Description

Friends! Today we have the pleasure of getting to know Laura Silverman, founder of Zero Proof Nation and Booze Free in DC.

Founded in November 2019, Zero Proof Nation is a platform focused on non alcoholic culture, beverages, people and brands. ZPN started as an IG feed where Laura would feature beverage brand founders in the non-alcoholic space & tell their stories. It evolved when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and became an even bigger platform, now featuring a blog, several non-alcoholic resource directories, and more. Most recently, Laura launched the first ever *global map* highlighting booze-free bars and non-alcoholic bottle shops around the world, ranging from brick-and-mortars, to pop-ups to e-commerce companies. Booze Free in DC is her secondary blog and platform, devoted to exploring the Washington DC area from a non-alcoholic perspective, which was started in January 2020.

Laura has been alcohol-free for 15+ years (woah) and is FULL of sobriety insight. She shares a ton of background about the evolution of the non-alcoholic industry in this episode. We also cover:

• Starting Zero Proof Nation & Booze Free in DC within 2 months of each other.
• How the non-alcoholic industry started and expanded after the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Laura’s experience building the global map.
• What sobriety was like before the post-Covid non-alcoholic boom.
• Anonymous culture and stigmas around alcohol use disorder and recovery.
• Laura's drinking & sobriety story and what it was like to get sober at the age of 24.
• Her experience getting hospitalized in NYC for alcohol poisoning in her twenties, and how this impacted her journey long term.
• [Content warning] Living with trauma, anxiety and HSV-2, and how this all intersects with her sobriety.
• Her experience in an intensive outpatient rehab program.
• How recovery and sobriety has changed for her over time.

To learn more about Laura's work, follow her on Instagram at:

@ZeroProofNation

@WeAreSober

@BoozeFreeInDC