It’s Not Just You—Things Are Changing | Episode 17

Lots of things are shifting in the culture around alcohol — and it’s bigger than just “drinking less.” From Gen Z redefining social life to the rise of wellness culture, daytime socializing, mindful drinking, and even the unexpected impact of Ozempic and GLP-1 drugs, a new relationship with alcohol is emerging in real time. And Maxine and Isabelle are HERE for it!

In this episode, they talk trends, contradictions, and cultural forces reshaping drinking culture today — and how the alcohol industry is rapidly reinventing itself to keep up. They also reflect on their own experiences growing up pre-social media, from Maxine’s hilarious Atkins diet era to the very different pressures younger generations now face online. This isn’t about prohibition or perfection. It’s about something bigger: alcohol is no longer the unquestioned center of connection, celebration, and fun!

Liquid Joy: Saint Viviana Cabernet Sauvignon

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www.happyafpodcast.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Hi, everybody. I'm Maxine. I am happy alcohol free. Hi, I'm Isabel, and I'm happy as fuck. And this is episode 17 of HappyAF Podcast. We were just like turning them out. As always, we like to get our little segment started with some liquid joy.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Absolutely. Absolutely. So this is my go-to everyday wine. You know, you have a go-to. Yes. That's it. So it's called, and by the way, another woman-owned, we don't even do on purpose. You and I don't go out looking for women-owned.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

They just do. It's because women are leading this industry.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

So this is called Saint Viviana. It's a Cabernet Sauvignon. They also have a Sauvignon Blanc, which is really good. And it's a good Sauvignon Blanc that's not like New Zealand grapefruity, because I don't like that. No. But this Cabernet Sauvignon is really delicious. If you like oak, not like in your face oak, just enough oak. From California, woman-owned. I believe it's sustainable. Also, very low in sugar, which counts for me in the sense that I drink so much. Yes. That I'm like, I don't want to drink all the sugar. All the sugar milk. So this one, the sugar is two grams per cup. There's four. So that means you have the equivalent of a third of a no, a fourth of a can of Coca-Cola.

SPEAKER_03 1:28

A fourth. Well, and also it's really delicious. So do you remember on the last episode, I had said to you when you go in, when I went into Nature's Market, and Joey, who's their wine buyer, has it was that wine he was talking about. I buy it by the case. He was like, he was telling me about this one, and he was like, Oh, San Viviane, of course, that's your co-host, Isabel's favorite. He was like, when I look at my inventory, I'm like, oh, Isabel's due. I better buy some of that. Um, so yes, you buy that by the case. And I have tasted this at your house before. Yes. Oh, and I have a little segue on that. And I'm actually going to move this my buddy, Roger.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Roger, baby. I'll love you so much. You calling him Roger? Well, the plant is Roger. Okay. It just came, it just like now it's not bothering me. So I have a thing about this I need to say. About what to planter are to plant us. We share chartreuse. Um, so I was at my mom's house the other day, and a couple of her girlfriends, whom are a delicious, they're in their mid 80s, and you think they're 65, and they're so delicious and cute, and I love them. Anyways, one of them whom I love, she's like, Let me let me sniff this because she's not a big drinker. She's like, Oh, it smells like wine. And then she's like, Can I taste it? I was like, sure. And the thing is, children, even though it's non-alcoholic wine, unfortunately, you're gonna lose something when they remove the alcohol. One day they're gonna figure a better process, but we're not there yet. So if you go in wanting that it tastes exactly like wine, you're not gonna like it. Correct, right? It doesn't have the tannins, it doesn't have the tons. But she drank it. She's like, it's good, but it tastes like juice. Oh, but when someone calls my AF wine juice, you're like, there is something that happens with me. It's like a mama bear, and I'm like, I do I call your fucking kombucha juice, son of a bitch. Don't call my fucking AAF. It so people out there, if there's anyone here that listens that still drinks, don't call your friend who doesn't drink non-alcoholic wine juice. It's highly offensive. Yes. This is from a privileged white bitch in Vermont. Do not call my AF wine juice.

SPEAKER_03 3:34

Which is the also known as name of our podcast. Right. All right, let me taste this.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

It smells like Cabernet Sauvignon or damn close.

SPEAKER_03 3:42

It does. Can I tell you specifically what it smells like? Tell me. It smells like a California cab.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

And that's exactly what it is. Oh, I'm it sounds like it's not from America.

SPEAKER_03 3:52

It's Saint Vivian. It's Saint Viviana. Saint Viviana. I see. I think I told you this. I have a um a French family friend staying with me. So I have a I have a second son right now. Yeah. And uh he is um French. I adore him. I don't want him to go back home. Uh oh, hilariously, I said to him, You have to meet my my co-host uh for my podcast. She's uh French Canadian, and you could speak French with her, and he's teaching me French, but he's and my daughter French, but he's learning English while he's here and he's got way better English than I have French. To which I said to him, You have so much better French than I have English, and he went, Uh, that is a good thing for me. Thank you. He's so funny and so dry and so witted. That's such a French humor. But as I said to him, I was like, You gotta meet my friend Isabel. She's from Can Canada, French Canada. And he went, Uh-huh, yeah, they speak funny.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

I know, little fucker. I knew he was gonna say that. We'll we'll glaze over that one.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

But here's the other funny thing that he said to me when I was pouring a glass of wine the other night at dinner, and again, it's children and their honesty, which is gosh, it's just the best thing. But I I had this when I was in France too. I poured a glass of wine, and I don't know how we we said something, or maybe my son said something, because my children are really proud. Right. I don't drink. Oh good. Like they love that. They're like, Yeah, my mom doesn't drink alcohol. Like it's like it's a real badge of honor for them. But but but uh Maxime, first of all, his name is Maxime. Maxime. So we have one one different letter in our names. And I I'm looking at my one and I went, Oh, it's uh sans sans alcohol.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

And he went, What?

SPEAKER_00 5:34

So French. It's so friend.

SPEAKER_03 5:36

I mean, he did such a double take, and I was like, We, and then he did, you know, also French people have um facial expressions that are the greatest in the world. Yes. I mean, there is it is just oh, you know I'm a francophile, but but he when I when he said he went, huh? And then he went.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

As if to say, well, that's fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

They have the best facial expression, they really do. They really do. They can't tell you to go fuck off without opening their mouths.

SPEAKER_03 6:05

The other great thing about French people is is all the all the sounds that are words. They're not words. Like this is like these are all not words, no, but they are words. They are because if you use the sound, the other person knows exactly what you're saying, exactly what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Speaking of French, actually, I was gonna say, my dream or a wet dream come true will be when they have an actual like non-alcoholic Bordeaux. And it is a wet dream being that is not true. It's coming. Uh, but I do have Oh, look, even I said something that was Oh, it's coming, it's coming. Look at you, all dirty and shit. Um, I do have is currently dying behind the screen. I do have a bottle of French Bordeaux that's non-alcoholic, and it's from France. I don't sell it in the States anymore because people weren't buying it, because I guess people didn't want to spend 50 bucks on and I have it with me, but we decided it's too early.

