6 Years 358 days - No Fuel6 Years 358 days - No Fuel
I'm Quitting Alcohol
Comedian David Boyle recounts a stressful, low-fuel drive through rural Massachusetts with his young daughter, mixing raw panic with sharp humour. The story shows sober life still comes with chaos, just faced head-on and laughed about afterwards.
8:26•7 May 2026
Running on Fumes in the Wilderness with Dave Boyle
Episode Overview
- Skipping a membership-only petrol station leads to a tense, low-fuel drive through remote, hilly countryside.
- Lack of phone internet and an unfamiliar route add to Boyle’s mounting anxiety.
- His daughter senses his stress, calling the area spooky and wishing her mother were there, which sparks a darkly funny rant.
- A small general store points him towards a petrol station just within his estimated remaining mileage.
- The experience highlights how sober life still contains intense, chaotic moments, just faced with a clear head and a sense of humour.
“You didn’t have a five-year-old in the back in the middle of fucking nowhere saying it’s fucking spooky.”
Get ready to be moved by real-life accounts of near disaster with zero alcohol involved. Comedian Dave Boyle, host of *I'm Quitting Alcohol*, swaps drunk chaos for sober chaos as he recounts a white-knuckle drive through rural Massachusetts with barely any fuel in the tank and his young daughter in the back seat. What starts as a simple post-dentist drive home quickly turns into a mini horror film.
Boyle skips a cheap, membership-only petrol station, hits the back roads, and suddenly he’s in thick forest, “outback mass”, with the fuel light screaming and no service on his phone. As he puts it, “You didn’t have a five-year-old in the back in the middle of fucking nowhere saying it’s fucking spooky.” The episode is short, punchy and packed with his trademark swearing, quick-fire jokes and self-deprecation.
You’ll hear him stress over every mile left on the gauge, argue (lovingly) with his daughter about whether “mama” would really be the hero, and inch his way through hills, tailgaters and his own imagination of axe murderers and hitchhiking nightmares. There’s a glimpse of tenderness, too, as he admits the drive was actually beautiful once the panic faded, and he enjoys a quiet moment chatting with a woman at the small-town service station that finally saves the day.
It’s a slice of sober life: the drama is real, the fear is sober, and the humour is sharp. For anyone in alcohol recovery, it’s a reminder that life doesn’t stop being intense once you quit drinking – it just gets clearer, funnier, and a lot more honest. If everyday sober chaos looks like this, what wild stories are waiting in your own petrol-gauge cliffhangers?
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