Ken D. AA Male

Ken D. AA Male

Get ready to be moved by real-life accounts of how Alcoholics Anonymous can change everything, as Ken D. shares decades of sobriety with a mix of hard truth and sharp humour. From the moment he opens with, "Hi, my name is Ken. I'm an alcoholic. Isn't this exciting, huh?" you’ll hear a man who’s deadly serious about recovery but refuses to be gloomy about it.

Ken keeps bringing things back to the AA "owner's manual" – the Big Book – insisting, "If it's not in here, it's not AA." He talks about the difference between the AA programme and the fellowship, and why you need both if you’re going to stay sober.

For him, meetings, sponsorship and a sense of love and service tie everything together: "You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving." You’ll hear colourful stories about his early days in AA, including learning about 12-step calls the hard way, sponsors who saved his life, and how long-term guidance helped him face court cases, family fallout and serious health issues without picking up a drink.

Ken is clear that alcoholics tend to "take little things and turn them into big things", and that a good attitude and living in the present moment are vital. He plays with words to make spiritual ideas easier to grasp, pointing out that "now" spelt backwards is "won", and linking that to finding a higher power in the here-and-now.

The talk is packed with jokes, but underneath the laughter sits a simple message: if you’re sober today, you’re a winner, and there’s a way to build an inner life that can carry you through grief, illness and everyday chaos.

Anyone on a recovery path, or supporting someone who is, will recognise the honesty in Ken’s stories and the comfort in his conclusion that "we as human beings do not have the power to overcome ourselves" – but there is a power that can. How might your own attitude and connections in recovery change if you treated each day as a chance to live fully in the now?