This week, Jason and Alex are joined by local Orange County personality, Chad Towersey. Chad grew up in a very nice Newport Beach household with all sorts of sports aspirations, including baseball, golf, and surfing. Even with things seemingly as good as they could get for a young teenager, Chad describes how his first sip of alcohol, almost as if magic, soothed a deep-rooted feeling of anger inside him that he had always had. He believes he was already suffering from untreated alcoholism from t...
Jun 16, 2022•36 min
Celebrating her eight-year sobriety anniversary, Diana Beals returns with Jason and Alex to conclude the story of her recovery transformation. In this week’s episode, Diana discusses how at the beginning of her sobriety journey, she wrestled with the idea that she was truly powerless, which she believes is one of the main reasons why it took so long for sobriety to stick and why she ultimately passed through so many different treatment centers. Diana has always admired organizations and their tr...
Jun 09, 2022•32 min
Jason and Alex are pleased to be joined this week by Director of Operations for Catalyst Recovery, Diana Beals. From an early age, Diana always described herself as a thrill-seeker. She would jump her bike off an unfinished deck in her backyard as a young girl because the feeling of inner peace she achieved was something she would continually strive for. She believes that this was an early indicator that the addict gene was in her all along…it was just waiting to be kindled. She eventually was i...
Jun 02, 2022•23 min
This week, Alex Meschi and Jaana Woodbury are joined by speaker, entrepreneur, app developer, author, and CEO of Goldratt Research Labs, Dr. Alan Barnard. From an early age, Dr. Barnard was always fascinated by human decision making. He would wonder what would influence individuals to make the decisions they did and why many good people made bad decisions. He has since dedicated his work to the study of behavioral psychology and decision science to hopefully find an answer to these questions. He...
May 26, 2022•36 min
This week, Veronica Valli: author, recovery coach, and host of the Soberful Podcast, celebrating her 22nd year of sobriety, joins Alex Meschi and Jaana Woodbury. Veronica was introduced to alcohol and drugs at an early age. She discovered substances seemingly went hand in hand with a few other things she adored: partying, dancing, and going to nightclubs. Things began taking a dark turn, however, when she found herself hospitalized after a bad hallucinogenic experience and compromising her integ...
May 19, 2022•38 min
This week, Hilary and Jaana conclude their conversation with Ocean Recovery CEO, Cade Saurage. The previous week we left off with Cade describing the moment he finally surrendered, and we pick back up this week as he describes how things went from there. Both Cade and his then-wife were battling addiction, going through treatment at the same time, and raising kids amid their struggles. With over 15 years of sobriety under his belt now, he discusses the differences between short-term and long-ter...
May 12, 2022•21 min
This week, in Part 1 of a two-part episode, Hilary and Jaana Woodbury are joined by Ocean Recovery CEO, Cade Saurage. Growing up surrounded by drinkers, Cade discovered his liking of alcohol at an early age. Lots of drinking in high school eventually evolved into a liking for cocaine later in his college years. It all seemed like fun at the time in his early 20s, but he found out how difficult things would become after college when he had to “grow up”. Cade thought he could do all the right thin...
May 05, 2022•30 min
This week, Hilary and Jason welcome Bring The Light Ministries Founder, Pastor Earl Fitzsimmons. Feeling out of place in his younger years, Earl just wanted to be “one of the guys”, believing that drinking was the answer. He quickly found out, however, that his drinking was different than that of his peers and that he was drinking alcoholically. Things progressed, as they do, into his early twenties to the point in which Earl would plan his whole day around his drinking and he would be "poured" ...
Apr 28, 2022•31 min
A few weeks earlier, Danielle Provot was kind enough to share the story of losing her husband to addiction and having to overcome her own struggles with the same disease soon after. During this time, Danielle had two young girls…Mataya was one of them. Today, Mataya Mandarino joins Hilary and Alex to give her perspective of what it was like losing her father at such a young age and how her parents’ struggles with addiction affected her. Losing her father and watching her mom work through it put ...
Apr 21, 2022•35 min
Life and Business Coach, Angie Wisdom, joins Alex and Ariel Gale this week, as they fill in for Hilary and Jason. Stemming from a desire of always wanting to help people, Angie began an early career in nursing. She quickly found out, however, that this was not the right fit for her. She also grew up loving numbers and finance, so she then transitioned into a career as a financial adviser, recognizing this as another method to help people by way of establishing a solid financial well-being. After...
