Drawing upon the traditions of fellow blues and roots multi-instrumentalists Xavier Rudd, John Butler and Ben Harper, Atkins’ music is underscored by a textural combination of percussion, acoustic, lap slide and steel-body guitars, and didgeridoo. 

Winner of the 2014 Adelaide Blues & Roots Association’s ‘Best Solo Roots’ category, Craig Atkins’ most recent release is ‘Fall Or Fly’, an album highlighting the breadth of his musical ability. Deliberate shifts of tone punctuate the eleven tracks, finding Atkins’ equally at home channeling folk-song sensibilities, downright dirty foot-stomping blues and roots melodies that explore contemporary Australian culture.

Lyrically, he possesses a keen sense of intellect and justice, but what is most striking is how comfortable he is with simplicity.   Experience has taught Atkins’ to revel in simple pleasures; he doesn’t preach a mantra of self-improvement but rather shrewdly points out that life appears a lot more complicated if you don’t shift your focus.


Open Road

Ann Dowsett Johnston, bestselling author of Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Woman and Alcohol returns to HOME to catch up with the girls about writing her second book, dating and not dating in relationships, the second half of life, depression, and writing her second book. "Drink" was named one of the top 10 books of 2013 by the Washington Post and is one both Holly and Laura's go-to picks for understanding women and addiction. Ann is an award-winning journalist and former Vice-Principal of McGill University. She's in her ninth year of recovery and one of the foremost and outspoken advocates in this space.

Episode 85: Ann Dowsett Johnston

“Please listen responsibly."

Some old favorites are back again: depression, anxiety, resentments, to go to meetings or not, what we drank—or didn't, getting out of our own heads and more!

Last episode before a 3 week! hiatus. Yikes.

Season 3

3.30 Swole with Sobriety

We turn the tables today and Sondra interviews Tammi. The OG Cali girl, Tammi talks about being very driven and a need for gold stars, opting for a career path but how her love of Martha Stewart sparked her creative flame. Always a seeker, even when her drinking amped up after a divorce, she eventually found herself blogging and journaling to find the good things, “I wanted proof of life”. Getting into recovery opened the door for going back to school for art and then led to all of the creative things that Tammi currently pursues (and that we love her for). “If I didn’t have that journal and that pen, I would have bolted.” 

The ladies share their top three things in their recovery-slash-creativity toolbox for the week: Sondra’s 3 fave things: Her kids’ improv, embroidery on a rainy day and old family photos. Tammi’s 3 fave things: The Good Life Project podcast from 3/23/17 titled “Don’t Just Ship It”, her Instagram girl crush Tracy@shutterbean, and the slim cans of Perrier Sparkling Mineral Water.

The Unruffled Podcast

Episode 3 - Meet Tammi Salas

Holly and Laura talk about the weird, glorious, difficult, out-of-body, out-of-mind time that was the first 100 days of sobriety. They recap what life was like the week before and the week after their final quit dates, what it was like learning to walk on new legs in a new world, and a few memories that most stand out from that time.

Episode 88: The First 100 Days

When we quit drinking, we have a void to fill, but where do we start if we think we aren’t creative? Tammi and Sondra dive into this topic starting with the permission slip: it’s okay to call yourself an artist, maker, writer. They cover many ideas to get you started, places for inspiration, jumping off points like Austin Kleon’s book, Steal Like An Artist or Lisa Congdon’s Creative Bug drawing classes. “Sobriety delivers what alcohol promised.” We get to actually be the person in sobriety that wanted to be when we were drinking. Don’t compare your beginnings to someone else’s finished product, take the leap. 

The ladies share their top three tools in their recovery-slash-creativity toolboxes for the week:
Sondra’s 3 fave things: Instagram recommendations: @soberbia, @thesoberhipster and @ekkarecovery, thrifting as therapy, and Rob Bell’s podcasts ep. #146 and #148 and his FB Live Easter Day Resurrection Sermon.
Tammi’s 3 fave things: Your Inner Critic is a Big Jerk by Danielle Krysa, Quit That! App, and the Chatbooks Instagram subscription series.

Episode 4 - But Wait, I'm Not Creative

Today, Tammi and Sondra talk about creating a community built around recovery and creativity. They talk about online groups and how that has helped them find other sober creatives, which led them to project ideas like the #artexchange. They also offer some ideas to building a face-to-face sober creative community as well. 

