Welcome to Decoding the Big Book, a special limited series of the Sober Friends podcast.

Researched and sourced from writing the big book by William Sheaberg,

the purpose of each episode is to provide context and history for each chapter of the Big

Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, followed by a

reading of the chapter from the fourth edition. Each section is marked by chapters, so feel

free to skip ahead to what you're interested in and leave the rest. In the chronology of how the book was written, the chapters, How It Works, and Into Action were written at the end of the process.

How It Works outlines the program of recovery in Alcoholics Anonymous, The Twelve Steps.

Bill completed the writing process before walking through the airtight process for how an

alcoholic will get and then stay sober.

The 12 steps, as Bill first wrote them, were far more direct than the 12 steps that

ended up in the book.

The way he wrote them caused an immediate backlash in a way that almost

ended the book project and broke up the fellowship. Joe and Charlie from their big book study

group go through the original writing of the steps.

Here's how it works, the original manuscript. He said, rarely have we seen a person

failed who has thoroughly followed our directions.

Not our suggestions, our directions.

Those who do not recover are people who can out or will not completely give themselves to this simple program.

Usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves.

There are such and fortunate, but they are not at fault. They

seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a way of

life which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those two who

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