The Zac Clark Show - What Recovery Looks Like: A Viral Moment, the London Marathon, and a Party That’ll Make You Believe

Episode Date: May 20, 2026

I'm fired up. New studio, new energy, and a month that reminded me exactly why I do this. In this solo episode – with a surprise appearance from Release Foundation’s own Caitlin Healy – I break down three moments that stopped me cold. First: how a viral Bravo moment turned into a $25,000 donation to the Release Foundation, and why I had absolutely nothing to do with it. Caitlin takes us behind the scenes of the "Carl's a Mess" moment – the relationships, the hustle, and what it actually takes to capitalize on something like that in 24 hours. Then I go deep on the London Marathon – not just the race, but what it took to get there. After two brutal years of missed workouts and ego-driven training, I finally let go, listened to my coach, and ran a five-minute PR. The parallel to recovery is impossible to ignore: you get out what you put in, and the moment you think you know better, you don't. Finally, the Release Foundation Gala. 650 people. A nightclub in lower Manhattan. Questlove on the decks. Sober people, not-sober people, and a dance floor that didn't empty until the lights came up. This is what breaking down stigma actually looks like. If you've ever wondered what a life in recovery can look like – please give this episode a listen. Connect with Zac https://www.instagram.com/zwclark/https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-c-746b96254/https://www.tiktok.com/@zacwclarkhttps://www.strava.com/athletes/55697553https://twitter.com/zacwclark If you or anyone you know is struggling, please do not hesitate to contact Release Recovery: [phone] releaserecovery.com @releaserecovery

Welcome back to the Zach Clark show. Some new digs here. We're in a new studio. We got a new look going. And it's just a reminder that we are committed to this. We are committed to you, our listeners who have been with us. We are trying. We're not trying.

We are going to level up. I have been in the lab working on my skill set and finding out ways to be a better host. Our team has been in the lab working hard to put structure. into these episodes. And so I'm excited. I'm excited about where it's going. I'm excited about today's episode. It's a solo episode with a little hint of a guest.

But we're going to cover a lot of ground. I am super fired up the last month here in release world. If you're not familiar with release, it's the company that I own. It's a nonprofit that I found it. It's really my entire life has been wild. And there's been really three kind of seminal events that have taken place. The first one, which is this whole Carl's a mess viral moment that somehow

we tapped into. And for that, I'm going to bring in Caitlin Healy, who is someone that works at the Release Foundation. She is unbelievable. And I'm going to share some stories about why I had nothing to do with that. And she's going to kind of lock into how she made that all happen. I'm really proud of her. I'm proud of the team. Secondarily, I'm going to talk about the London Marathon. We had about 25 runners over there. And it's just you got to, if you listen and you know me and you know release at some point in your existence, you got to tap into one of our races and you got to join our community. I'm just telling you, it's so special. The people are electric and the London Marathon was just another example of recovery and running and the way that we kind of get down here.

And then third was, you know, last week we had the Release Foundation gala where 650 people pack into Tau downtown, all the name of addiction recovery, mental health awareness. Tao downtown is a nightclub here in New York. It's not your typical venue for a gala, and that's by design. So hang on there. We're going to call in Caitlin Healy to start the episode. Caitlin, come on in here. And we're hoping that you stay. because we need you.

What up, what up? Hi, thank you for having me. If you don't know, Caitlin, Caitlin is, she works for the Released Foundation. She's also a PR kind of, I don't know, expert whiz. You spent a lot, many years of your career working in PR. And so I wanted to bring Caitlin in because you, not me,

there's some confusion here. A lot of people hit me up when this whole sweatshirt went, I would say viral and said, Zach, how did you pull that off? And here's the truth to everyone out there about Carl's MS Release Foundation and my involvement. I had none. I have an awesome team. And it was right place, right time, and it was relationship.

