Alcohol recovery, heard with patience.
This Naked Mind Podcast follows real people as they examine what alcohol has been doing in their lives. Personal stories sit beside one-on-one coaching on isolation, work stress, perfectionism, numbing, family patterns, and the slow work of choosing something different.
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This Naked Mind Podcast is built around a simple but searching question: what role has alcohol been playing in a person's life? The answers come through lived experience rather than slogans. Recent episodes move between personal recovery stories and real coaching conversations, with guests and members speaking through the moments that shaped their drinking. Some stories begin in homes where alcohol and drug use were normalized early. Others begin with adult stress: work pressure, isolation after moving, family responsibilities, or the private wish to shut off the mind for a while. The show treats alcohol as something concrete. It can be a numbing tool. It can be a social identity. It can be a false shortcut to relief. It can also become smaller when someone starts observing the pattern instead of obeying it. The tone is warm and measured. Conversations often give people room to circle a painful thought before naming it clearly. Coaching episodes lean on questions, reflection, and practical reframing rather than dramatic confrontation. The recurring emotional territory includes shame, cravings, perfectionism, self-compassion, overwhelm, and the fear that change is not really possible. Story episodes add another layer, showing how people understand their past without making it the whole of their future. Valerie speaks from survival and trauma. Shannon traces the impact of growing up around parental alcoholism. Sherry talks about early partying, family normalization, and wine culture. Monica describes brain rewiring as evidence gathered over time rather than a sudden miracle. Cole Harvey appears often in recent episodes, sometimes filling in for Annie Grace and sometimes coaching members through PATH-related struggles. Annie Grace remains a central named figure of the wider show. The podcast suits people who want an alcohol-recovery space that feels humane, reflective, and direct. It can be emotionally heavy, but its center of gravity is change through curiosity, honesty, and repeated small recognitions.
Made for: For people questioning alcohol, reducing drinking, or seeking recovery conversations that do not rely on shame. It also suits listeners interested in coaching-style reflections on stress, isolation, cravings, and family patterns.
What sets it apart: The show blends first-person recovery stories with unscripted coaching sessions, letting emotional patterns emerge from ordinary life instead of presenting recovery as a lecture. Alcohol is treated as a learned coping tool that can be examined with compassion and specificity.
Bestselling author Annie Grace invites you to explore the role of alcohol in our lives and culture without rules, pain, or judgement. Ready to make a change? Join The Alcohol Experiment - a FREE 30-day challenge designed to deliver happiness, wellbeing and self-respect. Check out The Alcohol Experiment at alcoholexperiment.com For ad inquiries, please reach out to: [email protected]
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Patient coaching and candid personal accounts make the habits, pressures, and self-trust involved in alcohol recovery easier to recognize.
This Naked Mind turns alcohol recovery into close, patient conversation. Annie Grace introduces a mix of one-on-one coaching sessions and first-person accounts, often with Coach Cole Harvey guiding guests through their experiences rather than rushing toward advice.
Here, your drinking mistake becomes a data point, not fresh evidence for the prosecution.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded story about loosening alcohol's hold on identity by learning to observe it.
Monica's Naked Life episode traces alcohol from social shorthand into something she can finally look at without quite being ruled by it. She remembers treating stamina as status, carrying that party identity through school and work, and slowly noticing how much of herself had…
A sober, practical coaching talk about trust, late nights, and the habits alcohol can strain.
This episode centers on alcohol, trust, and the late-night routines that can quietly wear a relationship down. Cheryl comes in nervous but open, and Annie Grace keeps the exchange grounded in lived experience as they move through alcohol-free living, travel, and the strain of…
A family-centered recovery story that finds relief in dry land and in the phrase alcohol-free.
Maxine's account draws its strength from lived experience. She talks about This Naked Mind as the first book she ever read about alcohol, and from there traces how it changed the way she saw alcohol in society, in her family, and in her own life after a friend gave it to her.
A grounded coaching conversation about shrinking progress, self-trust, and the next step.
Coach Cole Harvey and Audra return to a familiar problem: what to do when progress feels smaller, self-doubt grows louder, and trust in the next step is harder to keep.
A recovery story that lands through ordinary life details, not slogans.
The episode follows Elise from a busy East London childhood into a plainspoken account of what alcohol had been doing in her life, and it is strongest when it keeps that turn direct.
Jennifer's Cabo story turns a drinking mistake into a plainspoken look at patterns, promises, and responsibility.
Jennifer's story gives one drinking mistake a costly, personal shape. As she looks back at incidents she once treated as isolated, she starts to see a pattern, using the idea of data points to test what alcohol seemed to promise, what it actually gave her, and how she felt…
Valerie connects alcoholism with trauma, survival, and the early decisions that make leaving possible.
Valerie's account of alcoholism is bound up with what she was trying to survive: domestic abuse, sex work, trauma, and the need to put real distance between herself and danger.
Jonquilyn Hill chases one listener question per episode to the experts who can answer it.
Hard conversations, patiently held, with room to laugh.
Fearne Cotton interviews guests like Boy George and Bryony Gordon about mental health and identity.
Dr. Joy Harden Bradford pairs therapy insight with Black TV recaps, maternal health, and history.
Coach Cole Harvey hosts Jennifer on This Naked Mind Podcast to discuss her journey with alcohol.
Nisha shares her 25-year journey with alcohol, from sneaking wine in her traditional Indian household to using it to cope with grief and partying in business school.
This episode features a real coaching session where Coach Cole Harvey helps Sally navigate feelings of being stuck and lost in her alcohol-free journey, focusing on building real belonging without alcohol.
Valerie shares her journey from alcoholism and trauma to 14 months of sobriety on the This Naked Mind Podcast.
Coach Haley coaches Lucy, a retiree who has drunk about a bottle of wine nightly, on her fear of not being able to "make this stick" after a year alcohol-free ended on her mom's birthday.
This episode features a real, unscripted coaching session from This Naked Mind podcast, focusing on emotional struggles and perfectionism in the context of alcohol freedom.
Valerie shares her personal journey from alcohol dependence to an alcohol-free life, discussing her experiences with trauma, domestic abuse, and sex work as part of her transformation story.
This episode features a real coaching session from This Naked Mind podcast where a coach helps a community member address drinking challenges related to isolation and self-compassion.
Shannon shares her personal story of growing up with alcoholic parents and her early journey with alcohol, highlighting how familial patterns influenced her relationship with drinking.
This episode features a real coaching session where a This Naked Mind coach helps a community member address work-related stress without turning to alcohol.
Sherry shares her personal journey from starting to drink and use drugs at age 11 in a party-centric Brooklyn family environment to achieving sobriety at age 56.
This episode features a real coaching session from the This Naked Mind podcast where a coach helps a community member address urges to drink and beliefs about alcohol as a coping mechanism for stress.
Monica says alcohol felt like a reward for years, but Annie Grace's This Naked Mind and a 2019 podcast mention gave her a different frame.
Annie Grace opens by framing the coaching sessions as raw, unfiltered, and unscripted.
Cole Harvey fills in for Annie Grace and welcomes Maxine to talk about her relationship with alcohol.
Coach Cole Harvey sits with Audra inside The Path for a live coaching conversation.
Elise joins the show with Cole Harvey filling in for Annie Grace, and she begins by saying she is approaching 60 in a few weeks, a milestone that feels different from turning 50.
Coach Cole Harvey interviews Jennifer about her personal journey with alcohol, exploring how reframing past drinking mistakes with curiosity rather than criticism has helped her recognize patterns and understand the emotional roots of her relationship with alcohol.