SPEAKER_03 7:04

Um, let's save that for landmark. So this is good. First of all, so it smells jammy, yeah. Like that's how I would have described a California cat with. Uh cheers. Slauncha? Yeah. Chin chin. Chin chin.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

I mean, it's just it tastes like a cabinet from from fucking uh California.

SPEAKER_03 7:26

It does. And um what that your mom's friend was saying is is what it is missing is the thing that's removed.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

That is but but for me, I don't know if I I want that astringency. Not that, but what unfortunately, and I'm sure I'll get corrected by real experts, but I believe that when they remove the alcohol, alas, some of the um polyphenols, like the some aromas that are are volatiles might leave with. Yes, you know, but for me the burning oh that I don't miss.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

That I I mean, and that is as as I tell you, I I I continue to do it, I do it a lot less now. And you and I are very different on this subject, where I love to taste Andrew's wine just to see what it tastes like. And oh gosh, they opened something amazing at a dinner party recently. Uh oh, a Kilsidea Creek that we've had in the wine cellar for a long time. And it, you know, it's a very special wine. And and I was like, let me taste it. And same thing. I didn't like it. No, I spit it out. Huh. Because I really was like, okay, I fully dislike. So stop tasting. I know, I know, but I do it much less frequently now because we've got frequency tickles me. It tickles me. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

I love that I hate the taste of it. Okay. And it's I'm just concerned. I know, I I don't, I know for me, yeah, the first one would taste like shit. The second one would taste okay, the third one that's like.

SPEAKER_03 9:02

I'm talking, I I I put enough of it in my mouth to swish around to see what it feels like. Right. And and do I still hate the f the feeling of the gives inside my body when I swallow it? How how my my throat goes ek. Yeah, your body probably reaches it. When I when I was drinking, I never I couldn't drink straight liquor. Like I couldn't drink um, you know, I couldn't. I have a friend who drinks uh cognac, couldn't drink cognac. Couldn't drink, everyone's like, what you're Irish, you don't drink whiskey. Can't drink whiskey. Right. The burning, I'm a singer. So the feeling that you are possibly eroding my vocal cords while I'm drinking this beverage. Um, I have friends who would drink, you know, extra dry martini. Uh-huh. And I would taste a little bit of it, and I'm like, okay, I feel like I'm there's something eroding in my body if I put those. So I could never drink hard stuff. Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

So now that is what it feels like when I drink wine. Understood. So see, unlike you, with the hearts, although I was a wino, complete wino, and the reason why I focused on wine is because I remember once, been to France more than once, but one of the time, a girlfriend and I, this was when I was single, started drinking cognac after dinner the whole time we're there, right? One glass of cognac. So then on my way back home, I was like, yeah, I get a bottle of cognac. Nice cognac, brought it back. I was living in Harlem at the time. And in two weeks, I polished a fucking bottle because every night I'd come home from having drank with my friends, and then I went to Scotland, and the same thing happened. So I'd drinking a little scotch after, and next thing I know, I polish a whole bottle of scotch in one week by myself. You know, so I build a tolerance and I build a one very quickly.

SPEAKER_03 10:47

But and I see this in very many aspects of my life, um, in things that I'm trying to approve, improve on, like tennis or golf. And you think in the moment you're creating our a ritual, and it can be good or bad, right? That's how our brains work. Right. And so if you're introducing this repeated behavior, like a nightcap or a which is addictive, which is which on top of it, it's addictive. But you're doing it, and and then all of a sudden you're like, oh my God, this is now second nature to me. Correct. But you didn't realize it was getting second nature, and now, oh my God, you don't know what to do except have that cognac or that scotch after dinner.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

And then you add to it that you're actually doing that repetition with something that's highly addictive. So a lot of us, not all of us, some of us might be not completely immune because we're all humans, but some people, it's like cigarettes. Some people take to it, some people don't, right? But if I'm I wager, and I'm not sure, that even with cigarettes, let's say someone tries cigarettes, they hate it. If you made them smoke it every single day by force, eventually they'll get hooked up to nicotine. Right. I think, but the some people it happens faster than others, and I think that's what it is with alcohol. I happen to be one of those that it happens fast. Yeah, you know, yeah. So I couldn't taste. So that's why, like, if I were because I tried that, I would quit for three months, it's happened once, twice, and then I would be like, oh, just have a glass, and one glass turn into a bottle within three days, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:22

So, um no, and so I'm not saying I drink a glass of it, I'm saying I would take a tiny sip just to see how it feels. And there's just there's I get I get um, I would say it's like a re reaffirmation every time I take a sip, I'm like, oh your body laughs at me. He's like, I just can't believe it. Your body's rejecting the taste of this. Your body's rejecting this happened to me. Yeah, your body. How did the person, if you remember our very first episode, because I was looking back as we were doing a six-month recap, I was looking back on the stats and the data for the different episodes. And of course, the first one was widely watched because it was the very first one we did. And um, but I remember there was a clip from that episode that that uh is so true to this day. Uh is that if you had told Maxine two years ago that you were going to live a life without uh red burgundy wine, I would have said to you, uh, nope, you're talking about the wrong person because I can't live without that. Right. I can live without a lot of things, but I can't live without that. That is ritualistic, it is part of me. It is something that I have adored, that I have loved since my early twenties. And I have a passion and a relationship with this particular beverage. We sell ourselves. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Here I am. But it's funny you'd say that because as much as I don't want to drink at all, I it would, and I don't see myself, I don't see a situation in which I would want to drink. Then my dad passed away, I didn't want to drink. Um, you know, I still, if I sit there and imagine the rest of my life without alcohol, like not drinking ever again, it feels weird. Yes. Like it's it's I don't know how to explain it. It's like it feels weird because I think I'm still so, but I'm I'm I'm not gonna drink ever again. It's not gonna happen. Yeah, you know, I don't know how to explain it. I know I get that the imagery, I think. Like I think we're still soul stuff that is so ingrained in our subconscious, which is an amazing, unplanned segue to watch this episode about Sega Way.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

Because we want to talk about uh this is called it's not just you. It's not just you, it's not just us. The world is changing, right? And and that is why I, you know, this we this is this podcast is something you and I do when our schedules allow on the side of our um very, very full lives and careers. But one of the things that keeps me really committed to this is that the world is changing now. And when I look forward, I know how different the world is going to be in five, 10, 15, 20 years from now. And and and I love that we're having these conversations now while this evolution is happening at a really fast pace. And there's there's a constant debate on uh in the news and on social media at the moment about the generations of us and how we all related to alcohol. Like I look at the my parents were boomers, right? So born in the 40s, uh had their high years in the 60s and and 70s, and alcohol was not only uh a foundational part of their lives and society, but it was so glamorized. Yes, it was, and that you we talked about the advertising around cigarettes in this way. It makes you sexy, it makes you chic, it makes you fun, it makes you so liberated. Liberated, liberated, especially for women. Yes, and the and the um damn male patriarchy who ran and run advertising, it was all geared toward make the women believe they are sexy and and and free by smoking and drinking. Correct. Um, our parents' generation were were very much part of that. Our generation as Gen Xers, I mean, we we were just party animals.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

And yes, like coming of age in the 90s. 80s and 90s. 80s and 90s. That's what we're and first of all, we were a really a generation of absentee parents, all of us. Yes. I mean, I remember going to the our lake house on a weekend. I was 16 years old, and we were all left to our own accord all weekend in our little chalets. Our parents were in the city and we were partying it up, and and then the early 90s was like grunge era, so it was like it was badassery to drug and drink.

