I'm Matt.

Hey, I'm Steve.

Hey, I'm John.

This is the Sober Friends podcast.

We're here for The Sober Curious, the new guy, and the old timer.

We're here to talk about the stuff anyone looking to live, alcohol-free has-to-face day-to-day.

Now we overcame those struggles.

We speak for no 12-step group, but we do try to remain anonymous.

You're not alone.

This is the sober friends podcast. Right in the intro, we talk about, we try to remain anonymous.

That's the second A and AA. The first one is alcoholics. That's how I identify. And the second A is anonymous. But what does it mean to be anonymous? Is it relevant to today? And so why do people in AA remain anonymous? What's your thoughts on this, Steve?

Hey, Matt, nice to be with you again today. Yeah, it's an interesting topic. I've gone through different

variations of how I felt about this when i came

in the first time way back when i was very private with who i told i didn't tell anybody and i

shouldn't even say that even this time like nobody at work really knew i didn't tell most of the

people i worked with that i was an alcoholic i certainly didn't tell them I was in AA, but they all knew I didn't

drink. And there's a few reasons for that for me. One is there still is this, you know, this idea,

this thought of what an alcoholic really is, right? We talk about, you know, you say it always,

right, guys in trench coat with one bulb hanging over, smoke-filled room maybe back in the

day. There still are some people who view alcoholics in that way. So, you know, it's interesting.

When I've, just jump back, when I first got sober, 75, I was really involved at the church I was at

for a while. And I had taken on a lot of responsibilities

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