I want to tell you about my friend Larry.

Larry is pretty well known in the podcast world as a content creator, a consultant, and a subject matter expert for journalists. I’ve seen lots of times where he’s appeared on local and national TV shows, talking about podcasting as well as AI – he’s been on the forefront of how to use AI for personal and business productivity. And he’s been a sought-after keynote speaker at lots of organizations where he talks about these things.

A few years ago, Larry and I were in Los Angeles during a podcasting conference. One evening during that week there was a big podcast awards show, and there was an after party. I don’t usually go to those things, but for some reason I was there. It was a private party but lots of people were there and it was on a rooftop bar, I don’t even remember the name of it. Of course the music was loud, and you would never guess who the DJ was – Paris Hilton. It was pretty crazy.

And of course I would see Larry every year in January in Orlando, at the conference called Podfest.

But this past January I didn’t see Larry. I didn’t know why he wasn’t there, and honestly I didn’t think about it a lot. It’s always a busy week and there are a couple thousand people there. But what I didn’t know was that Larry was in rehab at that time. He was trying to overcome Alcohol Use Disorder. Maybe better known as alcoholism.

Larry’s life is very different now. His addiction to alcohol means he no longer has his business, his house, his cars, his wife – all gone. He’s working on his comeback now, and he told me the whole story which you’re about to hear. I also need to include a content warning for discussion of suicide.

What Larry didn’t know at the time was - when he missed that Orlando conference because of being in rehab – he had not yet reached his rock bottom.

If you’d like to contact Larry or follow his journey:

Instagram: @thelarryroberts

Facebook: @thelarryroberts

website: https://LarryRoberts.com

Full show notes and pictures for this episode are here:

https://WhatWasThatLike.com/263

Graphics for this episode by Bob Bretz. Transcription was done by James Lai.

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