Unhooked: Breaking Porn Addiction Podcast

Jeremy Lipkowitz
  • 4.7 (102)
  • Sexuality
  • Updated Weekly

Unhooked is a podcast dedicated to helping people break free from porn addiction and other compulsive behaviors related to the internet, sex, and intimacy. Rooted in Buddhist wisdom, neuroscience, coaching, and mindfulness, the show explores practical strategies for lasting recovery and personal transformation. Each episode features leading experts, scientists, coaches, and individuals in recovery, sharing their insights, experiences, and expertise to guide listeners on their path to healing and freedom.

  1. 3d ago

    Why Quitting Porn Doesn’t Fix the Real Problem | Jeremy Lipkowitz Interviewed on Sam's Healing Podcast

    🔵 Want to break free? Join Unhooked Academy now: https://www.unhookedacademy.com/ Explore the Unhooked app: https://unhookedapp.co What if stopping porn isn't actually the thing that creates lasting recovery? In this episode of Unhooked, I’m resharing a conversation I had on Sam’s Healing Podcast about porn addiction, recovery, and what it really takes to build lasting freedom. We talk about why porn itself is often not the underlying problem, but instead a way of escaping uncomfortable emotions, stress, loneliness, boredom, insecurity, or other difficult experiences. I also explain why simply chasing a streak or practicing sobriety without doing the deeper inner work can leave the underlying issues untouched. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why sobriety alone isn't the same as recovery and why the underlying reasons behind the behavior matter - How porn can become a coping mechanism for stress, loneliness, boredom, insecurity, and other uncomfortable emotions - Why I describe meditation as strength training for the mind and how it can help build greater awareness and self-control - How the Reset → Rewire → Rebuild → Restore framework supports lasting transformation - Why learning to sit with discomfort instead of escaping it is an essential part of creating real freedom If you're early in recovery and looking for a clear, grounded overview of what this work actually involves, this is a good place to start. Ready to start your recovery? Explore the Unhooked app: https://unhookedapp.co Timestamps: 00:00 Why Sobriety Isn’t Recovery 02:59 Welcome to Unhooked 03:37 Introducing Jeremy and Unhooked 04:47 Why I Created Unhooked 06:02 Why Do We Get Hooked on Porn? 09:05 Why Sobriety Alone Isn’t Enough 11:09 Cross-Addictions and Replacing Unhealthy Habits 12:29 Meditation as Strength Training for the Mind 15:23 Different Types of Meditation 17:01 How to Let Go of the Performance Mindset 18:22 Why a Structured Meditation Practice Matters 20:04 The Four Phases of Recovery 21:28 Reset: Getting Clear on Where You’re Going 23:32 Rewire: Using Neuroplasticity for Change 25:04 Rebuild: Changing Your Environment and Habits 26:59 Restore: Building a Life of Fulfillment 28:42 Solitude vs. Isolation 30:14 Why We Run From Unpleasant Experiences 31:56 Learning to Sit With Discomfort 32:56 Why You Have to Take Ownership of Your Recovery 34:21 Can You Really Break Free? 36:27 Where to Learn More About Unhooked 37:21 Sam’s Closing Thoughts 37:56 Final Thoughts

  2. Sep 21

    How to Heal After Infidelity: Honesty, Shame & Rebuilding Trust | Sam from Sam’s Healing Podcast

    🔵 Want to break free? Join Unhooked Academy now: https://www.unhookedacademy.com/ Explore the Unhooked app: https://unhookedapp.co What does it actually take to heal after infidelity, and why does defensiveness make rebuilding trust so difficult? In this episode of Unhooked, I sit down with Sam from Sam's Healing Podcast to talk about infidelity, addiction, and what real recovery looks like after betrayal. Sam shares his own journey after an affair that turned his life upside down. We talk about why radical honesty is the first step toward healing, how defensiveness gets in the way of rebuilding trust, and why taking ownership of your actions matters so much. We also explore how childhood wounds can shape destructive coping patterns, the role of community and mentorship in recovery, and why healing looks different for every person and relationship. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why radical honesty is the first step in recovery - How defensiveness and blame-shifting get in the way of healing - The difference between guilt and shame - Why self-acceptance and accountability go hand in hand - What recovery looks like for both the unfaithful and betrayed partner - Why healing takes time and what makes rebuilding trust possible If you're navigating addiction, infidelity, or the difficult process of rebuilding trust after betrayal, this conversation is for you. Ready to start your recovery? Explore the Unhooked app: https://unhookedapp.co Connect with Sam: Sam's Healing Podcast on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@samshealingpodcast and podcast platforms https://www.samshealingpodcast.com/ Timestamps: 00:00 Sam's story of despair and recovery 01:39 Episode introduction 03:32 Welcome to Unhooked 04:24 Sam's journey into recovery 08:44 Why radical honesty is the first step 12:53 Becoming a student of recovery and finding support 19:48 Understanding childhood wounds and the roots of addiction 24:08 The turning point: Feeling worthy of love 30:04 Self-acceptance and doing the next right thing 35:33 Balancing self-acceptance with personal growth 40:27 Why people become defensive in recovery 41:56 Shame, guilt, and taking responsibility 45:46 What healing looks like for the betrayed partner 49:59 How long does healing after infidelity take? 52:38 Can couples truly heal after infidelity? 55:34 Where to find Sam 56:57 Closing thoughts

