Frances Bowdery

Max Venison is a Songwriter, Recording Artist and Actor. From the glamor of living on Mulholland Dr with a 4 album solo recording contract and being invited on to the yachts of superstars he’s also tasted the other side of life and worked opening the elevator doors for former music colleagues, mowed the lawns of and delivered food to members of his recovery fellowship and pop stars. For the last two years he has been a Rock to Recovery Los Angeles Facilitator and is now heading overseas to create original content for a new entertainment platform called Mola. Hear him talk extreme highs and lows with host Wes Geer.

Jacob Manning struggled with learning challenges in school which led to him to compensate with sports.  He entered the world of football, baseball and wrestling.  He discovered booze aged 12 and at 15 started with tobacco which helped him discover the satisfaction in attention seeking.  At 16 he started smoking pot and hated it but he soon found himself snorting oxy’s, stealing pills from his friends and their families and thriving off not just the chaos and excitement that it gave him but the sense of the belonging that using would provide.  From pills to Heroin to Meth, it was Cocaine that finally put him on his knees and at 19 he hit bottom with an OD.  5 Rehabs later and an inspiring story or relapse and struggle, it was yoga that eventually led him to the best possible shape of both his body and mind. Hear him share his journey through fitness and sobriety to a place of inner peace with host Wes Geer.

Whats the difference between sobriety and recovery?  Singer songwriter MB Padfield joins host Wes Geer to tell her story and explain how when she got sober it was a very different time to when she actually entered recovery.  A self described weird and angry kid, she experienced bullying and struggled to have the coping mechanisms necessary.  Taking her first drink at 16, she had to sober up by the age of 18.  Her first year of sobriety was not an easy time for her and realizing there was a whole community of people out there that felt the same as her was a life changing moment.  She is now a proudly recovering alcoholic with 4 years sober and is active in the recovery community.  She’s passionate about Harley’s, fitness and bedazzling but also her work with those looking to achieve sobriety and recovery.

Constance Scharff, PhD survived early childhood trauma and abuse to become a respected author and internationally recognized addiction researcher. The emphasis of her work is to end the stigma around addiction and mental illness and support research into complementary therapies. The award winning poet shares her story of sexual abuse, abandonment and dis-associative issues. She experienced suicidal ideation from the age of 8 and took her first drink aged 11.  With her disease in full swing by the age of 22, tragedy pushed her to her full limits but ultimately provided her an opportunity to get sober. Tune in to hear her tell her inspiring story to host Wes Geer through to all her great work with Veterans and Trauma and dedication to finding the solutions to help people change their lives.

Professional drummer Mikey Martin had his first taste of alcohol at age 11.  Kicked out of junior high, he continued to get loaded all through high school.  Alcohol consumed his life until he got sober aged just 21.   His career took off not long after and his band Shiny Toy Guns were nominated for a Grammy in 2007.   He has been playing music professionally for over 20 years and in 2011 also started working with young adults in recovery.  To him music and sobriety go hand in hand and he believes that by teaching clients to create art in sobriety, it can help them find a way out of addiction.  He has now been sober for 15 years.

Kristin Casey is a Writer, Sex Therapist and Recovered Alcoholic and Addict. Her memoir Rock Monster, My Life with Joe Walsh documents their tumultuous six-year relationship and drug-fueled, train wreck breakup. Aware of how she had suffered from depression and negative thoughts from a young age, she began getting loaded at the age of 15.  She’s survived numerous addictions, clinical depression, a suicide attempt, seventeen years of Catholicism, and the panhandle of Texas to now have 21 years sober.

Host Wes Geer talks to three times Mavericks surfing champ Darryl ‘Flea’ Virotsko.  After his parents divorce aged 8, he moved to Santa Cruz and became absorbed in the surfing culture.  By his mid teens he was experiencing a lot of freedom and engaging in extreme behavior.  He started earning money from his passion for surfing at the same time from and as a 20 year old surfer was introduced to Mavericks high on acid.  He never took acid again but it kick started a lust for something within him. In 2008 he suffered a near fatal fall from a cliff that led to an intervention and him getting sober.  He now dedicates his time to giving back through his no profit Fleahab program teaching recovering addicts how to surf and be active while learning a new way of life, without the ups and downs caused by addiction.

Recovery Advocate, Public Speaker and TV Personality Tara Conner joins host Wes Geer in this weeks Rock to Recovery Radio Podcast. As a survivor of sexual abuse, she experienced suicidal ideation from the young age of 7.  She struggled with mental health issues and with a history of alcoholism in her family she had her first experience of alcohol as a teenage cheerleader. By the end of that year she had progressed to snorting pills.  In 2006 she was crowned Miss USA. Later that year, she entered a treatment center to complete a 30 day alcohol and drug addiction program. She has since celebrated 11 years of sobriety and advocates for the awareness and education of addiction as a family disease.