In 1977 two old drunks — Joe McQuany of Little Rock, Arkansas and Charlie Parmley of Maysville, Kentucky — sat down in Lawton, Oklahoma and walked a room through the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous one page at a time. Somebody put a recorder on the table. Nobody knew it would become the most listened-to Big Book study in the world.
For the next thirty years Joe and Charlie traveled the country, and eventually the world, delivering the same workshop — “The Big Book Comes Alive.” Their gift was plain clarity: no theatre, no theology, just the text of the book, the story of how it got written, and the specific instructions for working each of the twelve steps exactly as Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob laid them out. Joe passed in October 2007. Charlie followed in April 2011. The workshop outlived them both and is still the single most recommended audio resource for any alcoholic who wants to actually read the instructions in the book.
The nine sessions below walk the Big Book cover-to-cover. Start with “AA History” to understand how Bill and Bob found each other, move through the Doctor’s Opinion and Bill’s Story, then follow Joe and Charlie through the step instructions from the Fourth Step moral inventory all the way to Step Twelve. Listen in order for the full experience, or jump to the session you need most.
The Nine Sessions
Joe and Charlie Big Book Study – “The Doctor’s Opinion” – Joe W.
This session is the opening of the Joe and Charlie Big Book Study, walking attendees through "The Doctor's Opinion" — the letter and follow-up statement from Dr. Silkworth that sets up the…
Joe and Charlie Big Book Study – “Bill’s Story” – Joe W.
Joe and Charlie walk the room through Chapter 1, "Bill's Story," the Big Book's opening case study of a real alcoholic who had both the physical allergy and the mental obsession Dr.…
Joe and Charlie Big Book Study – “More About Alcoholism” – Joe W.
This session of the Joe and Charlie Big Book Study walks line by line through Chapter 3, "More About Alcoholism," framing the entire chapter as Bill W.'s case for alcoholic insanity —…
Joe and Charlie Big Book Study – “We Agnostics” – Joe W.
This session of the Joe and Charlie Big Book Study walks listeners through Chapter 4, 'We Agnostics,' page by page. Joe opens by tying Dr. Jung's line about 'ideas, emotions, and attitudes'…
Joe and Charlie Big Book Study – “How It Works” – Joe W.
This session of the Joe and Charlie Big Book Study walks listeners through Chapter 5, "How It Works," beginning on page 55 with the idea that Higher Power is found deep within…
Joe and Charlie Big Book Study – “Steps 5, 6, 7, and 8” – Joe W.
This session of the Joe and Charlie Big Book Comes Alive workshop walks through Steps 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 directly from the text of the Big Book. Charlie opens on…
Joe and Charlie Big Book Study – “Steps 10, 11, and 12” – Joe W.
In this closing session of the Joe and Charlie Big Book Comes Alive workshop, Joe M. and Charlie P. walk through Steps 10, 11, and 12 — the so-called maintenance steps —…
Joe and Charlie Were Right — I Get Two Lifetimes in One – Misty S.
Misty opens with a prayer and a wink — "a menopausal member of Alcoholics" — then walks the room from a Honolulu childhood into a sobriety date of September 14, 2021. Born…
Who Were Joe and Charlie?
Joe McQuany started studying the Big Book in 1962 but, as an African American man in Little Rock during segregation, was only allowed to stand in the back of meetings. He read the book out loud to himself every morning until he knew it by heart. Charlie Parmley was an equally relentless Big Book man out of Maysville, Kentucky. When they finally met at an Oklahoma roundup in 1973, the fit was instant — Joe would explain a passage, Charlie would give the other half, and between them the page would come alive.
By 1982 they were running a full Big Book Seminar Weekend at the Palm Aire Convention Center in Pompano Beach, running Thursday through Sunday. It was the first long-form Big Book workshop of its kind in AA, and it became the template for every Big Book study group that followed. Audio recordings of the workshop circulated on cassette tape through the eighties and nineties, then on CD, then online — and ended up in more sponsors’ living rooms than any other AA material besides the book itself.
How to Use These Sessions
If you’re a newcomer, listen to the first three sessions in order. “AA History” and “The Doctor’s Opinion” set up why the book exists; “Bill’s Story” gives you the alcoholic mind in one man’s words. If you’re working the steps with a sponsor, go straight to the session that covers the step you’re on — Joe and Charlie’s instructions are specific and page-referenced. If you’re a sponsor yourself, the entire series is the best single-source training in how to take a sponsee through the book the way it was written to be taken.
Every session is available as streaming audio with full transcripts on the individual tape pages below. Free, no login, no ads in the audio itself — just the clearest Big Book study ever recorded, delivered by two men who loved the book more than any room they spoke in.