  3. Sep 13

    Sobriety Isn’t Recovery: Mindfulness, Choice, and Rewiring the Brain

    🔵 Want to break free? Join Unhooked Academy now: https://www.unhookedacademy.com/ Interested in the Unhooked App? Join the waitlist here:  https://unhookedapp.co/ Jeremy Lipkowitz reshared his appearance on The Therapy Brothers podcast, where Brendan and Tyler Patrick interview him about how meditation and mindfulness can support recovery. Jeremy explains why mindfulness does not have to conflict with religious faith, and why it is better understood as a practical way to train attention, awareness, and intentional choice. He breaks down the space between stimulus and response and how learning to access that space can help interrupt automatic reactions like craving, anger, fear, and judgment. The conversation also explores neuroplasticity and Jeremy’s “meadow” analogy for how repeated thoughts and behaviors strengthen mental pathways over time. They unpack the meaning of equanimity, why groundedness matters when facing both discomfort and temptation, and how even a simple breath-awareness practice can begin strengthening concentration, self-compassion, emotional regulation, and the ability to respond rather than react. Chapters: 00:00 Why mindfulness matters in recovery 04:10 Welcome to the episode 04:54 Is meditation against religion? 06:40 What mindfulness really is 09:30 The mindset behind mindfulness-based recovery 13:36 How mindfulness helps with urges and reactions 14:14 Neuroplasticity: how the brain changes 17:01 The meadow analogy explained 18:22 What is equanimity? 20:29 How to begin meditating 23:09 Closing thoughts

  4. Sep 7

    How to Rebuild Trust After Betrayal and Porn Addiction | Brannon & Tyler Patrick (The Therapy Brothers)

    🔵 Want to break free? Join Unhooked Academy now: https://www.unhookedacademy.com/ Interested in the Unhooked App? Join the waitlist here:  https://unhookedapp.co/ Jeremy Lipkowitz hosts Brannon and Tyler Patrick on Unhooked to discuss why sobriety and recovery are not the same thing. The brothers are licensed clinicians with about forty years of combined experience treating porn addiction and betrayal trauma, and they host The Therapy Brothers podcast. They explain why a heavy emphasis on sobriety is a prelude to relapse, why focusing on inputs beats chasing a streak, and why recovery worked for a spouse always collapses. Tyler breaks down their trust equation for rebuilding trust after betrayal: shame resiliency on both sides plus rigorous honesty, empathy, and consistent action over time. They also cover what real humility is, the hero's journey framework behind their men's program, healthy disclosure versus probation officer check-ins, and what a betrayed partner is really asking underneath the questions about details. Chapters: 00:00:00 The energy that actually sustains recovery  00:01:01 The cave you fear to enter  00:01:50 Episode intro and the Unhooked app waitlist  00:04:35 Welcome Tyler and Brannon Patrick  00:05:42 Taking men from untrustworthy to trustworthy  00:06:55 What twenty years changed about their approach  00:10:32 How each brother found this work  00:14:08 Sobriety versus recovery  00:17:31 The paradox: does that mean relapse is fine?  00:20:28 Guys who do not know their sobriety date  00:22:17 When sobriety becomes a weapon  00:23:38 Trap one: getting humility backwards  00:24:54 Trap two: recovering for your spouse  00:28:31 Resentment, and turning your partner into your god  00:28:57 Why the instinct to perform makes sense  00:30:39 Corrective experiences and the challenges they run  00:35:30 The hero's journey  00:36:25 Tyler's map of energies, from coercion to love  00:39:05 When a man will not step over the threshold  00:42:26 The parable of the snake and the apples  00:44:53 Where rebuilding trust starts: rigorous honesty  00:46:11 When your partner draws a hard line  00:48:39 Disclosure, lines of defense, and check ins that work  00:49:03 The trust equation  00:51:43 What a betrayed partner is really asking  00:52:58 What actually needs to be disclosed  00:56:35 Harnessing sexuality instead of killing it  00:58:30 What they want couples to hear  01:03:03 Where to find Tyler and Brannon  01:03:45 Closing The Therapy Brothers, for Unhooked listeners: therapybrothers.org/unhooked  Unhooked Academy: unhookedacademy.com  Unhooked app waitlist: unhookedapp.co

