SmART


transcript:
So, good stuff, good; bad stuff, bad. Yeah, exactly. And, as we know, this is some, and this is too much, which is a perfect reflection of the fact that alcohol has this thing called the biphasic effect, where, when you start drinking, things seem to get better, right?

[Music begins: "Jazzy Elevator Music" by The Aisha Duo]

And it's easy to think that if a little is good, then a lot is going to be better. Like that. It turns out, no. At a certain point, at a certain blood alcohol level, you begin to lose the good stuff and eventually you get into the seriously bad juju. This right here, is what a student has taught me to call, the pleasure plateau. This is around 0.06. I begin to get seriously worried about people around 0.12 or 0.15. When you get to 0.40, that's the point at which you have a 50/50 chance of dying. So, students gave me the names for these things. This, is what students told me to call, the zone of regret. That's where the irrational decisions and their consequences come in, down on this side of the line.

So, we have the pleasure plateau, and we have the zone of regret. But, I'm sure there are times when you can get the good stuff and minimize the not-so-good stuff. So, let's talk about that.

[Music transitions to: "Animal" by The Warblers, Originally by Neon Trees]

Definitely eat something before drinking.

I think the best thing you can do is be aware of how much you're consuming.

People sometimes will drink some, and have something else to drink too at the same time, or make sure that they drink slowly.

Measure your drinks. Plan how many drinks you're going to have, before you start an evening.

Not drink as much. Or not drink at all. Because you can get the good stuff from other things!

So, we're using this term drinks. What's a drink? Give me numbers, how many ounces is beer? 12 ounces of beer, which is extremely convenient because both bottles and cans in their standard size, are 12 ounces. I wonder if they did that on purpose.

How big is a glass of wine? 5 ounces, exactly. If you're a wine drinker, find a shot glass with a line on it so that you can measure 5 ounces, so you can see what it looks like. So, from there on, you can sort of eyeball get pretty close, but have a sense of what 5 ounces actually looks like in your particular vessel, whatever it is that you drink out of.

How about this whole shot thing? One and a half ounces if it's 80 proof. This is most rum, liquor, scotch, gin. One ounce if it's 100 proof. Half an ounce if it's grain alcohol. Don't ever drink grain alcohol. It's bad news.

Do you guys remember 4loko? Last year, it was a thing. What's bad about 4loko? So, there's five beers in there roughly, and 14 teaspoons of sugar, and it tastes like licking an aluminum shelf. There's a couple different kinds of alcopop out there, they're no longer allowed to be caffeinated, but they still have five drinks in them. Which that, in itself, like there is no responsible way for a person to drink one can that has five drinks in it. Please drink responsibly. The only way to do that is to just not drink it, or to split it among five people. That's the right way to go.