Ep 7: The Surprising Reasons Why Humans Love Alcohol With Edward Slingerland

Episode 7 April 16, 2025 00:49:22
Ep 7: The Surprising Reasons Why Humans Love Alcohol With Edward Slingerland
Drinks Insider
Ep 7: The Surprising Reasons Why Humans Love Alcohol With Edward Slingerland

Apr 16 2025 | 00:49:22

/

Hosted By

Felicity Carter

Show Notes

It gets you drunk, hungover and sick. And yet we go back for more. What’s the attraction of alcohol?

According to Professor Edward Slingerland, author of Drunk: How We Sipped, Stumbled, and Danced Our Way to Civilization, alcohol is the key to civilisation. In this insightful episode of Drinks Insider, he tells host Felicity Carter that much of what we think about alcohol is false.

We did not, for example, develop a taste for it because over-ripe, fermenting fruit has more calories. Nor did we value it primarily as a way of rendering dirty water safe to drink.

Instead, it’s a cultural technology that helped early humans forge larger cooperative societies, overcoming the limitations of small-group living. Without it, we’d never have learned to trust strangers.

In this episode of Drinks Insider, Prof. Slingerland discusses:

Professor Slingerland argues that alcohol's benefits in fostering social cohesion and creativity have been fundamental to the development of human civilisation, even if modern high-strength options present new challenges.

#DrinksInsider #Podcast #AlcoholHistory #Civilization #EdwardSlingerland #ScienceOfDrinking #SocialDrinking #Creativity #MythsBusted #FelicityCarter #DrinksPodcast

 

Other Episodes

Episode 37

October 15, 2025 00:44:17
Episode Cover

Ep 37: How Rod Micallef Turned Lemons into 3.5M Bottles of Gold

It’s the midnight idea that launched a sensation — Zoncello, the “it” drink of summer 2023 that’s now an established classic. Micallef, a former...

Listen

Episode 29

June 03, 2025 00:59:04
Episode Cover

Ep 29: How Daniel Rodriguez Raised $1.4M to Launch a Disruptive Wine Brand in an Aluminium Bottle

What kind of founder quits a high-paying tech job to launch a single-SKU wine brand in an unfamiliar package — and manages to raise...

Listen

Episode 1

June 19, 2024 00:45:40
Episode Cover

Ep 1: An Overview of the US Beverage Market With Kaleigh Theriault, NielsenIQ

The U.S. beverage market is the most lucrative in the world — if your product is a hit, your money worries will (mostly) be...

Listen