Doin’ the 12-Step with Ben Appel

Returning sexy guest Ben Appel recently wrote about genderism and other political ideologies infiltrating Alcoholics Anonymous, despite its 10th Tradition prohibiting alignment with outside issues. But what is a “Tradition” anyway? Ben and Nina possibly violate the 11th one (“always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films”) in an attempt to describe the wacky, brilliant, not-really-a-cult-except-sometimes, life-changing, spiritual, occasionally smelly world of 12-Step recovery programs. Corinna learns the difference between AA and Al-Anon; Nina wishes she believed in god and says “irrational problems demand irrational solutions”; and Ben talks about compulsive praying and his upcoming book, “Cis White Gay,” along with a ton of other interesting topics. Another great episode! Keep coming back! Links:Ben Appel: https://www.benappelwrites.com/writingHow Alcoholics Anonymous Lost Its Way by Ben Appel: https://unherd.com/2023/05/how-alcoholics-anonymous-lost-its-way/Our Wilfred Reilly episode: https://www.heterodorx.com/podcast/episode-82-hoaxes-wokeses-and-other-folkses-with-wilfred-reilly/AA’s 12 Traditions: https://www.aa.org/the-twelve-traditionsSynanon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SynanonAlcoholics Anonymous: https://www.aa.org/Al-Anon: https://al-anon.org/The Serenity Prayer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_PrayerNina’s Adventures book: https://store.ninapaley.com/product/ninas-adventures-book/--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/heterodorx/support Get full access to Heterodorx Podcast at heterodorx.substack.com/subscribe