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PODCAST

Sobriety Bestie Podcast

Kirsten Johnson

The Sobriety Bestie Podcast helps you deprogram AA, heal from recovery dogma, and build a bold, empowered life on your own terms.

business entrepreneurship

All Episodes

02:26:25

Ep 183 Recruited Into 12 Step + Barely Survived –...

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2026/01/13

Jon barely survived 12 step. His courageous story highlights the harm inherent in 12 step ideology and the importance of trying something different if the "treatment" you are in is making you worse.Since leving NA he's created a "life beyond his wildest dreams." Truly an inspiration and I'm thrilled he's just begun his dissenting journey to help others recover from recovery and discover a life truly worth living.You can vibe with Jon here:Jon's Deprogramming YouTubeJon's other YouTubeTroubled Teen

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03:25:24

Ep 182 The Business of Recovery (movie) – Burnie +...

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2026/01/11

Today on Burnie + Bestie Live we are exploring the movie The Business of Recovery.I'm joined today of course by my cohostest Burnie aka Tara Grace from Burn The Stigma. Resources for deconstructing AA:👉 Deprogram Lounge (community, Zooms, book club, Escape Kit + more)📚 Deprogram Book List (my fave deprogram, cult recovery and critical thinking books)Let’s get f*cking free

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01:37:17

Ep 181 Why You Feel Shocked After Leaving AA

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2026/01/09

A lot of us can feel shocked or shell shocked after leaving AA or 12 step. Today we're going to unpack what shell shock is, how it applies to leaving AA, post cult trauma and post cult symptoms that people may experience according to cult expert Margaret Singer's work in her book Cults in Our Midst.Of course this isn't medical advice and if you need support, find a professional who can help support you.Timestamps: 00:00 Feeling Shocked After Leaving AA Intro 04:44 What is Shell Shock? 09:24 How

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48:33

Ep 180 12 Ways AA Makes You the Problem When You Leave

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2026/01/06

Timestamps00:00 AA Shutdown Playbook Intro03:10 1 - Make It Personal Immediately06:28 2 - Assume Motive You Can't Know10:09 3 - Invoke Slogans As Sacred Truth15:48 4 - Announce Sober Time19:46 5 - Reduce AA to the Big Book22:33 6 - Ignore Harm Entirely27:48 7 - Turn Anecdotes Into Universal Laws33:20 8 - Claim Superiority Through Suffering35:08 9 - Label Dissent As Denial37:46 10 - Declare Never A "Real Alcoholic"40:22 11 - Truth Claims Without Data, Evidence, Citation42:46 12 - End With

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03:15:04

Ep 179 It Works If You Work It Mythology — Burnie +...

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2026/01/04

Today we are exploring AA's "It Works If You Work It" mythology.We'll bring in thoughts and research from experts (you know I like to read a little from deprogramming books on these pods!), Burnie aka Tara Grace from Burn The Stigma will share her perspective, I'll share mine (it's me, Kirsten, Sobriety Bestie). Then we crowd source for comments to see what everyone else thinks.Resources for deconstructing AA:👉 Deprogram Lounge (community, Zooms, book club, Escape Kit + more)📚 Deprogram Book List

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02:16:10

Ep 178 New Freedom, New Happiness After Leaving AA

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2026/01/01

Happy New Year!! Woot woot 2026. Today we're exploring "New Freedom and New Happiness" from the AA promises and what that looks like in deprogramming. I'll share my version of "The Promises" for leaving AA. Then we'll crowd source other people's thoughts and ideas about The Promises when they were in AA and what their creating now that they've left.Resources for deconstructing AA:👉 Deprogram Lounge (community, Zooms, book club, Escape Kit + more)📚 Deprogram Book List (my fave deprogram, cult

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01:00:15

Ep 177 Twelve Step Trauma + Self Fulfilling Prophecy...

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2025/12/30

Rene joins us today to share about how AA became a self prophecy leading him to be in and out of the rooms for twenty years.Rene's IGRene's TikTokTimestamps:00:00 In + Out of AA For 20 Years05:50 Going to AA Knowing It's A Cult17:25 Leaving AA Cult Within A Cult20:48 South Florida Pill Mills23:18 AA Ideology Created A Negative Cycle32:08 AA is a Self Fulfilling Prophecy36:50 Changing the Recovery Narrative44:39 The Big Book Mythology49:11 How He Actually Got BetterResources for deconstructing AA:👉

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02:11:58

Ep 176 You're Not Powerless: AA's Pickle Myth Busted...

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2025/12/29

Today we are exploring AA's powerless idea and pickle mythology. You know how in AA they say "once a cucumber becomes a pickle, there's no going back." Meaning once you "cross a line" with drinking and become an "alcoholic" there is no becoming a normal drinker again. But modern science debunks this.We'll bring in thoughts and research from experts (you know I like to read a little from deprogramming books on these pods!), Burnie aka Tara Grace from Burn The Stigma will share her perspective, I'll

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10:32

Ep 175 The 12 Days of Leaving AA

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2025/12/25

Join us for a fun Holiday episode as Carrie (Carrie's Substack) and I sing about the 12 days of leaving Alcoholics Anonymous.👉 Deprogram Lounge (community, Zooms, Book Club, Escape Kit + more)📚 Deprogram Book List (my fave deprogram, cult recovery and critical thinking books)Let’s get f*cking free.

