When Sean Daniels decided to change his relationship with alcohol, he turned to what he knew best: theatre.

His play, The White Chip, shares his story - and the community that helped him find his way to recovery.

Welcome to The Next Round, the podcast that explores what people did next.

While some keep their post-booze lives quiet, others shout them loud and proud, helping themselves - and inspiring you.

Like Sean, his play The White Chip is moving on too: transferring from Off-Broadway to the Off-West End this summer.

Could he have written a play while still drinking? Well, yes - until he couldn’t.

As a professional artist and director, Sean found healing by translating the chaos of his recovery into something tangible and transformative – a play.

Today, Sean’s autobiographical show, The White Chip, is not just another production. It’s a raw, hilarious, and hopeful exploration of addiction and recovery, set to debut at London’s Southwark Playhouse. But it’s also a testament to what happens when you take your darkest moments and create a light for others to follow.

For Sean, getting sober didn’t mean leaving creativity behind – it meant reclaiming it. Early on in recovery, on just his third day of sobriety, he wrote a monologue trying to capture his confusion and pain. That piece remains almost untouched in the final version of the play. Writing gave him a lifeline, a way to understand a collapse that seemed impossible to explain at the time.

He also poured his energy into community work, founding the Recovery Arts Project, an initiative using theatre to change the narrative around addiction. It’s part of Sean’s larger mission: not just to tell his story, but to reshape how society talks about addiction and creativity.

Through his work, Sean challenges one of the most persistent myths: that great artists must suffer for their art, and that alcohol fuels creativity.

Sean’s journey into addiction mirrored the glamorous chaos of the theatre world: late nights, endless parties, endless justification. At first, he says, drinking seemed to fuel his success, making him a more “fun” director, a better networker, someone who could juggle 4 a.m. drinks and 9 a.m. meetings with ease. Until it didn’t.

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When Sue put down the bottle for good, she picked up something else entirely – scraps of Scottish oak, old skateboards, and a newfound passion for woodwork.

What followed wasn’t just a hobby or a distraction. It was the beginning of a new life. Sue encourages you to find your own spark in the things you once set aside.

Welcome to The Next Round, where we discover that the fleeting interests from our drinking days might actually hold the key to lasting joy in sobriety.

For Sue Patten, woodwork became more than a craft. It became a way to rebuild, both inside and out. Her latest stint in rehab wasn’t her first attempt at an alcohol-free life, but this time, everything clicked. Art, creativity, and real friendships gave her the strength to not just stay sober – but to thrive – so much so she stepped well outside her comfort zone to share her story with us on this podcast.

After decades where drinking had become her identity, her routine, her reward, her confidence boost. Sue rediscovered her creativity in sobriety. And she didn’t just dabble. She built a new life.

Her workshop near Warrington, Cheshire, became her sanctuary.

What started with a ring and a skateboard became a series of bottle openers, chopping boards, and vases – each piece a quiet celebration of focus, beauty, and self-belief.

It wasn’t always this way. Sobriety in her 20s, Sue admits, was an angry, isolating thing. She didn’t go out. She didn’t engage. But now, in her 50s, things feel entirely different.

Confidence is a recurring theme in Sue’s story. It wasn’t something she started with.

But recovery gave her the tools. Literally.

Recovery, for Sue, wasn’t just abstaining from alcohol. It was connection, creativity, and rebuilding. She found her turning point at Delamere, a rehab centre that encouraged therapy through art, horses, and most importantly – people.

Aftercare became another anchor. Most Sundays, she returns – not because she has to, but because it keeps her grounded and inspired.

You can find Sue’s work here.

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Not many people kick off their sobriety journey with a pact made with their mum - but for Ryan and his mum, it worked. And it’s transformed both of their lives.

For Ryan, the energy he unlocked by quitting drinking didn’t just stay bottled up - it burst open a world of new opportunities. And he said yes to all of them.

Welcome to The Next Round -the podcast that explores what happens after you change your drinking. Whether you’re wondering how to fill all that new free time or feeling supercharged with so many ideas you need help saying no, this show is your source of inspiration for whatever comes next.

When Ryan gave up drinking, he didn't just close a door -he opened a portal. What followed wasn’t just sobriety, but a full-blown transformation that turned him into a festival-hopping, breathwork-leading, mushroom-coffee-brewing creative force. This is the story of what happens when you say no to booze and yes to everything else.

When Ryan gave up drinking, he didn’t just close a door -he opened a portal. What followed wasn’t just sobriety, but a full-blown transformation that turned him into a festival-hopping, breathwork-leading, mushroom-coffee-brewing creative force. This is the story of what happens when you say no to booze and yes to everything else.

Ryan didn’t just stop drinking. He and his mum made a pact, and it stuck. It became an anchor that kept him grounded when life threw him curveballs—grief, stress, pressure. And rather than slide back into old habits, he leaned into something new. Actually, many things new.

His first year of sobriety looked nothing like what you might expect. It began with a love story—he met his girlfriend at a sober-friendly community festival. She opened the door to a world of conscious living: breathwork, ice baths, and music-fueled self-exploration.

What followed was a summer of sober festivals, including Medicine Festival and Boom in Portugal—seven days of breathwork, dancing, Kung Fu, and sound healing in the mountains. He wasn’t just attending these gatherings. He was performing, drumming with his girlfriend’s band, and even leading guided meditations at immersive sound healing events. At Hackney Round Chapel, he took the stage after a 20-year hiatus and led a meditation through the chakra system, paired with a cup of Blue Lotus tea and sacred geometry visuals on the ceiling.

Then came the deepening. He enrolled in an eight-month breathwork facilitator course, digging into trauma, PTSD, and shadow work. He’s now running free sessions as part of his training and sees this as part of his longer-term path: helping others—especially men—through sobriety and healing.

But his creativity doesn’t stop there.

So he’s building “Holy Mush,” a tree-slab-cart-powered mushroom coffee business with a side of kindness and storytelling. Think Lion’s Mane espresso served with a dose of human connection. He’s also cooking up plans to document his journey on social media using first-person glasses.

You can find Ryan's podcast '

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