Rebellion Dogs Radio

Joe C

A contemporary look at addiction, recovery and mental health - less dogma, more bite. The author of Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life shares interviews with writers, artists, film-makers, treatment professionals and shares the latest research. read less
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Episodes

The year ahead Episode 75 AAs new survey and new literature
Dec 8 2023
The year ahead Episode 75 AAs new survey and new literature
We look at history—why? Isn’t this a contemporary, or even future gazing look at recovery and addiction? Well yes and yes. Yuval Noah Harari, PDH author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind says, “History is not the study of past; history is the study of change; it’s not about remembering the past; it’s about liberating ourselves from it.”Episode 75 of Rebellion Dogs Radio explores three calls to action by Alcoholics Anonymous that need our attention in 2024:1.            New stories of AA diversity today are needed to update the 48-year-old Do You Think You’re Different? Let’s get our freak on; if you ever felt you can’t or won’t blend into AA, we want you to help demonstrate what we mean by, “We are people who normally would not mix. But there exists among us a fellowship, a friendliness, and an understanding which is indescribably wonderful.”2.          About our primary literate in AA—The Big Book + 12 & 12: rewrite it? Or reify it? Grappling with a need to adapt to changing times, being sensitive to change-resistant tendencies, the trustees’ Literature Committee is polling members, looking for their marching orders: preserve what’s written; or breathe fresh life into last millennium’s AA message and widen our gateway? Directly from AA’s General Service Office, we have these seven questions for you.3.         The 2022, much anticipated, AA membership survey is posted with current data on AA for all to see; counselors, healthcare and criminal court diversion professional who refer people to AA, the general public and last but not least AA members to show how we are doing, from our home groups to the USA/Canada General Service Conference at reaching all those who want or need AA to be available, equitably, and effectively. Our responsibility declaration nudges us to look at this new info, see who were are serving, who we may be failing and confront how, whenever, wherever, someone reaches out, we want the hand of AA always to be there (for everyone regardless of age, race, gender, creed, cultural touchstones). There’s information for the first time about USA/Canada AA’s use of online meetings and our preferences. It’s like those pioneering driving blind days all over again. DIVERSITY:  What makes you different?If you are someone in recovery and you were helped by peer-to-peer, maybe AA specifically, did you immediately feel at home at your first meeting, or did you feel different that the group you were exposed to? If you felt or feel different, we have a humble writing assignment for you as our first topic.The  AA Literature desk wants your story, 500—800 words. DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DIFFERENT? is the 48-year-old pamphlet #13 that tipped the scale in my own should-I-stay or should-I-go sobriety. I found people (stories) spoken in my language for the first time in AA. If you do not know this collection of AA stories, click the link to read. Thirteen essays of people who felt marginalized, a teenager, atheist, clergy, high bottom, low bottom, movie star, person of color, LGBTQIA+, share the barriers and bridges navigated to find a rightful seat in AA. How timely to hear from a 15-year-old when I was a teenage alcoholic. I was happy to read what Ed the AA atheist and Jan the AA agnostic had to say about sobriety without an anthropomorphic personal higher power. It's a great recovery tool; and it’s old. Today’s teenager doesn’t have any use for 1970s teenage angst; it could be unrelatable, leaving gender identification, pronouns et al alone for now—yes we need to attend to contemporary, sensitive, inclusive language, but—it all starts with a story, one person in recovery talking to another with alcohol use disorder. This
Retro Rebellion Dogs with Ep 19's Richard + Jack
Nov 30 2023
Retro Rebellion Dogs with Ep 19's Richard + Jack
From our Radio vault, Episode 19 features Richard, a Canadian Slam Poet, Comedian, pianist + Jack from LA, punk rocker, author, and recovering Big Book thumper. This show was recorded in the Fall of 2015. It is eight years later - both of these mavericks are doing their thing, in meetings and on stage. Visit our website for links if you connect with Jack, Richard, or both of these samples of recovery. I suspect that one or both are performing somewhere you could get to, or maybe in a meeting on Zoom or just down the road from you. Jack's book, A Principle of Recovery: An Unconventional Journey Through the Twelve Steps is only a click or two away, alsoMost of all, how these people with addiction found recovery in the rooms and adapted what they found to fit their worldview and the life they lead, is a story worth listening to again... or again and again. Also discussed on this podcast, Vancouver will host the International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous the first weekend of July, 