Author Sarah Hepola isn’t just a writer but the author of the biggest book about addiction since A Million Little Pieces (as a fellow author of a book about addiction, this pains me to write but only a little because her book is so God damn good).

Hepola’s memoir, Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget, has been written about in seemingly ever publication known to man, clearly striking a chord among the recovery community and beyond. The Texas-based Salon essay editor has also written for The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Glamour, The Guardian, Nerve and Slate, among others, and is as modest about her book’s success as possibly only a Texan can be.

In this episode, we talk about the relative coolness of sobriety, crying every day, whether or not Tinder dating profiles should mention sobriety and if a best-selling book can actually make you happy, among many other topics.