  5. Aug 31

    Why Most Men Are Still Boys: The Boy-to-Man Framework | Alessandro Frosali

    🔹 Want to break free? Join Unhooked Academy now: https://www.unhookedacademy.com/ Jeremy Lipkowitz hosts Alessandro on Unhooked to discuss his mission of helping men become husbands, fathers, and human beings they admire, inspired by what he lacked in role models and his marriage. Alessandro explains Dr. Arne Rubenstein’s boy-to-man framework, contrasting boy traits like self-centered power, emotional reactivity, blame, and wanting a “mother” with mature ideals such as service to the team, emotional humility, integrity and ownership, and equanimity in relating to the feminine. They explore how Western culture lacks rites of passage, and Alessandro outlines four initiation components: shared stories, challenge, honoring, and vision for the future. The conversation also covers why men avoid ownership, how men’s circles help disclose porn struggles, distinguishing ownership from shame, stream-of-consciousness journaling, and why being a better husband often means reconnecting with oneself while nourishing the household. 00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro 00:32 Mission Beyond Alpha 03:21 Conscious Masculinity Basics 04:22 Boy to Man Framework 10:54 Applying Traits to Marriage 14:11 Understanding the Feminine 17:19 What Initiation Means 19:41 Rites of Passage Four Parts 27:12 Why Ownership Is Hard 30:34 Handyman Trigger Origins 31:54 Owning Your Feelings 32:36 Recovery Check Ins 35:23 Beyond Performative Apologies 36:24 Resistance And Hard Talks 39:16 Mens Circle Confession 41:37 Ownership Versus Shame 42:22 Shoveling The Shit 48:53 Morning Pages Practice 51:29 Stop Appeasing Your Wife 54:51 Mission Nourish Household 58:34 Lightness Without Excuses 01:01:14 Walking Forward Balance 01:04:29 Final Takeaways And Outro Connect with Alessandro on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alessandro_frosali

  6. Aug 24

    Mindfulness and Recovery: Insights from Jeremy Lipkowitz on Pornography Addiction on the Darren Magee Show

    🔹 Want to break free? Join Unhooked Academy now: https://www.unhookedacademy.com/ In this episode, Jeremy Lipkowitz—former genetics researcher, ordained Buddhist monk, mindfulness teacher, executive coach, and founder of Unhooked Academy—shares his personal journey from early exposure to pornography through daily use in college and into recovery. He discusses how porn’s accessibility, affordability, and anonymity fuel addiction, while underlying drivers often include boredom, loneliness, disconnection, and emotional avoidance. The conversation explores how novelty and endless scrolling train dissatisfaction, how porn can reshape intimacy and create secrecy and shame, and why sobriety alone isn’t the same as recovery—unaddressed roots can lead to cross-addictions. Jeremy highlights the role of community, mindfulness, self-compassion, and present-moment awareness to create choice between stimulus and response, and warns that AI-generated porn and AI companions are already accelerating these risks. He also points to porn’s exploitative underbelly and invites listeners to assess whether harms outweigh perceived benefits. 00:00 Meet Jeremy Lipkowitz 00:26 His Recovery Journey 01:27 Triggers and Three As 03:17 When It Became a Problem 07:01 Sobriety Versus Recovery 08:14 Compulsion or Addiction 10:02 Why Porn Hooks You 13:48 Roots of Addiction 17:10 Connection and Environment 18:41 Men Versus Women 20:23 Slow Burn Consequences 23:06 Signs You Have a Problem 25:28 Porn Warps Intimacy 27:47 Shame and Taboo 28:13 Courage to Reach Out 28:45 Wedding Trigger Story 30:53 Self Deception Narratives 32:33 Powerless vs Powerful 34:56 Beliefs Shape Outcomes 36:13 Stress Anxiety Reframe 37:37 AI Porn Future Risks 40:49 Recovery Community Work 43:31 Presence and Choice Space 46:07 Equanimity with Discomfort 48:30 Porn Industry Reality Check 51:18 OnlyFans Dopamine Escalation 53:39 Cost Benefit Clarity 54:45 Where to Find Jeremy 55:36 Final Wrap Up Connect with Darren Magee here: https://www.youtube.com/c/DarrenFMagee

  7. Aug 17

    How Porn Rewires Your Brain (And What Buddhism Has to Say About Healing It) | Jeremy Lipkowitz Interviewed on An Evolving Man Podcast with Piers Cross

