Sober Awkward

Is alcohol confidence, connection, and a doorway back to yourself, or is it a liquid barrier that keeps you further away?

In this episode, Vic is joined by Australian broadcaster and former Triple J presenter Mel Bampton. Now 15 years sober, Mel has come full circle back to radio after spending years rebuilding her life around yoga, surfing and sobriety. Together, they explore one powerful question: how do we make our way back after losing ourselves to alcohol?

Mel explains how alcohol can feel like a shortcut back to playfulness, imagination, and that light, giggly version of us we lost somewhere between school rules, expectations, and being told to “behave”. They talk about how drinking can seem like it’s giving you freedom, when it’s quietly taking pieces of you away, and why it can be so hard to notice that loss of self when you start young.

They also dig into timing, the moment you know it’s time to stop, the shift from chaos to clarity, and the surprising truth that sobriety can be less about becoming someone new, and more about returning to who you were before life made you small.

There’s tequila, hangovers, bins full of glass bottles, silent discos in the jungle, and a full-circle comeback story that proves this, even if you’ve taken the scenic route, you can always find your way back to you.
Enjoy!

@melbampton_
https://www.thepranaproject.com/blog/whats-in-a-name

💛 Resources & Links

📘 Victoria’s memoir – A Thousand Wasted Sundays
A brutally honest and hilarious look at motherhood, anxiety, and ditching the booze.
👉 Buy the book here

🎧 Listen to more Sober Awkward episodes
👉 www.soberawkward.com

🫖 Join The Cuppa Community
Our private, supportive online space for sober folk
👉 www.cuppa.community

📘 Get the Sober Awkward Guide
Our downloadable toolkit for ditching booze the awkward way.
👉 The Sober Awkward Guide

📱 Follow us for daily sober fun:
Instagram: @soberawkward
TikTok: @soberawkward
Facebook: Sober Awkward Community for Women
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Awkward questions. Clumsy confessions. Zero judgement. Today it's all about Darren, Darrens mum and a very dodgy night out! Say no more!

Welcome to The Share Shed, the corner of Sober Awkward where we fling open the doors, air out the embarrassing bits, and finally stop carrying the stories that have been rattling around in our heads for years.

These are your questions and confessions.
The ones you’ve never said out loud. The nights you still cringe about in the shower. The moments that pop into your brain at 3am and make you want to crawl into the mattress. Traffic cones, family parties, one-night stands, run-ins with the police, bins, balconies, and that one thing everyone remembers even though you desperately wish they wouldn’t.

Some are funny. Some are painful. Most are both.

In The Share Shed, listeners write in anonymously to share their drinking stories, shame spirals, and “why am I still thinking about this?” moments. We read them out, laugh where we can, get honest where it hurts, and gently unpack how shame sticks around long after the booze has gone, and how to finally loosen its grip.

This isn’t about reliving the chaos.
It’s about letting it go.

Because shame thrives in silence, and nothing deflates it faster than saying, “This happened to me too.” Whether you’re sober, sober-curious, or just questioning your relationship with alcohol, this is a place where you don’t have to be polished, healed, or have it all figured out.

Just human.

If you’ve got a story you’re sick of carrying, a question you’re scared to ask, or a drunken ghost you’d quite like evicted from your brain, send it in to [email protected]’ll tuck it safely away in the Share Shed where it belongs, instead of letting it haunt you forever.

New Share Shed episodes drop Thursdays.
Come as you are.
Leave a little lighter.

💛 Resources & Links

📘 Victoria’s memoir – A Thousand Wasted Sundays
A brutally honest and hilarious look at motherhood, anxiety, and ditching the booze.
👉 Buy the book here

🎧 Listen to more Sober Awkward episodes
👉 www.soberawkward.com

🫖 Join The Cuppa Community
Our private, supportive online space for sober folk
👉 www.cuppa.community

📘 Get the Sober Awkward Guide
Our downloadable toolkit for ditching booze the awkward way.
👉 The Sober Awkward Guide

📱 Follow us for daily sober fun:
Instagram: @soberawkward
TikTok: @soberawkward
Facebook: Sober Awkward Community for Women
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Sober Awkward, Vic sits down with Recovery Jimmy from the After Hours podcast to ask a big question, does sobriety actually make you grow up?

They swap stories of peak immaturity, from Vic’s 25 year blur of zero self preservation, to Jimmy’s wine fuelled, one way escape to Majorca after watching Into the Wild. What felt rebellious and “rock and roll” at the time now looks a lot like avoidance, selfishness, and being emotionally frozen at the age they started drinking.

Together they unpack how booze can keep you stuck, convincing you that you’re wild and fun, when really you’re avoiding responsibility, feelings, and growth. They talk drinking culture, hating sober people in bars, and the slow realisation that maybe the “boring” friends were just maturing.

It’s honest, funny, and reflective, a reminder that growing up does not mean losing your sense of fun. It means finally caring about yourself enough to change.

