Explore every episode of the podcast Overeaters Anonymous Podcast

Are you interested in helping to maintain your service body's website? Are you curious about what goes into building an OA website? Join host Meg M. and trustee Cyndy in this episode of Inside OA where they discuss the questions, concerns, and details involved—you will even learn some history of what it was like to carry the message in the "good old days" of the world wide web. "Back in the 90s," says Cyndy, "I had no comprehension of what a website would entail. Today it is a very important part of OA's working presence to bring people to our doors and get to a meeing and find out what Overeaters Anonymous is about."

In this episode, host Meg M. and OA trustee Laurie explore the many ways giving service in OA can impact our everyday lives.

Listen in as Laurie shares how her perspective on service changed from "What am I already good at?" to "What have I learned in OA? What can I do now that I wasn't very good at before?" Through simple acts of service, Laurie learned how to overcome destructive habits of isolation and procrastination, and further into her recovery journey, she even learned how to capably give consideration to the interests of others. What's more is OA gave her a safe space to practice these skills that now carry over into to her relationships with family, friends and colleagues.

Meg agrees. "My career has advanced because of those things," she says, citing how service has taught her how to truly live Tradition Twelve.

In this episode, host Meg M introduces Susan, an OA member from Australia who has been in recovery since 1988 and has served as region chair and trustee. Together, they discuss the differences and benefits offered by face-to-face and online OA meetings. If you are new to OA or if you only attend one type of meeting, we invite you to listen to the extensive experience of these two OA members.

OA members will generally recommend that newcomers attending six different OA meetings to find a meeting that works for you. Go to oa.org/find-a-meeting to search our database of 5,800 meetings worldwide or start your own meeting by looking up "How to Start a New Meeting" on oa.org.

In this episode, host Meg M. talks with BJ, an abstinent food addict and bulimic who has most recently served as an OA trustee and liaison to Region Two. Together they discuss their personal perspectives and practices of Tradition Seven and Step Twelve.

BJ cites her favorite quote from the OA Twelve and Twelve book, "Change begins with honesty" (p. 30), and relates how honestly looking at her varied charitable contributions led her to focus her contributions on OA. "You just do all you can for the nonprofits that you believe in and this is the nonprofit that I believe in," she says.

When it comes to Step Twelve, BJ also made a decision to commit more broadly and deeply to OA service, including carrying the message in her community. "It's really about stepping into the world again, among the living," says Meg. Listen in as Meg and BJ share effective and practical ways to get the word out about OA.

Do you care about the quality of your OA group? Let's "get grounded in groups" in this episode of Inside OA!

Take a few notes as host Meg M. interviews Bruce from Ottawa, Canada. Bruce is a former OA trustee who has been abstinent in OA since April 2005 and who has also served at the intergroup and region levels. Bruce discusses the importance of the group in personal recovery and the questions a group can reflect on to determine whether "its message to the compulsive overeater who still suffers" (Tradition Five) and to newcomers is truly one of hope, strength, and recovery through OA's Twelve Steps.

OA volunteers have helped translate OA literature into more than 30 languages worldwide! But to make that happen, registered OA service bodies must first apply for licensing from the World Service Office. If you have any interest in OA's translation process, you won't want to miss this episode!

Join us as Emilia from Rome, Italy, who has ten years of recovery and is the trustee liaison to OA Region Nine, makes a second appearance on Inside OA to explain the translation process and offer valuable insights along with our host Meg M.

Together they discuss the benefits of giving service as a translator—not the least of which is getting to read OA literature while giving back to your OA fellows! Another valuable service is using OA's glossary template to create a custom translation glossary for your language.

In this episode, we meet Emilia from Rome, Italy, who has ten years of recovery and is the trustee liaison to OA Region Nine, which encompasses more than 40 countries and 40 languages in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Together with host Meg M., Emilia discusses what it's like to serve in a multi-cultural and multi-lingual region.

Emilia shares challenges and fears she has overcome on her journey to being elected as an OA board trustee as well as her successes at the world service level that have directly improve service opportunities for OA members in Region Nine.

Listen in as Emilia also talks about the connection and bonds that come with serving such a diverse region and how OA fellowship and service can provide us all with good lives filled with moments of celebration and happiness.

Speaker Sandy discusses ways to be gentle with newcomers and returners, including consideration of different aspects of unity with diversity. She also covers Where Do I Start? (available in 48 languages at oa.org/start), advanced search options in Find a Meeting, and more Twelfth Step Within resources available on oa.org and bookstore.oa.org.

Recorded at World Service Business Conference 2025.

Speaker Leslie leads Part 1 of this workshop, covering her experience giving public information and professional outreach service (PIPO) and surveying the PIPO resources and ideas available via oa.org, ookstore.oa.org, and the World Service Office.

Recorded at World Service Business Conference 2025.

Speaker Amodini leads Part 2 of this workshop and shares her experience, strength, and hope on the topic of living the Principles to carry the message.

Recorded at World Service Business Conference 2025.

Speaker Alan B. leads Part 1 of this workshop and introduces four questions: 1) How are OA's Spiritual Principles important in your recovery? 2) What Principles have you embraced in your personal life? 3) Which Principles have helped you the most in carrying the message? 4) What Principles have you found challenging to put into practice in all areas of your life?

Recorded at World Service Business Conference 2025.

In this episode of Inside OA, host Meg M. interviews Bob, an OA trustee who joined the Fellowship in 2003 and found his first sponsor at an intergroup meeting. Bob has an accounting background, so serving as treasurer is a natural fit, but as he says, "I don't always look for treasurer positions . . . . I like to have fun with service. I do different things that are out of my reach."

