NO MOLSON –
May 20, 2024 – Mathews doesn’t stay in touch with his family because of the “toxic” atmosphere. His brother, an addict, died recently. Mathews posted to his social media that he didn’t know his brother like a brother. The saving grace for Mathews is his wife of 20 years, Janet.”My wife busted down the door, slapped the knife out of my hand and said ‘How could you?’
My wife said, ‘Why don’t you start a sobriety podcast?’”
Mathews was interested but struggled to find people willing to break anonymity to discuss addiction. In Barrie, Mathews found people who were “recovering out loud.”
So, he started the podcast Canadian Sober Eh? and called himself Dougie Fresh. His first show started with, “I’m Dougie Fresh and I’m an alcoholic.”
He recorded the show from his home and interviewed one person per episode.
Because he was doing interviews on the Zoom platform, he found people from as far away as California recovering out loud.
“So I started spreading other people’s experience, strength and hope through the podcast, even though they weren’t Canadian,” he said.
The podcast started on Buzzsprout and ended up on 19 electronic platforms. He completed four seasons.
In Season 3, he had a few people from town who agreed to tell their story because the audience was only hearing the guest’s voice.
Mathews had the T-shirts made up and started wearing them all over town. One day, he met a woman working in a local store, who saw his T-shirt and asked to talk to him. She revealed that she was thinking of committing suicide. Mathews helped the young woman by setting her up with a recovery group.
“She told me, ‘I’m sober today because you walked into that delicatessen wearing that T-shirt.’”
That was an “aha” moment for Mathews who felt he was finally making a difference. After that, he placed a large order for the T-shirts and started giving them to people reaching sobriety milestones. He spoke at treatment centres including Metamorphosis Centre for Change in Wasaga Beach. One of the women he met there came up to him and told him she’s listened to every episode he’s recorded.
“All these amazing things are happening in my life,” he said, but he wanted to do more. “The more you give back, the more you receive.”
