The Living Clean Podcast

This week on The Living Clean Podcast, we continue our journey through the Twelve Steps with Step Ten—the beginning of learning how to practice what we’ve gained in recovery as part of our everyday lives. Our returning panel of Archer, Pete, and Douglas is back, and this week we’re joined by Ali and Rufus to talk about what it means to continue taking personal inventory. Step Ten teaches us that recovery isn’t about reaching a point where we stop making mistakes. It’s about becoming willing to recognize them sooner, take responsibility for them, and make things right before they have a chance to pile up. We talk about daily inventory, promptly admitting when we’re wrong, watching for old patterns, and learning the difference between healthy self-examination and beating ourselves up. We also explore what “promptly” really means, why admitting we’re wrong can still be difficult even after working the first nine steps, and how Step Ten helps prevent resentments, dishonesty, fear, and other problems from quietly building back into our lives. The first nine steps have helped us clean up much of our past. Step Ten helps us keep today clean. Join Archer, Pete, Douglas, Ali, and Rufus as we share experience, strength, and hope about living Step Ten—not perfectly, but consistently—and learning how regular inventory, accountability, and course correction can become a way of life.

Sometimes the best conversations are the ones you don’t plan. In this spontaneous episode of The Living Clean Podcast, Francis sits down with J.W. for an open and personal conversation about where life has him today. J.W. shares about his current health issues, the spiritual principles that help him navigate difficult circumstances, and what recovery looks like when life shows up on life’s terms. Along the way, Francis and J.W. talk about The Living Clean Podcast, Narcotics Anonymous, friendship, gratitude, spirituality, service, and a whole lot of other things in between. No agenda. No script. Just two addicts sitting down and sharing their experience with each other. The heart of NA beats when two addicts share their recovery.

In this episode of The Living Clean Podcast, we sit down with the Māori woman from Aotearoa, New Zealand, who wrote “Kia Ora Koutou,” one of the personal stories published in the Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text. The episode begins with a narration of her powerful story—a woman who entered treatment kicking and screaming, got clean partly out of stubbornness and spite, and slowly discovered hope through the message of Narcotics Anonymous. She shares honestly about the progression of her addiction, losing the trust of her whānau, surviving her earliest cravings ten minutes at a time, grieving her old way of life, and eventually rebuilding her relationship with her children, earning a university degree, and creating a life she once believed was impossible. After hearing “Kia Ora Koutou,” we speak directly with its author about the experiences behind those words and everything that has happened during the 23 years since she wrote them. We explore her Māori identity, family, spirituality, recovery, and the many ways her understanding of hope and freedom has continued to grow. This is more than an update to a story from the Basic Text. It is living proof that an addict can stop using, lose the desire to use, and find a new way to live. Arohanui—big love.

The Newcomer Montage returns with a second collection of voices speaking directly to the most important person in Narcotics Anonymous: the newcomer. This montage covers episodes of The Living Clean Podcast from November 3, 2024, through December 28, 2025—a period that also represents an important chapter in the evolution of the podcast. It begins around the time Francis joins Mason as co-host, and the two begin recording together on a regular weekly basis. During these conversations, Mason again starts making a point of asking our guests a simple question: “Is there anything you would like to share with the newcomer?” The answers were never scripted. Some are brief, some emotional, some practical, and some come from members with decades of experience. Put together, they become a collection of experience, strength, hope, encouragement, and reminders of what helped each person stay clean. Through this episode, the purpose remains simple: carrying the message to the addict who still suffers. If you're new, coming back, struggling, or simply need to remember what it felt like when you first walked through the doors, these voices are speaking to you. Keep coming back. Give yourself a chance. Listen to the people who have walked this road before you. You never have to do this alone. Welcome home.

In this Living Clean Book Study episode, we begin the section “Spiritual and Emotional Crisis,” covering the first four paragraphs. Recovery doesn’t mean we stop going through hard things. Sometimes the crisis isn’t about wanting to use—it’s about feeling disconnected, overwhelmed, uncertain, or struggling to make sense of what we’re going through. We discuss what Living Clean has to say about these difficult periods, what they can reveal about where we are spiritually and emotionally, and how staying connected to recovery can help us move through them without returning to old ways of coping.