Lucy Rocca on the success of Soberistas and the need for change

As we’re now well into Sober October, and with Dry January already on the horizon, this month's Real Podcast is bound to be focused on not drinking. Not that we're against alcohol, of course. Alcohol is not the problem. What fascinates us, and what we’re really keen to investigate over the coming episodes, is the way in which our society tends to dive neck first into what can only be described as an unthinking drinking culture.
As usual, we’ve been out to chat to people who we’ve met on the Real Kombucha journey – people who like to think a little differently and look at things through an alternative lens.
On the way through this month’s podcasts, we’ll be hearing a lot of personal stories, some of which are quite harrowing, but they all have a common outcome: positivity. The desire to make a positive change and to help others to do the same.
We’ll be talking to people who came of age in the hard-drinking nineties culture, as well as younger non-drinkers currently running some of the biggest sober curious Instagram accounts. We’ll also be talking to people who are hoping to make changes from inside the drinking industry. It’s going to be a fascinating month.
One person who has really gone to the heart of this and started opening people’s eyes to the peculiarity of our accepted drinking culture is Lucy Rocca. Lucy launched the incredibly helpful Soberistas platform after shaking off the shackles of a particularly fraught relationship with alcohol and realising that, like so many people, Alcoholics Anonymous wasn’t necessarily for her.
As of this moment, Soberistas have close to 11,000 Facebook followers, 60,000 registered members, and a website containing 54,000 articles relating to what people are calling the Sober Curious Movement.
I caught up with Lucy on a rickety phone line from Sheffield to discuss the sinister rise of Wine O’Clock, memories of Melanie Sykes and her Boddingtons Ice Cream van, and why it’s perhaps not a good idea to go drinking in theme parks.
Go on… have a listen.