The new documentary Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model unsettles that narrative. It doesn’t return us to the glamour or the catchphrases. It returns us to the women themselves and asks what it was like to live inside that machine.

What lingers for me after watching it is not nostalgia. It is anger. And a deep, steady disappointment.

"The Weight of Air" tracks Poses through multiple relapses, treatment centers, and the grinding dailiness of trying to stay clean. At the same time, everyone around him—family, friends, the entire recovery industrial complex—keeps insisting there's a right way to do this. Spoiler: there isn't.

Let’s cut right to it: if you’ve been Googling “sober curious” at 2 AM after yet another morning you’d rather forget, or you’ve noticed that your Sunday scaries have less to do with Monday and more to do with Saturday night, you’re not alone. Not even close.

Nearly half of all Americans say they plan to drink less this year. Gen Z? Sixty-five percent of them are cutting back, with 39% going fully dry. This isn’t a fad. It’s a full-on cultural shift. And the sober curious movement is leading the charge.

I have a habit of turning my job into my identity.

If I am employed, I am stable. If I am earning well, I am valuable. If I lose a job, I do not just lose income. I lose a sense of self.

Unemployment has a way of exposing that flaw quickly. The paychecks stop, and so does the illusion that my worth can be measured in dollars per hour. The silence between job applications grows loud. Shame creeps in. I start to feel like I am failing not just financially, but morally.

When Brent Ogburn joined us on The Sober Curator podcast, he talked openly about channeling his personal recovery journey into his creative work. Now, his short film Turn Off is proof that those conversations matter.

The film opens with a quote from the Big Book, page 17: "The feeling we have shared in a common peril is the element in the powerful cement that binds us." And that line sets the tone for everything that follows.

Cara Delevingne built a reputation on chaos and cool-girl rebellion. But in 2022, after a very public spiral, she made a private decision that changed everything — she got sober.

In a 2023 Vogue interview, Cara shared that she entered rehab and committed to recovery after realizing she wasn’t okay. Her honesty about addiction in the fashion world feels especially important in an industry where excess is often glamorized.

Recovery isn’t a rebrand. It’s a reckoning.

👉 Read the full spotlight here

For anyone struggling, know that help is available: 📞 1-800-662-HELP (SAMHSA Helpline).

Ashland was practically founded on a nonalcoholic drink: lithia water. Okay, this southern Oregon town already existed. But in the early twentieth century, citizens got excited about the lithia levels in a spring a few miles east and decided to pipe it into a creek in their local park—now called Lithia Park. Lithium is known for mood stabilizing, and is used to treat bipolar disorder. Ashland businesspeople marketed the city as a wellness destination where people can partake of healing waters. “Ashland grows while lithia flows” became their mantra.

Welcome to Clued In, our brand-new monthly crossword puzzle series. Think of it as your sober brain's favorite workout. Every month, we're dropping a fresh puzzle packed with recovery terms, NA beverage brands, sober pop culture, and TSC insider references. The grid below is interactive. Are you more of an analog person? Grab a pen (or a pencil if you're not that confident yet) and see how clued in you really are.

Who says you need liquid courage to face the paranormal? Certainly not us. This sober squad recently hit the streets of downtown Seattle after dark for the Sinister Sins, Scandal, and Shadows: Seattle Ghost Tour from US Ghost Adventures, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint.

There's a new term taking over menus, group chats, and your For You page, and it sounds like something out of a nature documentary: zebra striping. But before you picture a trip to the zoo, let us explain. This is one of the biggest drinking trends of 2026, and if you haven't tried it yet, you probably know someone who has.

Unpolished is a bi-weekly creative practice designed for sober and sober-curious humans navigating identity shifts, transitions, and becoming. Each post offers a short reflection and a simple, hands-on prompt using minimal materials. No art skills required. No aesthetic expectations. No performance.

There’s something deeply humbling about going home to get sober.

Not the shiny version.
The real one. The foggy one. The one where your brain doesn’t quite cooperate and shame still lingers in the room.

That’s the heartbeat of The Reservoir, now running Off-Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company through March 22.

The play follows Josh, newly sober and back in Denver, navigating memory loss and early recovery alongside his four aging grandparents — each wrestling with their own relationship to memory and mortality. What unfolds is funny, tender, and unexpectedly life-affirming.

Critics are calling it “a must-see” and praising Noah Galvin’s star-making performance. But what stayed with us? The way it treats sobriety as human. Ongoing. Earned.

If you’re in New York, this is one to see while it’s still running.

👉 Read the full review + get ticket info