Sober curious

So we've done a lot of cool episodes, a lot of different topics.

Sober Curious all the way up to AA works at 100 percent level.

Right.

We've done all kinds of stuff, explored everything.

you know,

maybe they have a family member who's an addict or who are suffering alcoholism, or maybe they themselves are sober curious and trying to reconsider how they are interacting with alcohol, or maybe they're sober and they're just in a rut, whatever it might be.

I wanted to take my mask off and be able to say, I've worn a mask for decades and I don't have one anymore.

And let me be cringe for you so that you have the confidence to talk to someone about this, even if it's just DMing me on TikTok.

I love that you make room for people who are sober curious because that's a really interesting concept.

Do you think the idea that someone has to hit a dramatic rock bottom can keep them from questioning their relationship sooner?

No.

helped who knew that it was gonna actually be helpful

Coffee clubbing grew 478% year over year.

The Sober Curious cohort grew 92%.

Soft clubbing has now recognized sub-genres.

What is soft clubbing? It's like soft shoe jazz.

But, um, because a lot of people are, are asking it's, it's, um, I, it was actually the sober curious book and movement started in the UK about, I don't know, now 15 years ago.

I think it means different things for different people.

Um, okay and so for me my sober curiosity was actually born out of concern for myself i began to notice some things that were probably not very good signs sober cure so so the curiosity was huh i wonder what it would be like to be alcohol free how would i fee how would i feel What would it be like? Can I even be alcohol-free? Like, do I even want that? Well, I wasn't feeling great.

You know, the concern was I had developed a craving for alcohol.

I was feeling hungover like three or four times a week.

Hello, this is Alicia Norris-Jones, one of your co-hosts at Cutting the Curd, coming to you from the city of Big Shoulders, Chicago, Illinois.

Before we begin today's episode, the dry counter, mongering for the sober and sober curious of Anna Patrick, a content warning.

This episode delves into substance abuse and addiction, which may be distressing for some listeners.

A transcript of our discussion, as well as most of Cutting the Curd's Back catalog, is available on Spotify.

So we got engaged and started planning our wedding.

And then I competed in my first CMI this summer and did place third.

And then just a couple of weeks after that, I had been working kind of, you know, most of the beginning of this year on planning the first networking session at ACS for people who identify as sober, sober curious, or people in recovery.

So that was pretty big.

It's a great third space, and I love the name.

I feel like mocktails sound kind of tragic, right? And usually, like on most menus in my experience, even in this day and age, with like a thriving Sober Curious or Sober...

It feels like an obligatory afterthought.

They just kind of clumsily plop them down on the menu.

And I love that.

Say you've had a really stressful day, but you don't want to tie one off.

You're sober curious or you're trying to take a break from alcohol.

This is the best place to come.

And I was listening to a podcast, but I was scrolling through the podcast episodes, and it wasn't a sober podcast.

It was just a podcast, but I saw one of the episodes was called Sober Curious.

Oh.

I was like, "Never heard that word, that term before.

Yeah, two Northwest girls here hanging out in the summer in the smoky area for me.

And, you know, it's been a warm stretch and looking forward to talking about all things sober curious with you.

So Your platform, Sober Curator, let's talk about kind of when you decided to go that direction as opposed to just being your own gal in recovery and kind of, you know, what inspired that?

Sure.

I'm just saying that there's a, I don't know if I know that it will fully go to a cigarette, you know, to the same lines as cigarettes.

I don't think it would be a bad thing.

I think that it would be, and I think I'm happy that, you know, We've got so much more conversation now on the opposite side, which is the sober curious, the non-alcoholic beverage industry, all the positive things that come out of those industries.

I think that's the part where I'm really excited about where we're headed.

If we could have like, it just doesn't, right? And you don't know until you know, until you have lived and actually fallen into that shame and And really had that experience for yourself.

You can explore the curiosity of like sober curious and I have a feeling that I might not be intuitive with my alcohol.

But until you actually have that moment of deep shame and that rupture that happens in your life, I don't think that that shift is going to happen.

So thank you for sharing that insight.

And I think that so many women out there and men, but as moms, will understand and feel such deep resonance with your story, with alcohol especially.

And I see you in me in, I mean, very close timelines even.

I had my first little one in 2017 and that was sort of, I mean, I had been sober curious for about 10 years prior to when I stopped drinking.

And I think it was sort of this, oh, I'll do sober October or I'll do dry January.