SPEAKER_03 17:10

Okay, so let me tell you yet another amazing thing that is so different for us. Yes, that Gen Xers, and I didn't know um what the term latch key was. In fact, for a long time I thought people were saying a different word altogether. I was like, what are they saying? What is this latch key? Right. What is what is latch key? Because your parents weren't home, but it's latch key. Like that the per you have a latch, the latch is open, or you have a key.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

So I don't I don't know because I didn't grow up in English, but I know that for us, and I'm assuming that's what they're referring to, your parents would not be home, and you went home from school either to an empty house or for lunch in an empty house. So you you had a key on your neck and you would, you know, go home by yourself at a very young age, like eight, nine years old.

SPEAKER_03 17:58

Not me though. Right, no, no. Let me just tell you about the extreme um protective, possessive environment in which I grew up in. Got it. I mean, I was never out of the sight of an adult ever. Okay. Um, I went to a Catholic convent boarding school, so I was watched by nuns. And then when I was home, I was watched by a very, very overly protective father. Father, uh-uh. No, not my mother. Father, father, father. Um, who adored me, but like literally would have liked me to be chained to something so that I couldn't go anywhere. Yeah. Because he never wanted me to be hurt. He never wanted anybody to date me. He never, so I never had any, any, any freedom until if you remember the story. Yes. When I went to Portugal to Pariah de Russia in the Algarve and got drunk and and sexually assaulted on my first moment of freedom. So, but but the sex the the um the Gen Xers, I know that that's a big part of life. And I have friends from different parts of the world, from Australia who had that experience, from America who've had that experience. And and I understand it, but it wasn't part of my personal experience. But now we're all, you know, the big conversation now is around millennials and Gen Zers and their relationship to alcohol. And I hear this um, you know, it's the extremism that goes with every argument. And I was just talking about this in in general, in how we are today. Why does everything have to be so fucking black and white?

SPEAKER_00 19:43

I have no idea. I'm all about gray.

SPEAKER_03 19:45

Where there's gray areas all over and I was having this really annoying exchange with someone who were quoting a rule book, right? And I was A rule book? A rule book. A rule book. Right. A rule book. And I am a rule follower. I'm a rule breaker. I am see, we have all this yin and yang is why I love us. Um, but yes, there are rules, but there has to be flexibility, right? There can't be rigidity. That is why I think the the politics of this country and many countries are in the shitter right now. Because it's left or right. There's no room for the peri in the middle. Intelligent people see nuance. Yes, dumbasses need every see nuance. But so this article, these these articles that I I'm always reading things in the New Yorker and and New York Times and The Atlantic about about alcohol. And I don't know if this has happened to you, but since I stopped drinking, so many people text me links to articles about which is so sweet. It's so sweet. And I try to, I put them in my little weekend reading folder. I try to read all of them because I love all of these different takes. But then if you say anything about it and someone's like, oh, well, that's total bullshit. Gen Zers are just are uh yeah, Gen Zers and millennials aren't drinking less. They're they're they're just they just don't talk about it, or that there's always somebody willing to take down argument. But the fact of the matter is, and a lot of these articles that I've been reading recently about this the world shift, the global shift, the societal shift is pinned to millennials and Gen Zers because of how they perceive alcohol. So we're not saying that they don't drink, they drink less, they drink less, but they also don't put it at the epicenter of their lives of their lives. Apparently, or they're socializing.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Apparently, it's their parents. I was told or I read or whatever that they look at it as their parents' drugs. Yes. But let's ask you. So I've not not having done a research on it, I think it's quite apparent that millennials and Gen Z drink less. I mean, I I know a handful of them. I've been trying, right? But do you think they drug more with the whole weed business?

SPEAKER_03 22:04

I certainly that's what a lot of um the contrarians will say to me. It's like, yeah, they've just replaced it with weed, they've just replaced it. I mean, I don't know, I haven't gone into in-depth studies, and I like to focus on the positive things that are causing change. Sure. And and there is an undeniable difference in how these next generations perceive wellness. Right. That we were not prioritizing. I wasn't thinking about my well-being. No, we wanted to be skinny. Right?

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Back skinny as possible. Yes. We were jamming aspartame down our fucking throats like madness. Yes. I remember spending the late 80s bloated because I was drinking so much diet shit. Yes. Ugh. And smoking cigarettes and drinking booze. And we were so unhealthy, but we didn't know better, right? These were the years that fat-free was the way to go. Now we know it's a crock of shit. Yes. And eating a ton of carb, right? Proteins were like evil. Oh my God. We were so unhealthy. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

I have a hilarious story speaking about extremes.

SPEAKER_03 23:14

I wonder if I I don't think I did I ever tell you my Atkins diet story?

SPEAKER_01 23:18

No. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:19

So it buckle up. It's a good one. Um, so you and I have very different bodies, and we've had very different experiences with weight. My weight has yo-yoed my whole life. Uh-huh. Um, and uh, it's funny because I do want to talk about weight loss drugs in a minute, uh, but they weren't around, obviously. And and and they're very new to society, and they are also having a big impact on alcohol. But when I what you just said, like we just wanted to be skinny, right? I mean, we we came of age in the world of what did they call models. No, no, not even supermodels. The neck, the Kate Moss's, what were they called? Yes, oh my god. The heroin cheek. Yes, right? Where you looked at those people and you were like, oh my god, I must not eat food in order for me to look like that.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

Allie McBeal, remember that show? They were all anorexic, and these were our go-to images. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

