Episode Title: Simply Katie — Unfolding, Unapologetic & Unfinished

Series Theme: A Paradox to Positive, Peaceful Living

Guest: Katie (aka Katie B, Katie W, Katie U)

Sobriety Date: September 23, 2005

 Episode Summary

This week, we sit with a woman whose story doesn’t just echo through the rooms—it roars through the silence most people are too afraid to face. Katie has lived many lives under many names, but today, she’s stripped it all down. She’s simply Katie.

Nearly 20 years sober, Katie’s journey is one of chaos, clarity, and courage. From childhood trauma and addiction by age 15 to a suicide attempt at 20, her path to recovery began with a single act of surrender. She found refuge in Oxford House and rebuilt her life—one breath, one breakdown, one truth at a time.

Katie’s recovery is layered and lived. She’s a sponsor, treasurer, and servant leader in the rooms. She’s helped the very friend who gave her her first drink find sobriety years later. Her story is full-circle. Full of grit. Full of grace.

She’s known redemption: a career in finance, homeownership, and financial freedom. And reckoning—spending a night in jail sober after 19 years, facing demons she thought were buried. Her life is proof that recovery isn’t a finish line—it’s a daily choice.

Katie finds peace in meditation, nature, and the power of pen and paper. The Big Book isn’t just something she reads—it’s something she breathes. She’s never cured. Always becoming.

Her family is the tribe she’s found in recovery. Her soul rests best by the ocean or a mountain river. She’s danced, cried, created, and sat in the stillness of early morning coffee with nothing but gratitude and grit.

This episode isn’t about perfection—it’s about presence. It’s about what happens when you lose control of the life you thought you wanted… and find the one you were born to live.