S2 E19 Angela Schenewerk

Who this episode is for:
• Anyone battling booze, burnout, or both
• Moms hanging on by a thread with a wine glass in hand
• Those who think “functioning alcoholic” means everything’s fine
• Anyone who ever woke up and said, “How the hell did I get here?”
• People not in recovery who’ve ever run from themselves and called it “freedom”

Episode Title: "Closet Wine & Corporate Flights: Angela’s Fight for Herself"

Angela Schenewerk shows up and blows the roof off. From Cahokia childhood to hidden booze bottles in adulthood, she takes us through what it’s like to lose yourself in motherhood, wine, work trips, and bad relationships—and still come crawling back with a pulse. This one’s got fake arrests, rehab denial, blackouts, stalking boyfriends, air mattresses with wine underneath, and the dangerous myth of “having it together.” It’s wild. It’s heavy. It’s very Pondoff’s Anonymous.

Episode Timestamps:

• 00:00 - Bertarelli Cutlery shoutout & intro 🔪
• 01:26 - Angela enters the chat: Cahokia pride, first kisses & frozen rinks 🏒💋
• 05:01 - Bullied, broke & beloved: childhood chaos with JJ the underdog 👧💔
• 10:06 - Fake cops at a party, chipped teeth & her first wine cooler 🚓🍷
• 15:33 - Marriage, the bar biz, and wine as a coping strategy 🥂🏗️
• 20:48 - Work trips = escape hatch: hotel drinking begins 🏨🍾
• 25:57 - Freedom or isolation? India trip blurs the line 🇮🇳😶‍🌫️
• 30:39 - Skipping a wedding to drink alone: the addict’s choice 👰🚫
• 35:14 - Closet wine rituals, motherhood pressure & boxed denial 🧃🧠
• 39:58 - Bottles hidden everywhere, vodka refilled with water 💧🍸
• 44:15 - The trash bag moment: caught red-handed & broken 🗑️😵
• 45:41 - Rehab round one: denial, comparison & zero humility 🚫🏥
• 50:03 - Apartment after the split: air mattress, no furniture, lots of wine 🛏️🍷
• 54:17 - Trying to drink “normally” and failing fast 🌀📉
• 56:40 - Enter: the GPS-tracking boyfriend & Punta Cana chaos 📍🌴
• 01:01:19 - Alcohol over everything—even all-inclusives & love 💔🍺
• 01:03:33 - Stood him up for Cabo so she could drink freely at home ✈️🏠
• 01:06:08 - Hacked emails, blackmail & rock bottom behavior 💻🕳️
• 01:09:44 - Drinking before the kids woke up & donut-lie mornings 🍩🥃
• 01:14:27 - From motherhood to misery: drinking to function 👩‍👦‍👦💀
• 01:18:56 - Rehab roulette: detox, flights, and every excuse in the book 🎢✈️
• 01:22:35 - Still not ready to stop. Still not done breaking her own heart ⏳💣
• 01:26:47 - Final reflections: lost dreams, missed weddings & brutal truth 🪞🧨

Angela Schenewerk – Mom, ex-wife, closet drinker, blackout flyer, and survivor with a mic.
This is the kind of episode you share with someone who's still out there, hiding it all and thinking nobody sees them. Angela was that person. And she made it back.

Need help? Know someone who does?
Illinois Recovery Center

Keep your knives sharp (literally):
Bertarelli Cutlery

Pondoff’s Anonymous – where we call bullshit on silence, shame, and fake recovery stories.