John Robbins

I couldn't have done this by...

getting therapy, me personally, alone.

I couldn't have done this by starting to run because I tried that.

Going to CrossFit three times a week, drinking 140 units a week.

How many people are doing that in the CrossFit world?

at myself thinking i've been doing this a year and a half why hasn't my body changed asking my coach like yeah i probably do about 6 000 calories a week in booze and he's like what so all the other stuff i tried hadn't helped yeah and i needed people who knew exactly what i was going through no one else is going to know exactly what you're going through when you're trying not to drink apart from someone who has tried not to drink and yeah been successful in that

And then for me, the, you know, one reading I have of the 12 steps is it's like, uh, idiot's guide to an ego death.

So like every step is gently saying to you, you're not the most important person in the world.

And that has been one of the many great freedoms I've got from the 12 step program.

Um,

And I've found my own version of spirituality through it.

I have access to 90 years of wisdom, like one of the most important oral traditions in human history.

of people who realized the only way they could get sober was by helping other people get sober.

Isn't that incredible?

That's the best of humanity.

And in a world that is increasingly celebrating the worst in humanity, to be able to tap into a tradition

which says, I will help you because it helps me, is very humbling.

And I think there's also something quite punk about it.

It's like we meet in the back room.

No, we don't need to be here.