So, Caitlin, take us behind the scenes about how the Release Foundation, our organization, our nonprofit, became really the benefactor of, this viral crazy moment. Yeah. Well, thank you for having me one and two. Thanks for the intro. I feel like it's important to say like coming from PR, this was like a dream moment, which is crazy. Like being able to capitalize on something viral,

but in a positive way, which I think and major, major shout out to Carl Radke, which I'll get into. How did you meet Carl? Just start there. Just being sober in New York. I mean, similar to like, I got connected to you somehow.

some point I got connected to Carl somehow I moved here like three and a half years ago which is also when I stopped drinking I just felt like I needed like sober community I mean I love all my best friends we're all at the gala and they're amazing and totally support me but no one's sober so I just found different outlets and you and Carl both are people who I just gravitated towards and made a really great relationship and I've been around him for years now but he's a big supporter of release and I mean mean he'll be the first to say like he didn't want to what's going on with him and his cast and everything with the show right now is like very stressful and it's tough but carl's a mess was just this one thing that just totally exploded out of all of this and he was approached by kyle to

jump on that with some merch with lover boy so just a real quick pause yeah if you're watching you have no idea what kately's talking about so there's a show on bravo right now which is called summer house and there was drama amongst the cast which we're not going to get to into today. But one of the main cast members is this guy, Kyle Cook. Yes. And Kyle's at the center of this drama. Yes.

And he gets interviewed by some random guy outside of his apartment on the street. And the guy basically says him, how's Carl? Carl Radke is who we're talking about. This is Kyle's best friend. And in this moment of just whatever, Kyle's like, and you know, Carl's a mess. And it just went viral, right? I mean, is that accurate? Literally. And it's funny.

like it blew up into this whole thing, but really it was just speaking to Carl's personality. Like he is such an empath. Like the whole Carl's mess is just because he cares so much about Kyle and his friends and he was quote unquote a mess because he was worried about everybody. Of course, the internet just kind of blew it up. And suddenly Carl's a mess is trending everywhere. People are begging Kyle and Loverboy and like everyone on Summerhouse make merch. We want a t-shirt. We want this. We want that. So by the time, I mean, it was probably like 24 hours. Kyle, lover boy, shout it to them. They are also like a very small, mighty team, just like the foundation.

And they wanted to do merch, approach to Carl about it. And he was like, look, I'll do this. But I don't want to like capitalize on my friend's drama. Like I only do it if it's going to a good cause. These big supporters of us. So he texts you. Carl text you. And this is like a Wednesday morning.

I think I was golfing. It was a Monday maybe. Or I don't even know. I'd have to look back in the messages. But yeah, it was that, hey, this is happening? Like we want the money to go to the foundation. Luckily, shout out Dylan, Emily, people on the lover boy team. Like I was able to connect.

Yeah, give them their flowers. So it's Dylan and Emily. Yes. Emily is like operations, sales, Dylan, social. So luckily I could text her and say, oh, my God, merch is actually happening. Like you was really doing it. Thank you so much for thinking of us. I was able to give her what the foundation does, help with the caption.

So by the time they're going to put this online, I could actually help with that information. And like at that point, I remember just calling you saying like, hey, this is already live. Like, it's already online at this point. This is the point I'm trying to make here. Yeah. As an entrepreneur, as a business owner, I, these moments in my career are more meaningful than you'll ever know. Because all I want is to watch the team flourish and become better than me. And so by way of having this public image, I think that the masses assumed that I had something to do with this, which, yes, I am friends with Carl.

I started release. Of course, it's got my fingerprints on it. But when it comes down to this viral moment, which ultimately resulted in a $25,000 donation from Loverboy to Release Foundation, I did not even know what was happening until I got a text or a call from you saying, Zach, it's been a crazy day. I'm just letting you know this is happening. Yep. And kudos to you, Caitlin. Like, you crushed it.

Thank you. I mean, shout out. Carl, Kyle, lover boy. Dylan, Emily, like I said, like, I'm grateful Carl. I mean, like you said, like you're a huge part of this in our relationship with him. But it's amazing that he and why he was awarded as community hero, like thought of us to be that benefactor. But also I knew I had a feeling like I texted Sean.

and Grace on our team also are a huge part of this. Like, hey, this is happening. Who knows what it'll be? But, like, I know this is a big moment right now. Like, it might actually get some dollars for us, but $25,000 is wild. Yeah. And for people that are listening and don't know, Caitlin, she is a key, key part of our team. She's had a tough year.

