{"podcast":{"title":"Recovery Elevator","slug":"recovery-elevator-1055558","podcast_index_feed_id":1055558,"rss_url":"https://recoveryelevator.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"http://www.recoveryelevator.com","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/6/8/8/0/6880a1a74b64116116c3140a3186d450/2026_Podcast_Logo.png","author":"Paul","episode_count":599,"summary":"It's not a NO to alcohol — it's a YES to a better life! Bestselling author Paul Churchill interviews people who have successfully quit drinking, offering an honest, uplifting look at what an alcohol-free life can really look like. Each week, Recovery Elevator explores sobriety from fresh perspectives — no judgment, no lectures, just real stories from real people. Whether you're sober curious, newly sober, supporting a loved one, or already thriving in recovery, you've found your community. Topics include: how to stop drinking alcohol, alcohol addiction and dependency, whether moderate drinking actually works, what happens to your brain when you quit drinking, the role of spirituality in recovery, whether AA is right for you, tracking sobriety milestones, and whether addiction might be trying to tell you something. If alcohol is making you sick and tired, Recovery Elevator is your invitation to explore what life on the other side looks like — through candid conversations and inspiring guest stories.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-06T16:21:13.576168+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/recovery-elevator-1055558"},"episode":{"title":"RE 577: Why You Drink","slug":"re-577-why-you-drink","published_at":"2026-03-09T08:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/recovery-elevator-1055558/re-577-why-you-drink","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/recovery-elevator-1055558","url":"https://recoveryelevator.libsyn.com/re-577-why-you-drink","audio_url":"https://verifi.podscribe.com/rss/p/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/recoveryelevator/RE_577_mixdown.mp3?dest-id=246961","summary":"Today we have Kendra. She is 38 years old from Central Minnesota and took her last drink on March 22 nd , 2024. This episode is brought to you by: Sign up and get 10% off: Better Help Café RE – THE social app for sober people Recovery Elevator is compiling a list of recovery stories and we're going to put them in a book called This is How We Quit. If you want to be part of this book, and submit your story, we'd love to have you. There is no sobriety time requirement so if your saying to yourself, well, I've only been sober 30 days, I can't submit my story, then nonsense. Send an email to info@recoveryelevator.com and you'll get a google form to fill out and submit your story. Recovery Elevator's first ever Sober Ukelele Retreat will be November 7 th -14 th , 2026. Registration opens May 1 st . [03:42] Thoughts from Paul: Today Paul unwraps the reason that we drink. It isn't because alcohol is the most addictive drug on the planet or because you like the taste of wood, hops or earthy floral notes. For millions of years, humans evolved with the expectation of a loving and accepting community to be surrounding us at all times. In the modern world we are ripped away from this and are expected to be okay by ourselves. The opposite of addiction is connection, and we've never been more disconnected as a species. Be kind to yourself, this is not your fault. The pain that something was missing landed in your biology likely before you said your first word. This is why we all carry so much shame when something is missing or wrong we internalize it as if we are the problem and we are bad. Again, this is not your fault. But it is tasked to you, us, we to course correct – and we are. [08:25] Paul introduces Kendra: Kendra was previously interviewed on episode 501 . She is 38 years o…","meta_description":"Today we have Kendra. She is 38 years old from Central Minnesota and took her last drink on March 22 nd , 2024. This episode is brought to you by: Sign up…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2748,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/recovery-elevator-1055558/episodes/re-577-why-you-drink/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/recovery-elevator-1055558/re-577-why-you-drink.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}