RR 217: The RRC Author Spotlight with Joseph NausRR 217: The RRC Author Spotlight with Joseph Naus
The SHAIR Recovery Podcast
Author Joseph Naus talks with Omar Pinto and community members about childhood trauma, addiction, prison and rebuilding life through recovery, spirituality and community. The conversation centres on his upcoming book, everyday miracles and the simple but challenging practice of leaning into support instead of running from pain.
1:25:31•9 Apr 2019
Leaning In: Joseph Naus on Trauma, Miracles and Life After "Straight Pepper Diet"
Episode Overview
- Leaning into pain, the programme and community support is described as the only route to real freedom from addiction.
- Community – from 12-step meetings to online groups – is shown as vital for connection, vulnerability and long-term recovery.
- Physical toughness and endurance, learned through martial arts, helped Joseph face prison, early sobriety and everyday fear.
- Miracles in recovery can look very practical, such as landing an unlikely job, but still feel life-saving and spiritually significant.
- Writing and sharing a personal story is presented as healing for the writer and potentially life-changing for others who relate.
“If you just lean in, you'll find your answer.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation between host Omar Pinto, author Joseph Naus and members of the Recovery Revolution Community shines a light on that question with raw honesty and plenty of hard-won hope. Joseph, a two-strike felon, registered sex offender and disbarred lawyer, talks about life after his first memoir, *Straight Pepper Diet*, and how his new book, *The Paulsgraph Revelation*, picks up the story.
He explains going from a respected attorney to an unemployable “societal outcast”, then landing a contract manager job at a Fortune 500 steel company against all odds. He calls it a miracle, but he also walks through the practical steps, from total honesty in the interview to using his courtroom skills to argue for a second chance.
You’ll hear about childhood trauma, a chaotic home, and how martial arts taught him that “your mind quits way before your body”, a lesson that later helped him get through prison, early recovery and everyday fears. Nicotine addiction, sex addiction and alcohol all feature in his story, but so do spiritual communities, therapy and the 12 steps. A major theme is community.
Omar and Joseph talk about how recovery groups, fellowships and spiritual circles fill the gap that many lose after school and into adult life, and how leaning on others can keep you alive when you’re down to your last few dollars or your last bit of hope. Joseph sums up his approach to healing in two words: “lean in” – to the pain, to the program, to spirituality and to support.
It’s a frank, sometimes funny, deeply human conversation that might leave you asking where you’re being called to lean in next on your own alcohol-free journey.
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