Thatcher Shivley's first sponsor told him he had no idea what recovery had in store for him. Part of him thought it sounded cheesy. The other part was intrigued.

Sober since 2005, Thatcher spent ten years building a solid foundation before turning his experience into a career. Today he's a certified Recovery Coach with professional intervention training, and interventions are the part of the work he loves most.

He's also a husband, a new dad, a former classically trained percussionist and jazz drummer, and someone whose latest obsession is pickleball. None of it was part of his plan.

But recovery hasn't spared him loss. Thatcher lost his mother to a drug overdose in 2010 and his brother in 2017. He's open about holding both at once: deep gratitude for the life he's built, and the survivor's guilt that comes with losing family members to overdose.

Thatcher sits down with Michael Herbert to talk about building a life worth living, the grief that can live alongside gratitude, and why being an active participant in life matters so much. As he puts it, a pursuit isn't really about the outcome. It's about who you become along the way, and that's parallel to the recovery process.

Recovery doesn't erase loss, but it can give you a life you never imagined, and a chance to help others do the same.

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This episode is sponsored by Guardian Recovery. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction or mental health challenges, Guardian can help. Visit https://www.guardianrecovery.com or call 888-721-3790 for confidential support and guidance.

Erik Coleman would dominate on the field. Then he'd come home and throw up.

The stress of what was happening at home followed him everywhere. He was getting an ulcer as a young athlete, and almost no one knew. He put on a front for everyone, and he got pretty good at hiding it from the world.

Football took him all the way to a nine-year NFL career. But the league that hyped him up for years didn't let him leave on his own terms. At 31, he was a veteran whose minimum salary rose every season, and a team could pay three young players for the price of one of him. On his day off in Detroit, security was waiting at his parking spot. They walked him into the building, told him he was being fired, and said to grab whatever he could. They'd send him the rest. That was the end of his career.

Erik sits down with Michael Herbert to talk about the side of sports fans never see: the pressure, the hiding, and what it feels like to be discarded by the game that defined you. Movement and community can be powerful tools in recovery. One sober active community, The Phoenix, found that 87% of members stayed sober after three months of active participation, and a study of 1.2 million Americans found that people who exercise report 43% fewer days of poor mental health each month, with team sports showing some of the biggest benefits. Erik's story is a reminder that the same game can also be where the pain begins.

Professional athletes are people too, with the same emotions and the same feelings as anyone else. At the end of the day, what lasts isn't the stat line. It's your faith, your focus, and the way you carry yourself.

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This episode is sponsored by Guardian Recovery. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction or mental health challenges, Guardian can help. Visit https://www.guardianrecovery.com or call 888-721-3790 for confidential support and guidance.

Esin Pinarli was double majoring in English literature and psychology when her own life started to look like the kind of story she was studying—the one where the character you're rooting for can't get out of her own way. She was anxious, fearful of her future, and going through her own addiction.

She almost became a professor. Instead, her pain redirected her entire life.

She went through the full course of treatment and experienced firsthand what it feels like to sit in that chair and wonder if any of it is going to work. That experience became the foundation for everything she built after. She started her career as a primary therapist at an inpatient facility, learned from every clinician and client she worked alongside, and eventually became a clinical director before launching her own practice.

Today Esin is a licensed clinical social worker, holistic psychotherapist, and wellness coach. She treats anxiety, depression, trauma, and addiction, bringing her own recovery into the room not as a credential but as an ethos: I've been where you are, and I know what it takes to get to the other side of it.

Follow Guardian: https://www.instagram.com/guardianrecovery/

This episode is sponsored by Guardian Recovery. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction or mental health challenges, Guardian can help. Visit https://www.guardianrecovery.com or call 888-721-3790 for confidential support and guidance.