Audrey and I are here to help you answer the dreaded question: “Why aren’t you drinking?”  Right in time for the holidays, we’re supplying you with 50+ answers to this question. No matter who asks you or what your reasons are, you’ll walk away from this episode with clear options to confidently tackle this question.  Enrollment for the next Sober Mom Retreat is now live, and you’re invited! We’ll be gathering at the Mountain Shadows Resort in Arizona from Feb 27-Mar 2, 2025. If you’re...

Katie and I are here for another installment of SobrieTEA, where we spill the tea about our favorite escape: Bravo and Reality TV!  Today’s show is all about the Real Housewives! First, we’ll talk about the great (and too short!) season of Real Housewives of Orange County that just wrapped, the big storylines on Real Housewives of Salt Lake, why both The Real Housewives of Potomoc and The Real Housewives of New York are falling flat this season, and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills...

I recently asked on Instagram “What is better sober?” and SO many of you said sex. So, light the candles ladies, because we’re going there. Hilary Phelps is back on the pod today for a chat all about the beauty of sober sex!  We’ll talk about the ways in which sobriety leads to intimacy, how greater self-awareness can lead to connection, how to approach sober sex and handle feelings of awkwardness if the experience is new for you, and why you deserve to feel empowered about your sexual wants...

We’re back from the Sober Mom Life retreat! There were so many beautiful moments of connection, emotion, and fun throughout the weekend and today Audrey and I are here to tell you all about it.  If you’re interested in joining us on a future retreat, stay tuned! We’ll be elevating the experience and opening the doors to the public. We’ll share the details right here on the pod as they become available!  We were so lucky to have some AMAZING sponsors for this retreat, from the softest...

Exciting changes are coming to the Cafe and the podcast, starting November 1st!  Today, I’ll share with you why I’ll only be releasing new episodes on Mondays starting in November, and what that means for the Real Sober Moms series (Don’t worry! They’re not going away!).  Then, I’ll give you a sneak peek into some exciting changes that will be coming to the Sober Mom Life Cafe starting November 1st. (Hint: there will be so many more weekly support meeting options, and a new monthly Bravo...

When my online friend Jaana, the awesome woman behind @thismomsgonnasnap, told me that she didn’t have her first drink until she was 32 years old, I had to know more!  Today, Jaana shares with us how her Mormon upbringing kept her sober well into adulthood, how easy it was for her drinking to become habitual when she finally ‘broke the seal’ and allowed alcohol into her life, and why she chose to step away from the Mormon faith. Plus! She’ll give her viewpoint on the representation of...

Today I'm bringing back one of my favorite episodes! There comes a time in every woman’s sobriety journey when she feels called to proudly own sobriety and leave the shame behind. ‘Coming out’ as sober to your family, friends, or even publicly can feel scary! So today, Audrey and I are here to help you think through how to handle these conversations and announcements when you’re ready.  We chat about tactics and phrases for sharing your sobriety story, tackling fears of rejection, how to...

DISCLAIMER: This episode is not meant to diagnose. Anyone who is perfectionistic does not necessarily have a personality disorder. Please see your therapist with concerns or questions. Perfectionism is one of the most common topics we talk about inside of the Sober Mom Life Cafe. An overwhelming need to be ‘perfect’ can feel suffocating, and can be a major driving factor for drinking. Today my therapist mom, Susan, is here to help us understand what perfectionism is, how it is related to...

Content warning: In this episode we talk about sexual assault.  Young Amanda struggled with social skills and felt like partying was not for her, but as she reached the end of high school she started getting attention from boys, and she wondered… could partying be enjoyable? Her first drink felt like a revelation - socializing felt so much easier.  After college and a couple of rough breakups, Amanda found herself lonely and without a social circle, so she leaned into the party scene with...

Audrey is here for part two of our chat. Today we’ll talk about my book and Audrey’s recent sober vacation to Hawaii!  Writing a book has been so similar to sobriety in that I’ve had to take the process one day at a time. I’ll share what that was like, and why I was confident that I would successfully reach the finish line. Then, Audrey will tell us all about her recent sober vacation to Hawaii! She had a lot of insights and realizations on the trip, and she’ll share them here.  Try our NEW...

Audrey is back for a 2-part episode! This conversation was so wide ranging that we’re breaking it into two parts. Today we’ll cover Sober October and how sobriety can aid us in the midst of natural disasters.  Asheville, NC, which is the location of our upcoming retreat, was hit with devastating flooding by Hurricane Helene. Audrey will share her personal experience with natural disaster recovery, and specifically how her sobriety vastly altered how deeply she could show up for her family....

Katie and I are here for another installment of SobrieTEA, where we spill the tea about our favorite escape: Reality TV!  The recent Bravo drought allowed us to expand our horizons into other reality content, so today we’re diving into Chimp Crazy and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Then, we’ll share our thoughts on new cast members Brittany and Bronwyn on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake, and chat about Shannon and Tamara’s drinking on The Real Housewives of Orange County.   Plus - Sober...

