John Robbins

speaker

3,052 appearances 4 recordings 3 series first heard Aug 2025 last heard 19 Jun

John Robbins’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 2.

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On The Mend · The Night John Robins Knew He Had to Quit Drinking · 1 Jun 2026 podcast

And yet I just found ways to switch my head off from quite a young age.

And the mad thing about writing Thirst was that

how much stuff writing it uncovered as I was writing it.

So I don't know whether it makes the book more fun to read or less, but I'm discovering stuff as I'm going.

So I'll be writing like, oh, this thing's just come back to me.

This might be quite important.

So I'll tell you about it.

And I was thinking about when I would have been about 12, moved in with my stepdad, and it was difficult.

He had his own stuff going on, and I was very just...

you know um feeling quite all at sea a bit uprooted and i just went into the garage one day while my mum and him were out i saw this can of petrol next to the lawnmower and i was like i like the smell of petrol and because it's quite a nice smell in a bad way yeah and um

just opened up the can and smelt it.

It was like, you know, like people do with tennis balls or cut grass or whatever it is.

And then I was just, the more I did it, I got really lightheaded.

And then I just, you know, just started breathing it in.

and that went on for quite a while that when i was on my own i would sort of do this and it you know do not anyone listening do never ever do this because it's can be where it's really dangerous but you know it's just so you hallucinate you go to space and then you wake up and it's like

Oh, I like not being in my head.

I like being in space.

Sobriety is about finding a way to be in my head and not to try and escape whatever that discomfort I have with life.

And as you said at the start, it's difficult because it requires me to change.

And there are lots of different tools that I have to cope with being alive, which for whatever reason I have found difficult.

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