2025. This quinquennial event has happened (almost) every five years since 1950. In 2020 we were supposed to be in Detroit but COVID, who remembers COVID and an in-person event of tens of thousands wasn't going to happen in Motown or anywhere. So, some restless folks are going to be eager to get out and share in the spectacle and spend the money already saved up in their Big Book sized piggy bank. That said, crazy as it might sound, it may not be too early to think about booking a hotel room or Air B'n'B because VanCity will be overcapacity, I am pretty sure of that. Also on the planning ahead front, the twice postponed 2020 and 2022 biennial International Conference of Secular AA had to funnel atheists and agnostics onto Zoom because Washington DC wasn't going to happen for the same reasons mentioned above. Orlando Florida, September 20-22 we--or some of "we" are going to to be all Goofy, Mickey and Minnie or Donald Ducky for the weekend. Info for Secular AA ICSAA 2024 For more on this Rebellion Dogs Radio classic, blogs, books, community and other ways to engage with time well wasted, visit Rebellion Dogs Radio for links and show notes or to comment. We are all in this together; Rebellion Dogs would enjoy hearing from you.https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/
Bill Schaberg the sequal - 4 years after Writing the Big Book:The Creation of AA
Sep 20 2023
Bill Schaberg the sequal - 4 years after Writing the Big Book:The Creation of AA
It was the Fall of 2019, Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA by William Schaberg was about to be published and Joe C sat down with the author to talk about the soon-to-be-unveiled book born of eleven years of primary documentary research on Rebellion Dogs Radio, Episode 49. Four years later, more has been revealed and new insights gained. So listeners asked, “When are you two going to sit down again for a podcast?” Here it is.   This time around we look at new insights and speculation into early AA history. Bill and Joe share about their own recovery experience and reflect on changing AA culture through the years and what might inform the future of AA groups, members and culture. We talk about The “God” Word: Agnostics and Atheists in AAWe talk about the upcoming ZOOM October 7th/8th ICSAA (International Conference of Secular AA).We talk about the probable influence of the most popular New Thought books of the day and how this cultural phenomena informed our AA 12-Step suggested program of Recovery. Read “Bill W's secret bookshelf.” We talk about the idea that and documentary evidence that supports the idea that Bill W thought he was done writing the Big Book--without the 12 steps or any step-by-step guide.We talk about Episode 49: when we first talked writing Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA (click to read/listen) Rebellion Dogs Radio always features rebellious music. Episode 74 feature a Toronto band covering a recently lost British icon who died, too young, but sober: Goodnight Sunrise covers David Bowie's Major Tom. Rebellion Dogs thinks this Major Tom cover is amazingly artistic and new sounding - it may send you clamoring back for your original psychedelic era version (and that's okay, too). Visit Goodnight Sunrise, view their campy look at the music industry today in their video WAIT FOR IT. See this band live if you get the chance. SHOW NOTES & LINKS EPISODE 74 of REBELLION DOGS RADIO
REPLAY Prof TRYSH TRAVIS, Episode 34 Women in AA
Aug 4 2023
REPLAY Prof TRYSH TRAVIS, Episode 34 Women in AA
Trysh Travis, is Associate Dean at University of Florida. She oversees Women’s Studies, is a cultural and literary historian whose work looks at the gendered history of medicine and popular therapeutic cultures. While working as a high school teacher, she earned an MA from the Bread Loaf School of English, followed by a PhD in American Studies from Yale University. She is the author of The Language of the Heart: Twelve-Step Recovery from Alcoholics Anonymous to Oprah Winfrey (UNC Press, 2009) and co-editor (with Timothy Aubry) of Rethinking Therapeutic Culture (Chicago, 2016). Her work has been supported by the Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and appeared in venues such as PMLA, American Quarterly, Contemporary Drug Problems, and Raritan: A Quarterly Review. With UF colleague Joseph Spillane, she is the co-founder of the translational humanities project Points: The Joint Blog of the Alcohol & Drugs History Society and the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy, where she currently serves as Managing Editor Emerita. Dr Travis presented to AA History Symposium about the history or women in AA and gender politics. Originally, Episode 34, this recording inspires new listeners every month. See original show notes from Episode 34 This talk discusses the democratization of "We are all the same, we are all equal" in AA with "It's more complicated than that; there is gender politics and other marginalizing factors for some of us in and out of the meetings which needs to be addressed in a discussion of addiction and recovery." Our musical guest is English art-rock band Moulettes
Replay Ep. 23 William B and Jackie B
Mar 31 2023
Replay Ep. 23 William B and Jackie B
