Rich is joined this week by the wonderful Louisa Evans therapist, hypnotherapist, CBT practitioner, and someone who stopped drinking three and a half years ago and hasn't looked back since.

Louisa's story isn't about rock bottoms or dramatic turning points. It's about the slow, quiet exhaustion of a decade spent trying to moderate, the physical signs her body kept sending that she kept ignoring, and the moment she finally decided she was done negotiating with herself.

Since then, her life has changed in ways she genuinely didn't see coming. She's lost 3.5 stone, cleared up her rosacea, completed a Master's in Psychology, and is about to embark on a PhD exploring the link between neurodivergence and alcohol use. Oh, and her husband Dale — who said he'd join her "just for a year" never went back either.

This is a conversation about what it really means to be a grey area drinker, why moderation is harder than it sounds (especially if you've got a busy brain), and how understanding yourself - your patterns, your triggers, your neurodivergence — is often the thing that finally makes sobriety stick.

Honest, warm, and genuinely inspiring. This one's worth your time.

Rich and Andy are back together, and this one goes deep. What starts as Andy pulling on a medium t-shirt for the first time in years turns into a genuinely honest conversation about gratitude - not the toxic positivity version you see on social media, but what Viktor Frankl called tragic optimism: the ability to find meaning in life despite inevitable suffering, loss, and pain.

They talk about why gratitude isn't a destination you arrive at, but a daily practice you have to train. Andy shares what it's like running to his mum's funeral playlist - crying through the woods, feeling grief and joy at the same time, and what it means to actually be able to process things now. Rich talks about using gratitude to close the gap between trigger and response, and how it maps directly onto the alcohol-free journey.

There's also a proper celebration of the Clean Break community - Six runners across Manchester, Nice Half Marathon and the London Marathon, including Syori who went from not being able to run 5K to finishing her first marathon in nine months, and Jane, who at 70 called her half marathon in Nice "just an easy run, but a bit longer." And with Sebastian Sawy going sub-two in London, the conversation turns to what's still possible as we get older, and how far both Rich and Andy feel from their own ceilings.

Mark Long has been losing his sight since he was 12 years old. For most of that time, he pretended everything was fine - hiding his condition, masking it with alcohol, and performing a version of himself he thought the world needed to see. It took a car crash, a divorce, and a gym full of tears listening to a podcast about suicide to finally make him stop.

Now registered blind, 16 months alcohol-free, and training for a 25K SAS selection route through the Brecon Beacons, Mark is a qualified positive psychology life coach who's building a life he actually recognises. He talks to Rich and Andy about using drink to cover up his vision loss in social situations, the moment he realised his relationship with alcohol was quietly destroying his marriage, what it feels like to run when you can barely see, and why he refuses to be defined by his blindness.

He's also running the Fan Dance on 2nd May to raise money for Guide Dogs UK - the charity that gave him Mary, his black lab and, by the sound of it, his best mate. Links to donate in the show notes.

Sponsored by Authentic Brew. Use code CB10 at authenticbrew.com for 10% off.

Tpo Sponsor Mark use this link - https://www.justgiving.com/page/pounds-for-puppy-penny?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL&utm_campaign=020