A True Alliance

A True Alliance

How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation brings together three people who care deeply about recovery, community and the next generation. Coach Blu chats with guests Willie Lazzarino and Brad Waldron, two men in active recovery who’ve turned some very heavy pasts into a drive to help others.

Willie shares a childhood marked by domestic violence, foster care and feeling like “a case number”, then admits how close addiction took him to death despite his love for his two young daughters.

His turning point came with honest self-reflection and a new mindset: “Most of the bad stuff in my life, you can work through… you can process.” Brad tells a different route into addiction, growing up with a rare genetic illness, dialysis, religious pressure and a sense of being “indifferent”. He explains how pain pills, rebellion and loopholes kept him sick until a 106‑day stay in treatment and a promise to his dad changed everything.

Now he cooks in treatment centres and quietly mentors clients, saying the more time he has sober, the more he knows he still has to learn. Together, Willie and Brad introduce their idea, “A True Alliance” – a push to bring recovery groups, schools, families, community leaders and so‑called “normies” onto the same team.

Instead of competing programmes and siloed events, they imagine joint community gatherings, youth dances in safe spaces, and honest conversations about addiction, bullying, trauma and mental health. The episode speaks straight to anyone in or around addiction – parents, partners, professionals and people still on the fence about recovery.

Expect real talk, a bit of humour about tattoos and “Utah smiles”, and a clear message: “We are the troops.” It leaves you asking yourself: who could you stand beside, rather than stand apart from, in your own recovery community?