The ladies share their top three tools in their recovery-slash-creativity toolbox for the week. Sondra’s 3 fave things: Melissa Febos’s new book Abandon Me, a day listening to records, and Louis C.K. on Saturday Night Live.
Tammi’s 3 fave things: Ann Dowsett Johnston’s interview on episode #85 of the HOME podcast, Self-Care Fridays, and Artist Tina Berning’s idea for ‘not so good/not so bad’ boxes for archiving works-in-progress.

Episode 5 - Creating Community

On the heels of the She Recovers conference in NYC, where 500 women in recovery gathered to commune and listen to speakers Glennon Doyle Melton, Gabby Bernstein, Elizabeth Vargas, Marianne Williamson, Nikki Myers, Elena Brower, Ann Dowsett Johnston, and many bloggers, Tammi and Sondra recap the event (Tammi attended, Sondra watched via livestream). Details of the event become a perfect segue to talking about the significance of writing, journaling or blogging in recovery. The ladies mention several blogs that helped them in early recovery (Aidan Donnelly Rowley’s, Laura McKowen’s, Jean McCarthy’s Unpickled and Ellie’s One Crafty Mother) but emphasize using your writing as a way to process, make connections and experience the power of Me Too.

The ladies share their top three tools in their recovery-slash-creativity toolboxes for the week:
Sondra’s 3 fave things: The Law of Divine Compensation: On Work, Money and Miracles by Marianne Williamson, added hula hooping to her movement toolbox and Jolene Park’s Healthy Discoveries website. Tammi’s 3 fave things: Bach’s Rescue Remedy products, essential oils for anxiety relief and her Ray of Light Interview Series featuring women recovering out loud, as well as her 24-month long Sobriety Milestone Series - both of which can be found on her blog at www.tammisalas.com.

Episode 6 - Blogging in Recovery

This week, Tammi and Sondra talk to Sandy Ford. Sandy is an attorney living in Chicago and the author of www.sobermormon.com. They take a deep dive into Mormonism and recovery, and how Sandy has reconciled the two. She shares the path to finding her seat in the rooms of AA and how she finally came to believe that she deserved a sober life that wasn’t miserable. Sandy also shares how she came see her honest, tell-all writing as a path to helping others.
 
This week Sandy shares three items from her Unruffled Toolbox: (1) Exercise; (2) Meditation: Headspace App + Dan Harris’s 10% Happier Podcast; and (3) Fiction.

Episode 13 - Sandy Ford Interview

Tammi and Sondra very excitedly have Tiffany Han on the podcast this week. Tiffany is a writer, teacher and coach and she is the podcast host of Raise Your Hand Say Yes and the co-host of How To Be Remarkable. They talk about how her newfound sobriety aligns with her values, keeps her in flow and how that has helped her shift her own business to help other women align their creativity and spirituality so they can have businesses that feel authentic to them and feel powerful and resonate to the world. Tiffany is a MF-ing truth teller and her energy flows right through the mic. If you want to raise your hand and say yes with Tiffany, take your creative work to the next level and dive deeper into your intuition, you can get first dibs on her new program, 31 Days To Flow. 

This week Tiffany shares three items from her Unruffled Toolbox with our listeners: (1) On Being with Krista Tippett podcast; (2) Medication, specifically, guided meditations with Lacy Young; and (3) All the notebooks. All of them.

Episode 15 - Tiffany Han Interview

Today, Tammi and Sondra talk to Nicole Morgan. Nicole lives in Austin, is an accountant by day; seamstress, knitter and rollergirl by night. Because Nicole is seemingly fearless in her creative endeavors and risks bruises for roller derby, she was the perfect person to talk to about fear and the girls take it on. They talk about how sobriety gives you the courage to take on other things, how discomfort, anger and stress all masquerade as fear and real strategies to sit with it and move on anyway. Nicole is vivacious and you can see for yourself on Instagram, she’s one inspiring lady.

This week Nicole shares three items from her Unruffled Toolbox: (1) Secular Buddhism + The Secular Buddhism podcast; (2) Trying new things; and (3) Quiet.

Episode 16 - Nicole Morgan

The Unruffled Podcast is a weekly show hosted by Sondra Primeaux and Tammi Salas that explores all topics relating to creativity in recovery. When an addiction is removed, there is a void that is left and this show digs into all of the ways to fill that void. The Unruffled is passionate about creating and making and how those pursuits fuel recovery, specifically from alcohol. Come with them as they unruffle the old stories and write new ones, to not just exist but thrive.

Episode 15 - Tiffany Han Interview

The Unruffled Podcast

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