William G. Borchert: September 9, 1933 - October 1, 2022 memorial will be on Zoom coming from Stepping Stones April 2 (first 1000 only) ZOOM 867 0807 3394 Passcode 1962 7—8:15 PM New York time (UTC –4) Who was Bill B? A New York newspaperman who got sober in the 1960s and would write some AA history including early AA + When Love is Not Enough, the story of Lois Wilson. Bill died in October 1922 and he is being honored by friends in recovery, so we are replaying this 2016 recording. My Name is Bill W. (1989), staring James Woods as Bill W. and James Garner as Dr. Bob and When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story (2010) staring Winona Ryder - this is some of William's work.  Having written 1000 Years of Sobriety (Hazelden), the stories of twenty members with fifty or more years of sobriety each, William Borchert's was our Rebellion Dogs guest as he had recently put out his autobiography that I had just read:  How I Became My Father: A Drunk is not only a look at AA history by someone in the room, but a time-capsule of mid-20th century American life. I mention in the show that I talked much longer with William and I would post our discussion about the craft of writing and more about his autobiography. I went on to other demanding things and it did not happen. Maybe soon, I will post it. Also on the show, a regular: Jackie B, playwright and AA historian. Jackie is part of a History: Steps, Traditions, Concepts presentation @ The Wilson House in Vermont, April 15/16 and on Zoom along with William Schaberg (Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA) and others. More Rebellion Dogs Radio
Non-alcoholic trustee Mani Mehdikhani on what the 2020 AA membship survey tells us
Nov 13 2022
Non-alcoholic trustee Mani Mehdikhani on what the 2020 AA membship survey tells us
Meet Clinical Psychologist at Greater Manchester West NHS Mental Health Foundation Trust, Mani Mehdikhani, one of AA Great Britain’s non-alcoholic trustees on their General Service Board. Among other duties, Mani and his committee prepared the quinquennial AA membership survey which went out to Alcoholics Anonymous members in Great Britain and English-speaking Central Europe Region groups in 2020. A remarkable thing happened as they prepared to put these questions before members: The COVID-19 pandemic. As members transitioned from primarily face-to-face meetings to online gatherings, here was an opportunity to collect data on how members were adjusting. The GSO Board did just that. Here is what members told us.Less than one-in-five (18%) Great Britain AAs had experience with online meetings, pre-pandemic.   More members in the Central Europe Region were inclined towards online AA. By the time the survey of 2020 was collected, 93% of members/groups were able to transition to online (Zoom, etc.) means of connecting with each other. Early in our adaptation to online AA, members greatest concerns were: (i) helping newcomers, (ii) doing service work, (iii) sponsoring members and (iv) “carrying the message.”Zoom was not a better way of doing things for everyone. And some members were already attending phone or video meetings anyway. A few months into lock-down the key drawbacks among people who were not in love with ‘the new normal’ were: (i) a lack of technical skills, (ii)online meetings not a suitable replacement for face-to-face (f2f) meetings (33-36%), (iii) concerns about privacy, (iv) no access to bandwidth or IT devices, (iv) group was continuing to meet f2f. New questions were asked about higher power (beliefs and spirituality.Last episode we explored survey results based on the written report. What added benefit came from speaking with the survey’s architect directly? Well, personally, I had   extrapolating some of this data from what it says to what it means; Mani’s scientific observations helped me reel-in some of the hypothetical conclusions I was already starting to draw. “That’s human nature,” he kindly suggested to me. But it was also reassuring to hear that the Board also did not have their full appetite satisfied and they would love to ask follow-up questions to try to direct their efforts most effectively. The purpose of these membership surveys (in General Service regions such as Great Britain or USA/Canada) is: (i) inform the public and professionals that interact with alcohol use disorder about the demographics and other characteristics of AA members and meetings and (ii)use the data to inform the Board in terms of where their future efforts would best serve the membership of AA. Mani and the General Service Board say they view with great interest how online AA will both aid the still suffering alcoholic but how virtual spaces will alter the service structure which has—based on geographical locations of members and their meetings before—divided groups/members by geography and how shall the service structure adapt to our more global makeup of meetings and member-interactions?Review the entire 2020 Great Britain AA Membership SurveyAlso discussed in this show: The 5th Biennial International Conference of Secular AA (UTC time schedule) Other time zones (North America) HEREMore of what goes on when "Rebellion Dogs our every step::https://rebelliondogspublishing.com
Replay: Episode 32 Generational Divide (2017)
Jun 3 2022
Replay: Episode 32 Generational Divide (2017)
