/04/16

Send us a text Mike S pulls no punches as he shares the story of his turbulent childhood with an alcoholic, abusive father in Oakdale, California. Born into chaos, Mike describes how he'd be locked in his room until his father came home, only to receive brutal beatings that went far beyond normal discipline. "I grew up getting beat like that," he explains, "and I always joke I think I started to like it because I was stubborn." When Mike was just 12, his life took another devastating turn—co...

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