Recovery isn't about getting it right the first time.

Sam shares her journey through repeated relapses, learning to ask for help, and discovering that recovery meant caring for both her alcoholism and her mental health.

It's a powerful reminder that AA is a programme of progress, not perfection, and that no matter how many times you come back, there's always a seat waiting for you.

Sometimes, recovery isn't measured by the big milestones, but by the quiet gratitude of facing an ordinary day with a clear head.

Abby's story is one of resilience, perseverance, and hope. In this deeply honest share, she reflects on growing up with childhood trauma, epilepsy, and later serious physical and mental health challenges, while alcoholism slowly became woven into her life.

Despite academic success, a career in education, and years of trying to hold everything together, addiction continued to take its toll.

She speaks candidly about relapse, recovery, finding AA, and the people who helped her keep coming back. Through hurricanes, hospital stays, failed relationships, and countless setbacks, Abby discovered that sobriety isn't about perfection. It's about showing up, one day at a time.

At the heart of her message is a simple but powerful idea: we don't have to walk the road of recovery alone. Inspired by the Big Book's "road of happy destiny," Abby shares why she wants to be everyone's "trudge buddy," the person who'll answer the phone at 2 a.m., walk alongside another alcoholic, and remind them that hope is always within reach.

A moving story of courage, fellowship, and the healing power of service.

What happens when the people who were supposed to want you... don't?

Sky's story begins with childhood trauma, rejection, and a desperate search for somewhere to belong. That search led to alcohol, drugs, abusive relationships, foster care, unimaginable loss, and years of believing she was invisible.

But recovery had other plans.

With honesty, humour, and remarkable courage, Sky shares how sobriety became more than simply putting down the drink. It became a journey of finding her voice, embracing her creativity, and learning that healing isn't about becoming someone new. It's about finally becoming who you were all along.

Whether you're new to recovery or have years of sobriety behind you, Sky's message is both powerful and deeply reassuring:

"You're not too much. You've never been too much."

Join us for another moving conversation from An All Night Place, where recovery has no curfew, and no one has to walk the journey alone.

"Old skaters never die..."

Nate started drinking at thirteen, finding in alcohol an escape from anxiety, trauma, religious rigidity and questions about who he really was. What followed were years of escalating addiction, broken relationships, DUIs, hospitalisations, terrifying withdrawal and repeated attempts to get sober, while still searching for a way to belong in recovery without abandoning himself.

In this deeply candid share, Nate talks about coming to terms with his sexuality, the connection between hiding who he was and hiding his drinking, and his struggle with the spiritual language of traditional AA.

After trying to find every possible loophole out of the programme, Nate discovered that recovery didn’t have to demand conformity. Through AA, secular meetings, community and a more open understanding of what a higher power could mean, he began finding a recovery that worked for him.

371 days sober, Nate shares what changed when he stopped trying to do recovery “perfectly” and started learning how to make it his own.

An All Night Place is a meeting of secular AA. These are our stories.

Amanda shares a powerful and deeply personal story of recovery, reflecting on a childhood shaped by a parent's gambling addiction, the loss of her mother, abusive relationships, and years spent searching for acceptance in all the wrong places.

She speaks candidly about how alcohol became a way to cope with unresolved trauma, why getting sober was only the beginning of her healing, and how writing and creativity have become essential parts of rebuilding her life.

Rather than a story about hitting one dramatic rock bottom, Amanda's journey is about peeling back the layers, confronting old wounds, and discovering what it means to finally show up for herself.

From Dead Tour to Day One: Angelique's Story

Angelique spent years following the Grateful Dead across America, chasing music, freedom, and a life that felt limitless. But behind the adventure was an addiction that quietly evolved from party culture into isolation, grief, and survival.

In this episode, she shares a life shaped by childhood trauma, caring for two terminally ill parents, losing her home in a devastating fire, travelling the United States in search of meaning, and the heartbreaking loss of her brother. Through it all, alcohol remained a constant companion... until it couldn't anymore.

With honesty, warmth, and more than a little humour, Angelique tells the story of what finally brought her to AANP, why she chose sobriety, and what life looks like one day at a time.

Sometimes recovery doesn't begin with a dramatic moment. Sometimes it begins with a single decision to put the bottle down.

What happens when your primary addiction isn't just alcohol, but escape itself?

In this deeply honest, hilarious, and profoundly moving share, Tristen Michael ("TJ Starter the Third") explores growing up with impossible standards, learning to perform a version of yourself that everyone else could accept, and discovering that recovery isn't about becoming a better person, it's about finally becoming an actual person.

From hiding candy in the lining of a rehab bag and smuggling coffee grounds behind paintings, to unpacking gender identity, family expectations, trauma, rage, shame, and the exhausting pursuit of perfection, this episode is a masterclass in self-compassion without sentimentality.

This is a story about authority issues, emotional survival skills, queer identity, learning to live in your own body, and discovering that recovery isn't about fixing what's broken.

It's about learning that you were never broken in the first place.

What if sobriety wasn't something you achieved once, but something you tended every day?

In this deeply personal share, Raven takes us from a childhood marked by abandonment, through addiction, grief, abusive relationships, loss, chronic pain and repeated attempts to rebuild a life worth living. Along the way she discovers that recovery isn't about finding the perfect spell, but about tending a daily practice.

As a Pagan witch in a secular recovery community, Raven offers a unique and deeply human metaphor: sobriety is like a cauldron. It needs community, gratitude, patience, meetings, honesty, grace and constant attention. Left unattended, it spoils. Carefully tended, it becomes the very thing that keeps us alive.

Whether you're in recovery yourself or simply interested in resilience, this episode is a moving reminder that healing isn't magic. It's showing up, one day at a time, to stir the pot.