The 1% in Recovery Successful Gamblers & Alcoholics Stopping Addiction

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Easter isn’t only a date on the calendar, it’s a brutal and hopeful idea: something in you has to end before something better can begin. We take the Easter story of death and resurrection and translate it into real addiction recovery, where change isn’t abstract. It’s the moment you stop escaping and start living.

We talk honestly about how alcoholism, gambling addiction, and drug addiction breed loneliness and shrink life into survival mode. When you’re stuck chasing the next drink or the next bet, you lose the simple joys that make life feel worth it: showing up for family, being present at a game, handling small responsibilities, and feeling peace in ordinary moments. Recovery brings those moments back, but it also asks for emotional sobriety, because “you cannot outthink an emotional issue.” Healing means facing feelings, not arguing with them.

I also share what rebirth has looked like in my own story: learning my gifts, building purpose through speaking, coaching, writing, and service, and a pivotal experience in Fatima, Portugal that helped me finally become done with gambling. We close with a recovery-centered take on forgiveness and the Saint Francis or 11th-step prayer, plus a reminder that every emotion still shows up and you can stay steady through all of them.

If you want a more grounded, spiritual, practical path to sobriety and relapse prevention, listen through to the end. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs a fresh start, and leave a review so more people can find the show.
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Fun isn’t the opposite of recovery, it’s one of the strongest signs it’s working. I sit down with Elise from Seattle, proudly branded as the “Director Of Fun,” and we dig into what 20 years of sobriety actually looks like when the goal isn’t just abstinence, but a life you genuinely want to wake up to.

We talk about sober fun in real-world terms: why the first 10 to 15 minutes at a party can feel painfully awkward, how to ride that wave without bolting, and how small choices (like a seltzer in your hand and a good question for a stranger) can unlock connection. Elise also shares how humor helps us metabolize old stories without getting stuck in shame, and why finding “your room” matters when recovery jokes only land with the right people.

From there we zoom out into long-term recovery and storytelling. Elise breaks down the idea of progressive recovery, why our toolset has to grow over time, and how service can look far beyond a meeting hall, including building sober community events and showing up for local nonprofits. We also get honest about mental health: depression, PTSD, and the unfair expectation that the “fun person” should always be on, even when they’re struggling.

If you’re sober curious, newly sober, or deep into long-term sobriety and craving more joy, this conversation is for you. Subscribe for more recovery stories, share this with someone who needs a little hope, and leave a review with the one thing you do to make sober life more fun.
The Sober Curator: Alysse Bryson: Founder Of The Sober Curator & Sober Culture Advocate
LinkedIn:  Alysse Bryson | LinkedIn 
Apple Podcasts: Sober Curator Podcast - Podcast - Apple Podcasts
Spotify Podcasts: Alysse Bryson: The Sober Curator - A Sober Girls Guide Podcast | Podcast on Spotify
YouTube: Sip Happens: Connection Without Alcohol - Alysse Bryson

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Recovery Freedom Circle
The System That Understands Recovery, Builds Character  and Helps People Have Better Relationships.
A Life Changing Solution, Saves You Time, 18 weeks
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A fixed match doesn’t start with a brown paper bag under the table. It starts with a system that quietly rewards corruption and punishes honesty, then wraps it all in highlight reels and betting promos. 

We’re joined by Professor Declan Hill, an investigative journalist and researcher who has spent years studying organized crime in sports and the global sports gambling market. He walks us through how match fixing actually works, including why it can reach the biggest stages in soccer, and how intimidation and “inside the sausage factory” incentives keep people silent. One of the most unsettling takeaways is how often athletes are made vulnerable by basic corruption: money intended for players gets siphoned off, and fixers step in offering cash and certainty. 

From there, we get blunt about legalized sports betting in the United States. We talk about the myth that the average bettor can win long term, the way betting apps turn your phone into a casino, and why young people including teens are getting pulled in fast. Declan explains why prop bets, parlays, micro betting, and live betting aren’t harmless extras but powerful addiction mechanisms, and why athletes can be uniquely susceptible to gambling addiction. 

