The AA speaker featured in this talk is Marty Mann, one of the first women in Alcoholics Anonymous to achieve long-term sobriety. She penned the Big Book story “Women Suffer Too,” in which she described a childhood of material wealth and privilege, a descent into alcoholism so bad that she ended up in charity wards and sanitariums, only to recover using the plan of action outlined in the book.
Marty founded the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism in 1944, which became the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) in 1990, which today remains a leading advocacy group that raises public awareness about addiction and helps people recover.
Here is Marty speaking in San Francisco on 12/11/1946. This is the oldest recording in the Recovery Speakers archives.