And if you watched Friends, which by the way, my children are now watching with me. They're so skinny, but not at the beginning. No, but at the end, they are As you watch each ep each season go by, they're thinner and thinner and thinner and thinner. So, um, anyway, I'm someone who has always been how do I get thinner throughout my life. Thank goodness I don't live in that space anymore. My weight, and I've said this on the podcast many times, yeah, my weight stabilized when I quit drinking to a place where I just am happy. I'm completely fine with it, which is brand new. So nice. Brand new as someone who was bulimic, as someone who has done all of these things to try and keep myself skinny or get myself skinny. Yeah. Um, and I have pictures of me at the height of my skinniness, which was when I was on the Atkins diet. Oh my god. So the Atkins diet, for people who are watching who may not know about that, was I guess it was the original keto diet. Basically, yes. So basically it was zero sugar, zero carbohydrate. Right. But all the fucking fat you wanted. And protein. All the fat, all the protein. And this was during my Sex in the City years in the early 2000s in New York. Yeah. I was an executive in a firm. I was making more money than I knew what to do with. I would take myself on Friday evening to Manola Blonnock in New York City and buy myself two pairs of shoes. Oh my God. And take clients out to dinner and buy $300 bottles of Chardonnay de Pop and not flinch, right? And all I cared about was I needed to stay this skinny. Yeah. And I stayed this that skinny by only eating steak. Were you allowed to drink on that though? Oh, absolutely. Of course you could. I would have I would have these client dinners where I would take them to Del Frisco's. Yes. The steakhouse of New York City, which I later, by the way, when I went back to acting, ended up working in that restaurant as a waiter. Um, I would take the clients and we would spend $1,500 on lunch of just having wine and steak. Wine and steak. And all of the side dishes, I would be like, no, thank you. I don't eat carbs. And here's me thinking, Oh my god, I'm so healthy because I'm eating a fucking ribeye for lunch, drinking a bottle of wine, but not having, I would allow myself berries.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

Um, they were the only thing you could eat. They had the French version of that that my mom did for a very short time just to lose like a few pounds, right? And the the man was called Montignac. He's a French man. And I remember my cousins were calling it Montmagnac, which means my maniac, because they hated that. They they thought it was ridiculous. Like they they thought going on a diet was stupid, you know. So that's funny. But it's the same, it's the same. So we're all obsessed. Like, to be honest with you, I think the thinness and the drinking in the 80s and the 90s was like an obsession. Like we had to be skinny and we had to look like I don't know about you, but for my group, we had to live hard, like that rock and roll life. That's what we had to look like fucking demolishing ourselves. That's what we had to look like.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

So, and that's I mean, this is what I'm talking about. My Sammy Atkins story, and how how one of one of these episodes of extreme wanting to get even thinner. Um, and actually, it it happened. I was supposed to be going back to London the next day, and so my the headquarters of the firm I worked for was in London, and I was uh at Del Frisco's having dinner, eating maybe my second ribeye for the day. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

Would you not constipated like crazy? Wait until you hear.

SPEAKER_03 28:17

So in the middle of the night, I wake up and I have what feels like a dagger being stabbed into my abdomen. Oh, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I feel so bad. And I was like, I don't know what to do. And um the the I ended up going to hospital. Oh Jesus. Because I thought I was having appendicitis. And I thought I had I was, I mean this was pain, this was I couldn't stand up straight. Oh my god, like I was hunched over to to relieve the pain. I couldn't, I couldn't stand erect. That sounds like appendicitis. So that's what it was. And I had looked it up and I was like, oh my god, get thee to the hospital. So I go to the hospital and um they're like, okay, rushing me into the emergency room. They think I'm gonna have an appurst appendix. I am um texting, uh sending messages to London saying, I don't think I can come tomorrow, so we gotta cancel my flight, da da da da, doing all of this. We go in, the guy's like, okay, we're gonna do a quick x-ray, we're gonna see, blah, blah, blah. I'm in the in the room in the hospital. I remember it was the Lennox Hill Hospital in the upper east. And the doctor comes into me and he comes into the room and he's got this weird fucking look on his face. And I'm like, okay, I'm by myself. You know, I'm new to New York. So and and he goes, I have a question. And he puts this sheet, this, the, the X-ray up on the lighted wall, like fucking ER, like like the TV show. And he's like, and he's pointing at it. I don't know what I'm looking at. And I'm like, what is this? What are you doing? My feet. No, I can see that it's my spine. I'm joking. So I could at least see what part of my body it was. But you know, it's my torso. Right. And he looks at me, and then he's looking at me, and he was like, I have a question. I'm like, yes. And he went, When is the last time you pooped?

SPEAKER_00 30:11

You were all backed up from all the protein and no fiber.

SPEAKER_03 30:14

And I was like, what? And he was like, When do the la when was the last time you go to the bathroom? Right. And I was like, I I don't know. And then he takes like a his little pen out of his pocket and he's pointing to what looked like I don't know. I was getting a few.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

I know in French, it's a ficalence, it's a shit plug.

SPEAKER_03 30:33

There was so much shit backed up, like along my intestine. Ouch. And he was like, You are your body is in a real state of shock right now. He's like, You don't have appendicitis, young woman. Oh, God. And he was like, and it was he was he was angry. Like, because he did it to yourself that I did this to myself. And he had probably, I'm sure I wasn't the first woman on Atkins' diet that came in with like a backed up digestive system. And he was like, Okay, so I'm gonna give you this drink. And he was like, it might make you sick, but you have to drink it. You will stay in this same stuff until you drink this whole thing. And he was like, We will keep you in here until all of that has been passed, and then you can go home. And he was like, I want to talk to you. What did you what do you eat? And of course, I'm like sheepishly telling him, Well, I mean, today I had probably 48 ounces of steak. Definitely definitely had a bottle of red wine.

SPEAKER_00 31:32

He gave you the stuff for colonoscopy, probably.

SPEAKER_03 31:35

I don't know what it was, but it was so disgusting. Gross. And then, you know, we won't get into what happened to the rest of it. But this was my extreme desire to be so I never ever went back on the Atkins diet after that. How long were you backed up for? Oh, he, I mean, he had suggested possibly weeks.

SPEAKER_00 31:52

Did you not notice you weren't going to lose?

SPEAKER_03 31:56

Yeah, yeah, right. No, I know I know what you mean.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

I get it.