You lost your dad late 25. Was it last year? October. October 25. And you came out of that and you're on the heels. of not only this amazing viral moment, you led our team in London, you led our team through the Release Foundation gala,

and you should be really proud of yourself. Thank you. You really should. Thank you. Because that money is going to go help someone. Anything else you want to comment on before we move past the whole behind the scenes of the calls? So that's really it for everyone.

It happens quick. It happens quick. I'm feeling very grateful for our... for thinking of us. It's a team effort. I've definitely been online in these moments where I'm scrolling and I get my ego kicks in because I'll say like, how did that person get this partnership with this nonprofit or how did this thing come to light?

Yeah. And then you guys know me like I'll go into this tizzy of why are we getting these opportunities? And sometimes it's a little bit of luck, it's a little bit of kindness and it's a little bit of right place, right time. Yeah. Having good people that care about us. We've a great community. So thank you.

Well, you're a part of it. Thank you for jumping on. I'm not done with you. I'm going to let you go today, but we're going to jump into your story at some point. All right, so that's Caitlin's the best. Caitlin is the best. She really is.

We're so lucky. I don't know when I learned the importance of having good people around me. And I very rarely stop and give myself credit. But if you've been. into anything release coded, whether it's the foundation, for-profit, nonprofit, anything having to do with our community, you're going to meet a lot of people who are just awesome. And Caitlin Healy is one of those people. And she does.

She has a story and we'll get into that at some point. But she's been key to our success over the last month. And the thing we didn't go into there about that whole moment, which is crazy. just the marketing of the whole thing. We work really hard throughout the year to try to make our socials attractive and try to make our website attractive and try to make our events attractive. And we do that and we get reps and we get shots on goal so that we're ready for a moment like Carl's a mess.

And I will say, I am so proud of the way my team responded just in terms of sharing it and interacting with it and just continuing to kind of fuel this fire that was started. So it was a huge win for all and obviously, um, just eternally grateful for that team and that moment. So, uh, that pushes me into so London, the London Marathon, just to give you a, a quick insight into what the last three weeks has looked like, we do this amazing thing here at the foundation, at the nonprofit, where we have about 25 runners in April, go over and run the London Marathon. We land back from London and then we were full speed ahead into gala planning. And so it is a wild couple weeks here at release. And keep in mind,

this is just a part of what we do, right? The nonprofit is a very, very, very small part of what we do at release. We have this awesome for-profit that delivers amazing care. And that's got, you know, 120, 130 employees. We're in Texas. We're in Westchester. We're here in New York City. And then we have this nonprofit, which basically, not basically, it does. It raises money so that we can provide scholarship funding to people who can't afford behavioral health care services. So that's anything from individual therapy to an intervention, to inpatient treatment. And the thing that I think is confusing for a lot of people, we don't actually, we only a fraction, a small, small, small fraction that money is used to

scholarship people into my or our programs. 95% of the funds we raise are used at other programs, which I'm really, really proud of. And if you were ever at one of our events, you'll see that our partners kind of show up in droves to our events and because they are grateful for the support. And so that's the foundation. And I tell that story to tell you that the foundation is three employees. It's Caitlin who you just met.

It's our executive director, Sean Olin. And then Grace Peters, who answers the phone morning and night. She's the one kind of doing air traffic control and all the scholarships. They are so powerful, small and mighty. And so we go to London. And behind the scenes, this is what I'm going to tell you about, the London Marathon and my story there. Behind the scenes, I, so I'm a runner. And I started running.

when I got into sobriety. My story there is that I needed something else. I was fired up in AA. I was fired up to be sober. But I also knew that if I didn't find something that I was going to be passionate about, chances are I was going to have a hard time staying sober. And running was probably the last thing on the list,

but it's that thing. So I ran my first marathon in New York City the year after Sandy. So the Tropical Storm Sandy knocked out the marathon, I think, in 12. And then I think my first was either 13 or 14. I forget. I've run it 11 times in a row. The first time I ran the New York City Marathon, I ran it in, I want to say, four hours

and 10 minutes, right? I trained, but I didn't. Right? I was 29 years old. I think any semi-healthy 29-year-old, if they run a few times a week, mix in some long runs, you will finish. You will cross the finish line of a marathon. And for 10, I was not ashamed of that time. I think they say that if you run a marathon, you're in 1% of the population. So I was certainly proud of it. And then I went on to run my next 10, 11, 12 marathons,

we call it between three hours and 40 minutes and four hours and 20 minutes, right? I was in this block. And I was committed to the fact that I was going to continue to run marathons. and I was never going to get faster. Why does this matter? Because it's so synonymous with recovery. And what I did is I, and I promise, I'm bringing this back to London, what I did is I finally humbled myself in my running journey and I got a coach. I went out and I said, I'm tired.

