From Overdosing in his Childhood Bedroom to Becoming a Social Club Entrepreneur

From Overdosing in his Childhood Bedroom to Becoming a Social Club Entrepreneur

What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? This conversation with Dan Brody hits that question from two angles: the chaos of active addiction and the creative life that can grow out of sobriety. Dan talks through his years as a driven New Jersey athlete whose whole identity was tied to football. When he walked away from the sport, he describes falling into a “psychological vacuum” where pills, booze, coke and weed became his new obsession.

He kept a shiny exterior — sales career in Manhattan, gym at 6 a.m., decent income — while secretly rearranging work calls around dealer meet-ups and snorting oxys alone in his flat. The turning point is brutal and very real: overdosing in his childhood bedroom and being revived by his mum with naloxone.

Lying in hospital afterwards, Dan says he finally saw two options: “It was death or sobriety for me.” That tiny spark of willingness led him to treatment, sober living in Los Angeles, deep step work, and a new way of living where he learned to say the uncomfortable stuff out loud, make amends, and build genuine friendships. From there the episode shifts into hope and practicality. Dan explains how those early sober questions — Where do I meet people?

How do I date? What do I do on a Friday night? — inspired his work as Senior Vice President of Membership at The Maze, an alcohol‑free social club in Manhattan. With game nights, live music, wellness events, men’s and women’s groups, and a strong partnership with a residential treatment centre for their graduates, the club offers a “third space” where being sober isn’t your whole identity, just a shared starting point.

If you’ve ever wondered how to rebuild a social life without alcohol at the centre, this story might nudge you to ask: what kind of community could make sobriety feel less like loss and more like a new chapter?