Nick Jonsson grew up in Sweden where drinking beer was kind of a way of life. His drinking escalated when he moved to Australia for college and then got out of control when he started working in advertising and PR in Southeast Asia where the ex-pat community thrived in a lively and inexpensive bar scene. His life was turned upside down after a coup…

This episode is largely about addiction to pornography as Powerful Eric struggled for years to overcome his own pornography addiction. Ultimately, he stumbled on a shift in perspective that helped him get well, and he has built on that shift to create a program for other addicts that shares some of the tools I employ as well. While this podcast is …

I came across Tom Vaughan on twitter and started following him for his helpful screenwriting tips, and then one day he tweeted something about his sobriety and I reached out to see if we would be interested in coming on the pod. He graciously agreed, and I imagined some sort of quasi-scholarly discussion about story structure and sobriety. Little d…

I interviewed Nena about two years ago...tho it feels like a lifetime. We were just coming out of covid and it was one of the first times I'd been back in the room with a guest. I would say that in the interim, interest in hallucingens has only grown as mushrooms seem to have quickly become both the medicine of choice and the party drug of choice..…

Sometimes I do a podcast and by the end of the conversation my guest and I are friends for lise. Such was the case with Jenny Aurthur! Original notes: Jenny Aurthur grew up in a somewhat nomadic family - traveling in a large bus to organize neighborhoods for the Communist Labor Party, and while her parents never married, they maintained a strong fa…

Ryan King moved to Los Angeles as a toddler when his father, Commodores co-founder William King, moved here for work. He was a pretty straight arrow through high school earning himself a coveted spot in the highly competive baseball program at Long Beach State. But booze became his way of belonging and soon his undoing as his alcoholo habit compoun…

Paul Summers grew up in Las Vegas Nevada where he had a “eureka” moment at an early age which made him realize that all he wanted to do with his life was play guitar, write music and perform for live audience, and for a while…. That’s exactly what he did. But booze and meth and oxy led him off his path, and it was only when his ex-wife disappeared …

Clancy Martin is the author of the recently published, highly acclaimed memoire - HOW NOT TO KILL YOURSELF - which is also an enlightened and practical guide to suicide prevention. Clancy speaks from experience as he is the survivor of at least ten attempts to take his own life. And as a recovering alcoholic, he looks at suicide - at least in part …

I loved this episode because I just had no idea what I was getting into, and Lauren was so raw and honest and her story is - in a lot of ways - tough. Especially as a parent! And I loved the way she created a higher power for herself and how it worked! I think about it all the time...... Here are the original notes: Lauren Morelli is a costume desi…

I recorded this episode at Sundance right before the pandemic. I was feeling pretty blue as sometimes happens there, and I went to an AA meeting where I met Kosha Dillz, and he and I went out on a fun, funny night around Park City and recorded this episode the next day. Here are the original notes... Rami is a rapper who performs under the stage na…

I met Jono Hart when we were both climbing the Hollywood ladder in the 90s, and we traded small talk and jokes at innumerable cocktail parties before both getting sober at about the same time. And while I have used the 12 steps as a model, he has largely followed his own heart. Weirldy, both paths share a lot of similarities. We recently re-connect…

I love this episode b/c David is so damn articulate and wise and he recognizes patterns in his own behavior that prove insturmental in changing it. It's also a great story... Orignal notes: David G was raised in a religious cult where he learned early on to keep his family's membership secret. It was a lesson that would serve him too well as his al…

Sean grew up in Long Beach where he was the son of a single mom and absentee dad. He discovered crack and meth at an early age, and when he graduate from high school he went off and joined the circus - Bread and Puppet - the experimental theater group based in Glover, VT. The skills he picked up at Bread and Puppet led to a very successful career i…

I loved recording this episode. I didn't have a clue how to record music and I was terrified that I was going to disappoint Zander with my audio and it felt like magic to listen to him play in my daughter's bedroom which seemed like it maybe had the best acoustics in the house. Original notes: This is a very special episode. Zander Schloss - the ba…

I've fantasized about having every guest back to catch up with them and hear how they've changed and how their recovery has evolved, but it hasn't yet happened... until now! Annie appeared on an early season of the podcast to talk alcohol recovery, and now she is back - 4 and a half years later - to talk about her journey through sex and love addic…

The daughter of Inidan immigrants, Sonia grew up in Toronto and went on with her husband of 18 years to form and expand a multi-location orthodontic practice. But when they realized their dream of selling the business, Sonia had to ask herself: what next. The first thing she did was quit drinking, but when her husband then suddenly left her she had…

Apologies for another rerun! I've had trouble booking guests so if you have a story you'd like to share or know someone who would... hit a boy up! Dixie Perkinson is an actor who has appeared in commercials for just about everything. She is also a comedian and storyteller whose blog - Eat My Prune - focuses on the kinds of stories people are uncomf…