I started crossing finish lines of marathons and I felt nothing. I felt nothing. I was so good at just going. going out and pounding pavement for four hours and getting it done in a way that was just comfortable for me. So I went out and I got a coach. Mario Fraio is his name. And I said, I want to get faster.

I'm in New York City. I'm showing up some of these run clubs. There's a tremendous amount of talent. It's a very competitive city. And I'm tired of kind of running the way that I'm running. I've lost the love. The very first marathon I trained for it with Mario. I went from, we trained for 3.30 and I ran 321 in Nashville.

I just listened to him. I didn't listen to them perfectly, but it was good enough to knock 20 minutes off my time. And I had this newfound love for running. That was about two and a half years ago. The next marathon I ran with Mario was Grandma's in Minnesota. I went 313. So I cut off another eight minutes. And I started to think this was easy.

Now, that training block, I did okay. There were some missed opportunity. There were some missed runs. But I did enough to cross the finish line, 313. I said, this is easy. And the goal for any runner is this three-hour marathon. After grandmas, I ran 316 in New York in London. late, uh, 20, 24. And then last year in London, I went 321 and then in New York I went 327.

I had a terrible year racing. And it was because I forgot the most important thing. And this is true in recovery. This is true in running. This is true in anything I believe in life, which is that you are going to get out of something what you put into it. And I lost that. Somewhere along the way, my coach's words stopped mattering. Somewhere along the way, I took my ego back. Somewhere along the way, I said to myself, it's okay to not do one of these training runs,

or it's a 22-mile workout. I'm going to shave three miles off and do 19 today, and that's going to be enough. It's not enough. It's not enough. And so I was deeply, deeply devastating. at the end of last year to the point where I was going to change coaches. And I talked to a friend of mine.

And there's a similar thing that happens in recovery, which is when you are in recovery, there's this sponsor or this therapist. And oftentimes someone like myself will find issue with that person, right? My sponsor's not working. My therapist isn't working. The groups I'm going to aren't working. And what I know is I have people in my. life that are going to hold the mirror up to me and say, is it the therapist that's not working

or is it you? Is it the sponsor that's not working or is it you? And that's a really precious thing to know in this life. Because for me, most of the times when something isn't working, it's because I am not putting in the work. And I am showing up to situations. and I am taking and I am taking and I'm not seeing what I can give to the situation. And then I start to blame and then I get into this cycle and I think nothing's working.

And that was my kind of running year in 2025. I had a hard conversation with my coach at the end of the year. He told me some truths about the way that I was training. He told me some truths about the way that I was running. And he humbled my ass. And so I said to him this year, 2026, we got to change some shit up. And I'm not sitting here and telling you that I'm a professional runner. I am sitting here and telling you that I have 18 marathons under my belt.

So I do think I'm qualified to talk about some of this shit. And I'm going to get to the reason why this is so synonymous with recovery. Because in recovery or behavior health care or a job or whatever it is, it is inevitable that we are going to get to a moment in time where it looks. loses the sex appeal, where it loses the feeling. And at that moment in time, is our foundation strong enough that we can lean back into it and be honest with ourselves and push through it? And that's what I was able to do. My coach made it very simple.

He said, do not miss workouts. Do not shave miles. Do what is prescribed on a daily basis. And so I launched into this running journey at the beginning of this year. And I have never been more excited to be running. I've never been more excited to be in the process, in the journey. I looked at sleep. I looked at nutrition.

I looked at travel. I looked at lifting weights. I looked at taking creatine as a supplement. I looked at all these things. And I just won in the margins, not to mention I prioritize. If I want to be great or something, I have to prioritize. I prioritize it. I prioritize running. And the result was I didn't miss a workout heading into the London Marathon, which is a couple weeks ago.

