Need Sobriety support? Check out The Luckiest Club

Laura McKowen

Laura is a bestselling author, host of Tell Me Something True podcast, and founder of The Luckiest Club, a global sobriety support community.

My goal is simple: I want you help you fall in love with the mystery of life again.

Join me in the journey of discovering who you really are.


"Discovering who you really are" sounds like a total cliché, right? But I really mean it. So many people, myself included, trudge through life never really knowing this. They have no idea how much potential lies within them. We follow someone else's script, or we float along half-numb, half-awake, fighting off that small voice that says, there's another way to live.

The truth is, becoming who you really are can be hard freaking work. You have to disappoint people, go against norms, and get really used to being uncomfortable.

The reward, though? Meaning.

I don't have the answers for you, but I do have some pretty good questions - ones I've had to answer for myself. My work is about sharing what I learn along the way.

(You can learn more about me in the FAQ below).

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Weekly snippets, discoveries, and notes from Laura on our path to discovering ourselves.

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“A masterpiece. The truest, most generous, honest, and helpful sobriety memoir I’ve read. It’s going to save lives.”

Glennon Doyle

#1 New York Times bestselling author of 
Untamed and Love Warrior.

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Get hands-on help in your journey to discover your true self, align your focus, stoke your faith and courage, and develop a practice of devotion.

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Hear more about Laura's personal journey...through life, motherhood, her road to sobriety and more.

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You deserve a magnificent life, a beautiful life, a life you are proud to call home.

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Official Bio

Laura McKowen inspires people to say yes to a bigger life. She’s the author of the bestselling memoir, We Are The Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life, which #1 New York Times bestselling author, Glennon Doyle, called “A masterpiece.”

She has written for The New York Times, been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Atlantic, the TODAY show, and more. In 2020, she founded The Luckiest Club, a global sobriety support community. She also hosts the Tell Me Something True podcast, a show for people who want to fall in love with the mystery of life again.

Laura lives with her daughter and partner on the North Shore of Boston and is currently writing her second book, Push Off From Here, which will be published in early 2023.

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Photo credit: Dove Shore

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no-judgement sober community.

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Get to know Laura

Frequently Asked Questions
Do people really ask this stuff frequently?

According to Google, the two top questions asked about me are: my age (44) and who my ex-husband is (nope, sorry!). The rest of these questions are…questionable.

What is your mission?

I want to help you fall in love with the mystery of life again.

The best tangible manifestation of this mission to date is my book and The Luckiest Club (TLC), a sobriety support community I founded in 2020.

Have you always done this work?

No! I had a 15-year, extra-boozie career in marketing first. In 2016, after 500 or more David Byrne, “How did I get here?” moments, I left that world for this one. I’ve never looked back—even when my bank account wept lonely tears of desperation.

When did you get sober?

September, 2014.

Why did you get sober? Was it... a lifestyle choice?

If not dying is a lifestyle choice, then yes!


How did you do it?

I wrote about that here.

Do you think I can get sober?

I know you can.

Who is your ex-husband?

Still no!

What qualifies you to do this stuff?

Nothing qualifies me to be a writer other than wanting to write and writing a lot and continuing to write a lot. I don't have an MFA, but if I could go back to being 18, I would probably choose that route. Maybe.

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As for the business side, I have a degree in Business from Colorado State University, an MBA from Babson College, am a 500 RYT Yoga Teacher, and I’ve read at least 43,000 addiction, personal development, psychology, and spirituality books.

Why did you quit social media?

It's a complicated, layered topic. I can't deny the good that social media brought me, but in the end, it was far more damaging.

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I write about the details here.

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I'll continue to write about it here and talk about it on my podcast. There's a lot to say. I believe in the coming years, the conversation around social media will be akin to the conversation around alcohol happening now, and the conversation we had around cigarettes 20 years ago. We are only starting to wake up to the reality of its impact.

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For the fact-checkers, I still have a personal Facebook account and a Linked In profile that I rarely use. :)

How can I work with you?

‍Subscribe to my newsletter. It's the best way to connect with me.

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If you need sobriety support, check out The Luckiest Club. We have daily online sobriety support meetings (I host the Tuesday morning meeting), a private forum, over 50 subgroups so you can connect with people based on location or interest, and we run courses, workshops, and events to help people thrive in sobriety. It's the thing I wish existed when I got sober.

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I also host Tell Me Something True, and we release new episodes every week. We have a member community where I'm really active.

Are you writing another book?

Yes. My next book, Push Off From Here, will be published by Penguin Random House in early 2023.

Get to know Laura

Frequently Asked Questions
Do people really ask this stuff Frequently?

According to Google, the two top questions asked about me are: my age (43) and who my ex-husband is (nope, sorry!). The rest of these questions are…questionable.

What is your mission?

I once wrote this on a piece of paper and I think it could be called my mission: There is no gift like this gift. There is nothing more precious than the pain of waking up to your life. Showing you this is the mountain I’m willing to die on.

The best tangible manifestation of this mission to date is my book and The Luckiest Club (TLC), a sobriety support community me and my team started in May, 2020.

Have you always done this stuff?

No! I had a long, successful, and extra boozie career in advertising first. And then, I stopped drinking. And then, after 500 or more David Byrne, “How did I get here?” moments, I left that world for this one. I’ve never looked back—even when my bank account wept lonely tears of desperation.

When did you get sober?

September, 2014.

Why did you get sober? Was it... a lifestyle choice?

If not dying is a lifestyle choice, then yes!

How did you do it?

I wrote about that here.

Do you think I can get sober?

I know you can.

Who is your ex-husband?

Still no!

What qualifies you to do this stuff?

Nothing qualifies me to be a writer other than wanting to write and writing a lot and continuing to write a lot. As for being a teacher and speaker, most of my qualification comes from my lived experience, but I do have some “real” qualifications too. I have a degree in Business from Colorado State University, an MBA from Babson College, I am a 500 RYT Yoga Teacher and have been teaching for 10+ years, and I’ve read at least 43,000 personal development, psychology, and spirituality books.

What do you actually do — to like, pay your bills...?

I write, teach, and speak. Mostly about addiction, sobriety, and how we get through the shit we don’t believe we can get through. I’ve always been fascinated with psychology and spirituality and the human condition and now it’s my job to explore these things.

But, the money part! Writing pays zero bills, at least not directly (yet), but my blog has led to a lot of paying work over the years and my first book, We Are The Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life was born in January. I’d like that to make a few pennies.

As for teaching, I run online courses around sobriety and personal development.

I also teach workshops and retreats out in the wild sometimes, but I really love my kid and my cats so it takes a lot for me to leave them these days.

How can I work with you?

First, get on my newsletter. Because I send emails you’ll actually want to read (seriously, I have people tell me all the time that they save my emails to savor them!). And, I always ask you to reply, and then I read your replies, and we have conversations, and it’s my favorite. But also because my email people find out about all my things first: new classes, new podcast episodes, my most recent panic attack, or the best book I've read recently.

Then, check out my courses. And if you need sobriety support, join The Luckiest Club.

Not sure where to start?

Not sure where to start? Get on my newsletter. I'll let you know what's on my mind that week, and keep you in the loop about new articles, courses, podcasts & more.