We end with solutions and a warning. Self-regulation doesn’t work, and the growing financial ties between leagues and sportsbooks damage trust in the game. Declan makes the case for an independent sports integrity agency, modeled on systems that already exist elsewhere, and argues that without real oversight a major scandal could push a league into an existential crisis. If you care about sports, recovery, or how industries manufacture consent, this conversation will stick with you. 

Subscribe for more, share this with a friend who loves sports, and leave a review with your take: do you still trust what you’re watching?
Declan Hill
LinkedIn:  Declan Hill | LinkedIn
Substack: CrimeWaves | Declan Hill | Substack
Book:  The Fix on Amazon: Amazon.com: The Fix: Soccer and Organized Crime: 9780771041396: Hill, Declan: Books

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Your EQ is Your IQ
YouTube -    Life Is Wonderful   Hugo V

Recovery Freedom Circle
The System That Understands Recovery, Builds Character  and Helps People Have Better Relationships.
A Life Changing Solution, Saves You Time, 18 weeks
www.lifeiswonderful.love  

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March Madness combined with Happy Hour weekends can look harmless from the outside, but if you are in addiction recovery, they can be a perfect storm of triggers: wall to wall games, nonstop sports betting ads, and the social pressure of happy hour. We unpack why that rush gets labeled “fun,” even when it leads to the same ending for so many of us: lost money, wasted time, a foggy brain, and the feeling that life is happening somewhere else. 

We also get real about what early recovery actually feels like. Newcomers often show up depressed and stunned, thinking, “I am not this bad,” while their behavior tells a different story. I share a personal story about walking into my first gambling meeting during the Sweet 16 and still trying to bet around it, plus why the addicted mind rebels against the simple roadmap that works: meetings, honesty, structure, and support. 

Then we move from insight to action with practical relapse prevention. We talk about neuroplasticity and building healthy brain chemistry through natural dopamine and connection, why vague goals fail, and how to design a day that protects your sobriety. The core takeaway is simple: stop letting a score, a drink, or a bet decide your mood. Choose a plan, put it on your calendar, and show up for the life you say you want. If this helps, subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review.
Support the show
Recovery is Beautiful.   

Go Live Your Best Life!!

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Your EQ is Your IQ
YouTube -    Life Is Wonderful   Hugo V

Recovery Freedom Circle
The System That Understands Recovery, Builds Character  and Helps People Have Better Relationships.
A Life Changing Solution, Saves You Time, 18 weeks
www.lifeiswonderful.love  

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Sports betting doesn’t just change what you watch on Sunday, it can change what you save for the rest of your life. We talk with Kevin, an assistant professor of finance at Kansas, about new research on online sports betting legalization and how it impacts household savings, investing behavior, and long-term financial stability. 

Kevin and his co-authors use anonymized transaction account data from around 200,000 US households to track real money flows, including transfers to major sports betting apps and deposits into brokerage accounts like Vanguard, Fidelity, and ETrade. What they find is hard to ignore: adoption grows over time and is heavily concentrated among frequent bettors, and savings deposits fall in the aggregate even though only about 7% of households ever use a sportsbook. Among households with low savings and among heavy users, brokerage contributions drop dramatically, in some cases by more than 50%. 

We also get into the real-world drivers behind the numbers: relentless sports betting advertising, “free” promos, push notifications, the parlay obsession, and live betting that makes chasing losses faster and easier. Kevin shares how he approaches these conversations with college students and why the better target for change is smarter regulation, clearer boundaries, and better research access at the state level. 

If you care about financial health, gambling addiction risk, and where “entertainment” starts stealing from your future, hit play. Subscribe, share this with someone who bets, and leave us a review with your take on what fair guardrails should look like.
Kevin Pisciotta website: https://sites.google.com/udel.edu/kevin-pisciotta/home
LinkedIn: Kevin Pisciotta | LinkedIn
Paper: Online Sports Betting Is Draining Household Savings 
Support the show
Recovery is Beautiful.   

Go Live Your Best Life!!

Facebook Group - Recovery Freedom Circle | Facebook

Your EQ is Your IQ
YouTube -    Life Is Wonderful   Hugo V

Recovery Freedom Circle
The System That Understands Recovery, Builds Character  and Helps People Have Better Relationships.
A Life Changing Solution, Saves You Time, 18 weeks
www.lifeiswonderful.love  

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