Show Notes
It feels like this conversation has been a long time coming. Vic is genuinely honoured to have Shanna Whan AM on the podcast this week.
Shanna is the founder and CEO of Sober in the Country, a national grassroots charity that’s been driving radical social impact and real change across rural and remote Australia over the past decade. Through laser-focused bush advocacy, peer-to-peer support, and a refreshingly straightforward message, she’s helping shift a deeply ingrained culture.
And the message is one we can all get behind, whether we drink or not: it’s always #OK2SAYNO to booze.
Shanna was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2025 for her significant contributions to rural community health. She was named National Australian of the Year (Local Hero) in 2022, and also took out Marie Claire’s national Advocate of the Year award that same year. So yes… she’s not just talking about change, she’s making it happen.
In this episode, they chat about life in rural Australia, the pressure to be strong, stoic, and self-reliant in farming communities, the isolation of rural life, and how hard it can be to say no to alcohol when it’s so deeply ingrained.
They also explore how that’s starting to shift, slowly, but meaningfully. And they establish very early on that Vic would absolutely not survive in the outback, (even if she did have a hat with corks hanging off it!)
This one takes you beyond the front gate and into the reality of life in the outback, an honest, eye-opening conversation with a truly remarkable human.
To find out more about Shanna and her incredible work head to https://www.soberinthecountry.org or follow them on socials @sober_in_the_country and to help raise awareness please add #OK2SAYNO to your socials.
💛 Resources & Links
📘 Victoria’s memoir – A Thousand Wasted Sundays A brutally honest and hilarious look at motherhood, anxiety, and ditching the booze. 👉 Buy the book here
🎧 Listen to more Sober Awkward episodes 👉 www.soberawkward.com
🫖 Join The Cuppa Community Our private, supportive online space for sober folk 👉 www.cuppa.community
📘 Get the Sober Awkward Guide Our downloadable toolkit for ditching booze the awkward way. 👉 The Sober Awkward Guide
📱 Follow us for daily sober fun: Instagram: @soberawkward TikTok: @soberawkward Facebook: Sober Awkward Community for Women Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Sober Awkward
What if the anxiety you think alcohol is helping is actually being made worse by the booze?
Have you ever woken up after a night of drinking with your heart racing, convinced you’ve embarrassed yourself, upset someone, or somehow ruined your entire life? That awful feeling has a name: hangxiety.
You’ve been absolutely fine all day. You haven’t thought about alcohol, you’re feeling quite pleased with yourself and then suddenly it’s 5pm and your brain goes = WINE.
This week on Sober Awkward, Vic and Ulrika tackle a drinking style that often flies completely under the radar, the stay-at-home drinker. Vic was the loud one. The social one. The drinker making questionable decisions in public and collecting stories she’d rather forget. Ulrika was different.
This Thursday on The Awkward Bits, Vic is back on her own and wondering whether one of the reasons sobriety feels so bloody terrifying is because we make it MASSIVE before we’ve even started.