Speaking as board treasurer, Bob gives an inside view on what it takes to build and maintain our world service budget. And while the thought of serving as treasurer can be intimidating, Bob reminds us, "When you think about it, everyone has a checking account, everyone has a home budget that they deal with, so it's nothing more than that. . . . there's not really much of a difference." One important difference, however, is that OA treasurers help each other, and the same is true for all other service positions. "It's so wonderful to see that we support each other and we get better, and things get better because of that," says Bob.

If you are curious about stepping up to service, lessons learned by giving service, or if just want to understand better the level of consideration given to your Seventh Tradition contribution, then press the play button!

Bob F. has been abstinent since January 1, 1986, and has served as Center Mic Monitor at World Service Business Conference since 2004. Listen as he and host Meg M. discuss the challenges and recovery rewards of giving service as Center Mic Monitor and at all levels of OA.

"Inside OA" focuses on the transformative power of service in action. In this episode, Laurie O. shares about jumping in as an appointed OA trustee, working as a Convention 2025 Committee member, and the many great reasons to attend the upcoming OA World Service Convention this August 21–23, 2025, in Orlando, Florida USA.

This podcast is the recorded script from the OA Foot Steps Intergroup Daily Meditation Meeting called "On Awakening."

It is a very simple format. It starts with a fifteen minute reading period, followed by the reading from Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 86-88, "On Awakening."

We then meditate for ten minutes, and then journal for fifteen minutes.

This meeting is entirely self-directed, and you can use this recording at any time of the day as part of a daily practice. 

A short list of titles from among OA's more than 100 literature items available at bookstore.oa.org.

How to find Overeaters Anonymous in your area or online.

Written in 1980by the late Reverend Rollo M. Boas, this favorable assessment of Overeaters Anonymous offers a timeless truth: compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors are indicators of an individual's starved and suffocated spirit. However, with the encouragement, support, and wisdom of OA's Fellowship, the still-suffering compulsive eater can learn to wean themselves off the debilitating crutch of compulsive food behaviors and find peace in nurturing their spirit. As the individual surrounds themselves with the love found in the OA program, compulsive eating is diminished and a new sense of wholeness and balance emerges.

Written in 1980, this assessment by Peter G. Lindner, MD, still holds true today. Obesity is pervasive and comes at a high cost to individuals and societies. This big picture is populated by the individual compulsive eater who is held in bondage to their unhealthy relationship with food by their own hopelessness and defiance. What OA offers that can solve the issue for compulsive eaters is "ego reduction," a means of letting go or surrendering their self will in exchange for guidance and care from a power greater than themselves.

Dietitian H. Theresa Wright, MS, RD, LDN, explains how coming to understand problems with food as an addictive process improved the program and peer support based care she was already giving. Discovering Overeaters Anonymous, and learning about OA's Plan of Eating Tool, confirmed previous success in her practice and gave her a new and stronger way to provide care to her clients.

A compilation of five keynote speeches that our founder, Rozanne S., was asked to present to World Service Business Conference delegates in 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, and 2001. Rozanne speaks with her characteristic humor and candid humility on such subjects as the origins of OA's Traditions, the importance of principles before personalities, and complicated issues of empathy and sacrifice. Feel inspired to rejuvenate your own program as she ends her addresses with an audibly passionate call for the delegates—and the Fellowship at large—to engage in greater acts of service on behalf of OA.

Rozanne opens up about her life and lengthy journey toward becoming the founder of the Fellowship of Overeaters Anonymous, chronicling how she's overseen the spread of the OA message around the world. Listen as Rozanne speaks with enthusiasm, humor, and joy on the inauspicious yet aspirational beginnings of OA, and gain new insights into how the powers of human connection and compromise shaped our organization from the very beginning.

"The spiritual foundation for OA service ensures that: (a) no OA committee or service body shall ever become the seat of perilous wealth or power; (b) sufficient operation funds, plus an ample reserve, shall be OA's prudent financial principle;

"Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, television, and other public media of communication. – Tradition Eleven

Ana's sponsor taught her early in her recovery to use the Tool of writing to work the Twelve Steps of OA and then send her writing in to Lifeline magazine. In this short recording, Ana reflects on Lifeline's role in her recovery and those of her sponsees. Listen and become inspired to send in your story!

"Service responsibility is balanced by carefully defined service authority; therefore, duplication of efforts is avoided."– Concept Ten The principle of Tradition Ten is Neutrality and Concept Ten is Clarity.

• How do you apply the Traditions to your family and friends?
• How do you take the Traditions with you in all your daily life activities?

· What approach did your sponsor take to working the Steps that was especially helpful to you?
· How has going through the Steps with a sponsee helped you?

"OA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve." – Tradition Nine "Able, trusted servants, together with sound and appropriate methods of choosing them, are indispensable for effective functioning at all service levels."–

• Do you take time out from your job for meals and quiet time?
• Have you had on-the-job training?

Principles of Tradition Eight – Fellowship, and Concept Eight - Delegation "Overeaters Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers." – Tradition Eight "The Board of Trustees has delegated to its Executive Committee the responsibility to administer the OA World Service Office."– Concept Eight

• What approach works best for you—strict or easygoing?
• What techniques does your sponsor use that you find helpful, and why?

"Every OA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions." – Tradition Seven "The Board of Trustees has legal rights and responsibilities accorded to them by OA Bylaws, Subpart A; the rights and responsibilities of the World Service Business Conference are accorded to it by Tradition and by OA Bylaws, Subpart B."