Who this episode is for:

• Anyone who feels like they were an alcoholic before their first drink
• Parents secretly hating the newborn phase
• Therapists who drink alone and pretend it’s fine
• People who nurse a beer until it becomes a personality trait
• Anyone who’s ever made a mess of their life

Episode 22: Therapist, Addict, Jesus-Lover — Jeff Brenneman Uncensored

Strap in, degenerates. This one veers from Bible college to blackout whiskey nights, with a surprise stop for tea with the Taliban.

Chris, Jeff, and Jakob welcome Jeff Brenneman, Clinical Director at Illinois Recovery Center. Once on track to be a preacher, Jeff’s life swerved through addiction, fatherhood breakdowns, and some very questionable DIY detoxing (do not recommend). This dude was an alcoholic before his first drink—and you’ll hear exactly why.

They hit everything: Borderline Personality Disorder, perfectionism, fear of failure, therapy myths, Enneagrams, hiding from your own family, the dangers of being “the smart kid,” and what sobriety really takes.

Also: Jeff’s kid visited Afghanistan. For fun. That’s not a metaphor.

And while the Bible and recovery stuff run deep, there’s still plenty of chaos, Chris’s sex life, shame jokes, and Trader Joe’s tears to go around.

Timestamps include:

• 00:00 — Marco Bertorelli of Bertarelli Cutlery
• 03:17 — Meet Jeff: therapist, ex-drunk, accidental pastor
• 10:29 — Becoming a drunk despite a "perfect" life
• 25:07 — “I was an alcoholic before I took a drink”
• 30:43 — Borderline Personality Disorder gets real
• 41:17 — His son visits Afghanistan... because why not?
• 48:38 — Met wife in third grade. Cute, until the drinking.
• 53:07 — DIY detoxing while mom’s in the guest room
• 56:41 — The fifth of whiskey night
• 58:59 — Half-assing AA doesn't work (duh)
• 1:03:12 — Sponsorship & brutal honesty
• 1:14:15 — God, guilt, and post-bottle faith
• 1:23:01 — Jakob cries in Trader Joe’s
• 1:32:03 — Accountability: the real rehab
• 1:39:07 — Doing the work even when it sucks
• 1:47:11 — Why Jeff stays at IRC

Sponsored by Illinois Recovery Center and Bertarelli Cutlery

• Anyone who woke up with a Great Dane puppy and no memory of ordering it
• The families still trying to love a tornado in human form
• Addicts who’ve checked into rehab more times than they can count (Angela’s got you beat)
• People in recovery, people out of recovery, people still circling the drain
• Folks not in recovery but who’ve ever made a mess of their life and are wondering, “Now what?”

Chris and Jeff wrangle the now-married madness that is Angela and Dr. Chris Schenewerk—back for Round 3, but this time in the same damn room. And buckle up, because it gets unhinged in the best way.

There’s a five-grand Great Dane bought during a blackout. Jellyfish revelations. Dead ducks. Rehab round twelve. Boobs paid for by Angela (not her husband, thank you very much). Grief, laughter, rage, and a recovery meeting started in a damn bowling alley.

This episode’s a cocktail of chaos, clarity, and hard-won perspective. Recovery ain't a straight line—and this couple proves it’s still worth crawling the damn thing.

