UnPickled - Prepare to be Alcohol-Free - with Jean McCarthy (Part 2)
Sober Awkward
Victoria Vanstone
4.8 • 535 Ratings
🗓️ 19 July 2026
⏱️ 42 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Yes, the World Cup is on, everyone is drinking to celebrate and commiserate, so welcome to your safe little corner of the internet, where Vic promises to mention the legend Jude Bellingham only once… and then get back to what really matters, talking about sobriety and not trying to explain the offside rule.
So apart from the Spain win, the other news is....You don’t have to wait until Day One to start building an alcohol-free life.
In part two of my conversation with Jean McCarthy, author of UnPickled and creator of the pioneering sobriety podcast The Bubble Hour, we explore what comes next once you’ve decided alcohol might not be serving you anymore.
How do you know what kind of support is right for you? Is there a place between the pub and AA? Should you consider therapy, a community, a treatment centre, or something completely different? Jean shares the wisdom she’s gathered from years of helping thousands of people find their own path to sobriety.
Together we talk about finding the support that fits you, learning to care for yourself with compassion, and beginning to imagine a future where alcohol no longer takes centre stage.
Whether you’re sober curious, preparing for your first alcohol-free day, or simply wondering what’s possible, this episode is full of reassurance, practical ideas and hope.
Put the kettle on and prepare to be UnPickled.
💛 Resources & Links
Follow and Find out more about Jean head to @jeanmccarthy_writes
Or buy her book UnPickled Prepare to be Alcohol-Free: Insights and Tips to Ease the Transition - here
📘 Victoria’s memoir – A Thousand Wasted Sundays
A brutally honest and hilarious look at motherhood, anxiety, and ditching the booze.
👉 https://amzn.asia/d/0aZ69GpK
Vic's book 'Mumming - A year of Trying (and Failing) to be a better parent - https://amzn.asia/d/0bUJTS2W
🎧 Listen to more Sober Awkward episodes
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Right, the kettles boiled, perfect timing. I'll just make myself a quick cupper, take a deep breath and pretend I know exactly what I'm doing. |
| 0:11.6 | Right, let's get started. |
| 0:16.2 | Have you ever woken up on a Sunday morning with massive anxiety and said to yourself, |
| 0:22.6 | I'm never drinking again, only to find yourself waving 50 bucks at a barman by happy hour? |
| 0:29.0 | Do you ever wonder why everyone else can stop at one while you end up at a dodgy after party |
| 0:34.6 | holding hands with a weird bloke called Disco Dane. If so, it might be time |
| 0:40.6 | to take a closer look at your reliable social crutch, alcohol. On this podcast, I investigate |
| 0:47.4 | my own deeply dysfunctional dealings with booze and find out what it's really like navigating |
| 0:53.4 | this alcohol-drenched world, one fizzy |
| 0:56.0 | water at a time. I'm going to open up a shame shed of humiliating drinking stories to help |
| 1:02.1 | you understand why waking up with one eyebrow missing and a kebab sticking out of your top |
| 1:07.4 | pocket might actually be negatively impacting your health. |
| 1:18.0 | So, what happens when you put down those cheeky pints and finally let go of those rewarding mummy wines? |
| 1:21.0 | I guess we're just going to have to wait and see. |
| 1:25.9 | I'm Victoria Vanstone and this is soberber Awkward. |
| 1:31.8 | Yes, the World Cup is on, |
| 1:35.7 | which means people that don't like football suddenly like football. |
| 1:38.4 | And I'm one of those people. |
| 1:40.5 | When the European Cup's on the World Cup, |
| 1:43.0 | I'm like a fully fledged football supporter. |
| 1:45.1 | It comes out of nowhere about every four years. But it meant that this weekend I found myself standing in a bar at seven o'clock in the |
| 1:51.1 | morning, surrounded by people already drinking beer. It's on in Mexico and the USA, so it means in Australia, |
... |
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