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31:45

Ep 174 The Gifts of Leaving AA

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2025/12/23

Join us for a fun Holiday inspired episode as Carrie (Carrie's Substack) and I share the gifts of leaving AA from our perspective.Timestamps:00:00 Gifts of Leaving AA Intro 01:13 The Gifts When Starting AA or Love Bombing? 01:55 Gift Newcomer Conversation 06:50 Growing Up in AA Cult + Leaving 11:40 Deprogramming AA is The Gift That Keeps Giving 16:27 Gift When First Leaving AA 19:30 Gift Months After Leaving AA 23:16 GIft One Year After Leaving AA 25:40 Gifts of Current Deprogramming Journey👉

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02:02:50

Ep 173 Rehab Repeat Customers — Burnie + Bestie

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2025/12/22

Today we are exploring the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of 12 step rehab treatment centers.Resources for deconstructing AA:👉 Deprogram Lounge (community, Zooms, book club, Escape Kit + more)🧰 Escape Kit (resources to Deprogram AA)📚 Deprogram Book List (my fave deprogram, cult recovery and critical thinking books)Let’s get f*cking free

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01:27:04

Ep 172 Spiritual Bypassing in AA

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2025/12/19

Today we're unpacking spiritual bypassing, the use of spirituality or spiritual practices to override our feelings. We'll cover what spiritual bypassing can look like inside 12 step, how our brains are often trained to spiritual bypass via our sponsors, the meetings and the literature and what spiritual bypassing can be like on our deprogramming AA journey.This audio is from today's livestream on Sobriety Bestie YouTube from our weekly show "Tea With Bestie." Feel free to join us live on Thursdays

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07:58

Ep 171 Nick Reiner: Mental Illness and Alcoholics...

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2025/12/17

I've received a lot of DM's after yesterday's episode on Rob Reiner and Nick Reiner so am coming back today to answer the top questions. You wanted to know is Nick Reiner mentally ill and was he sober at the time of the murders. So we'll dive into that in today's episode.Also I have a clip with Rob Reiner and Nick Reiner's thoughts on Alcoholics Anonymous (thanks to the person who DM'd it to me!) so we'll roll that clip as well.Timestamps00:00 Nick Reiner charged with murder01:34 Was Nick Reiner

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16:37

Ep 170 Rob Reiner, Nick Reiner: Addiction, Relapse +...

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2025/12/16

Today's episode is a bit heavy, heartbreaking and also a deep dive into the addiction movie the now late iconic director Rob Reiner made in 2015 with his son Nick Reiner called "Being Charlie."We'll look at the addiction recovery movie through a deconstruction lens, examine the 12 step loaded language, and follow Charlie through his addiction recovery journey - a character based upon Nick Reiner. In real life, Nick Reiner went to 17+ rehabs in 7 years before being inspired to create this movie with

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02:02:18

Ep 169 Bill W.'s White Light Spiritual Experience

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2025/12/15

It's the 91 year anniversary of BIll W.'s "White Light Spiritual Experience" so we're going to unpack it all in this episode. We'll cover what drugs Bill was on, some of Towns history (the founder of the rehab Bill was in), Carl Jung's work on the numinous or spiritual / religious experiences and we'll hear from the livestream audience about their thoughts on spiritual experience. I timestamped it below in case you want to skip around.Timestamps:00:00 91 Years Later: Deconstructing Bill Wilson’s

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01:24:46

Ep 168 AA Preys On The Vulnerable

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2025/12/12

December 11th 1934 is Bill W, the Founder of AA's, last day drinking and the day he went into Town's Hospital for alcohol addiction treatment. Today on Sobriety Bestie pod we're diving into how Bill was preyed upon when he was incredibly vulnerable (by the Oxford Group). Then how Bill turned around and built this methodology, of AA preying on the vulnerable, into his 12 step system.Resources for deconstructing AA:👉 Deprogram Lounge (community, Zooms, book club, Escape Kit + more)🧰 Escape Kit

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01:41:54

Ep 167 From AA Famous to Ostracized Completely –...

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2025/12/09

Ostracized for leaving AA. Told she’d die if she walked away. Came back anyway. Left again. And is still here, and finally free.In this raw, funny, and brutally honest conversation, Lilly and I talk about what it’s really like to be "AA-famous," get shunned when you “go out,” and slowly realize the thing you thought saved you is also harming you.We get into informed consent, harmful sponsorship, Al-Anon culty offshoots, drinking again without going back to meetings, ADHD/dopamine, and why so many of

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07:17

Ep 166 The AMA's 1939 Review of AA's Big Book

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2025/12/08

Today we're reading a book review for AA's Big Book or the book "Alcoholics Anonymous" that was featured in JAMA, the Journal of American Medical Association back in 1939, 6 months after the Big Book was published.Here's the source.👉 Deprogram Lounge (community, Zooms, book club, Escape Kit + more)📚 Deprogram Book List (my fave deprogram, cult recovery and critical thinking books)🌀 Deprogram AA Course (free your mind at your own pace)Let’s get f*cking free.

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01:03:30

Ep 165 AA's "Spiritual Not Religious" Gaslight —...

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2025/12/07

In today’s episode of the Sobriety Bestie Podcast, Tara Grace (Burn The Stigma) and I break down AA's "we're spiritual not religious" gaslight.This episode comes from today's Bernie & Bestie LIVE, where we just unpacked what a religion is, how AA maps to a religion, some of the God language inside the Big Book and taking the third step (in public!). Then we crowd sourced everyone's perspectives on the AA spiritual not religious indoctrination to add to the conversation.👉 Deprogram Lounge

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02:00:51

Ep 164 The Hardest Part of Leaving AA

Sobriety Bestie Podcast ·

2025/12/05

Leaving 12 step can feel like freedom and heartbreak at the same time.You thought walking away would be the hard part. But it’s the after that gets quiet and confusing.The mixed emotions. The questions you didn’t expect. The“now what?”feeling.Today on Sobriety Bestie Podcast we're diving in deep to explore what the hardest part of leaving AA is. I share my perspective and experience then we crowd source the comments to see what's been hard for others and how they've navigated it.👉 Deprogram Lounge

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