Today’s Real Sober Mom Keri is 30 days sober and she’s ready to share her story!  Being social always felt like a challenge for shy introverted Keri, so when she found alcohol as a teenager it became a central piece of her social life. Like so many of us, this continued through her teens and twenties, and by her mid twenties she started to notice that her ‘off switch’ with alcohol was disappearing. It was becoming harder and harder to control.  After getting married and quickly becoming...

These past few months have been a lot, and today I’m here for a little vent session to get it off my chest. It’s so important to find a community that will support you when you just need to vent, because sometimes a little venting is all you need to put things into perspective. Thanks for being that community for me today!  I’ll talk about how life has been ‘lifing’ lately, why it’s felt like I’ve been failing in so many ways, the perspective shift I experienced when I realized that...

Heather grew up in a party house, so it seemed completely natural to her when she started drinking and became a party girl herself. There were short moments when she questioned her drinking throughout her teens and twenties, but they never lasted long.  Life started to become intense as Heather entered her late twenties and got married. A five year journey to become a mother, followed by intense postpartum depression and skin cancer that took 75% of her ear had her leaning on wine as a means...

I am so excited to finally be able to share the news: I’m writing a book! This is a childhood dream come true, and I can’t wait to share it with you.  Audrey’s here today to ask me all of your book related questions. We’ll talk about how the idea for the book came to be, the steps I took to get a book deal, how the writing process has been, and what you can expect from the book when it comes out in October 2025!  This book could not be possible without the incredible community of women...

Growing up, Julia possessed a wise intuition. After quickly realizing that alcohol wasn’t for her, she cast herself as her friend group’s designated driver and had a great time as the sober one of the bunch. She was always comfortable saying ‘no’, and she surrounded herself with friends who would respect that and back her up.   As Julia got older and the drinking around her took on a more ‘sophisticated’ energy, she started to enjoy it for the first time. Slowly, it became a part of her life...

My Mom Susan, our resident therapist, is back this week to educate us on cross-addictions. If you’ve ditched alcohol only to find yourself developing an addiction to something new, whether that be shopping, gambling, marijuana, or many other things, then this episode is for you.  Susan will explain the differences between a habit, a compulsion, and an addiction. Then, we’ll talk about how to identify and navigate the emotional elements that lie at the source of distressing compulsions or...

Meghan’s relationship with alcohol seemed ‘normal’ to her for years. Life as ICU nurse with young children kept her drinking to a minimum. But as her kids got older and she changed careers, alcohol crept into her weeknights until she often found herself hungover or even blacking out.  After one such night with family in 2019, she received a call from her dad. He had a message -  clean up your act. The shame from this call led her to quit drinking that very day, and she stopped for almost a...

Today I’m bringing back one of my favorite episodes. We’ll be talking all about the mental gymnastics of moderation. If you've ever struggled with moderation or wondered if sobriety could really be the easier choice, this episode is for you. Moderation can be exhausting and terribly shame-inducing. It puts all of the pressure on you to control the situation, while overlooking the fact that alcohol is a highly addictive substance. What if you consider a path where you truly are in control:...

In Melinda’s career as a prosecuting attorney, alcohol felt like a necessary way of life. From college on, every professional event centered around alcohol. As time passed, Melinda felt helpless - it felt like it would be career suicide if she stopped drinking.  Melinda’s drinking tipped from social to personal when she left her husband, and it accelerated to an alarming degree after her father’s unexpected death. Eventually, Melinda found herself in a dangerous spiral of hiding her drinking...

My very first guest, Katy Rexing, is back on the show! Check out her first episode here. Today, Katy gives us a big life update. She’ll talk about what it was like to follow her gut and move her family to California, despite experiencing intense fear every step of the way. She’ll share how her husband has followed her into embracing a sober life. Plus, we’ll talk in depth about what everyone in our family gains when we choose sobriety as parents. Katy wants you to know that nothing within...

Today’s real sober mom, Erin, grew up in an Irish Catholic family, and drinking just seemed like a way of life for the adults around her. In highschool, the drinking culture felt much the same, though she didn’t partake much because of athletics. Alcohol was waiting for her in college, though. Feeling young and socially awkward, Erin turned to alcohol as a shoulder to lean on whenever she felt social anxiety.  Once alcohol had cemented its place in Erin’s life, it was along for the ride for...

What if we saw rehab as an opportunity instead of sign of failure? Jen is here today to help you make that perspective shift! Jen is a major part of the Sober Mom Life Cafe, and she shared her story on The Real Sober Moms last fall! Be sure to check out that episode for a deep dive on her story. Today, Jen details her two separate experiences in rehab, and how a different mindset going into each stint made all of the difference in the world. She wants you to know - rehab doesn’t have to be...