SPEAKER_03 31:59

But but so to go back to our idea of how millennials and and Gen Zers, and I have my children are alphas, I guess. Yeah, is that a thing? Yeah, that's going back to the top of the alphabet. Oh shit. Look at us. Okay. Rebecca might not be, she might be on the tail end of a Gen Zer. Okay. But I see their exposure to it, and there's definitely that stuff creeping back in of the skinniness, which makes me very, very nervous. But certainly, millennials and and Gen Zers are the point of this world change is that they are looking at wellness as a whole body thing. These are terms we didn't even have. You know, it's what you look like. We weren't prioritizing how we felt. No. And how we slept. That's another big thing. I think about it. That the change in people's awareness of sleep and sleep patterns and the importance of sleep, we didn't know. Burning the midnight oil was again another thing that made you rock cool. Badge of honor. Yes. Are you kidding? Yes. Absolutely. Um, so I think that shift in our perception as humans is having a big, big impact on the alcohol piece of our experience. Right. Um, but we gotta talk about since it segues in so beautifully from my um hospitalized Atkins experience, is the whole um weight loss drug thing, which blows my mind. I've been asked a couple of times because I lost when I quit drinking within within probably six to nine months, I lost about 15 pounds. Oh, wow. Um, of alcohol weight. I mean, that's basically what it was. And it wasn't just alcohol weight, it was a combination of alcohol weight and binge hangover eating, right? Right, because that was the big thing for me. Hungover, give me all the carbs, right? Give me all the greasy food, give me a massive lunch with wine and dinner. So for me, it wasn't necessarily just alcohol calories, it was how I was consuming food with alcohol, which has completely changed. Right. So I very quickly lost 15 plus pounds. That's great. And a lot of people were have now who who may not have seen me are like, oh my God, have you totally done the whole weight loss drug thing? And I was like, look, I haven't, uh, but I everybody I meet now is like, oh yeah, I'm taking it. Oh, I'm taking it. I didn't know until recently that, and and I did read some studies about this, the impact of the weight loss drugs on people's desire to drink is being studied now, and there is definitely links.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Not just drink, the people quit drink, uh people quit smoking, they quit drugging. So it has an impact on your brain. Yes, and that shows us if, you know, there's some um like I think in I've never been in the AA, but I think part of their mantra it might be, you know, it's not that they responsize the person, but like the people we are we would be allergic to it. It's like a little bit our issues, right? The addiction to alcohol. Well, this reaction to those weight loss drugs showed that no, this isn't a very addictive substance that make does something to our brain because these drugs act on our brains and now we don't have that need for drinking or smoking.

SPEAKER_03 35:35

Yes, or you know, and it's all connected to the dopamine and and all of that. But again, if I need to say it once, I'll say it a million times. We are not therapists, we're not doctors, we're not but there's so much information out there on all of this that is um really worth reading.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

But like when I ran on that stuff from people's experience, they it's very, very new, right? Like if this is a new field of research, but what they were finding is that the people that took those GLP1 drugs to quit an addiction, those that were successful after quitting the drug had done what they call the work, right? Uh, the pe people that did not do the work, meaning uh awareness around why do I drink, the awareness like we did earlier about like this is a social uh brainwashing that we're all subjected to. The people that didn't do any of that, they just took the drug, they didn't feel like drinking, they're like, yay, and then got off the drug, went back. Those that stayed off the whatever drug they were using did an awareness while they were not yearning for drinking or drugging, did also the whole awareness around the why they're drinking and why they're drugging and all that, and then they stayed off.

SPEAKER_03 36:53

So that's to show that there's a physical aspect and there's a huge social aspect, huge social and and mental, the psychological piece of it. But you know, I said to someone the other day that when you feel good in your body, however you've gotten to the place of feeling good, there's such uh power in that, there's such um grounding uh contentment in feeling good, just feeling when you wake up in the morning and you feel good, or or you look in the mirror and you you look at yourself and you're like, oh, I I like how I look right now. Right. It's all these all of these things are connected and fuel your desire to keep these things this way in your life. And if you can identify the the things that took you back, it helps you stay away from them. But the um, I mean, I wrote down the names of these things that um oh that that they're still researching, yes, GLP, GLP one, and that they the search, the research is showing it's new, that it reduces cravings, which is exactly what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

Because it acts on your brand. Yeah. The one thing to go back to those Gen Z and millennials, but mainly Gen Z, because they're basically were born with technology. The concern I have is that you know we're we're celebrating, feeling good about ourselves and all that, and we had to shed a lot of the dark influences of the 80s and 90s, I think. Anyways, I I had to to feel good about myself and also quit drinking, right? But I'm afraid that their dark influence is all that social media. Oh you know what I'm saying? And that it will push them back to numbing, right? Because it's like it's in your face so much.

SPEAKER_03 38:42

Like, ugh, but actually, I read a study. No, I read an article. Gosh, everybody need to write the articles down so that we can start pinning them in the in the in the podcast. Again, constantly learning. I read something that talked about how social media is part of the um the many, many factors that are impacting and reducing alcohol intake for these generations. Do you know why? Why? Because they care about so much how they look on social media. That kind of sucks, though, right? It kind, I mean, yeah, I guess, but if it's making you drink better, right. But it it's uh the the idea of it's way cooler to not look like shit on social media wasted. And it made when I was reading this article, it made me think of I have a box in my basement of camera um physical photos that were taken during my heyday. So I'm talking mid-90s through mid-2000s. Right. And they were in these, they're in these little yellow Kodak boxes. Um, and I I every day every now and again I look at this giant chest and I think someday I'm gonna go through those because every time I open one of them, I'm like, there's 10 photos that are the fucking same. And I so it's taking up so much space. I need to go through them, throw out, but I have found some where I'm like wasted. Thank God social media didn't exist. That that photo isn't on the internet.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

Thank God, like, throw away cameras that exist. And like I'm talking when we're 16, 17, 18, like there was some crazy shit going on, and there was no camera to record it. I'm like, I'm happy with that. I remember when we graduated uh for us, it was like high school for you guys is like grade 11 for us. And I went to my graduation party with my best friend Pierre because that's what I did. And obviously, I didn't have a gown because I didn't, I didn't use it. You were above a gown. I was above that. So I used my mom. My mom had gone in the 60s. She was a flower girl to someone's like wedding or one of those. So I got her dress. My mom's like barely five feet. I got it arranged for me, and that's what I wore. I was very retro, I was super cool, very like uh Molly Ringwall. You're still super so cool. But anywho, my point is like I remember we ended up doing the party at a friend's house that lived down the street from me. All the parents were gone, my parents were gone, their parents were gone, and we smoked weed till four or five in the morning and go wasted till four or five in the morning. And there was like at least a hundred kids there. Nothing got broken because we knew how to handle our liquor. But my point is like, where the fuck were these parents? Who the fuck knows? And that's last kid. Super, super normal. Thankfully, no camera. Can you imagine the kind of shit that would have like I'd be canceled? Yeah, I'd be canceled. I'm sure like I painted my face in a color I wasn't supposed to. I said shit I wasn't supposed to. Yeah. Me and all my buddies that were there, they knew that.

