I'm Julia Lungoria, this is the experiment.

This week, as you may or may not still be recovering from the long weekend,

we're taking a look at the origin story of our country's drinking problem.

Kate Julian recently wrote for The Atlantic about the history of our relationship with alcohol.

She spoke with Sean Ramosferum on the show today, explained, and today, we're featuring that

conversation. Sean takes it from here.

It's fake, explained. I'm Sean Ramosferum a month ago, President Biden challenged the nation.

President Biden today announcing a national month of action to help the country reach his goal,

70% of adults with at least one dose by the 4th of July. To sweeten the deal, Biden proposed

a number of incentives. Get a shot and have a beer. Free beer for everyone 21 years or over

to celebrate the independence from the virus. The president was willing to pull out all the stops,

including a partnership with Anheuser Bush. It didn't work. The nation's still hovering

around half vaccinated, but the pledge to literally buy the country a beer if 70% of us got vaccinated

said something about how we think and how we drink. I've noticed over the past few years, alcohol

cropping up in all sorts of places that it didn't used to be. You used to be able to buy wine at

the supermarket to take home. You could not buy wine in a plastic cup to carry around the supermarket

while you shot. You could not buy wine at Starbucks. You could not buy beer at the zoo when you were

there looking at the animals with your kids. Okay, Julian is a senior editor at The Atlantic.

She recently wrote about the nation's drinking problem. Americans have been drinking more and more

for about 20 years. We're drinking it in a weirdly different way. It seems like we're more likely

to be drinking it alone, which tells us I think that something kind of interesting is going on.

We're not drinking more because we're hanging out and partying. We're drinking more for

...