Thanks for listening to Rebellion Dogs Radio: A contemporary look at addiction, recovery and mental health, hopefully with less dogma and more bite!Douglas Coupland (author: Generation X) wrote, "The boomer generation is the one that unselfconscientiously uses pronoun 'We' when describing itself. X, Y and [generations] beyond flee the room the moment someone says, 'We.'""It's a WE program" is heard in a Zoom rectangle from one generation; "Do not include ME in your WE." replies the next generation, somewhere else on the screen. Lately I have learned... maybe all over again, that people line up pretty fast on one side or the other of the debate as to "should recovery meetings be inclusive with 'we' language or should we each speak for ourselves only in first person language."  It's been hotly debated on Zoom meetings lately. Anyhow; this is an episode about Generations, Generations Gaps and how we preserve the familiar to not disenfranchise an older recovery generation while speaking a contemporary vernacular to include today's newcomer to clean and sober life?We... I mean I ... put current ages to generations and because this show first aired last decade and pre-pandemic (what did we know back then?) here's 2022 age ranges for generations:Gen Z (1998 - 2012) are 10 to 25 years-oldMillennials (1981 - 1997) are 26 to 41 years-oldGen X (1965 to 1980) are 42 to 56 years of ageBaby Boomers (1946 to 1964) are 58 to 76 years of ageSilent Generation (1928 to 1945) are 77 years-old or older.Two generations that make up our founders are Bill and Bob and Jim B's gen: Lost Generation born between 1883 and 1900, and The Greatest Gen, from 1901 to 1927).Show notes including a PDF transcript: Rebellion Dogs Publishing.com
Carl Erik Fisher author of The Urge: Our History of Addiction
Feb 24 2022
Carl Erik Fisher author of The Urge: Our History of Addiction
Rebellion Dog Radio EPISODE 68 features guest, Carl Erik Fisher. A Columbia University Psychiatrist, host of Flourishing After Addiction podcast, author of THE URGE: OUR HISTORY of ADDICTION, Carl Erik Fisher talks about his research, his work and his lived experience. Our musical feature on Episode 68 is Goodnight Sunrise with their song debuting 02 22 2022 "One Pill."Carl Erik Fisher’s search for answers about mental health and addiction hasn’t been satisfied by science and medicine; our trip with Dr. Carl Erik takes us into a journey of history, art and philosophy. Sacred cows and wanting definitions and understandings be damned. The Urge illuminates the extent to which the story of addiction has persistently reflected broader questions surrounding being human and care for (and connection with) one another. Fisher introduces us to the people who have endeavored to address this complex condition through the ages: physicians and politicians, activists and artists, researchers and writers, and of course the legions of people who have struggled with their own addictions. He also examines the treatments and strategies that have produced hope and relief for many people with addiction, himself included. Only by reckoning with our history of addiction, he argues—our successes and our failures—can we light the way forward for those whose lives remain threatened by its hold.The Urge: Our History of Addiction reveals that the idea of disease and disorder is not a 20th century construct..."In 1606 Parliament passed an 'Act for the Repressing of the Odious and Loathsome Sin of Drunkenness.' Religious writers of the seventeenth century had log been describing drunkenness as a problem of 'addiction': in 1609, the influential Puritan John Downame bemoaned the fates of those who 'addict themselves to much drinking' and lamented how 'many of our people of late, are so unmeasurably addicted to this vice.' Addiction was no longer just an action one did but also a condition: people actively 'addicted' themselves to something, but were also 'addicted' by something else acting on them - like, of course, gin.Medical writers during the Gin Craze drew on these developments and began using the word 'addicted' to explain the impaired choice of habitual drunkenness..."Enjoy this interview with someone who I hope will be offering sobering insights into the dialogue of addiction and mental health for some time to come. Goodnight Sunrise, one of the most theatrical and engaging live music acts in Toronto, is missing their time on stage but they're "Not Dead Yet," as their last pandemic song reminded us. We always close with something musical and today it's their 2022 02 22 release "One Pill." Some acts I see in a lot of festivals and clubs I go to, seem to find it difficult to replicate on stage what they created in the studio. Goodnight Sunrise might have the opposite challenge: putting in a mp3 what we experience with their live performance. "One Pill" may have cured that problem for them. The song has some of that live energy. It's a contemporary sounding song that draws on some great influences: An 80's list-song about craving altered states, Huey Lewis, "I Want a New Drug"; or an even further throw-back like the retro-psychedelic movement, these new-agers may still be humming the 1960's Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane anthem, "Go Ask Alice."Here are the lyrics ...One pill to make you stronger One pill to wear you out One pill to make you wonder One pill to ease your doubts Visit Rebellion Dogs Publishing for links, show notes and more.
