From WNYC Studios, I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Thursday, January 16th.

We are privileged to have the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Morthy with us to expand on his recent

recommendation that alcohol containers

be marked with warning labels about their cancer risks. You've no doubt heard that headline. By way of

background, Dr. Morthy's official bio page notes that he was raised in Miami, went to Harvard

undergrad, med school, and then for an MBA and management at Yale.

He is author of the bestselling book, Together, The Healing Power of Human Connection in a sometimes lonely world.

And on top of all that, his bio notes that he is a mango aficionado.

So, Dr. Morthy, we really appreciate that you've come on with us several times during your

tenure as Surgeon General. Welcome back to WNYC. Well, thank you so much, Brian. It's always been good to be on

with you, and good to have this be one of my very last interviews as Surgeon General. Thank you. And we're

honored that you're making it that. Dr. Morthy, let's start with your recent recommendations about

alcohol warning labels.

Why did you recommend this now? Has there been recent evidence about a link between alcohol and

cancer that we didn't have until recently? Thanks, Brian. The reason I issued advisory, a certain

general's advisor, an alcohol and cancer risk is,

number one, there has been growing evidence that's been building for years about the link between

alcohol and cancer, the causal link. The other thing, though, that came to my attention is that

very few people in the country actually know about this link. And putting that

growing evidence together with the lack of awareness, it became clear to me that we needed to make

sure that people understood what science is telling us, which is that there is, in fact, a causal link

between alcohol consumption and seven types of cancer. Those seven cancers, by the way, include

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