Dear Vernon

The Luckiest Club
  • 4.8 (58)
  • Society & Culture

Dear Vernon is a sobriety podcast brought to you by The Luckiest Club. Each episode tackles real questions about sobriety, recovery, and life—submitted by members of the TLC community and listeners who are navigating it all in real time. The Luckiest Club (TLC) is a global sobriety support community founded by Laura McKowen, bestselling author and a leading voice in modern recovery. With daily meetings, proven programs, and a thriving community, TLC provides a compassionate, dogma-free space for people to get sober, stay sober, and thrive in a life of recovery.

  1. Aug 6

    EP 13: What Does It Actually Mean to Do the Work?

    This week on Dear Vernon, Laura McKowen, Founder of The Luckiest Club, and Eric Johnson, CEO of The Luckiest Club, tackle a question that comes up constantly in recovery spaces, and one that honestly deserves a much better answer than it usually gets. The question: what does it actually mean to do the work? If you've spent any time in sobriety communities, you've heard this phrase. Do the work. And if you're anything like the person who submitted this question, you've probably nodded along while privately thinking: okay but what does that mean? Is there a list? A job description? Because if someone would just tell me what to do, I would do it. Laura and Eric get into what doing the work actually looks like in real life, and it turns out it does come down to a few core things, even if nobody ever spells them out clearly. Laura breaks it down into two buckets that are simpler to name than they are to actually do. The first is getting honest with yourself and with other people. Not in a confess everything to everyone kind of way, but in the quiet, ongoing practice of noticing when you're hiding something, avoiding something, or keeping a secret that's slowly making you sick. The second is looking at the patterns in your life where there's real friction and asking yourself honestly what your part in that pattern might be. That second one sounds straightforward until you actually try to do it, and then it turns out to be most of a lifetime's worth of work. Eric adds the piece that Laura and he both agree is non-negotiable: you cannot do this alone. The work has to happen in community. Not because you're weak, but because so much of what drives our pain is unconscious, and we genuinely cannot see our own blind spots without other people reflecting them back to us. They also talk about why people who experience addiction are, in a strange way, forced into doing this kind of deep work in a way that most people never have to. And why that's both the hard part and, eventually, the gift. If you've been waiting for someone to hand you a tidy list of steps for sobriety, this episode is for you. Fair warning: there is no list. But Laura and Eric make a pretty compelling case for why that's actually okay. If the show resonates, please leave a review and share it with someone who needs it. Join our Push Off from here Workshop, August 22-29, 2026, led by TLC Founder, Laura McKowen and TLC CEO, Eric Johnson. Have a question for Dear Vernon? 👉 Submit your question, and it might be featured on a future episode. Get a FREE week of The Luckiest Club here! Need more support? We offer three 13-week programs designed to meet you exactly where you are in your sobriety journey: The Sober 90- foundational work to get you through the early days The Sober Steady- for those with some sober time who need more resilience and tools The Sober Life- focused on the deeper work of emotional sobriety

  2. Jun 25

    EP 12: Do You Really Have to Start Your Day Count Over?

    This week on Dear Vernon, Laura McKowen, Founder of The Luckiest Club, and Eric Johnson, CEO of The Luckiest Club, tackle a question that's been sitting heavy with one of The Luckiest Club members. She had 183 days sober. On vacation with her husband, she ordered a virgin daiquiri, took a few sips, and realized it had alcohol in it. She caught it, sent it back, and asked for water instead. But then her husband, who's been in AA for years, told her she had to reset her count back to zero. Non-negotiable, he said. Now she's wondering if he's right, and if six months of progress just got erased over something that wasn't even her fault. Laura and Eric don't hold back on this one. They talk about what actually matters here: she caught the mistake, told her husband, told the waiter, and brought it to her community instead of hiding it. That's the real story, not some arbitrary rule about restarting a clock. If the show resonates, please leave a review and share it with someone who needs it. Have a question for Dear Vernon? 👉 Submit your question, and it might be featured on a future episode. Get a FREE week of The Luckiest Club here! Need more support? We offer three 13-week programs designed to meet you exactly where you are in your sobriety journey: The Sober 90- foundational work to get you through the early days The Sober Steady- for those with some sober time who need more resilience and tools The Sober Life- focused on the deeper work of emotional sobriety

  3. Jun 4

    EP 11: Is It Normal to Keep My Sober Friends Separate?