Replay: Episode 53 is a welcome letter to anyone new to secular Alcoholics Anonymous
Jan 31 2022
Replay: Episode 53 is a welcome letter to anyone new to secular Alcoholics Anonymous
This show was first published when secular AA was just growing into the digital new normal of Zoom AA. It was an experimental time and since February 2020, more new varieties of agnostic, atheist, freethinkers, irreligious AA meetings had sprung up and stuck. Many of these new meetings have never had a brick-and-mordar home. They are the trend which is decade three of millennium # 3.Episode 53  covers the basics of AA recovery without subscribing to the idea of a prayer-answering, sobriety-granting higher power. We read Reality Check: Being Nonreligious in America. It's a survey and report about life for atheists and agnostics in the Christian nation of the USA.The survey reports that, people needed to be closeted about their beliefs, even with loved ones.People got asked to go along with religious rituals and asked not to rock-the-boat... awkward.People were belittled, ignored or discriminated against.Does this sound anything like AA stories about nonbelievers getting the fish eye or cold shoulder? Episode 53 looks at this study and some recent AA history and how members are adapting. AA members are creating groups and writing literature to foster the community of AA without god or gods.Recovery is more accessible than ever for a growing non-religious population who prefer a practical approach to faith-based recovery. It's not better, it's not revolutionary but it's legitimate and has a long, long track record.This isn't a new fad; In 1965 Bill W was talking about now AA ought to get more accustomed to both atheists and non-Christian believers who were accounting for much of AA's growth. In San Francisco, years before the Monterey Pop festival that exemplifies the summer of love, Dr. Earle of "Physician Heal Thyself" infamy was writing Steps and opening the door people who weren't interested in Divine intervention and also to newcomers with drug problems other than alcoholism. AA was changing. AA was growing. Today, on zoom, there over a dozen secular AA meetings throughout any given day where people can find recovery without having to accept anyone else's beliefs nor having to deny their own.We get whimsical and musical. It's fun. For links and footnotes, visit Rebellion Dogs Publishing's Podcast page, Episode 53
What a CONCEPT: AA and Public Controversy
Jan 11 2022
What a CONCEPT: AA and Public Controversy
Alcoholics Anonymous starts the year—January 1, 2022—in self-inflicted public controversy: "The way our ‘worthy’ alcoholics have sometimes tried to judge the ‘less worthy’ is, as we look back on it, rather comical. Imagine, if you can, one alcoholic judging another!" Bill W. In the UK, AA’s General Service Office retaliation against it’s own group has created click-bait for media outlets. The Daily Mail and other news outlets are reporting that an AA “group is under threat after being censured for reciting the Lord’s Prayer,” and members of the group were “told by leaders it had become too Christian-focused and has been removed from the organization’s online directory.” In January 2022’s podcast we look at a history of AA’s promise of love and tolerance and the habitual hiccup of AA bleeding deacons pulling  the fire-alarm and turning on nonconforming or specialty group, a seasonal reoccurring turn from unity to tryanny. Joni Mitchell’s song, “Circle Game,” comes to mind: And the seasons, they go round and roundAnd the painted ponies go up and downWe are captive on the carousel of timeWe can’t return, we can only lookBehind from whence we cameWe go round and round and round in the circle game We do not devote an hour to fault-finding or laying blame. That would be more circle games, we think.  We see a learning opportunity. Taking our own inventory, how does our intention of "love and tolerance of others is our code," blow-up into periodic bouts of dis-unity. Can AA live up to its own principles or is it impossible to transcend a human tendency towards tribal conflict? This is important to talk about it. So let's do that. We offer a historical review of policy and some of the patterns that turn AAs against each other.For show notes links and a transcript visit Rebellion Dogs Radio Episode 67
Episode 66 Blast from AAs past. Listen to the  Jim B Memorial Gathering
Dec 29 2021
Episode 66 Blast from AAs past. Listen to the Jim B Memorial Gathering
