meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Public Health On Call

996 - Canada's Low-Risk Alcohol Guidelines

Public Health On Call

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

News, Health & Fitness, Medicine

4.6 • 644 Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2026

⏱️ 15 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

About this episode:

Citing updated research on the health risks of drinking alcohol, Canada changed consumption guidelines in 2023, making global headlines for its steep drop in what's viewed as "low risk" drinking. In this episode: One of the architects of those guidelines explains how these recommendations were developed, their efficacy as a public health intervention, and what to make of the U.S.'s new guidelines.

Guests:

Tim Stockwell, PhD, is a scientist at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research and emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Victoria.

Host:

Lindsay Smith Rogers, MA, is the producer of the Public Health On Call podcast, an editor for Expert Insights, and the director of content strategy for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Show links and related content:

Transcript information:

Looking for episode transcripts? Open our podcast on the Apple Podcasts app (desktop or mobile) or the Spotify mobile app to access an auto-generated transcript of any episode. Closed captioning is also available for every episode on our YouTube channel.

Contact us:

Have a question about something you heard? Looking for a transcript? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website.

Follow us:

Note: These podcasts are a conversation between the participants, and do not represent the position of Johns Hopkins University.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,

0:05.9

where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges.

0:16.3

If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jhhhu.edu.

0:23.8

That's public health question at jhhu.edu for future podcast episodes.

0:30.6

Hey listeners, it's Lindsay Smith Rogers. Today, a look at alcohol guidelines from a country that's worked to establish clear definitions of risk

0:38.4

and limits. Tim Stockwell is a scientist at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research

0:43.4

and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Victoria. He talks to me about Canada's

0:48.8

low-risk alcohol drinking guidelines, which were announced in 2023 and aimed at helping people make sense of complex

0:56.0

recommendations to make decisions around drinking alcohol. We also talk about the U.S.'s new

1:01.2

guidance, which was announced alongside revised dietary guidelines in early January. Let's listen.

1:07.3

Tim Stockwell, thank you so much for joining us on public health on call. How are you?

1:11.0

I'm good. Thank you for having me.

1:13.5

Would you start off by telling us a bit about you and your work?

1:16.8

Sure. Well, I've been at this game working on alcohol and public health for over four decades in the UK, Australian,

1:26.0

and I've been working in Canada for the last 20 plus years at the Canadian

1:30.2

Institute for Substance Use Research. I've got a lot of interests in the area and recently

1:34.9

I've been quite caught up in this discussion of drinking guidelines in the US.

1:40.5

We're going to talk about that as well, but to start off, you helped contribute to Canada's low-risk alcohol drinking guidelines.

1:48.2

Can you explain what low-risk alcohol drinking guidelines are?

1:52.7

Right. I've actually been involved in several countries probably about six times.

1:59.1

And essentially, the exercise is getting a lot of scientists,

2:03.3

public health experts, clinicians together in a committee

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.