The Sober New Yorker with Melissa McGovern

Jason spent years believing he was a functional drinker. He had a good job, made good money and took care of his kids—but behind the scenes, alcohol had progressed to waking up in the middle of the night and taking swigs of whiskey just to get back to sleep.

In 2019, Jason quit drinking and remained alcohol-free for two and a half years. But while he had stopped drinking, his cocaine use increased, and he realized he was still holding onto the identity of being the “party guy.”

Eventually, Jason returned to alcohol believing he could drink normally again. Instead, he found himself back in a cycle of drinking, cocaine use and repeated attempts to quit.

In this episode, Jason and Melissa talk about alcohol addiction, cocaine, relapse, anxiety, fatherhood and the role identity can play in sobriety. Jason shares what changed when he stopped trying to simply remove alcohol from his life and became willing to change the person he believed he had to be.

Connect with Jason on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasondlyman/

After losing her father to alcohol-related complications, Megan was faced with a difficult question: would alcohol continue to be part of her family’s story, or would the cycle stop with her?She chose to quit drinking.In the first-ever in-studio episode of The Sober New Yorker, Melissa sits down with Megan in Manhattan as she approaches one year of sobriety. A labor and delivery nurse, wife, and mom of three, Megan shares how grief changed the way she looked at her own relationship with alcohol and ultimately led her toward an alcohol-free life.Megan opens up about quitting drinking, breaking generational patterns with alcohol, navigating motherhood in sobriety, and choosing to recover out loud.This conversation explores grief, alcohol, sober living, and what can happen when you decide you don’t need to hit rock bottom to make a change.For anyone questioning their drinking or wondering what life without alcohol could look like, Megan’s story is a reminder that you can choose a different path.

Megan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megan_on_the_rocks/

Tawny Lara has been sober for more than 10 years and was one of the early voices in the sober curious movement. But after building a career and personal brand online, she began questioning another complicated relationship in her life: social media.

Tawny became known as the “sober sexpert,” writing openly about sobriety, sober dating, sex, and relationships while growing an audience on Instagram. Social media helped launch her writing career and eventually her book, Dry Humping: A Guide to Dating, Relating, and Hooking Up Without the Booze.

But over time, Tawny says she began to lose herself in the online persona she had created.

Eventually, she deleted Instagram from her phone. Today, she describes herself as approaching two years “sober from Instagram” and has spent that time reconnecting with who she is away from the algorithm.

In this episode, Tawny and Melissa talk about social media addiction, sobriety, dopamine, doom scrolling, identity, online validation, and the pressure to constantly create content. They explore the similarities between changing your relationship with alcohol and becoming more intentional about your relationship with your phone and social media.

Tawny also shares her journey quitting drinking, becoming one of the original sober influencers, navigating sober dating and relationships, and what more than a decade of sobriety has taught her about identity and personal growth.

If you’ve ever questioned your relationship with alcohol, social media, your phone, or the constant need to be connected, this conversation is for you.

Tawny Lara is the author of Dry Humping: A Guide to Dating, Relating, and Hooking Up Without the Booze.

Tawny's Website:

https://www.tawnylara.com/

Shaz knew his drinking was putting his marriage at risk. But instead of quitting alcohol, he found himself planning for what would happen when his marriage eventually fell apart.

Growing up in Chicago as the son of Pakistani immigrants, alcohol became normalized early when his family went from running a tobacco shop to owning liquor stores. What began as social drinking eventually followed Shaz into marriage and fatherhood before turning into daily, secret drinking alone.

In this episode of The Sober New Yorker, Shaz shares how alcohol addiction began affecting his wife, his children, and the life they had built together. He also talks about finding a sober community while he was still drinking—including joining meetings with his camera off and a White Claw beside him.

Then, on Christmas night, something changed. Shaz finished a glass of wine, went to bed, and decided he didn’t want to drink anymore. What happened next changed the trajectory of his family.

Follow Shaz:

https://www.instagram.com/shazman07/

Join the Sober Motivation Community:

https://sobermotivation.net/

Chris Marshall got his first DUI at 16, on only his second time drinking. By 23, he was drinking a handle of vodka a day, had failed out of college, and didn’t believe he would live to see 25.

Today, Chris is 19 years sober.

In this episode of The Sober New Yorker, Chris shares how his need to belong fueled his alcohol addiction, why multiple trips to treatment didn’t initially work, and what finally helped him get sober at 23.

Chris also talks about what became possible after he quit drinking. He became a substance use counselor and eventually founded Sans Bar, one of the first alcohol-free bars in the U.S. His work has since helped launch more than 150 non-alcoholic bars, bottle shops, and pop-ups around the world.

Chris’s story is about alcohol addiction, sobriety, recovery, and discovering that the connection he had been searching for through alcohol was possible without it.

Follow Chris and Sans Bar:

https://www.instagram.com/sans_bar/