Why Gen Z are giving up booze
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 7 August 2023
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Younger people are turning away from alcohol, with Gen Z most likely to be teetotal – including Spider-Man actor Tom Holland. Millennials, too, are drinking less than their parents. What's prompted this generational shift in drinking habits?
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Guest:
- Helen Rumbelow, Features Writer, The Times.
- Professor John Holmes, Director of the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group.
Host: Jane Mulkerrins, Associate Editor, The Times magazine.
Clips: Jay Shetty, Dr Alex George, Avalon Comedy/Lee Mack. TikTok (freedietalks, energisewiththem, thelivneedham)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Monday morning, and if you're like many people, you're less than enthusiastic about |
| 0:11.5 | the start of the working week, and you cannot wait for the days to roll by and for the |
| 0:17.3 | weekend to begin. |
| 0:21.9 | But there is one sound that if you heard it right now, would transport you straight to |
| 0:27.4 | that 6pm Friday evening feeling. |
| 0:35.9 | Culturally, that moment has a lot of terms. |
| 0:39.5 | Wine o'clock, beer o'clock, gin o'clock, you get it, replace it with your beverage of |
| 0:44.7 | choice. |
| 0:46.6 | But something is changing. |
| 0:49.8 | We've had the UK's largest recent study of drinking behaviours at 16 to 25 rods, most |
| 0:55.7 | like to be tea-total. |
| 1:21.5 | Are we drinking less? |
| 1:23.8 | And this be the end of our British boozing culture. |
| 1:27.6 | It's 5 o'clock somewhere. |
| 1:29.3 | And what does this tell us about the way society is changing? |
| 1:33.6 | It's very threatening this idea of someone giving up. |
| 1:38.9 | I felt healthier, I felt fitter, and I just sort of said to myself, why am I enslaved |
| 1:46.6 | this drink? |
| 1:53.1 | All listening to stories of our times, from the times and the Sunday times. |
| 1:57.6 | I'm Jane Malkerrens, the Associate Editor at the Times magazine. |
| 2:01.9 | Today, why young Britons are giving up booze? |
| 2:06.9 | Oh no, you're hungry. |
... |
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