Jim B was 36 years, two months, four days sober, an atheist, and one of the first few dozen to get sober in Alcoholics Anonymous when he died September 8th, 1974. Jim B outlived both “official” founders, Dr. Bob and Bill W.Listen here for the moving stroll down the lane of AA history. For a twist to the story, visit Rebellion Dogs Radio page. As Jim B was drawing his last breathes in San Diego, across the continent in Montreal, a teenage boy is spared from death from asphyxiation, being found in the wee hours, laying face up in his own vomit in his high school arena. Thanks to the kindness of strangers and medical intervention, the boy is spared an alcoholic death. As an AA pioneer passes on, the same day, a recovery journey begins.  Details of these overlapping AA journeys can be found in the link above. This recording, the memorial service of Jimmy Burwell is a number of  puzzle pieces of AA history.  Rosa Burwell, his widow was there of course. She has the distinction of being the first Southern California female delegate to the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous. Marge was only the second female California delegate; she was 11 years sober at the memorial and remembers being at Jim’s 25-year celebration, early in her sobriety. Roy recalls Jim bringing AA to Philadelphia, Just months before this memorial, a telegram would be received, informing Rosa and Jim that 1,150 AA members celebrated the anniversary of the group Jim B started in Philly. The telegram boasted that they could have sold 1,000 more tickets if they had room for them all. Eunice knew Jim from AA in Washington, saw him again reading the Steps in a meeting in San Diego. Eunice and Rosa became the best of friends. Sybil C got sober in LA March 21, 1941, the first AA woman West of the Mississippi River. From the lectern, Sybil shared about early AA plays of the day (Jackie B, did you already know this?!? Jackie’s written a play about AA history that features Sybil prominently). As the story is told by Sybil, the LA play featured an unabashed atheist from formative New York AA. During a local performance, Sybil sneaked Jim B into the wings to come on stage, playing himself before an unsuspecting audience. The place went wild with enthusiasm.
Religionless Spirituality with Ward Ewing on Rebellion Dogs Radio
Dec 3 2021
Religionless Spirituality with Ward Ewing on Rebellion Dogs Radio
“A person’s spirituality, then, is built on three internal processes:  the way we perceive the world about us,  how we feel about that world, and  the choices we make—conscious and unconscious—in response to our perceptions and our sensations. These three processes are intertwined and naturally reinforcing.”  Rev. Ward Ewing, Twelve Steps to Religionless Spirituality: The Power of Spirituality with or without God (2021)Ward Ewing is non-alcoholic (Class-A) AA trustee emeritus. In 2009 he was elected to chair the Alcoholics Anonymous General Service Board , which he did for four years before rotating out of the position. He's been a friend to AA since 1975 when he was looking for answers to alcoholism and it's effect on some of his congregants. Non-alcoholics hold a unique role in AA. They can be the face of AA for media; there is no cloak of anonymity imposed on our non-alcoholic trustees. They offer expertise, experience and advice that our non-professional peer-to-peer fellowship benefits from: sometimes this expertise is in the area of communication, medicine, employee assistance, legal or finance expertise. Ward B Ewing was President and Dean of the General Theological Seminary in New York City when we was asked to consider serving as an AA trustee.  Ward has a new book: I like it, it find addresses some of the struggles 12-step communities and the larger community face; he looks at the growth appetite for spiritual values without religious dogma and in some cases, without gods. Ward Ewing spoke at We Agnostics and Freethinkers International AA Conference in Santa Monica in 2014, what became #ICSAA (International Conference of Secular AA). Rebellion Dogs Radio's Joe C and Ward talk about his history with AA, about his idea of what "spirituality" is and is not, plus, what harm rigidity could bring to AA's future. Our musical guest is Canadian indie band, Hotel Mira. For show notes including a link to Twelve Steps to Relionless Spirituality: The Power of Spirituality with or without God and other audio recordings, visit Rebellion Dogs Radio
Rebellion Dogs 56 Relatability and Accessibility of AA Literature
