How To!: Be a Mindful Drinker

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4.2 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2024

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dry January has come and gone, but the conversation about alcohol—and rethinking our relationship with it—is still very much with us. This week's listener, Natalie, wants to move past the abundance vs. abstinence debate and talk about a third option: thoughtful moderation. In this episode, Courtney Martin brings on journalist Rosamund Dean, author of Mindful Drinking: How Cutting Down Can Change Your Life and Well, Well, Well, a Substack about living better, for longer. She shares how she found moderation through mindfulness—and how you can too.

If you or someone you know is struggling with excessive drinking, consider contacting SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP. You can also find a local Alcoholics Anonymous meeting by visiting aa.org.

If you liked this episode, check out: How To Stick to Your New Year's Resolutions

Do you have a problem that needs solving? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.

How To's executive producer is Derek John. Joel Meyer is our senior editor/producer and our producer is Rosemary Belson.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I feel like every year once January 1st hits it's like okay I'm going to stop.
0:06.0	There's some people who are able to do that and I applaud them to do so to just cut cold
0:11.0	turkey but I feel like alcohol has been a part of my life and
0:14.8	solely it and just to cut that out completely has been such a struggle.
0:27.6	Welcome to How-To, the show where listeners write to us with our toughest questions and we talk it out with the wisest people we know.
0:30.6	I'm Courtney Martin.
0:32.4	Have you noticed Americans just aren't drinking like they used to?
0:37.0	On the one hand, the younger generation appears to be drinking less, and there's a cool rise in non-alcoholic beverages and sodas and even like whole bars devoted to
0:45.9	socializing without booze, something I could have never imagined a decade ago.
0:50.5	It feels like it's never been so normal to be sober. On the other hand, the
0:56.6	pandemic threw a lot of us into a dark place. Women especially started drinking more to cope and we've seen the rise of these
1:05.8	identities that go along with that you know the wine mom and the craft beer bro.
1:09.9	Even though research shows that too much alcohol can be bad for us, six in ten Americans
1:16.3	drink and a third of those that do say they drink more than they should.
1:20.8	Now listen, I'm not calling people out, I can relate. I myself am one of those people who wants to reset my relationship with alcohol in this post-ish pandemic moment.
1:30.0	But as I've looked out for resources, I found it interesting how much of the public conversation
1:35.0	about drinking revolves around either abundance on the one hand or total abstinence on the other.
1:41.1	Meanwhile, a more searching conversation, you know a conversation
1:44.4	about moderation for example just seems missing, which is where Rosamund Dean comes in.
1:51.5	I'm a journalist and the author of Mindful Drinking, How Cutting Down Can Change Your Life.
1:58.0	And the reason that I wrote the book is because there are a lot of books and resources out there for people that want to stop drinking completely.
2:08.0	But in my experience, lots of people don't want to stop drinking completely.
	...

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