Today I talk to Josh Woll, a documentary filmmaker with more than twenty years behind the camera who, six years into sobriety, built a second practice helping other people stop drinking and reconnect with their creativity.
What drew me to this conversation were two things that have consumed my life over the last couple of years that I had never heard anyone put together before. Plenty of people write about sobriety. Plenty write about creativity. Josh is the first person I'd come across who treats them as the same conversation, and it felt like he was speaking to my soul. We get into his story, from a disastrous teenage DUI to the Orange Theory moment that first cracked things open.
You don’t have to be sober to need this conversation. Because it’s really about rediscovering yourself, and clearing whatever fog is standing in your way.
Key Takeaways
- Sobriety and creativity are the same conversation. Most people silo them. Josh's whole premise is that putting the drink down doesn't just remove a problem — it clears space, sharpens presence, and reconnects you to the creative self that was there all along.
- Alcohol is a mirage. It feels like freedom, confidence, and relief from anxiety — and it quietly delivers the opposite. The things it seems to solve, it makes worse. It just takes a long time to see it.
- Everyone quits eventually — the only question is when. A reframe from the episode: nobody drinks forever. Seen that way, the decision isn't whether, it's how soon you want the life on the other side of it.
- Nobody can talk you into it — but the right moment and the right people help. Josh didn't do AA; a coach's offhand comment at the gym ("you won't progress if you keep doing that") was the first crack, and going public with a year off gave him accountability.
- "I'm not creative" is a story, not a fact. Josh's position, which echoes across these retreat-adjacent episodes: everyone is born creative; most people just haven't sat down and tapped back into it. Creativity is less a talent than a recovered childhood default.
- Two different creative journeys. The contrast between host and guest is the richest thread:
- We're afraid of our own power. One of Josh's essays-in-progress ("love doesn't need a drink") circles the idea that what really scares us isn't our weakness but our light — and that sobriety is one way of stepping into it.
- Do the hard things on purpose. From a five-day, 4,500-metre trek to Machu Picchu to a daily practice of meditation and sunrise walks, Josh's throughline is feeling the fear, letting it move through you, and taking the step anyway. The growth is on the other side of the discomfort.
- Trust the timing of your life. It's tempting to grieve the years you "wasted" before you made the change. More useful: you weren't ready sooner, and the path played out the way it needed to. Be grateful you made the call when you did.
- Awareness is the real practice. Josh's 30-day Reset isn't about white-knuckling four weekends — it's about getting curious about why you reach for the drink, peeling back the layers in a safe space, and building from there.
Connect with Bob Mathers
The Restless Leader Newsletter on Substack: https://bobmathers.substack.com/
- The Sober Creative on Substack: https://substack.com/@thesobercreative
- Josh’s website: https://www.joshwoll.com/
- Josh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josh.woll/
- Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-woll
- This Naked Mind by Annie Grace — a major influence on Josh's decision to stop.
- One Year No Beer — the public-accountability approach that shaped his first year.
- Chef's Life (PBS, dir. Cynthia Hill) — the Emmy- and Peabody-winning series Josh worked on.
- The Kyle Larson "double" documentary (Amazon) — among Josh's recent film work.
- Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way — referenced as a dream guest/influence.