    🔹 Want to break free? Join Unhooked Academy now: https://www.unhookedacademy.com/ Jeremy Lipkowitz joins Piers Cross on An Evolving Man to discuss how porn addiction is driven and worsened by craving, shame, and avoidance of unpleasant emotions like boredom, loneliness, anxiety, and lack of purpose. Jeremy shares his own history of early porn exposure, how Buddhism and Matthieu Ricard’s book Happiness helped him understand neuroplasticity (“neurons that fire together, wire together”) and craving as suffering, and why recovery requires more than willpower. They explore why modern porn is uniquely addictive through affordability, accessibility, anonymity, and infinite novelty, and why taking distance from porn reveals impacts on clarity, confidence, and integrity. The conversation emphasizes mindfulness as awareness across the “six sense doors,” community and men’s groups to dissolve isolation and shame, skillful moral shame/dread (hiri and ottappa), and how the attention economy and tech design mimic slot machines to capture attention. 00:00 Shame And Escape 01:18 Rebroadcast And Themes 02:40 Meet Jeremy Lipkowitz 03:54 Porn Habit Origins 06:41 Buddhism Changes Everything 08:46 Neuroplasticity And Craving 12:29 Beyond Meditation Recovery 14:17 Porn Culture And Taboo 16:57 Smartphone Porn Explosion 21:04 Why Porn Hooks Us 24:50 Reclaiming Healthy Sexuality 26:49 Triggers And Emotional Avoidance 29:33 Feeling Emotions In The Body 31:56 Slow Down The Urge 32:59 Mindful Smoking Insight 33:48 Mindfulness In Recovery 35:21 Shame And Community 39:40 Porn Shame Stigma 42:39 Healthy Moral Shame 47:42 Four Truths Reflection 49:31 Attention Economy Trap 55:24 Reclaiming Your Attention 57:31 What Mindfulness Means 59:28 Six Sense Doors Practice 01:01:22 Closing And Resources

  8. Aug 10

    Porn, Shame, and the Hungry Ghost: Jeremy Lipkowitz on Addiction, Integrity, and Mindfulness | My Conversation with Jonah Primo on The Overexamined Life Podcast

    🔹 Want to break free? Join Unhooked Academy now: https://www.unhookedacademy.com/ This rebroadcast from Jonah Primo’s The Overexamined Life features Jeremy Lipkowitz (former Buddhist monk, meditation teacher, executive coach, and host of the Unhooked podcast) discussing pornography as a lens for addiction, shame, and compulsive behavior. They cover how widespread porn use is among men and increasingly women, early exposure in childhood, and how porn’s normalization alongside taboo can fuel addiction. Lipkowitz argues porn is often used for emotional regulation (boredom, loneliness, anxiety), can distort expectations of intimacy, train novelty-seeking dopamine patterns, and contribute to a shame-driven double life. They address ethical concerns about performer exploitation, whether moderate use is defensible, the distinction between porn and masturbation, and rising risks from AI-generated porn, non-consensual deepfakes, and related technologies. Treatment emphasizes mindfulness, men’s groups, integrity, and Viktor Frankl’s “space between stimulus and response” over reliance on blockers; Lipkowitz recommends abstinence first if moderation is attempted. 00:00 Rebroadcast Introduction 01:34 Meet Jeremy Lipkowitz 04:19 Who Watches Porn 05:28 Taboo Meets Normalized 07:04 Kids And Early Exposure 12:49 Porn Scripts And Consent 15:47 Porn As Emotional Coping 20:11 Shame Fuels Addiction 26:52 Making It Less Shameful 28:01 Men's Groups Explained 33:44 Performers And Exploitation 39:36 Is Any Use Safe 42:55 Subtle Long Term Effects 47:11 Hungry Ghost Origin Story 48:43 From Catalogs to Tube Sites 49:30 When Lust Becomes Suffering 50:46 Hungry Ghosts Explained 52:26 Pros and Cons of Quitting 54:59 Masturbation Without Porn 56:50 Engineered to Be Addictive 59:52 AI Porn Pandora Box 01:05:15 Skillful vs Unskillful Desire 01:07:55 Life After Porn Benefits 01:12:54 Relapse and the Three As 01:15:58 Mindfulness Space to Choose 01:20:01 Abstinence vs Moderation 01:22:13 Rapid Fire and Farewell

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4.7
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102 Ratings

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Unhooked is a podcast dedicated to helping people break free from porn addiction and other compulsive behaviors related to the internet, sex, and intimacy. Rooted in Buddhist wisdom, neuroscience, coaching, and mindfulness, the show explores practical strategies for lasting recovery and personal transformation. Each episode features leading experts, scientists, coaches, and individuals in recovery, sharing their insights, experiences, and expertise to guide listeners on their path to healing and freedom.

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