When you get faster, it gets harder because over 26 miles, you know, if I, let's just do some quick math here. Like if I want to run a three-hour marathon, essentially I have to run six minute and 50, 22nd miles for 26 miles because you have to account for a little bit of longer. You know, if you go out and run 26.2 miles, what they don't tell you is really about 26.5 miles because while you're out there, you're bobbing and weaving and it's just not a straight line to the finish line. So it's very, very, very fast. It's very, very fast. And that is the ultimate goal, a sub three.

And I will do it at some point in my life. I promise you that. We are on our way. And so I show up in London and it was a completely different experience. in last year where I had run 321. We had an awesome team. So when we show up in these cities or at these events with the release foundation, the thing that I think is important for people to understand is that not everyone is sober. Most people have some connection to the cause, but some of them just find us through a random entry or drawing or whatever. They find their way

into getting a bib. The requirement we make for folks that run with us, our team is that you have to be a part of the weekend. And so we bring together this eclectic group of human beings. So Carl, who we mentioned ran with us, this kid, Tyler Jekowski, who's TikTok influencer ran with us. We had Blake and Grace who worked for release or both alumni of release. They just got engaged. They were over with us and they had some family there. I was obviously there. My good buddy, CJ, who that's a whole beautiful story. CJ's brother passed from an accidental overdose. He was best friends with my brother in college,

and I've shared this story a lot. Him and my brother were kind of on this parallel path, and now me and CJ run all these marathons together. Laura Palongo was over there. She's married to Neve Shulman, who a lot of people know. So it's like there was this mix of 20 people, this kid Brandon, who was honoring his friend that had passed was overrunning with us,

and I had dinner with him. He's not. But like, what I'm trying to, trying to tell you is that all these people come together. And I would venture to say that anyone who's touched our community says, like, one, you can't tell if they're sober or not. And two, is they're a shitload of fun and they're actually really nice. And so we all show up there and the energy that weekend was building. We had this awesome shakeout run. We partnered with endorphins, which is a large running club here in New York City and really nationwide now.

we were running by all the landmarks, but this whole time I'm dialed in because I am thinking to myself, like, yes, I want to be present for my community, but I've worked my fucking ass off, and I got a big race this weekend. And so Sunday morning comes, and I'm taking the subway or the tube,

I should say, with Carl and Grace Adams, who's running, and then CJ and myself. It's the four of us. We met at my hotel. We walked to the tube. I didn't say a word to anyone. I was so locked in to the point where Carl at one point said to Grace, like, is he okay?

Is he like? But this is my point. And this is something that I've taken out of the book of Ken Rideout, who runs marathons at a very fast pace. This is something that I've taken out of the book of, you know, Rich Roll and a lot of these athletes, if I want to go out and set a personal best for me, I need to lock in.

I just need to lock in. And those small, tall conversations, I know for myself, I don't do well with that. I just don't do well with it. Some people do. Some people need to play loose before games. I'm the kind of guy that I need to go to dark places and not talk to anyone

and start to visualize the plan. And this, again, is all part of shit that I've learned in my sobriety and in my life. It took me 17 other tries running marathons to get to this moment where everything went right for me. And there was several stops on the tube and there was a stop where we all could have gotten off. And I let the three of them get off. And I was like, I'm going to see you guys later.

And I took it to the next stop because I was just not wanting to have any of the whatever energy. And so I get off the train. I'm in the pink entry zone. If you've ever run a marathon, you know that the start lines are kind of crazy. I made some friends. But again, like I am dialed in. I'm taking my goose. I'm doing my chafing gel all over.

And I am locking in. And every second that I'm sitting there in this open field, it's getting one degree hotter and one degree hotter and one degree hotter. And I have this moment where I can either panic and freak the fuck out about something that I have no control over. I have no control over the weather. So if it goes up with 75 degrees in London on that day, so will be it. I know in that moment and the reason I don't freak the fuck out is because I trained and I was ready.