Apologies for the radio silence. I got busy with work and this little side project took the back seat. Here's a taste from the vault to keep you engaged! John Lehr is an improvisational actor and comedian out of the Chicago Improv scene who has created and starred in a number of TV shows including "Quick Draw" and "10 Items or Less." Here he talks …

Marci Hopkins grew up in an alcoholic home where she was the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of her step-father. While she managed to escape that world and chart a successful path for herself in television, she suffered from a persistent sense of victimhood that she treated with alcohol abuse. When a DUI finally forced her to re-evaluate her ch…

I heard Adam K share the tiniest snippet of what it was like to grow up as a child of deaf adults (CODA), and I just wanted to hear more. His parents were not saints: they were all too human, and he struggled from an early age under the weight of the immense responsibility they thrust on him to care for them. Growing up in West Covina as the only j…

Shaking off some rust here as I get ready to do some new interviews... This is a wild and interesting story told with great humor and zero pity. From stripping to sex work to sobriety. This delights me... Adele Hare is a food service manager here in Los Angeles. She works in the fields of mental health and addiction and is currently studying to get…

Patrick McCartney came of age in the Chicago improv scene in the early nineties where he worked with the likes of Del Close and toured with Amy Poehler and Tina Fey in the Second City Touring Company. But it wasn’t long before his early exploration of drugs and alcohol blossomed into a full blown heroin problem and rules like “I’ll never use before…

Larry Clarke is a writer, director and actor whom you have almost certainly seen in one of the many, many roles he has played in mainstream studio tv and films from "Law and Order" to Steven Soderberg’s "The Laundromat." His story is interesting, in part, because he stopped drinking about 5 years before he actually discovered the world of 12 step m…

Hannah Sward grew up in a commune in Santa Cruz where her father was a prolific poet. Her parents split when she was young and a lot of her early journey was shaped by a quest to reunite with her younger sister in Los Angeles. That quest that took her first to Chicago where she quickly became a call girl to raise enough money to pay the tuition at …

Phillip Dane has been a serial entrepreneur since his early teens and has started companies that do everything from rest room marketing to pay phone manufacturing. In his early twenties, he founded the world famous Melrose Flea - almost on a whim - and currently runs the Loz Feliz flea as well as Odd Night at the Autrey. The journey from Melrose to…

Patrick O'Neil's new book "Anarchy at The Circle K" - chronicling his life as a tour manager for punk rock bands like The Dead Kennedys - is out now. He is also a teacher and a substance abuse counselor. But before all that -- he was a bank robber -- responsible for a series of hold ups in the bay area with a gang of guys known as the "Men In Black…

Kim O'Hara went to film school to act and produce and then became a film producer in NYC where she always managed to assemble a strong social network of friends and family to keep her drinking and using in check. But when her second marriage collapsed and she no longer had any guard rails to keep her on track; things started falling apart. While so…

I’ve wanted to interview Joe Hart from the moment I started making this podcast as he has always exuded a powerful empathy for everyone around him even when things in his own life were clearly not going his way. He grew up in New York in a house his dad built with his own hands and eventually moved to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career. And it…

Love the radical turn this second half of Mark's story suddenly takes. Really did. not. see it coming. I haven't seen Mark since he recorded this. We traded emails during the pandemic. He'd had an accident of some sort and was in a Motel in West LA and needed a ride to the doctor. I couldn't take him but offered to send an uber but his phone was dy…

Mark Christopher grew up in a world of extreme privilege and then parlayed his connections and street smarts into a thriving weed empire. Despite multiple brushes with death and the law, a wildly inflated sense of self kept him convinced he could manage an addiction that would eventually rob him of everything. You can support this podcast at my Pat…

Billy Sullivan is a musician and composer for movies and TV. It's all he ever really wanted: a career in music. And while he turned pro when he was only 16 years old - he only found a path to the real deal once he got sober. you can support this podcast at: https://www.patreon.com/thedrunkaloguesBy Nick Morton, filmmaker, writer, comedian

I've been wanting to do this interview for years.... Nena is a scion of one of America's most famous families and grew up in the rarefied air of upper east side NYC where that legacy was mostly confounding. She initially started out as an interior designer, and we met in LA in the aughts when she was exploring the entertainment biz and we were both…

Thomas V. was born in Austria to parents who had recently lived thru World War II. He quickly rebelled against their old world values joining the protest movement and discovering booze, weed and psychedelics all of which eventually led to... heroin. He managed to wean himself off smack with a liter-a-day booze habit that he later mitigated with har…

I heard Joe Marconi speak at a meeting last week and I just loved his vulnerability and honesty and intelligence and just really wanted to hear more. He's a filmmaker and an ad man and on a journey to find love and compassion for all this great big beautiful mess.By Nick Morton, filmmaker, comedian

