We're revisiting one of the most popular episodes in Real Recovery Podcast history. Ben M. first joined us in April 2024 as episode 7. Next week, Ben returns for an update — over six years sober, with three new sponsees and a spiritual shift he calls "seeing the world with new eyes."

Ben grew up the only boy in a big Hispanic family in El Paso. At 13, everything changed — first pot, first blackout, first time meeting men off the internet. He came out at 14. His Pinocchio story — meeting a fox on the way to school, following it to the circus, waking up with a donkey tail — is one of the most honest accounts of early addiction we've heard. From law school to psych wards, from a lost law license to a glass of wine on a flight to San Francisco that undid three and a half years — Ben's path shows what alcoholism takes and what recovery can give back.

• 03:50 Julie introduces Ben — Sunday night meeting partners, Zoom host and in-person secretary
• 07:00 Growing up in El Paso and Dallas — only boy, three older sisters, "I got anything I wanted"
• 10:00 The Pinocchio metaphor — the fox, the circus, the donkey tail
• 14:00 Age 13 — first pot, first blackout, AOL chat rooms, meeting men off the internet
• 22:00 Coming out at 14, skipping school, developing a secret life
• 24:30 Moving to New York City at 18 — September 11th scared him sober for a while
• 30:30 Law school — daily drinking, suicidal in blackouts, Franzia and Golden Girls
• 43:30 First DUI, first major collision, jail, psych ward twice in one week
• 57:00 The relapse — three and a half years sober, then one glass of wine on a flight to San Francisco
• 61:00 Oregon rehab, finding sobriety, treating alcoholism as life-threatening
• 65:00 Sobriety date May 5, 2020 — "If I don't stop, I'll be 50 with nothing"
• 72:30 His husband, Sunday night service, and the life recovery built

• MCC Portland
• Alcoholics Anonymous
• Real Recovery Podcast