SPEAKER_03 41:50

No, but we we didn't live in cancel culture then. So, you know, but but it but there's definitely so I have a funny, a funny aside. Was that what you would have called prom? Yeah, I guess. So we didn't call we don't call it prom in Ireland either. It's called um your debs. Oh because it's supposed to be your debutant ball. Debutante. But it's like it's not, it's not. That sounds way too fancy because I've seen like the debutante balls in New York. It's not that. It's what when you graduate high school, and for for me, so um, because I was telling you about how incredibly possessive, overly protective my father was. So in my final year of school, which it's called sixth year in Ireland, and you're here will be you're a senior, I was the school president. Um, so I was not cool. And got it. Like really not. I was I was very goody two shoes. I mean, that there's absolutely and I loved it. And I owned that. That's your friend. And I had, I think I told you on once about my friend who had her hair shaped on one side. Yes, had the the big flap coming over so the nuns didn't see the shape. Um, but like she was one of my closest friends. So I had friends in every uh different sphere, but I was had my long red hair, I had uh pretty much looked like exactly like I look right now. Um, but I was the head girl, is what you're calling the head girl. And I was the head girl of our school. So I organized our um prom, excuse me. And I was dating a boy at the time that wasn't I wasn't allowed to be dating because my dad said I wasn't allowed to be dating. Right. Not because he was bad, it's just my dad wouldn't have approved of anybody. Anybody. So we or I organized the whole thing and I said, I'm going. I stood up to my father and I said, I'm I'm taking Brendan was his name. I'm taking Brendan to the prom. He was so sweet and lovely, and we had the most innocent relationship. Anyway, uh, long story short, stood up to my dad, said I'm going to the prom. My dad's with Brendan, and he said, You're not. And he said, You're not going. If you go with him, you're not going. Like, I'm doing just so I we totally had a face off. So I organized the whole thing, right? And I refused to go in a as a point of principle. Like wow. I didn't go to my own prom, even though I was the president of my class. Um and just, you know, and of course, shooting myself in the foot. My poor mother, my mother was this like caught in between my father and I, who both of us so many similarities. Apart from drinking, actually. He introduced me to alcohol. I think I've told you his famous phrase was alcohol, wine should always be two things. Red and French and end of sentence. But he was one of those incredible humans that first of all, he was huge. He was six foot two. And um, but uh I never saw him drunk ever, ever, ever. Right. It was not, he just didn't, that's not, it wasn't his thing. He drink like me. He loved gin and tonics, he loved red wine, he did all of those things. He threw, my parents threw epic parties. He could hold it down, but he could hold it down. Like you never ever ever saw this man drunk. Um, but so that's my that's my prom story, and I'm so glad that we didn't have photos, but I'm sad that I missed it.

SPEAKER_00 45:22

But like my prom the ending of it, so yours ended that you didn't go. Mine ended that in a very Gen Z Gen X fashion. So, as I said, all our parents were at their chalets or whatever. So I got home at like four in the morning. My parents weren't home. My parents didn't even see me to my prom because I had a golf tournament. That's so Gen X. Like nowadays, right? Yes. You if you got your prom, the parents are there, there are pictures. No, they were having a golf tournament. I dressed myself. It's not like I was special. My a lot of my other friends are the same way. My buddy Pierre, who's my date, my best friend, his sister drove us in her beat up golf Volkswagen. And that's it, right? My mom was like, send me photos. And but the next day they came home. And so I went, I got home at four in the morning. I went to bed, like like obviously, like hungover, drunk, whichever. My friend Pierre, who was extremely his family, were very, very, very, very well off in a very, very big way. And they're also absentees because that's what they did. Came over my house after I had fallen asleep for an hour, rings the door, but I'm like, fuck. I go downstairs with fucking Pierre. I'm like, Pierre. He's like, I don't have anything to eat. Can I come here and eat something? I'm like, there's so some peanut butter. I'm going back to bed. He was like, he was my neighbor also. He was like a fixture in our house, right? So I go back to bed, right? Pass out as Pierre was fixing himself breakfast downstairs. My dad loved Pierre because Pierre was like a good kid, but he was like, he had a little twinkle in his eyes, I have funny stories about Pierre. Anywho, so I pass out in my bed, and a couple of hours later, my door opens, and it's my dad, and he's like, What the fuck is he doing here? And there's Pierre in bed with me, but on top of the on top of the covers with his boots sticking out because he didn't want to, and he's like, sound asleep. So Pierre had patted, and I was like, holy shit, I even know. So that this is to show you how like then Pierre told my dad, I'm technically not sleeping with her. I have all my clothes on. So that was that was his oh sir, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 47:25

So if my dad walked into a room in that situation, you'd be dead. He the the boy would be dead. The boy for sure my dad would be dead. My dad knew Pierre very well.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

Pierre had like stood up. I remember the first time my parents, so I would stay home a lot alone all the time on the weekends. That was fine, but no boys. And I wouldn't lie. I was uh I was a rebel kid, but I would not lie to my parents. If I said, okay, fine, they won't be boys, they would not be. Okay. If they came, we'd be on the stoop. Yeah, you're a straight shooter. I was a straight shooter. So one day Pierre and I were smoking cigarettes in my room and we're playing backgammon, and my parents are gonna go away for the to the lake house. And my dad comes upstairs, like, Pierre's gotta go, we're about to leave. So Pierre's like, What's going on? I'm like, my dad doesn't want boys in the house. He's like, I'm not, I'm Pierre. Like, I'm like, he thinks you're still a boy, right? So Pierre goes downstairs, goes to my father, and famously said to him, Mr. Laurier, what's your problem? And my dad was like, Excuse me? He's like, What's your problem? I'm your daughter's best friend. What do you think we're gonna do? He's like, You don't trust me? You've known me for six years. I find this offensive, you said to him. Good for Pierre. So my father admired this so much. He's like, Pierre, you can stay. So Pierre came back upstairs and we're playing back gabby. So my dad opens the door to say goodbye, and Pierre jumps on me and pretends that we're French kids, and we're a little asshole. So from that moment on, my dad loved Pierre, he could do no wrong. So that was the prom drunken gen X, very gen X.

SPEAKER_03 48:58

But so that is the thing that that social media is changing for that generation, is they don't want to be photographed wasted, they don't want to be video and and it's the perception of how you look. Oh my gosh, I learned this um term the other day called a daycap. Took me a minute. What's a daycap? Yeah, it took me a minute. Guess what it is?

SPEAKER_00 49:22

A nightcap is a cocktail before you go to beds.

SPEAKER_03 49:25

So that this term now is instead of having a nightcap because you're thinking about your wellness, you want to be sleeping, you don't want to, but you still want the fun and the excitement of it. Is that you are you're you're doing the stuff earlier in the day. If oh my god, I love that. You know how much I love to go to bed at 8 30. Do you love this? And it was pink that I saw on social media saying I could I I don't know, I don't think she is, she but she looks like the type who would be who she would be. No, I don't think she is, but but um I could be wrong about that. But she was talking about um, oh, you know who is sober again. My brain is all over the place. Uh Jamie Lee Curtis. I knew that. Actress Jamie Lee Curtis, and she was talking about how she was requesting could could rock bands who we love, yes, you know, the pinks and the you twos of this world, could we have a fucking concert at five o'clock? And she likes famously to go to bed early. Amen to that. Amen. And there was so many people had weighed in and said, absolutely, I would buy tickets to that. I was in New York a couple of weeks ago or a couple of months ago, and I was walking through Times Square on my way to a meeting, and I looked up, and I think it was the Sony Center or somewhere where Jim Gaffigan, uh-huh, who's one of my favorite comedians, um, also sober. Oh, I believe, not gonna don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure he is, because he made that whole joke about why people look at you so weird when you say you're not drinking. He was like, What if I said I don't I don't want mayonnaise? Would you react the same way? Right. Um, he's one of my favorite clean comics. I just love him. I love him so much. Anyway, I'm walking by, what time was his set?

