Sober in the Country - with Shanna Whan AM
Sober Awkward
Victoria Vanstone
4.8 • 533 Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2026
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It feels like this conversation has been a long time coming. Vic is genuinely honoured to have Shanna Whan AM on the podcast this week.
Shanna is the founder and CEO of Sober in the Country, a national grassroots charity that’s been driving radical social impact and real change across rural and remote Australia over the past decade. Through laser-focused bush advocacy, peer-to-peer support, and a refreshingly straightforward message, she’s helping shift a deeply ingrained culture.
And the message is one we can all get behind, whether we drink or not: it’s always #OK2SAYNO to booze.
Shanna was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2025 for her significant contributions to rural community health. She was named National Australian of the Year (Local Hero) in 2022, and also took out Marie Claire’s national Advocate of the Year award that same year. So yes… she’s not just talking about change, she’s making it happen.
In this episode, they chat about life in rural Australia, the pressure to be strong, stoic, and self-reliant in farming communities, the isolation of rural life, and how hard it can be to say no to alcohol when it’s so deeply ingrained.
They also explore how that’s starting to shift, slowly, but meaningfully. And they establish very early on that Vic would absolutely not survive in the outback, (even if she did have a hat with corks hanging off it!)
This one takes you beyond the front gate and into the reality of life in the outback, an honest, eye-opening conversation with a truly remarkable human.
To find out more about Shanna and her incredible work head to https://www.soberinthecountry.org or follow them on socials @sober_in_the_country and to help raise awareness please add #OK2SAYNO to your socials.
💛 Resources & Links
📘 Victoria’s memoir – A Thousand Wasted Sundays
A brutally honest and hilarious look at motherhood, anxiety, and ditching the booze.
🎧 Listen to more Sober Awkward episodes
🫖 Join The Cuppa Community
Our private, supportive online space for sober folk
📘 Get the Sober Awkward Guide
Our downloadable toolkit for ditching booze the awkward way.
📱 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.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Oh, the kettles boiled. Excellent timing. I'll just make myself a quick cupper, take a deep breath and pretend I know exactly what I'm doing. Right, let's get started. |
| 0:15.4 | Have you ever woken up on a Sunday morning with massive anxiety and said to yourself, I'm never drinking again, |
| 0:22.6 | only to find yourself waving 50 bucks at a barman by happy hour. Do you ever wonder why everyone else |
| 0:28.0 | can stop at one while you end up at a dodgy after party holding hands with a weird bloke called |
| 0:32.8 | Disco Dave? If so, it might be time to take a closer look at your reliable social crutch alcohol. |
| 0:40.0 | On this podcast, I investigate my own deeply dysfunctional dealings with booze and find out what |
| 0:45.3 | it's really like navigating this alcohol-drenched world, one fizzy water at a time. |
| 0:50.6 | I'm going to open up a shame shed of humiliating drinking stories to help you understand why |
| 0:55.3 | waking up with one eyebrow missing and a kebab sticking out of your top pocket might actually |
| 0:59.9 | be negatively impacting your health. So what happens when you put down those cheeky pints and |
| 1:05.4 | finally let go of those rewarding mummy wines? I guess we're just going to have to wait and see. |
| 1:10.9 | I'm Victoria Vanstone and this is Sober Awkward. |
| 1:18.6 | Right, I've got everything that's ready to go. |
| 1:21.2 | Before we get into today's episode, I should probably start by saying I'm very burnt. |
| 1:31.6 | I'm not used to this Antipodean sunshine. |
| 1:38.0 | I'm a Brit down under, which basically means I still have absolutely no idea what I'm doing when it comes to weather. I tend to sit in the sun like a hanky wearing deck chair hogging Brit on holiday in Marbeia, |
| 1:46.2 | completely ignoring all advice that I should have probably known before I moved here. |
| 1:51.3 | Apparently, you're meant to reapply sunscreen and wear a hat. |
| 1:55.3 | Who knew? |
| 1:56.7 | So instead, like today, I end up resembling a slightly shriveled piece of bacon, probably one step |
| 2:03.0 | away from a stern chat with a skin doctor. Anyway, what I'm saying is I would never, absolutely |
| 2:08.7 | never survive if I went even a little bit inland. I stick firmly to the coast where I can get |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 7 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Victoria Vanstone, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Victoria Vanstone and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.