Nov 14 2021
Rebellion Dogs 56 Relatability and Accessibility of AA Literature
Alcoholics Anonymous prepares for the 2021 April General Service Conference. The program—at the time of writing—is now circulated, and Literature has a few items including a modification to Big Book text. There is a video accessible to members of groups (and anyone) who knows a General Service Representative. Our fellowship, right now, is looking at the book’s relatability and literacy as it relates to today’s newcomer. If you want to know the issues, we will share the link/video with you. If you have a connection to the original text, you are being invited to review the concerns shared by fellow members and weigh in. Issues of literacy an accessibility are being researched. Societal changes that might leave the book’s current wording offending or alienating today’s newcomers are being considered. Edition Two of Alcoholics Anonymous came out in 1955, 20 years into AA. In 1976 the Third Edition was released and in 2001, our current, Edition Four came out. That was 20-years-ago. According to custom, it is time to talk about a new edition. The video by the General Service Office outlines concerns today, sometimes borrowing from our founder’s own thought about AA: “Since the audience for the book is likely to be newcomers, anything from the point of view of content or style that might offend or alienate those who are not familiar with the program should be carefully eliminated,” Bill W in consideration of the Second Edition. Gender-bias, hetro-normative, theistic and antiquated language, the book’s current literacy level and religious bias are worldwide concerns right now. For those who find Living Sober more relevant changes are afoot here as well it offers a secular, rational and contemporary approach to AA sobriety. It's available to read online now at AA.org. There's a lot going on and we seek your feedback, too. Have a listen, have your say. Our musical artist is As Waters from the 2016 album of the same name. We feature "Hollywood Ending." Visit our site for links to music, resources and video referred to in Episode 56 https://rebelliondogspublishing.com/rebellious-radio
We Are Not All Egomaniacs Rebellion Dogs 64 with Beth Aich
Oct 26 2021
We Are Not All Egomaniacs Rebellion Dogs 64 with Beth Aich
Beth Aich has a bridge-building, gateway widening new book. We're Not All Egomaniacs: Adopting the Twelve Steps for Alcoholics with Low Self-Esteem busts the one-size-fits-all AA approach that assumes everyone in AA fits the narcissistic personality. Au contraire ; based on her personal experience an others first, people pleasing, never good enough, codependent just can't relate. Beth doesn't complain about Bill Wilson's view of the power-driving, yearning to to be top-man alcoholic archetype. But Beth she needed a way that worked for her. "I spent many years trying to fit myself into the personality type of the alcoholic in the Big Book. I didn't know who I was so I went along with what they told me. But those words - selfish, self-centered, egomaniac - triggered me into a massive shame response. My training said selfishness is inexcusable and to always put other' needs ahead of my own. ... I had no sense of entitlement. I did not seek your praise or admiration. I just hoped you would tolerate me as long as I didn't bother you. That's why I'm writing this book - to help others like me build, not destroy their self-esteem. I hope AA won't be as uncomfortable for you after you read this." We're Not All Egomaniacs, pp 31-34We talk to Beth Aich in Episode 64 of Rebellion Dogs Radio. Also, we talk about Dopamine Fasting. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reported out October 25th 2021 on their 2020 survey:“Among the 29.2 million adults in 2020 who perceived that they ever had a substance use problem, 72.5 percent (or 21 million people) considered themselves to be in recovery or to have recovered from their alcohol or other drug use problem.”We talk about optimistic varieties of recovery experience and how the lived experience of 21 million recovered/recovering addictions in the USA alone are having on recovery oriented communities and policy making. We have music. Beth Aich talks about codependency so we found a new codependent anthem from Toronto's Yukon Blonde, "Your Heart's my Home." It's fun, fast and (in)formative. We get the whole show in, in less than an hour. See your show notes and links at Rebellion Dogs Radio Episode 64 page.