RERUN - Episode 49 - Terry Brown

RERUN - Episode 49 - Terry Brown

What emotional and inspiring tales of recovery are out there? This rerun of The Drunkalogues brings back one of Nick Morton’s closest friends, Terry Brown, whose story captures both the comedy and horror of long-term alcoholism. Terry talks about growing up in a "very, very big time" drinking culture in small-town Massachusetts, where alcohol was part of every holiday, beach trip and country club visit.

He remembers his first proper buzz at 12, on champagne at a bar mitzvah on a lake: everything was "crystallised by the sunlight and the water" and he thought, "Why don't people do this every day?" From there, booze became his identity and "liquid courage" through high school, college, Wall Street banking, politics and later the Hollywood acting grind.

You’ll hear wild party memories from New York and Los Angeles, from toga parties covered in blood to duis in a culture where "11 out of the 14" people in a cast had been done for drink-driving. Yet the most painful parts of the conversation come years later, in small-town Maine: lonely bottles in the garage, secret top-ups at friends’ houses, and the shame of pretending to be sober around his young family.

Terry’s turning point is brutal and clear-eyed: a dui with his kids in the car. "It was the worst incomprehensible demoralisation," he says, describing police interviews at home, a night in jail and the children being driven away in a squad car. From that moment he throws himself into recovery, stopping his own “editing” of the programme, praying, meditating, working with a sponsor and sponsoring others.

This conversation suits anyone who’s ever thought, “I can’t imagine life without alcohol,” and wants to hear how someone gradually proved themselves wrong. Could taking the next right step, rather than the perfect one, be enough to change everything?