Episode: 155 The Lady Buzzkill: Danielle B. on Alcohol, Cancer, and Who Gets Hurt | RMA 155

Danielle B. didn't quit drinking because she hit bottom. By every standard society uses, her drinking looked completely normal; a few nights a week, a high tolerance, no rock bottom, no trouble stopping. She didn't learn alcohol causes cancer until she was 40, and the word she uses for how that felt is duped. And angry. One reel in June went viral, and she's been talking ever since as Lady Buzzkill.

Mike and Nat go deep with her on how little honest information about alcohol actually reaches people, and how much marketing reaches kids instead, including the beer logo that ended up on a box of crackers. Why modeling moderation doesn't protect children the way parents hope. Why calling alcohol a drug is apparently the most inflammatory thing you can say on the internet, and the hate she's gotten for saying it. Why comparing alcohol to sugar and hot dogs is a logical fallacy. Alcohol as a neurotoxin, as a parasite, and as the side effect of a poison rather than a state your body was built to enjoy. Plus the secondary harms nobody counts — roughly four in ten people killed in alcohol-impaired crashes weren't the one who chose to drink.

WIW: Nat brings the mystery sound that rattled Milwaukee's South Side on Monday night. Residents miles apart heard it on and off for about two hours. One neighbor called it a robot alien screech; others swore it was a recording repeatedly saying "bad boy." Not a siren, not a train, not a tornado. Police, the Department of Neighborhood Services, and the county supervisor all received nothing about it. The source is still unknown.

FIND DANIELLE B.:

Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/TheLadybuzzkill Instagram — @Ladybuzzkill_ YouTube — Lady_Buzzkill

LINKS:

Mystery sound baffles Milwaukee residents (WISN 12) — https://www.wisn.com/article/robot-alien-screech-mysterious-sound-baffles-milwaukee-residents/73855194 Nat's WIW video — https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GahP8ifuT-0 NHTSA 2024 alcohol-impaired driving data — https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/Publication/813713 Surgeon General's Advisory on Alcohol and Cancer Risk — https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/priorities/alcohol-cancer/index.html

Recovery in the Middle Ages is a podcast about finding lasting sobriety later in life. Mike and Nat are two middle-aged suburban dads covering addiction recovery news, 12 Step and alternative recovery paths, alcohol use disorder, and the research behind it all.

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