Fifi Dosch grew up in Aberdeen South Dakota where a relentless lack of joy stemmed perhaps from a deep belief that she could never fit in. Indeed, she felt if she expressed joy the way she felt; it might actually get her killed. She escaped via film school that brought her to Boseman, Montatna and then a stand up career that brought her to Los Ange…

I will be posting new episodes by the end of the month, but in the meanwhile I'm reposting this interview because damn it made me laugh. Since we sat down Michael and I almost made a movie together but he has also had numerous films in Sundance including The Truffle Hunters and The Fight both available for streaming, now! Original notes... Michael …

I wanted to re-run this episode because it deserves MORE LOVE! I laughed so hard during this episode and found in Fielding a sparring partner I could trade jabs with for hours. She has a new season of BITTER HOMES AND GARDENS out now! Fielding Edlow is a writer and stand up comedian who created and stars in the award winning web series, BITTER HOME…

I feel this episode with the hilarious and charming Zach Noe Towers has not received the attention it deserves. Since recording this Zach started his own podcast - Good Morning, Sodomites! - that brings a celebratory, non-judgmental perspective to sex and sexuality. He's headlining shows everywhere and was one of the hosts on the E! show "Dating #n…

I wanted to re-run this episode b/c a) Bill Dixon is a lovely human who is currently producing FBoy Island and b) I thought this was profoundly moving and deserves some more love. Bill Dixon is a stand up comedian and TV produce. He ran the quintessential underground LA Standup Comedy Show, The National Midnight Society. He is currently a producer …

When I first started making this podcast I knew even less about sound recording and mixing than I do now, but I have picked up a few small bits of knowledge along the way and did go back and re-mix this very first episode because it was pointed out to me - when first released - that it was actually impossible to listen to in the car. Tommy Swerdlow…

Amir grew up in Tucson, Arizona where his family - Iranian Immigrants - owned and operated a cowboy bar - a business Amir was fated to inherit. But when a family friend told him about an opportunity in the advertising business in Los Angeles, he leapt at the chance and never really looked back. His story is one where the trappings of success insula…

His new audio book - An Inside Job (https://tinyurl.com/vbes6cet) chronicles his life from an idyllic childhood in Harbor City, CA to a single regrettable decision that would ultimately result in an arrest on drug charges and a twenty year prison sentence. After doing whatever he needed to to survive in jail and managing his misgivings with booze a…

Philly Mike is an actor and writer and stand up comedian who grew up in a pretty rough section of Philadelphia where just not getting your ass kicked every day was a constant struggle. He found booze and comedy early on as effective means of escape and eventually found himself with a pretty successful stand up career. It seems his recovery was prec…

Joey Repice grew up just outside of Manhattan popping into the city to work in restaurants, play gigs as a drummer and to party. He watched as his adolescent recreational drug and alcohol use blossomed into a full blown heroine addiction whose maintenance consumed his every waking hour. After successfully kicking his habit he nearly relapsed when h…

James McLain and I are childhood friends who grew up in the same bucolic stretch of Gold Coast Long Island where The Great Gatsby was set. We shared a lot in common as kids, and I saw a lot of myself in him so I was particularly curious to see how the path not taken - he is an investment banker - still ended in sobriety. He talks here about his dif…

Katy is an independent film producer who latched on to Mormonism in her teens as a way of life that managed to be celebratory while eschewing alcohol. Still, she somehow managed to do Mormonism alcoholically. Her journey thru recovery is marked by a search for love and validation that when she finally finds it feels so easy it's impossible to belie…

After her mother committed suicide when she was only seven years old, Wendy Adamson started running away to live with the homeless hippies in Topanga Canyon. Her father made her a ward of the court, and she split her time between juvenile detention and foster homes. An horrific shooting in her late thirties led to a profound spiritual epiphany and …

Jenny Aurthur grew up in a somewhat nomadic family - traveling in a large bus to organize neighborhoods for the Communist Labor Party, and while her parents never married, they maintained a strong family dynamic. So it was especially traumatic when she lost two members of her family to suicide and then - in sobriety - grieved as her closest friend …

Douglas Mallon really discovered booze and drugs when he enlisted in the navy at 17 years of age, and his story after that is largely one of obsession and how he learned to break its fever grip thru prayer and surrender. He’s now 25 years sober, a proud father and author of multiple books won’t you please welcome Douglas Mallon.…

Connie Clotworthy was born and raised in Detroit where she discovered drinking and drugs at a very early age and eventually gravitated toward bartending before becoming a very successful mixologist at high end restaurants here in Los Angeles where her drinking found an environment to thrive. But a DUI, a car crash and a pyrotechnics catastrophe, dr…