• 0:00 – Knife talk and sponsor shoutouts
• 2:00 – Angela and Dr. Chris together: Zeus the blackout puppy, John Wick the dog
• 5:00 – Angela’s animal kingdom: jellyfish, wood ducks, and regretful Amazon buys
• 10:00 – Clean Cause gets the spotlight (use code: PONDOFF for 20% off at cleancause.com)
• 15:00 – Dr. Chris opens up about losing his brother and not drinking through it
• 20:00 – Angela breaks down 12 rehabs, chaos, and what finally clicked
• 25:00 – Kids and the wreckage they witness—Angela owns her side of the street
• 30:00 – The “Three Amigos” Friday AA meeting is born in a bowling alley
• 35:00 – Dr. Chris’s recovery workbook—text him, he’ll mail you a copy
• 40:00 – Sobriety labels are dumb—just do the work
• 45:00 – Pandemic recovery meetings, muting drunk people on Zoom
• 55:00 – Rehab myths, boobs, and doing the next right thing
• 1:00:00 – Jersey trauma, 9/11 aftermath, and losing Jimmy
• 1:10:00 – Bridging recovery at Memorial Hospital—pamphlets, meetings, hope
• 1:20:00 – Bird jokes, orchid addiction, prostate talk—classic chaos
• 1:30:00 – Remembering Brian Schenewerk, prayer, and promising more babies

• Clean Cause Energy Drinks – 20% off with code PONDOFF
• Illinois Recovery Center
• Bertarelli Cutlery
• AA Meeting Finder
• Memorial Hospital Detox Bridge Program

This glorious mess brought to you by Illinois Recovery Center and Bertarelli Cutlery—because sharp knives and sharp minds save lives.

• Anyone who’s ever stared down their own addictions
• Families who don’t get why their loved one can’t “just stop”
• The “I’m not an addict, but I totally have addictive behaviors” crowd
• People obsessed with the science behind why their brains keep screwing them over
• Therapy nerds, recovery warriors, and dudes who need to get over being "too tough" to talk about emotions
• And of course — anyone who’s ever made a complete dumpster fire of their life

This one’s a little different. Jakob Miller from Pondoff’s Anonymous links up with Alex “Big Panda” Kaiser for a crossover between Pondoff’s Anonymous and No Lions Here. It’s raw, unfiltered, and exactly what you’d expect when two recovering addicts sit down and try to explain the brain science behind addiction without sounding like nerdy scientists.

Jakob breaks down his "Science of Addiction" class that he runs at Illinois Recovery Center — and finally records it for the masses. If you’ve ever sat in a treatment center, argued whether addiction is a disease, or wondered why you keep sabotaging your own life, this one’s for you.

They cover it all: trauma, dopamine, irrational thinking, relapse symptoms, why triggers are a scam, and how to hack your own brain before it tricks you back into using.

No sugarcoating. No bullshit. Just the real, uncomfortable truth about how addiction rewires your survival system and why emotional honesty might be the one thing that saves your life.

• Illinois Recovery Center — https://illinoisrecoverycenter.com
• No Lions Here Podcast — https://open.spotify.com/show/57389wCMh6z9aZgNqjgUSd?si=ffed6a42d19043c5

• 0:00 — Intro & Crossover Explained
• 1:25 — Jakob's Science of Addiction class: origins & goals
• 5:00 — Breaking down the “disease” model: treatable, not curable
• 8:15 — Trauma vs. addiction: Jakob's personal story
• 14:00 — The switch theory: when addiction gets "turned on"
• 19:00 — The 4 key symptoms that predict relapse
• 25:00 — Obsession, self-centeredness, irrational thinking, compulsion: deep dive
• 32:00 — Dopamine 101: how the brain wires addiction as survival
• 38:30 — Functional MRI studies: your cravings vs starvation
• 44:00 — Cravings, urges, triggers: why most coping advice is useless
• 48:00 — Hacking the brain with Navy SEAL tricks & cognitive exercises
• 54:00 — Practicing coping skills: the only way they actually start to work
• 59:00 — 90-in-90 meetings: how to taper off the right way
• 1:03:00 — Emotional intelligence: why men must feel their shit
• 1:09:00 — Jakob’s personal triggers and early relapse warning signs
• 1:15:00 — Drug choice is irrelevant: a dopamine problem is a dopamine problem
• 1:21:00 — How irrational thinking nearly killed Jakob
• 1:26:00 — Emotional honesty and real recovery work for men
• 1:32:00 — Wrapping it up: facing emotions head-on to stay alive

• Illinois Recovery Center
• Bertarelli Cutlery