7 Years 47 days Sober - Ask Boyle7 Years 47 days Sober - Ask Boyle
I'm Quitting Alcohol
David Boyle talks about being seven-plus years sober while getting physically smashed by his energetic 10-year-old on summer holidays, then tackles a listener’s question about profiting from arms manufacturers. He shares his views on moral hazard in investing, tech’s role in war, and why bitcoin feels like his least-compromised option.
13:20•1 Jul 2026
Sober, Exhausted and Questioning War Profits with David Boyle
Episode Overview
- High-energy kids and school holidays can be exhausting, even years into sobriety, and it’s okay to admit you’re wrecked.
- Investing in arms manufacturers is framed as having "blood on your hands" and being a few layers removed from direct violence.
- Modern tech companies, including satellite and AI infrastructure, are described as part of a broader defence and control system with serious moral hazard.
- Boyle views nearly every economic action inside the current system as strengthening something destructive, calling it "a system of death".
- His only perceived way to reduce complicity is to move towards bitcoin in cold storage and, cautiously, some precious metals outside exploitative supply chains.
“"Every transaction you make, every economic move you make inside the system strengthens the system. And the system... is a system of death."”
What makes a recovery story truly inspiring? For fans of candid sobriety chats with a side of conspiracy-tinged economics, this one is right up your street. Comedian David Boyle, seven years and 47 days sober, spends half the episode sounding like every knackered sober parent on summer holidays. He’s chasing his 10-year-old from a brutal barefoot soccer session on burning astroturf, to ice skating, to wrestling training, while admitting, "I’m done for the rest of the day.
I can’t do anything for the rest of the day." If you’ve ever tried to parent with zero alcohol and zero energy, you’ll relate immediately. Then a listener question from Pierre in Aspendale, Victoria, steers the conversation into ethics, money, and war. Pierre asks about investing in a European arms manufacturer and whether it could boom like SpaceX.
Boyle freely admits he has "an extremely limited… bandwidth" of knowledge, but still launches into a sharp, sweary riff on the military–industrial complex, the Ukraine conflict, and how tech like Starlink ends up as a "weapon" in modern wars. He argues that investing in weapons makers means, "you’re getting a return on death," and compares it to being just a few steps removed from a drone pilot.
From there, he widens the lens: "Every transaction you make, every economic move you make inside the system strengthens the system. And the system… is a system of death." His only clean option? Bitcoin in cold storage and, maybe, some non-bloodstained precious metals. The result is classic Boyle: raw, foul-mouthed, funny, and bleakly honest.
It’s less a how-to guide and more a snapshot of a sober bloke trying to raise a kid, keep his head together, and work out how to live with some kind of conscience in a messy, violent economic system. It might leave you asking: where do your own investments and daily choices really sit in all this?
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