SPEAKER_00 51:15

Five o'clock? Love it. That's another thing about Gen X. You might not identify to that because of your upgrading of your dad. Yes. But I remember, so even though in Montreal the legal age for clubs was 18, listen, this was the 80s and 90s. Like, as long as like you looked apart and you were cute, you're kidding. Yeah, that's it. No questions asked. And there was this famous club, and my best friend Julie, who's I'm still friends with, uh, we'd hang out a bunch of us there called Bourbon Street. And if you showed up there before 11 at night, you're a fucking asshole. And so I remember wasting like smoking a whole pack of cigarettes, watching stupid TV just to kill time.

SPEAKER_03 51:57

Oh my gosh, until you could go to the club.

SPEAKER_00 51:58

So you could go to the club at 11. What the fuck is who made these stupid ass rules?

SPEAKER_03 52:03

Oh my gosh, but now you have just brought me back to so I didn't drink, as you know, until I was 20. So all of those teenage years, I wasn't even drinking. Right. Like I would I was I had a car. My dad got me a car, and you know, that was part of the rules of not drinking. Um, and I had a job where I worked to pay for the gas and the insurance of the car, the petrol. Um, and I used to drive my friends around, and I am just having, oh gosh, if there's anybody who who's Irish who listens to this, um, not just Irish, specifically from Cork. Um, there was a club called Sir Henry's. Okay. I like the name. And same thing. You didn't go until 11 o'clock. Maybe 11 30. Because when you went to 11, you were the first fucking people there. And nobody wanted to do that. No. And um, but it was great because I used to work in a bar, and bars would close at 11 and clubs open at 11 o'clock. Oh, so at least you were busy. So I was working, and then I would meet up with my friends, and we would go to this club. We would go to Sir Henry's, and it was in the height of EDM. Like it was electronic dance music, that's what that club was. And I, you know, when I think back about if if if only I had never drank. Yeah. Because I I had that whole era of my life where most people from the age of 15 to 20 are drinking like crazy because they're they're they're exploring for the first time. I was completely alcohol-free for that period of my life, that transformative years of going through teens and early adolescence. And I had the greatest time. Like I had proven to myself before I knew I needed to prove to myself that I did not need alcohol to have a good time. Right. I would be in the nightclub, I would be the last person leaving the dance floor, right? Partying my ass off completely stone cold sober. No ecstasy, no alcohol, none of it. When everyone else around me was doing that, um, I didn't need it. I didn't need it.

SPEAKER_00 54:12

It's so funny you'd say that because I never partook to the drug scene. In the 80s, it was coke, and the 90s, it was ecstasy. All my friends were dabbling. And and and by the way, I also didn't drink that. I smoked like a fiend. I smoked like cigarettes like a fiend in those days. But I didn't drink that much. I would like to sip my one, two cocktails. I started drinking a lot in my late 20s when I hit New York. When I and when I quit smoking, then it doubled. And then the more you do it to yourself, the more addicted you get. Anyways, I did. But interesting that you'd say that because in those days, I mean, I was smoking a lot of cigarettes, I was dabbling in the little pot and I was dabbling in alcohol, but I wasn't doing it on the regular like I'm I was doing it in my late 20s, 30s, and 40s, right? And I was having fun. You're right. You're right. And it's funny because my sister just had our 50th uh birthday party, and you know, now that's over a year and a half, almost two years, I haven't drank. I remember going home and realizing that I didn't even realize that I wasn't drinking. Like I didn't even realize that I wasn't drinking. Like it it I didn't even factor in. It didn't even factor in. Like the only reason that I left early, and it's funny because I left, well, early, you know, parties started at seven, I left by 10. A, I was with my mother, she was staying with us, we had rented a suite, whatever, and she looked tired. And B, there was great music, but that's the music that I grew up sitting around getting high, like rock and roll. We didn't dance to that. Oh, yes. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't dance to rock and roll, I can't even name that. I mean escape, but you know what I mean? Like that, like classic rock. Like, okay, for instance, David Bowie is my my god. Yeah, so this band did a great rendition of heroes. Great, I'm not gonna dance to that. Right. You know, I sat this is in our heads, we sat around, we smoked pot, and we listened to that music. So it was music like that, so that I'm not you be and because these people were younger than me, that we wouldn't dance to. So since I wasn't dancing, my mom was tired, you know, we left at 10. And I remember getting to the hotel and they second guessing me, did I leave early because I didn't drink? Oh, you were second guessing. I was second guessing myself. And then I was like, Brooks was like, What? He's like, No, you you it's 10 o'clock and you weren't dancing. If I dance, I'm gonna say I can't dance till three in the morning. But if I'm not dancing, then eventually I fade out and my mother was fading out. But I was second guessing myself. Again, interesting.

SPEAKER_03 56:46

And it it's like that, it's that whole social and were you thinking were you were you thinking how your leaving was perceived by others? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 56:58

Okay, yes, like oh, yes. I was like, you know, does everybody think I left because I was drinking because I'm not drinking? And all it was is that my mother is of a certain age and she was like in sweats because she was dancing and all she's tired. And and also, as I said, it's like great music, but not the kind that I like to dance to. So therefore, after a while, you know, you talk to everybody, your mother's tired, blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_03 57:20

There's there's so many things, there's so many things to unpack there as a therapist who would say, I'm some feeling so American right now. We need to unpack things possible. Um, but it is true, but I think there's a number of things at play, right? Right. And I and I don't think you and I factor this in often enough. Um we're at a different age in our fucking lives. It's true, right? It's like, remember, oh yeah, I do remember that I was doing, you know, cocaine at two o'clock in the morning, and uh I was also 28. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 57:55

You my body could could do those things and be pretty okay the next day. Yeah, I think I think there's a part, and I think that comes with maybe being childless, and also I think our generation as well of 50-something that are super healthy and very young for their age, and we're the first generation like that. Our mothers at 50 were not in our shape at all. So I think we just forget that we're 54. 100 that even though we're really in great shape for our age, we still have 54 years of wear and tear and there, and also of well, I've been there, done that. This is a little less excited than it was the first 30 years. I also I call that fucking wisdom.

SPEAKER_03 58:42

Right. Do you know what I mean? Well, we've been through, um, I feel like we can't have an episode where I don't reference my amazing mother-in-law, but we're hearing about Mars. I was talking to her about this feeling I have in, and and she had said it's your 50s. Right. Because I said to her, I was like, I I feel like I have a complete control of what I want out of life, or at least a control that has a negative connotation to it, right? I have an understanding, right? I know who I am, I know who I want to be surrounded by, right, I know what I want to do in my personal life, I know what I want to do and have yet to do in my career, which is bubbling with so much fantasticness at the moment, and and looking at you weren't thinking that when you were in your 50s one generation ago.

