Vaccinated and caffeinated free#

We’re drinking more for reasons that have to do with coping. We’re not drinking more because we’re hanging out and partying. It seems like we’re more likely to be drinking it alone, which tells us-I think-that something kind of interesting is going on.

Julian: Americans have been drinking more and more for about 20 years, and we’re drinking it in a weirdly different way. She recently wrote about the nation’s drinking problem. Rameswaram: Kate Julian is a senior editor at The Atlantic. You could not buy beer at the zoo when you were there, like, looking at the animals with your kids. You could not buy wine in a plastic cup to carry around the supermarket while you shopped. Like, you used to be able to buy wine at the supermarket to take home. Kate Julian: I’ve noticed, over the past few years, alcohol cropping up in all sorts of places that it didn’t used to be. But the pledge to literally buy the country a beer if 70 percent of us got vaccinated said something about how we think-and how we drink. The nation’s still hovering around half-vaccinated. The sounds of a swamp at night: bugs buzzing and chirping, frogs croaking.) Rameswaram: The president was willing to pull out all the stops, including a partnership with Anheuser-Busch.

Vaccinated and caffeinated free#

President Joe Biden: Get a shot, and have a beer! Free beer for everyone 21 years or over to celebrate the independence from the virus. Rameswaram: To sweeten the deal, Biden proposed a number of incentives. Reporter: President Biden today announcing a national month of action to help the country reach his goal: 70 percent of adults with at least one dose by the Fourth of July. A month ago, President Biden challenged the nation. After a moment, a brief musical cue indicates the start of the Today, Explained episode.) ( Bell-like sounds signal the end of the music, then quiet. Longoria: She spoke with Sean Rameswaram on the show Today, Explained, and today we’re featuring that conversation. ( A plucky electric-guitar loop plays over the synthesizers.) Kate Julian recently wrote for The Atlantic about the history of our relationship with alcohol.

Longoria: This week, as you may or may not still be recovering from the long weekend, we’re taking a look at the origin story of our country’s drinking problem. ( A synthesized chime, like that of a mechanical cuckoo clock, echoes out as a light ripple of electronic scales weaves in and out, up and down.) This conversation originally ran on the podcast Today, Explained, hosted by Sean Rameswaram.įurther reading: America Has a Drinking ProblemĪ transcript of this episode is presented below: The Atlantic’s Kate Julian explores how this tool for cohesion and cooperation eventually became a means of coping, and what history can teach us about improving our drinking habits. From the Pilgrims’ arrival at Plymouth Rock to the rise of the pandemic “quarantini,” alcohol has been a foundation of American society and culture.