Theo Von says he's 46 days sober on This Past Weekend

Theo Von put a number on it. On the solo episode 684 of This Past Weekend, titled "Bad Haircut", Von said he is 46 days sober, after falling out of his AA program work, his sponsor and, in his words, his contact with God.

He says it plainly and almost in passing. "I got 45 days right now, 46," he says, like a man double checking his own math. The framing he gives it is that saying it out loud is the point, that honesty on air has been what keeps it going.

The rest of the episode does not slow down

The first chunk is a haircut that made him angrier than he expected. The guy took two inches he did not want taken, and Von called his friend Shane, who is bald, to vent about it. He also walks through a 3,000 mile Midwest camper trip with buddies Bizzle and Zeta through Kentucky, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan in a rental that kept shedding parts on the interstate.

Then it turns. Von spends a long stretch on Gaza and on Macklemore being pulled from the Ed Sheeran tour, which he frames as a man losing work for speaking up. He is careful to separate the Israeli government from Israeli people and Jewish people before he says the government has turned Gaza into a video game for killing people. He also pushes back on the idea that every casualty is Hamas, pointing out a four month old cannot walk into a Hamas office and sign up.

The calls

Listener calls include one about stealing a stained glass Jesus out of a childhood home now owned by Spanish speakers, and one from Jamie, a 40 year old parent worried about his daughter starting middle school in poverty. The one that lands hardest is Rick from New Jersey, 12 years sober, dealing with a cancer diagnosis, a recent baby loss and a new baby on the way. That call turns into a straight heart to heart about staying sober when everything at once is too much.

Von has talked about relapse and recovery on the show plenty. Naming the day count, in the middle of a haircut bit and a busted camper story, is the new part.