7 Years 67 days Sober - Ask Boyle7 Years 67 days Sober - Ask Boyle
I'm Quitting Alcohol
David Boyle answers an anonymous young listener’s question about whether to stay in Victoria for a relationship or move back to Queensland for career, family and mates. His response mixes blunt humour with personal experience of moving cities, warning against going backwards and suggesting a neutral fresh start instead.
12:31•21 Jul 2026
Love, Location and Sobriety: Boyle Answers a Big Move Question
Episode Overview
- Staying in a comfortable location can feel like "riding out the clock" instead of growing.
- Returning home may recreate old patterns and limit future opportunities.
- A neutral move, such as to Sydney, can force both partners out of their comfort zones to build a new life together.
- At 24, there is room to make mistakes and change direction before long-term consequences set in.
- If a partner refuses any compromise on location, it raises serious questions about the future of the relationship.
“Going back is never the move in my book.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? This short, punchy instalment of *I'm Quitting Alcohol* drops you straight into comedian David Boyle’s chaotic but honest sobriety journey, as he records from a toilet in Madrid after the “one million man march” and then gets stuck into another Ask Boyle question.
This time, an anonymous 24-year-old listener from Australia writes in with a big life dilemma: stay in Victoria with his smart, ambitious girlfriend and her tight-knit support network, or move back to Queensland where work opportunities, family and old mates are waiting. He’s sober, bored, and tempted by share-house life with friends who “rip bongs, sink piss and talk shit at all hours of the day,” even though he’s not planning to join in.
Boyle responds with his trademark mix of blunt humour and hard-won experience. Drawing on his own move from Melbourne to Sydney at 18–19, he talks about years of loneliness, transient friendships, and eventually building a solid crew.
He warns that returning home can feel like “riding out the clock” in a comfy but stagnant life and sums it up with, “Going back is never the move in my book.” Instead, he suggests a third option: a neutral city like Sydney, where both partners get pulled out of their comfort zones and have to build something new together.
If she refuses to budge, he argues, the listener has to decide whether being tied to one place for someone else is really workable at 24. Throughout, you’ll hear the raw tone Boyle’s daily audience expects: swearing, self-deprecation, and jokes about future regret, all wrapped around a serious question about relationships, location, and building a meaningful sober life. It’s a quick hit of honesty for anyone wondering if staying put for love is worth feeling stuck.
So, what would you choose: safety with someone you care about, or the risk of starting over somewhere new?
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