100 Objects #20: AA Sobriety Chip
99% Invisible | Oct 02 2026 | 00:52:57

Comedian, writer, and podcaster Jamie Loftus has always known about Alcoholics Anonymous. As a kid, she loved the album where her dad kept all his AA chips — that little piece of plastic that marks a day, a month, a year of sobriety. Now as an adult, Jamie wanted to understand where that little chip came from. What she found is that imbued in that little chip is a hidden history — from Prohibition to women’s suffrage — of America’s relationship to gender, religion, and morality.
A History of the United States in 100 Objects is a production of 99% Invisible and BBC Studios.
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