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this is the opinions a show that brings
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you a mix of voices from New York Times
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opinion you've heard the news here's
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what to make of
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[Music]
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it a warning for drinkers from America's
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Top doctor there is a causal link
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between alcohol and seven types of
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cancer alcohol consumption contributes
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to roughly 100,000 cancer cases and
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20,000 deaths each year reminder he
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wants added to warning labels already on
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booze beer and
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wine so I heard this news last week and
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I thought to myself here is another very
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unnuanced binary solution to what feels
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like a very nuanced
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problem my name is Boris Fishman and I
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am primarily a novelist but over the
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last couple of years I have also found
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myself writing more and more about wine
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so late last week the Surgeon General
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issued a recommendation that cancer
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warnings be applied to all alcohol sales
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in this country which is something that
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I believe Congress must act on first but
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the recommendation itself is weighty and
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consequential so the news wasn't a total
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surprise because anecdotally this has
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been happening for a while reports have
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been coming out for some time saying
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that alcohol is bad in any amount and
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these findings have real consequences
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you know we had dry January now there's
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also sober October I'm sure parched
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March maybe next then modest August and
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as long as you can find a rhyme for the
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month I'm sure it'll fall in line but
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more seriously little by little the tide
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against alcohol has grown foot traffic
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Falls dramatically during January and
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you know producers of wine are ripping
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out Acres of on Acres of vines I have a
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dear friend an exceptionally talented
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wine maker who is taking two years off
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the work without income because he no
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longer sees the demand I have a neighbor
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in the next town over from where I live
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who had a 6,500 bottle Cellar which was
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you know the Envy of everyone in a 50m
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radius and he has made the decision to
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stop drinking and sell off most of it so
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to me these feel like very consequential
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outcomes having to do not only with the
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way people live and enjoy themselves but
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with business with the kind of culture
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we have the kind of products we have in
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our Marketplace and what we consume for
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both meaning and
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joy so I really want to emphasize this
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if somebody has an alcohol dependency
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then I couldn't be more of a supporter
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of their not participating and so I'm no
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one to tell anybody else that they
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should embibe or should embibe this much
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or this little it just feels like
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something really important is getting
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lost in the conversation which is that
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the difference in what's wrong between a
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glass of wine and and a bottle of
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bourbon is enormous and if the Surgeon
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General of the medical establishment is
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going to communicate with consumers it
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must find more nuanced ways of doing so
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because the cultural values of consuming
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some beverages are very different from
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others as are the purposes of most of
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the people who do it of course the
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government has a responsibility to help
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consumers avoid harm no one here is
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arguing that there should be no warnings
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that there should be no help there
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should be no education I'm just saying
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that this doesn't feel like the solution
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just to speak of myself personally I
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write about wine professionally I am
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obsessed with wine it contributes a
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tremendous amount of meaning to my life
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but I almost never have more than a
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glass maybe two with a meal
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because the purpose it serves for me has
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nothing to do with tipsiness or becoming
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drunk or becoming looser or anything
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like that it has to do with
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participating in an incredibly Rich
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tradition instead of sensory olfactory
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psychological even experiences that
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transport me to other places and times
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and make me feel things that so few
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other things
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do I'm here to say that there is so much
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Beauty and meaning in consuming a small
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amount of wine that to have that
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big-footed by threats and warnings like
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the ones we're seeing now that lack so
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much Nuance is really disappointing and
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frustrating because it's going to drive
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so many people away from a truly magical
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experience last year my wife and I took
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our older child our daughter to Istanbul
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and while we were there we wandered into
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a wine bar called Wana which focuses on
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indigenous Turkish grapes and there was
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one glass in particular from a Turkish
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variet called Kachi KY if I'm saying it
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correctly which makes light bodied red
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fruited wine sometimes compared to
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pinoir I put my nose into that glass of
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wine and I smelled something that I have
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not smelled since I was 6 years old in
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my grandmother's Kitchen in Soviet Minsk
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which is where I was born with me
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sitting at the kitchen table in that
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kitchen that I hadn't thought of in
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close to 40 years at this point
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the sunlight streaming through the
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window in such and such a way and there
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was my grandmother now 20 years dead at
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the stove in the apron that she always
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wore when she cooked more than anything
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it was the same exact smell and it was
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putting my nose into that glass that
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brought me back into that kitchen and
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for a nanc brought my grandmother back
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to
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life with all respect to signs I don't
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care what warnings go on what bottles uh
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this is an experience that I never want
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to do without
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I was on an airplane yesterday and
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passing the business class cabin and
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there was a gentleman there wearing a
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t-shirt that said but does it
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scale there's nothing about wine that
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scales and I think that is such an
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important experience to embrace and to
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have particularly in our lives right now
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when everything is supposed to be
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repeatable and predictable and
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programmable we are not programmable
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creatures and every time I have a glass
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of wine I'm reminded of
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that what I would love for people to
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keep in mind is that it's really not
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about wine it's about what you value in
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life and what creates meaning
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and how perfect we are versus how
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fallible we are and whether we sometimes
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can draw meaning and import as human
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beings from something that is
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otherwise perhaps technically fallible
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I just want people to pause and to think
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about this as just one example out of
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many in a life that risks becoming
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stripped of a certain kind of magic
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because we're trying to protect
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ourselves out of
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existence I want you to think about what
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your glass of wine is and advocate for
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that and keep that alive in your lives
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because that flame is precious and there
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are certain things in our modern in
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existence that really threaten
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[Music]
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podcasts this show is produced by Derek
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Arthur Sophia Alvarez Boyd Baka derba
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pheet Christina samuli and Jillian
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Weinberger it's edited by Ki Pitkin
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Allison brusek and Annie Rose straser
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engineering mixing and original music by
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Isaac Jones Sonia Herrero Pat mccusker
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Carol Sabo and aim Shapiro additional
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music by ammen sahota the fact check
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team is Kate Sinclair Mary Marge locker
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and Michelle Harris audience strategy by
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Shannon Busta Christina samuli and
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Adrien Rivera the ex producer of times
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opinion audio is Annie Rose dresser
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[Music]
