{"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 582: What Are We Connecting To?","slug":"re-582-what-are-we-connecting-to","published_at":"2026-04-13T08:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/recovery-elevator-1055558/re-582-what-are-we-connecting-to","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/recovery-elevator-1055558","url":"https://recoveryelevator.libsyn.com/re-582-what-are-we-connecting-to","audio_url":"https://verifi.podscribe.com/rss/p/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/recoveryelevator/RE_582_mixdown.mp3?dest-id=246961","summary":"Today we have Ron. He is 67 years old from Milwaukee, WI and he took his last drink of alcohol on February 19 th , 2026. This episode is brought to you by: Sign up and get 10% off: Better Help Sober Link sign up and claim your $100 enrollment bonus [02:57] Thoughts from Paul: The village, the community, the tribe, has been completely destroyed in the last couple hundred years, and this messes with us big time. Okay, the opposite of addiction is connection, but what exactly are we connecting to? The big one here is yourself. If you're disconnected within, everything in your outside world will be fractured also. The next big one is when you connect with others. But even after that, probably the biggest connection is the one with nature. There's no coincidence as our war against nature intensifies, so do ailments such as addictions, chronic pain, depression, and anxiety disorders. We are being called home, and it's a beautiful thing. So how do you build this connection with nature or the natural world? I've got good news for you. You are the natural world. So, this separation is false from the first place, and it's a mind-created fiction. So go outside, read a book outside, download the Merlin Bird app, and learn the birds that call your neighborhood home. [08:04] Paul introduces Ron: Ron is 67 and lives in Milwaukee, WI. He is the president of a large restaurant company. He has been married to his wife for 12 years, has two grown children, five grandchildren and two dogs. For fun Ron enjoys travelling, reading, golf and time with family. Ron says he first drank when he was a teenager, but it was very occasional. He says that most of his adult life, he did not have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol until he was around 52 years old. In 2010, Ron was going through a di…","meta_description":"Today we have Ron. He is 67 years old from Milwaukee, WI and he took his last drink of alcohol on February 19 th , 2026. This episode is brought to you by…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2364,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/recovery-elevator-1055558/episodes/re-582-what-are-we-connecting-to/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-582-what-are-we-connecting-to.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}