Drunk-ish - A Sobriety Podcast · Stefanie Wilder-Taylor

The Last Time I Went to Jail with Tara Motter

·59 min·4 clips

Tara's first drunk ended with 280 stitches and a van full of school children.

1. Drunk-ish - A Sobriety Podcast centers on Stephanie Wilder-Taylor and Tara Motter talking about Tara's drinking history and recovery. 2. Stephanie Wilder-Taylor hosts Drunkish, and Tara Motter appears as a friend, writer, speaker, and Substack author of Recovering from Something. 3. The episode asks what changed Tara Motter from defending her drinking to saying the "jig is up." 4. Stephanie and Tara first connect over sobriety, IVF, pregnancy, and Tara taking Stephanie's class. 5. Tara says she first read Drunkish as a "new Bible" during the "OG mommy wine culture" era. 6. Tara describes buying the book for other people and seeing herself in the "nap time is the new happy hour" mindset. 7. Tara says she moved to California when she had 18 months sober and later reconnected with Stephanie through a writing group. 8. Stephanie notes that Tara's writing made it seem like her bottom was "kind of low," and Tara says her worst moment was not always her first or last bottom. 9. Tara says her first drunk at 17 ended in a car crash, 280 stitches in her face, and a van full of school children on the road. 10. She says that after that crash she still assumed she would drink again and did not treat it as a final warning. 11. Tara recalls two DUIs in college, both around a 0.08, and says the second judge made her report to jail after graduation. 12. She says she spent 10 days in jail after college, reading Danielle Steel novels and braiding other people's hair. 13. Tara says moving to New York and later Chicago did not stop the cycle because she kept finding party-heavy circles and people who drank like she did. 14. She describes the "T-Rex" alter ego her friends joked about when she was drinking, because she did not know whether two drinks or twenty would trigger chaos. 15. Tara says a boyfriend and her parents finally confronted her after she acted out around her baby son and family Easter plans. 16. She says she walked into the Wicker Park Alano Club, cried in a room with four men, and left with phone numbers from people trying to help. 17. Tara says she was sober for about nine months once, then blew it and could not get more than about four years of time afterward. 18. She describes therapy, an ADHD diagnosis, and a feeling that she was waiting for "something to happen" before she finally took sobriety seriously. 19. The conversation sounds like a long-form, candid interview with two people who already know each other and can interrupt, laugh, and press into details. 20. People who have lived through relapses, DUIs, or gray-area drinking will recognize it; people wanting a light recovery chat may skip it.

As heard by us

A candid sobriety conversation that keeps custody strain and family pressure in plain view.

Stephanie Wilder-Taylor and Tara Motter keep the conversation anchored in recovery, custody conflict, arrest, and the daily work of staying sober.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a candid sobriety story with arrest, custody, and no sugarcoating.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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