Apr 14, 2022•32 min
Hilary and Alex are joined this week by Behavioral Health Care Consultant, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and Psychotherapist, Gil Carmona, in preparation for RSF’s Community Town Hall on Mental Health & Suicide this upcoming Sunday, April 10th. At an early age, Gil endured a trauma that would turn his whole life upside down. When he was only 14 years old, his father committed suicide, leaving his entire family in a state of shock and disbelief. Gil, for one, had an enormity of questions, ...
Apr 07, 2022•35 min
This week, RSF team member, Ariel Gale, fills in alongside Alex as the two are joined by content creator, Danielle Provot. Danielle is an individual who has truly experienced addiction from a variety of different angles. She talks about what it was like witnessing her late husband’s struggle with opioids and an untreated bipolar disorder all the way up until the disease of addiction took his life. Losing her husband and the father of her two young girls at the time understandably proved to be on...
Mar 31, 2022•29 min
This week, in honor of Women’s History Month, RSF Director of Communications, Jaana Woodbury, fills in with Hilary as Sue Bright joins the show. Now with over 30 years’ experience in the addiction treatment field, Sue began her journey like many others do…identifying and repairing her own addiction. Early into their marriage, Sue supported her husband who began struggling with addiction, but quickly found out important details about herself through his battle. She didn’t think she had a problem ...
Mar 24, 2022•30 min
This week, Hilary and Jason are joined by Public Policy Committee Member for NAADAC (Association for Addiction Professionals), President of CASA (National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse), Committee Member for NAATP (National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers), and National Business Development Representative for Burning Tree Programs, KC Gooding. As an avid baseball player, KC grew up with big dreams of becoming a pro ball player, however, his athletic dreams began taking a b...
Mar 17, 2022•32 min
This week, True Self Recovery’s, Dylan Nation, gives advice and instills some wisdom on Hilary and Alex while Ethan Citron stops by to join the conversation. Dylan grew up with many natural talents and seemed to be great at most things he tried, especially basketball. These successes, however, evolved into his identity, which he describes eventually losing. In the attempt to regain this feeling of self, he turned to drugs and alcohol. This new lifestyle gave him a false sense of identity and an ...
Mar 10, 2022•38 min
This week, FASAM Certified Emergency Physician and Medical Director at Oakvine Recovery Center, Dr. Joseph M. Martin, joins Jason and Alex. Dr. Martin got into addiction treatment because he very quickly felt the power and satisfaction that comes with rehabilitating an individual to be reunited with their family. From the beginning, however, he found that "addiction" was not treated the same way across in the board. He explains that, even today, not everyone in the medical community views addict...
Mar 03, 2022•38 min
Let The Journey Begin has reached Episode #100! To commemorate this special milestone, we dive back into all 100 episodes and take a listen to all the great “Actions For The Day” our wonderful guests have given us over the past two years. We really hope this podcast has been as helpful and informative to you as it has been to us. We are so grateful for your support, and we truly look forward to continuing this journey in providing you with hope. Thank you for listening! For more information on t...
Feb 24, 2022•49 min
This week, Jason and Hilary conclude their interview with Annie and Kevin Blake. We left off last week with Kevin discussing the depths of his addiction and how he finally got to a place in which he could change, all with Annie sticking by his side and helping him every step of the way. Kevin had finally gotten to a place in which he was doing well and their marriage had healed but the tables began to turn. Annie began feeling ill and could not figure out what was happening to her body until she...
Feb 17, 2022•25 min
On a special two-part episode from “across the pond”, Hilary’s close friends Annie and Kevin Blake join the show to discuss their marriage, co-dependency, and what the disease of addiction did to their relationship. Kevin suffered from alcoholism for many years before and after Annie married. He was a “functioning alcoholic” and things only got worse as the years went by. He would return home intoxicated on a regular basis, spend important money on alcohol, and communication became nearly imposs...
Feb 10, 2022•34 min
This week, Jason and Alex sit down with Jason’s Aunt Cathy (Holmes) to discuss her own struggles with addiction. Cathy grew up in a household where both parents were alcoholics and she experienced many of the effects that come with volatile, untreated substance abuse. After beginning her own teenage experimentation with drugs and alcohol, she grew so desperate to withdraw from this home atmosphere that she married at a young age solely to get out of the house. In this early marriage, she unfortu...