SPEAKER_00 59:43

No. And also I think as you're speaking about that and the unpacking, I think it's I think the self-doubt and the the second guessing for me anyway, comes more when it's a and I think a lot of people may uh relate to that in a family setting. When there's family members involved. You're much geographically further away from your family. You're that they're different, they're an ocean away. Yeah, mine are not, and I see them a lot, and I love them. And I think, you know, and it we have both share that Catholic upbringing, which is very family-centric, yeah, right? So I'm a product of that, and I think that's the only situations where this bubbles up. And I think a lot of the people that listen to that may relate. I agree. I agree.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:35

We have a number of friends who we've touched on this subject with, and family, it doesn't matter if it's alcohol or any other subject, that's where it is most sensitive. Doesn't matter what is where, because these are the people you are most connected to. Yes, these are the people who who know how to push your buttons, these are the people who you care about.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:55

And you want them to think you're my you want like I know that I still all the things you said, and you I mean, I also feel like you want them to think you're the best and amazing and wonderful. Yes, you don't want to disappoint ever, like right. So it's it's the only time I find myself that alcohol is something that's comes back to the surface is within a family setting. They're not doing anything, it's not them. No, no, it's me.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:20

No, it's you, and that I, you know, I feel like that will continue to dissipate over time. Probably, right? And a perfect way for us to wrap up this episode. I also think as the world evolves and the world's perception, society's perception, I mean, we could we could do an entire another episode just on how society is changing. We keep talking about the non-alcoholic world and all of these amazing women-led um alcohol-free brands. They are on an astronomical rise in growth. And even big alcohol is now waking up. I mean, look at all of the biggest brands that are saying, okay, we've got to join the alcohol-free party. It's not going away. No, it's gonna continue to grow. There's going to be more equality wherever we go in terms of alcohol not being the default for everybody. That is the change in the world that is coming. There's no way, and all of the people who want to be like, oh, you're not taking my wine from me or my no, nobody wants to drink. Nobody's taking anything over. You drink all the hell you want. Right. What we're saying is the rise of people who don't want that substance, who don't want that to be the center of every event, are on the rise and we're not going anywhere. Right. So, and also, by the way, at any moment, we're family now. That is right. At any moment that you need to be reminded of your epic fabulousness, um, you know who to call. Oh my god, you're the best. I mean, you just text me at fucking 5 a.m. and be like, This is like field therapy.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:57

I need, I need a little, I need a little pick me up. That's right. This is the know I am there for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:02

You're the best. This is the best therapy every time. It is the best therapy. It is you know, and last on that, I once had a therapist years ago when I was single, and I told Brooks that she used to fall asleep. Did I tell you that? You did tell us this. You remember my guy, Brooks the other day that came up again. I was like, remember my therapist used to fall asleep. He's like, you know, that's almost like a good sign.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:24

Nothing is too traumatic coming out of it. I mean, can you ever imagine a situation where one of us falls asleep on the other person? Except when drunk. Oh my god, yes. I mean, definitely I found myself nodding off in certain situations. Um, I I and I, okay, last funny story. I had a friend, I had a friend, my really good friend in law school. She and she and her then husband, um, they were, we partied a lot together. And this was when I was still living in London. And um we would we would have these epic parties at her house. She was Pakistani and they made this. I mean, she used to make food that I mean salivating now, just thinking about it. I mean, her mother's great grandmother's recipes with like 7,000 ingredients. Um, but and her husband was a great chef and they cooked together, and we were we all went to law school together. And but it just reached a point where and she was she was just just so fabulous, and and she would just look over and he would be flat out sleeping. Oh no. The dinner table, propped up a little bit, but like asleep, and I would just be like, what and she was like, Oh, he's sleeping, I don't fucking care. I mean, they did, of course, divorce, but and then and he wouldn't, he wouldn't lie down, he wouldn't do anything, he would just be sitting on the chair like this. Oh, that's a fast asleep. Fast, fast asleep. And it would be we would be on our third or fourth bottle of wine in this course. And you know, working your asses off right out of grad school, you know, and then cooking a dinner, and we'd be eating dinner at nine o'clock at night. And by midnight, he's fast asleep at the table. And she was just like, oh, just let him fucking sleep.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:12

I love the imitations. One podcast you have to put down. I'm a sucker for imitations and accents. You have to write down all the little snippets you can do for me. And just do it all one in a podcast. I'm just gonna sit back and pretty unless you're gonna go.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:25

You know, what how about one podcast?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:26

I just do the whole podcast in different accents. Oh my oh, I can I say one last funny thing that happened. Spocky, nothing to do with booze. And if it's politically incorrect, I don't care. So glad it's at the end of the podcast because we can maybe edit it out if we need to. Uh Indian friends that are their high net worth individual that he does business with, and they live in London and Indiana, so and they're very, very lovely. And I don't know if for those who listen to us, but usually, I mean, in my experience, Indian people move their head a lot when they talk, right? No, no, no, no, this is not possible, right? Well, it's like Italian, they use their tubs and their heads as a cover. They move their head, yes. And so they're on a Zoom call with Brooks, and and they call Brooks Mr. Brooks, and one of them goes, Mr. Brooks, I I believe your screen is frozen because your head is not moving.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:16

And Brooks was like, I'm actually just stationary.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:19

That is so funny. So then we're convinced he was frozen because his head wasn't moving.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:23

Well, I mean, and you and I, I mean, we are the most animated talkers. I mean, our poor editors, both video and audio, have such a hard time because we're close to the mic, we're far from the mic, we're moving our heads, we're in and out of the different shops. Brooks bought Brooks.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:39

Brooks bought me a t-shirt and it's an octopus knitting because I I thought myself the octopus because I have skinny limbs and I'm always like flapping all over.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:49

Okay, well, I just want to say I love us. Yes. Um, okay, that's a wrap on episode 18. Um, thank you so much for listening. Please, my call to action is always tell us what you think. Um, constructive criticism, no hate, haters scroll on by. Follow us. We're on all the channels and we're really building a little following on Instagram as our main platform. So um, watch us on there because our incredible um colleague Priscilla clips all of these into 60 second sound bites. Um and share, share, share, share, share, share, and uh send us your questions because we need to do another QA soon. That's my favorite. Thank you for listening. One more shout out.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:32

Signed Viviana, yum, my go-to. And happy summer, everybody. Happy summer, beginning of summer.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:39

See you on the next episode. I'm Maxine. I'm happy alcohol free.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:42

I'm Isabel, and I'm a happy as fuck.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:51

Just wanna be happy. Happy alcohol, not the free.