    This week on Dear Vernon, The Luckiest Club Founder Laura McKowen and The Luckiest Club CEO Eric Johnson are answering a question that came in directly from a member with almost four years of sobriety—and honestly, it's one a lot of people can relate to. She loves her sober friends. They've been her lifeline. But they exist in a completely separate world from the rest of her life, and that separation feels strange to her. Almost like keeping secrets. So she wants to know: is this just how it is? Laura and Eric both talk about how different friend groups naturally serve different purposes. Your sober friends know your inner world in a way that's hard to explain to anyone on the outside. That's not a secret, that's just intimacy. And it doesn't mean something is wrong with your other relationships. They also talk about how this tends to soften over time. The hard line between your sober world and everyone else tends to blur as sobriety becomes less of a focal point and more just...who you are. Laura shares a story from a recent trip to Italy with non-sober friends (and the Instagram comment that followed) that perfectly captures how much can shift with time. This conversation is a good reminder that not every friendship has to go deep to be meaningful. You need the friends you can say everything to. You also need the friends you can just watch the game with. Both matter. If the show resonates, please leave a review and share it with someone who needs it. Have a question for Dear Vernon? 👉 Submit your question, and it might be featured on a future episode. Get a FREE week of The Luckiest Club here! Need more support? We offer three 13-week programs designed to meet you exactly where you are in your sobriety journey: The Sober 90- foundational work to get you through the early days The Sober Steady- for those with some sober time who need more resilience and tools The Sober Life- focused on the deeper work of emotional sobriety

  4. May 19

    EP 10: The Violence of Self-Improvement

    Getting this episode recorded and out was like pulling teeth, but here we are. We couldn't let this question go unanswered, it's that good. A listener asked, "I'm sober, but finding myself shopping, scrolling, and using food as a way to fill that void where alcohol was, how do you (Laura and Eric) feel about this?" Laura McKowen, Founder of The Luckiest Club, and Eric Johnson CEO of The Luckiest Club, talk about their own experiences with transfer addictions and some guidelines that might help listeners understand if their habits are a problem. They also talk about how there can be harm in the need to constantly seek self-improvement. If the show resonates, please leave a review and share it with someone who needs it. Have a question for Dear Vernon? 👉 Submit your question, and it might be featured on a future episode. Get a FREE week of The Luckiest Club here! Need more support? We offer three 13-week programs designed to meet you exactly where you are in your sobriety journey: The Sober 90- foundational work to get you through the early days The Sober Steady- for those with some sober time who need more resilience and tools The Sober Life- focused on the deeper work of emotional sobriety

  5. Apr 30

    EP 9: How Do I Talk About My Sobriety?

    This week on Dear Vernon, The Luckiest Club Founder, Laura McKowen, and The Luckiest Club CEO, Eric Johnson, are answering the question "how do I tell people I'm not drinking?" and this is one we hear all the time. We've had close to a dozen people write in asking some variation of this question, so we knew it was time to answer it on the podcast. Truthfully, the answer you give your colleagues might be different than the answer you give to close friends and family. Laura and Eric give a few examples that they use in different situations and they'll share some of the responses and questions that they've got about their drinking. They also briefly touch on sober dating and how and when you might disclose this to your date. This conversation serves as a reminder that you don't have to tell everyone, but you do have to tell someone. Leaning it to a sober community is helpful way to gain the confidence to say "I don't drink." If the show resonates, please leave a review and share it with someone who needs it. Have a question for Dear Vernon? 👉 Submit your question, and it might be featured on a future episode. Get a FREE week of The Luckiest Club here! Need more support? We offer three 13-week programs designed to meet you exactly where you are in your sobriety journey and registration is open now: The Sober 90- foundational work to get you through the early days The Sober Steady- for those with some sober time who need more resilience and tools The Sober Life- focused on the deeper work of emotional sobriety Want to learn more? We're hosting a Q&A Friday, May 1, 2026. You can register here!

  6. Apr 16

    EP 8: Why Can't I Cry Anymore?

