Alcohol, Friend Or Foe? - #191

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hi friends, welcome back. My guest today is me, kind of. This episode was originally recorded on Ben Coomber's show, Ben Coomber Radio. He invited me on to talk about drinking halfway through lockdowns, or maybe a third of the way through lockdown, to just discuss how people were using alcohol to deal with difficult times. And seeing as we're about to reopen, pubs are reopening in the UK, I know that bars are in America as well, I thought that now would actually be a really good time to just remind ourselves of how we are using alcohol in our lives. It's going to be a really dangerous period over the next month, where you might take some liberties with your health, with your drinking, with the habits that you've created that are good during lockdown, and perhaps actually undo some of that great work. So I wanted to publish this episode first, because Ben's a great host and I really enjoyed this, and I've been meaning to put it out for a while. But I also thought that it would be a really good primer for a lot of you. As we get back into normality, let's not use this period to fall back into bad habits. You've potentially done some amazing work with building fantastic routines during lockdown. So let's stay conscious of those. Let's be deliberate and intentional with our actions. So this is an episode where I am being hosted by Ben.
I really hope that you enjoy it. We have some really cool conversations. There's a lot of questions. I push back on some of Ben's uses of alcohol and then he gives some great counterpoints as well. So it's a lot more talking from me, which you may enjoy or you may hate. But yeah, I might do this a little bit more. When I feature on other people's shows that I enjoy, I might put an episode across onto modern Wisdom. So let me know what you think of this. In other news, the modern Wisdom Patreon is launching this Monday, the 6th of July. I am so excited to get this going. We are launching a brand new patron only series, Recap 101 and 102 and 103, where I will cover the last few months of modern Wisdom, behind the scenes, what I thought of guests, what happened before and after episodes. And that is going to be only available on the Patreon. You can also get access to be able to vote on upcoming guests and topics that you want me to reach out to. There's the opportunity even to get a shout out on an episode and the absolute top tier. You can even become a researcher for the show. So there are tons of ways that you can get involved and any support that you can give the show would be massively appreciated. This is just me and video Guy Dean doing our thing. And if you love the show as much as I love creating it, any support that you can give would be amazing. So get ready for that. Patreon launches this Monday. Info will be in the intro before the episode and on my Instagram at ChrisWillX. In other other news, this episode of the podcast is brought to you by Surfshark VPN. You already know what I am going to say. You need a VPN in your life. If you still haven't got one, go and get one now. You get a 30 day money back guarantee. You get three months free and 85% off. The best VPN service that I have ever found. It takes minutes to set up and it allows you to browse securely online. It ensures that you're not getting price checked and price matched by novelty websites. It means that you are secure from hackers and it expands your Netflix library literally like 10 times. If you've watched everything, if you're struggling to find something new, series and movies, you have access to the whole world's Netflix library. It is so simple, even your mum could do it. So head to surfshark.deals.com/modernwisdom, 30-day money back guarantee, three months free and 85% off. It's about £1.50 a month or $2 a month if you're American. surfshark.deals slash modern wisdom. Go and check that out. Also, obviously, thank you very much to Ben for having me on his show. You need to go and check out Ben Coomber Radio, which is also linked in the show notes below. But for now, it's time for the wise and wonderful Chris Williamson.

**Ben Coomber** (4:41)
Hey, everyone, Ben Coomber Radio. What is happening, as is the theme with a lot of these podcasts during this lockdown period. We're kind of ignoring it, like it's just happening, but just pretend it's not there.