I'm Brian Lehrer.

This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios.

It's Tuesday, February 15th.

So how would you characterize your relationship with alcohol during the pandemic?

How much do you drink or how much do you think about

not drinking? If these questions give you pause, then you might be one of the millions of Americans

with a complicated relationship with alcohol. According to the Journal of the American Medical

Association, one in eight Americans fit the definition of having alcohol

use disorder, and millions more say they drink too much or drink more than they would like,

not necessarily fitting the definition of alcohol abuse disorder, but living in a murky gray area

where problem drinking merges with, quote, unquote, normal drinking.

And it's safe to say that gray area has expanded in the past few years as nearly one in four

adults reported drinking more to manage pandemic stress.

My next guest thinks about this a lot, and she wants to help people navigate through the grayness,

through the drinking, or thinking about not drinking. Anna Marie Cox is a writer, a podcaster,

a political commentator, a commentator on science fiction and other cool stuff. Her podcast is called

Space the Nation, get it. And she's also someone with an addiction who's been sober for 10 years.

And now she started a new advice column for a New York magazine called Sober Questioning.

Anna Marie Cox, always great to have you. Welcome back to WNYC.

Thank you, Brian. It's really good to be here.

And we've had you on the show many times, but mostly for

political analysis and tips for having hard conversations for people you don't agree with.

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