    In this episode of Dear Vernon, Eric Johnson and Laura McKowen respond to a question that doesn’t get talked about enough: What if you get sober… and you still can’t feel anything? The listener who wrote in shared that they hadn’t cried in years — not while drinking, and not in the months after stopping. No big emotional release. No tears. Just… nothing. Eric and Laura both know that feeling. They talk about: how alcohol can numb your emotions for a long time — even after you stopwhat it means to be in a kind of “freeze” or shutdown statewhy some emotions show up before others (and why it’s not usually sadness first)how anger, fear, and shame can block access to deeper feelingsand why your body might not be ready to go there yet Laura shares about her own experience with not being able to cry, both in early sobriety and while being on antidepressants for many years, and what it’s been like to slowly feel things come back online. Eric talks about how long it took for him to get there too, and how emotions didn’t come back all at once, they showed up in layers. If the show resonates, please leave a review and share it with someone who needs it. Have a question for Dear Vernon? 👉 Submit your question, and it might be featured on a future episode. Get a FREE week of The Luckiest Club here! Need more support? We offer three 13-week programs designed to meet you exactly where you are in your sobriety journey: The Sober 90- foundational work to get you through the early days The Sober Steady- for those with some sober time who need more resilience and tools The Sober Life- focused on the deeper work of emotional sobriety

  7. Apr 2

    EP 7: How Do I Like My Eggs?

    In this episode of Dear Vernon, Laura McKowen and Eric Johnson dig into a question that comes up way more than people talk about — what do you do when sobriety just feels... boring? The question came in from a member who's 60 days sober, a busy working mom, and feeling this strange flatness she can't quite name. Laura and Eric unpack why "boredom" in early sobriety is rarely just boredom, and what's really going on underneath it. They talk about: Why drinking feels like fun (and why that's kind of a lie) The brain chemistry behind early sobriety flatness — dopamine deficits, anhedonia, and why the color seems to drain out of everything Why "I'm bored" often really means "I have no idea what I actually like" The Runaway Bride moment: figuring out how you like your eggs when you've always ordered what someone else wanted Why action has to come before inspiration (not the other way around) How to find joy in the small stuff when you don't have time for big stuff Why going big and letting it fly isn't actually fun — it's just loud This one's for anyone sitting in that strange in-between place where the chaos of early days has settled and you're left wondering... now what? 🎧 Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast player. If the show resonates, please leave a review and share it with someone who needs it. Have a question for Dear Vernon? 👉 Submit your question, and it might be featured on a future episode. Get A Free Week Trial of The Luckiest Club here! Need more support? We offer three 13-week programs designed to meet you exactly where you are in your sobriety journey: The Sober 90- foundational work to get you through the early days The Sober Steady- for those with some sober time who need more resilience and tools The Sober Life- focused on the deeper work of emotional sobriety

  8. Mar 19

    EP 6: Is This As Good As It Gets?

    Eric and Laura are back for another episode of Dear Vernon. Eric almost showed up in a dress shirt and tie. He didn't. Instead, he rolled up in his hoodie and baseball cap after a bowl of Cinnamon Pebbles. (He has no regrets. He will have them for lunch too.) This week's question comes from Karen, who's five months sober and asking something so many of us have wondered: when does the happy come back? Everything feels flat. Boring. Gray. She's not in danger of relapsing, she just wants to feel like herself again. Laura and Eric dig into what "happy" actually means in sobriety and whether drinking was really making us happy in the first place, or just giving us the illusion of caring less. (There's a difference. A big one.) They talk about the pink cloud (some people get it, some people — hi, Laura — absolutely do not), and why happiness might be the wrong thing to be chasing altogether. What they land on: peace of mind, freedom, and meaning. Not the fleeting "yay!" kind of happiness, but the kind that holds you up when life gets hard, which it certainly will. And for Karen and anyone else in the grind of early sobriety: the lights will come on. But you've got to change your life, not just quit drinking. Five months is huge — and it's also still early. Hang tight. You can learn more about The Luckiest Club here 👈 Yes, you can get a FREE week anytime! Submit a question to Dear Vernon

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4.8
out of 5
58 Ratings

About

Dear Vernon is a sobriety podcast brought to you by The Luckiest Club. Each episode tackles real questions about sobriety, recovery, and life—submitted by members of the TLC community and listeners who are navigating it all in real time. The Luckiest Club (TLC) is a global sobriety support community founded by Laura McKowen, bestselling author and a leading voice in modern recovery. With daily meetings, proven programs, and a thriving community, TLC provides a compassionate, dogma-free space for people to get sober, stay sober, and thrive in a life of recovery.

Information

  • Creator
    The Luckiest Club
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Luckiest Club
  • Show Website
    Dear Vernon

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