And I was prepared to handle whatever came my way. And that is just the result of 16 weeks of dialed in training just listening to another human being, listening to a coach and not inserting my will and inserting my ego into it. I don't know better than my coach. There are moments when I like to think I do. I don't. And so what happens is we go into the corral. My start time is like 9.35 or so.

And I hope this is interesting to people because it's interesting to me. And if you've never run a marathon, it's chaos at the start line. They basically call out your corral and you have like three. minutes to pack like sardines into this little area and then the gun goes off and you're off you're running you're like you're going and i knew i was going to have a good day because we packed into this corral and i had this moment where everyone started to go out and run and your time doesn't start until you cross the actual electronic meter and i let everyone leave and i was the last one i was not in a rush I was not in a hurry.

I was the last one to leave my corral. And I said this little like prayer. And then I said to myself, no matter what, you're going to keep going. And I went out and I had a spiritual experience because I was well trained. Nothing was going to throw me off. I ran a 134, 134, which means my splits were almost identical. I crossed the finish line and I did like a little crossover layup because I still had so much energy and whatever you want to call it. So I ran a five minute PR and I was never in pain.

This is coming off a year where I had two terrible races and crumbled crossing the finish line. And it just told me this story and it made me think like I can tell you how to get sober. I can tell you how to shave 30 minutes off your marathon time. Chances are you're not going to listen. And the reason I know you're not going to listen is because I didn't listen. It took me 17 different tries to get to this moment to be beaten into a place where I actually say I'm going to let go and I'm going to listen to my coach. And it was an awesome experience.

And it's an experience that's available to anyone who wants it. And it's the same thing in sobriety. This thing is a marathon every single day. It is a journey and it does not have to be painful. 14 and a half years into this thing, I just heard Rich Roll talk about it, being the tortoise. 14 and a half years in this thing, I have a choice each and every day. Do I want to follow the very simple and simple. basic steps that have been outlined for me and be happy and be joyous and experience freedom,

would I want to take my will back and think that I know better? Because the whole thing about recovery and the whole thing about my experience at the London Marathon is it's just about letting go. Not playing God, ego deflation. And when I do those things, life is just easier, man. and it's this story that I tell because I so badly want to give it to you. I would inject it into your veins if I could. But the truth is you got to get in the ring and you got to get knocked on your ass a couple times,

just like I did. And that's why I see people that are six, seven, ten years sober and they call me and they say, Zach, I don't want to drink. But I'm contemplating sticking a gun in my mouth. And when I get the opportunity to speak to those people, I love it. because there's a life available to them that they don't even know exist. And the ones that are willing to listen, the same way that I listen to my coach,

are the ones that get better and end up and going out and having these years that mimic a personal best. Right. And so my experience in London was very spiritual. And it was incredible because everyone that ran for release finished, you know, we had this party. at a pub in town afterwards. And I kid you not,

you would never know that our foundation represents sobriety and mental health because there's so much joy and happiness and singing coming out of that pub. You would think we were all cocked. You would think we were all 10 beers deep, but we're not. You know, some of them are. Some of the people we're hanging out with carry some of that energy for us. But for the most part, like we're just a group of people that are really enjoying life. And if you heard this story and it sounds,

I invite you to kind of apply to run a marathon with us or show up to one of our runs because the community that we're building is special. And the second, I took a little bit longer there to tell that story because I think it's important. And I think there's a lot of lessons within that story. If you held on long enough to listen to it, human beings, we want to resist. We want to resist. And so it was an awesome thing. We raised, I don't know, $125,000. dollars everyone finished tons of pictures tons of kind of cool social media coming out of it and then we landed and we launched into this gala which the gala was was last week and as i mentioned it was that towel downtown which is a nightclub if you're not familiar in new york city i know

all of our listeners are not here in new york but it's a night club in new york city that over the years is notorious with i mean it's tau it's a tau group you know these are the guys that um are opening clubs all over the world. And they do food really well, they do entertainment really well, and they know how to party, right? They know how to party. And so a lot of folks that come to this event

have had experiences at Tau. And so the thought behind this party, it was our fourth annual. This year we were honoring John West and Judy Crane from the guest house, which is an awesome treatment program down in Ocala, Florida. And then we also honored Carl Radke, who I spoke of,