Feb 03, 2022•34 min
Hilary and Alex sit down this week with close friend of Hilary’s, Susie Clothier, to discuss her journey in sobriety. Susie’s drinking career began at a very early age and continued all throughout her teenage years. She grew up in a household in which her parents would argue and she would self-medicate with alcohol to relieve her own tension. Susie also lived with a feeling of “less-than” for most of her childhood as her older sister was an extremely talented athlete. Mostly chalking it up to “j...
Jan 27, 2022•38 min
This week, Hilary and Jason bring on founder and director of Coordinating & Assisting Recovery Environments (C.A.R.E), Anthony Brown. From an early age, Anthony experienced nothing but chaos and dysfunction, which led to him running away from home at 14 years old. Needing work and a place to go, he joined a traveling carnival that took him all over the states but also started what would become 23 years of homelessness. Instability and homelessness then spiraled into years and years of drug a...
Jan 20, 2022•32 min
This week, Owner/CEO of JDS Consulting, Inc, James Sewell, joins Hilary and Jason. Growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, James never felt like he could truly be himself; however, during his time in college he finally felt comfortable letting loose and being who he was. He talks about having generalized anxiety and feeling different than his peers, but alcohol was the solution able to bring down the barriers. For him, letting loose meant going out to the bars six days a week and what was once an opportu...
Jan 13, 2022•33 min
Lakewood Recovery (Dallas, TX) Owner, Bobby Ludeman, joins Hilary and Jason this week to ring in the New Year! Growing up, Bobby always had this feeling he didn’t necessarily belong, he was an encumbrance, and that he was on the precipice of being cast out. He found drugs and alcohol in his early teenage years and knew from the very beginning that they were going to be a problem for him. His sickness progressed and only got worse to the point of getting addicted to heroin. In this time, he talks...
Jan 06, 2022•39 min
Last week, we left off with Hilary finally getting to a place in which she was able to move on from her past and leave some of her former life behind. This week, Hilary talks about the steps she began taking with her mentor and the difficulties that still came along even after all the abuse. She talks about how her past left her with a feeling of unworthiness, emptiness, and an unsettling feeling that her legacy would be nothing more than what she endured. However, through the aid and encouragem...
Dec 30, 2021•18 min
This week, we jump into Part 2 of Red Songbird Founder, Hilary Roberts, story of sobriety. All the childhood trauma and abuse caused her to be vulnerable, desperate for love, and seeking a way to escape. She details quite possibly her worst experience with abuse as an adolescent which resulted in an even more diminished view of herself. Her self-esteem in the toilet, she took jobs she never thought she would take, only adding to this cycle of unworthiness that would result in her using drugs and...
Dec 23, 2021•25 min
This week, we dive into the story of singer, songwriter, and founder of the Red Songbird Foundation, Hilary Roberts. Hilary experienced trauma and abuse from a very early age which continued all throughout her adolescence. She talks about how there was very little healthy adult supervision growing up and how an ultimate lack of protection resulted in her being subjected to so many abusive people and situations. To make matters worse, nothing was ever done to help her, and things were not taken a...
Dec 16, 2021•26 min
1,000 Hours Dry host, Kristin Candelore joins Hilary and Jason this week on Let The Journey Begin . Kristin always knew she drank differently than everyone else around her. When it came to getting the party started or doing anything involving drinking, Kristin was the one to call. However, as she grew into her 20’s, Kristin started to become suspicious something was wrong and that she had a problem. This suspicion grew into more concern after a cross-country bachelorette party turned into what s...
Dec 09, 2021•37 min
This week, Hilary and Jason are joined by the second half of The Chris and Sandy Show, Chris Benton. Growing up, Chris described himself as the shiest kid you could ever meet. He explained how he’s not entirely sure where this came from but being molested as a young teenager may have played a major factor. He talks about how he used freestyle biking to get him out of his shell and keep his mind off the abuse but eventually this means of escape transformed into alcohol abuse and an addiction. Fro...
Dec 02, 2021•32 min
Sandy Benton, co-host of The Chris and Sandy Show , joins Hilary and Jason on a special Thanksgiving episode of Let The Journey Begin. Sandy experienced a lot of trying times early on in her life. Not only was she bullied as a teenager leading to feelings of low self-esteem and severe anxiety, but she was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 19 and underwent eight months of chemotherapy. Things started to look up for her when she finally met her husband at 25 years old, but unfortunately discover...
Nov 25, 2021•30 min
