Free Thinking Festival - Breathalysing Britain: Free Spirits or a Drain on Society?
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2015
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Every day we read lurid headlines about alcohol abuse and the consequences of binge drinking for the young at home and abroad. But a deeper look reveals a complicated picture of alcohol use in Britain. Champagne is still linked with celebration, while pubs are closing up and down the country. University freshers' weeks are adjusting to reflect the increasing number of students who are teetotal - but doctors are reporting a rise in patients with liver damage. How should society accommodate people who drink to excess and those who don't want to drink at all?
Dr Sally Marlow from King's College, London is an expert in addiction. In a specially commissioned Free Thinking talk she explores the hypocrisy in society around alcohol.
Joining the debate chaired by Free Thinking presenter Philip Dodd are:
Professor Barry Smith - philosopher from the University of London's School of Advanced Study and wine columnist for Prospect magazine.
David Yelland – former editor of the Sun and a Trustee of Action on Addiction and Patron of the National Association for Children of Alcoholics.
Shelina Zahra Janmohamed, author of Love in a Headscarf and Muslim women's activist, who blogs at Spirit 21 and who is a lifelong teetotaller.
Recorded in front of an audience at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead.
Producer: Torquil MacLeod.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right? |
| 0:23.3 | It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's |
| 0:27.5 | out of ice cream. |
| 0:28.8 | Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:32.3 | Hello, nothing better sums up our contradictory response to alcohol than Frank Sinatra's. Alcohol may be our |
| 0:41.6 | worst enemy, but the Bible says love your enemy. No other drug or addiction could elicit |
| 0:49.3 | such a Janus-faced response. From the Greek god Dionysius to Disney's Dumbo and beyond, alcohol is an |
| 0:58.3 | inspiration for good and for bad. It can relax our inhibitions, but in a way at least sometimes |
| 1:05.3 | that is a danger to ourselves and to others. This free thinking programme wants to understand |
| 1:12.0 | and weigh the force that alcohol is, |
| 1:14.8 | understand its pleasures and its costs, |
| 1:17.9 | physical, social and financial, |
| 1:20.6 | and think about whether the pains are inseparable from the pleasures, |
| 1:24.2 | whether we can legislate, contain and reduce those pains, or whether we need |
| 1:29.4 | an immense cultural shift to move us away from a life of alcohol. My guest, Sir Barry Smith, |
| 1:37.6 | wine colonist for Prospect Magazine, Shilina Zara, Jan Mohamed, author of Loving a Headscarf, |
| 1:43.7 | and is a lifelong teetotler, David Yelland, |
| 1:46.6 | former editor of the son and a trustee of Action on Addiction and patron of the National Association for Children of Alcoholics, |
| 1:54.2 | and Sally Marlow from King's College London, who's an expert on addiction. |
| 2:12.0 | Now, to get us started, we've asked Sally to give us a short talk, and it will be short, |
| 2:16.6 | she's promised me, exploring the hypocrisy in society around alcohol. |
| 2:20.1 | Thanks very much. Well, it's really great for me on a personal level to be in the North East because I was born in Stockton on Tees and I know that |
... |
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