A play about the creation of the Big Book (1981)

Sober Cast: An (unofficial) Alcoholics Anonymous Podcast AA

AA Podcast

Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.6 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2025

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This one is not an AA meeting, so if you need one please choose something else from our list. This is a play about the creation of the Big Book written by Homer D and performed on Unity Day in San Jose California in December of 1981 by an unknown group. Please keep in mind this is a dramatization about the creation of the Book and should be taken as such, its historical accuracy should not be taken as absolute fact. I particularly enjoyed the arguments about the wording of the steps presented in the second half. The audio quality of this is okay to good, it had a very nasty buzz that I was able to remove however it does occasionally sound a bit fuzzy or slightly hollow, the sound quality improves as it progresses. For those of you that might want to learn more about AA history I suggest a visit to the leading international webgroup for the study of Alcoholics Anonymous history and archives. AA History Lovers: https://groups.io/g/AAHistoryLovers Support Sober Cast: https://sobercast.com/donate Email: [email protected] Sober Cast has 3000+ episodes available, visit SoberCast.com to access all the episodes where you can easily find topics or specific speakers using tags or search. https://sobercast.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Sobercast, where we provide A.A. Speaker Meetings and workshops in podcast format.
0:12.7	We're an ad-free podcast, and if you enjoy listening, please help us be self-supporting by visiting Sobercast.com, look for the link, and drop a dollar or two into our virtual
0:21.7	basket. We hope you enjoyed the podcast. Have a great day.
0:27.1	Good evening. I mean, good afternoon. My name is Maude, and I'm an alcoholic.
0:35.4	This afternoon, we presented play, the Twelve Steps, by Homer D.
0:40.6	Our purpose in presenting this play is to reenact the occasion of the writing of the 12 steps
0:45.3	of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous.
0:48.2	A.A. was founded in June 1935 as a result of a call for help from Bill W.
0:54.0	From the Mayflower Hotel in Akron, Ohio,
0:57.0	culminating in his meeting with Dr. Baum. Three years later, in the year 1938, definite action
1:04.0	was taken for the writing and publication of what was to become known as the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous.
1:18.5	By the month of March 1938, Bill W. had begun to write the first two chapters of a book to formulate the principles and philosophy of the infant organization.
1:23.6	At this time, the New York group was meeting in the home of Bill W. at 182 Clinton Street, Brooklyn, New York.
1:31.1	This group was now using the six steps that they had taken from the absolutes of the Oxford Group,
1:37.2	from which the New York group of A.A. had originated, and from whom Bill W. had begun his thinking
1:43.0	about what is now the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.
1:47.5	By the spring of 1938, a definite program of action took shape. It was agreed that we needed
1:53.6	a tax-free charitable trust or foundation. The board was set up of five trustees, comprising three non-alcoholics and two alcoholics,
2:04.3	one of whom was Dr. Baum.
2:06.6	This was the formation of the Alcoholics Foundation, later to be renamed, the General Service
2:12.4	Board of Alcoholics Anonymous.
2:14.7	The board attempted to solicit donations for the publishing of the proposed manifesto,
	...

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