about earlier. He's become a dear friend of mine and has just really used his platform in such a beautiful way to help the next suffering drug addict and alcoholic find their way to recovery. And that was great and that was awesome. And I could sit here and tell stories about both of our honorees. But the thing I want to zero in on here again is the purpose, the reason, the why we do our gala, the way that we do. When you hear the word gala, I would think that you probably assume we have a ballroom somewhere with white table cloths and we are serving well done flay mignon or some sea bass right and we're all sitting there and jamming ourselves into a room to try and help the organization raise as much money as possible that is not what we set out to do what we set out to do

is to break down stigma and the way that we are going to break down stigma is that we are going to have a freaking party. We're going to have a party. And we are going to have a party in the name of recovery. And so every May, we get together and we choose some folks to honor and we sell tickets. And tickets are not cheap. I think we post them for about 500 bucks, a ticket. Of course, we do some scholarshiping and get some people in the room that can't afford it.

We had Questlove as our entertainment, who's a very one-owned DJ. If you don't know Questlove, he was a member of the Root. He's a Philly guy. He's got Grammys and all the things. He's on Jimmy Fallon's late night. So it was a star-studded room. And that's by design. Because the promise that was made to me is that, Zach, yes, while you might spend some time in some church basements, that might be a fact of your life, which remains true.

You are also going to be able to do whatever the hell you want, wherever the hell you want, with whoever the hell you want, with whoever the hell you want. with whoever the hell you want so long as you stay sober. And that is a promise that has been kept to me over 14 and a half years. And the culmination of that promise is the party that we have at towel every year. So people pack in to this room. Some people are overserved. Some people are sober. I don't know why people show up the way that they do.

But what I know is that we create a room that is welcoming to all, whether you are sober or not. And just the sheer amount of stories, for me, it's like I get married every year. It's like a wedding, right? Like there's no meaningful conversations. Once I am off stage and onto the dance floor, it's a series of people grabbing me over the course of three hours to tell me why they're there and why our cause means. much to them. The majority of those people are not sober. The majority of those people just have a connection to our work and are there because they're inspired about the way that we show up. And then if you watch the night progress, that dance floor does not empty until the lights go up.

And when the lights go up, what I'm going to tell you is that dance floor is full with people that are sober, people that are drunk, and everything in between. And the reason I share this is because the whole reason I share this is the whole reason we do this podcast. We're not topping charts with this thing yet, but we want to deliver hope and we want to show people that this life is not a punishment. And in fact, right now, recovery is having a moment. And I shared that at our gala, and you're going to continue to see it happen because not just famous people are claiming sobriety. It's common folk.

It's 20, 22-year-old, 25-year-old human beings that are turning their phones around and saying, I used to live a certain way, and now I'm sober. And their friends are seeing that, and their family's seeing that, and they're becoming inspired. And so this whole thing that's kind of circulating in the ether around London and Carl's a mess and the foundations gala is this core belief I have that there's an easier way to live. And for people like me, right, that I don't know, I don't have an off switch. If I channel that shit in the right way, life can be pretty good. And I can go run some marathons and I can eat some good food and I can dance and I can have an abundance of friends and I can run a company and I can do all the things that most people would feel very fortunate to have done. And so if you're out there and you're maybe listening to this for the first time or you've held on through the duration of this episode, I value you.

I'm happy you are here. And then my ask to you if you are still listening, and I don't know how many people it'll be. And you got something out of this episode. Like, go ahead and share it. You know, go ahead and put it out there. Go ahead and tell your friends about it. Because I do believe the messages that we're sharing here are important.

I think that everyone can learn a little bit from being around our community and seeing the way that we get down. I believe that. I've had years of people. telling me that to be true. And, you know, we need you. You know, we need you. This is not going to be a thing that goes viral overnight because it's just not that sexy. But over time, if we stay committed to the conversations that we are having, I truly believe that we are going to move the needle on the way this thing is viewed. And the truth is we already have. We already have. And I have

two events, the London Marathon, and the gala we had a towel that proved that to be true. So I appreciate you guys being here. You know, it is a marathon and not a sprint. If you see our stuff out there on social, like it, share it, comment on it. We need all the engagement we can get

because these conversations are important. And until next time, keep going.