Find out more about Jimmy and his Podcast here -
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmy
TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@recovery.jimmy?_r=1&_t=ZN-93qNaF7fVBe
After Hours with Jimmy Thistle
https://afterhours.buzzsprout.com
And you can find all my other links at:
https://linktr.ee/jimmythistle

💛 Resources & Links

📘 Victoria’s memoir – A Thousand Wasted Sundays
A brutally honest and hilarious look at motherhood, anxiety, and ditching the booze.
👉 Buy the book here

🎧 Listen to more Sober Awkward episodes
👉 www.soberawkward.com

🫖 Join The Cuppa Community
Our private, supportive online space for sober folk
👉 www.cuppa.community

📘 Get the Sober Awkward Guide
Our downloadable toolkit for ditching booze the awkward way.
👉 The Sober Awkward Guide

📱 Follow us for daily sober fun:
Instagram: @soberawkward
TikTok: @soberawkward
Facebook: Sober Awkward Community for Women
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Awkward questions. Clumsy confessions. Zero judgement.

Welcome to The Share Shed, the corner of Sober Awkward where we fling open the doors, air out the embarrassing bits, and finally stop carrying the stories that have been rattling around in our heads for years.

These are your questions and confessions. The ones you’ve never said out loud. The nights you still cringe about in the shower. The moments that pop into your brain at 3am and make you want to crawl into the mattress. Traffic cones, family parties, one-night stands, run-ins with the police, bins, balconies, and that one thing everyone remembers even though you desperately wish they wouldn’t.

Some are funny. Some are painful. Most are both.

In The Share Shed, listeners write in anonymously to share their drinking stories, shame spirals, and “why am I still thinking about this?” moments. We read them out, laugh where we can, get honest where it hurts, and gently unpack how shame sticks around long after the booze has gone, and how to finally loosen its grip.

This isn’t about reliving the chaos.
It’s about letting it go.

Because shame thrives in silence, and nothing deflates it faster than saying, “This happened to me too.” Whether you’re sober, sober-curious, or just questioning your relationship with alcohol, this is a place where you don’t have to be polished, healed, or have it all figured out.

Just human.

If you’ve got a story you’re sick of carrying, a question you’re scared to ask, or a drunken ghost you’d quite like evicted from your brain, send it in. We’ll tuck it safely away in the Share Shed where it belongs, instead of letting it haunt you forever.

New Share Shed episodes drop Thursdays.
Come as you are.
Leave a little lighter.

💛 Resources & Links

📘 Victoria’s memoir – A Thousand Wasted Sundays
A brutally honest and hilarious look at motherhood, anxiety, and ditching the booze.
👉 Buy the book here

🎧 Listen to more Sober Awkward episodes
👉 www.soberawkward.com

🫖 Join The Cuppa Community
Our private, supportive online space for sober folk
👉 www.cuppa.community

📘 Get the Sober Awkward Guide
Our downloadable toolkit for ditching booze the awkward way.
👉 The Sober Awkward Guide

📱 Follow us for daily sober fun:
Instagram: @soberawkward
TikTok: @soberawkward
Facebook: Sober Awkward Community for Women
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Giving up alcohol in her twenties felt impossible for VIc.

Back then, drinking wasn’t just normal, it was the entire social structure. Nights out, friendships, dating, coping with stress, it all seemed to revolve around booze. So when someone decides to step away from it early, without a dramatic rock bottom or life implosion, it raises an interesting question..... Is something changing?

In this episode, Vic sits down with Sean, 28 and one year sober, who realised early on that alcohol wasn’t actually adding much to his life.
What started as very social drinking slowly crept into something else. Sean would finish a night out, grab a bag of cans on the way home, and carry on drinking alone. Before long, it was completely out of control. The pints were adding up. His mates noticed. His parents were worried. His girlfriend eventually gave him an ultimatum.

But after facing the truth about where his “normal” drinking was heading, Sean made a change.

Now, sober alongside his partner, he represents a growing shift we’re seeing in younger generations choosing clarity, mental health and self-trust over hangovers and hazy weekends.

Together they talk about what it’s really like to quit while your friends are still deep in drinking culture, whether younger people are genuinely drinking less, and what you gain when you stop before alcohol has decades to dig its claws in.

This conversation isn’t about regret or doing things “perfectly”.

It’s about curiosity, culture shifts, and the quiet bravery of opting out sooner rather than later.

Whether you’re questioning your own drinking at 23 or reflecting back at 43, this one might make you think.

You can listen to Sean's band and find out more @conflictmanagerband

💛 Resources & Links

📘 Victoria’s memoir – A Thousand Wasted Sundays
A brutally honest and hilarious look at motherhood, anxiety, and ditching the booze.
👉 Buy the book here

🎧 Listen to more Sober Awkward episodes
👉 www.soberawkward.com

🫖 Join The Cuppa Community
Our private, supportive online space for sober folk
👉 www.cuppa.community

📘 Get the Sober Awkward Guide
Our downloadable toolkit for ditching booze the awkward way.
👉 The Sober Awkward Guide

📱 Follow us for daily sober fun:
Instagram: @soberawkward
TikTok: @soberawkward
Facebook: Sober Awkward Community for Women
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.