Pop Culture: The Soft Drinks Podcast

Hello if you've come here from Grazia! If you're listening before Feb 1st, your two favourite pop enthusiasts have written about all things soft and you can read our piece in the current issue. Our guest today is Professor David Nutt, the renowned neuropsychopharmacologist and all-round science legend, who has dedicated much of his career to understanding how alcohol and drugs affect the brain. He co-founded GABA Labs to bring greater choices to adult social drinkers, and the first available result is Sentia: a non-alcoholic drink that gives you a two-drink buzz. We talk about why humans enjoy booze in the first place, and Prof Nutt's forthcoming products for GABA Labs – including Alcarelle, a genuinely revolutionary molecule that could be to alcohol what sweetener is to sugar.

Tom Whipple's Sentia piece in The Times

How drugs compare in terms of harm

Episode summary:

We're in Grazia! (0:00)

What are we drinking? M&S Frizzantea (2:34)

Mailbag! Shirley Temple drink and its history. (6:13)

Non-alcoholic drinks and drug policy with Professor David Nutt. (10:27)

Alcohol's effects on social anxiety and harmful usage. (17:33)

GABA and its role in the brain and food. (22:13)

GABA-based functional drinks and their effects. (26:26)

Alcohol harm and the future of Prof Nutt's non-alcoholic alternatives. (31:51)

*smug fist bump to Duolingo lads who knows that 'Frizzantea' is a pun on 'frizzante' which means fizzy, and also, actual Italians*

Episode transcript

If you’ve got a favourite drink you’d like to share with us, or any other non-booze-related gossip, then email us at [email protected]. You can see what and where we've been drinking lately on Instagram @popculturedrinkspodcast, and join our mailbag! DM us a voice note or your thoughts on all things drinks – we love to hear from you, and we might share it on a future show.

Pop Culture is on Bookshop.org! Read books by us, our guests, and others we like, while helping to support the show. Thank you for listening and, until Helen comes up with another catchphrase, keeeeeep drinking!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's quite a lot of literal pop culture in this episode, with a lot of talk about film – Helen has a new Shakespeare buddy in Tom Hiddleston and a glorious story involving Coca-Cola from Mia McKenna-Bruce – and of equity and equality in the entertainment industry.

Our guest is DJ Paulette: international DJ, legend of the Haçienda, author of Welcome to the Club: The Life and Lessons of a Black Woman DJ, and sober since 2018. So what's it like working in entertainment when you'd rather have a teapot than booze? And how do you connect with music if you're used to 'Dutch courage' from alcohol? Paulette and Helen have some advice for Kat – and anyone else who finds it hard to let go. And there's a lot of love for tea!

There are plenty of goodies in our mailbag, with letters and messages encompassing Swiss beer, Irn Bru, Sentia, and a radler (10 points if you didn't have to google it, we definitely did) and some drinks recommendations we've got to order.

Episode summary

Mia McKenna-Bruce's Coca-Cola story and Shakespeare with Tom Hiddleston (2:14)

January cinema and and we test out Loveau (6:18)

Giving up alcohol and finding new ways to connect with crowds as a DJ. (13:40)

The impact of alcohol on DJ Paulette's career and connections with others. (20:00)

Sober clubbing and the importance of tea. (21:54)

Dance floor confidence and vulnerability. (26:52)

Non-alcoholic drink options in clubs and festivals. (30:59)

Non-alcoholic alternatives to drinking. (36:19)

The importance of speaking up and owning one's story. (41:00)

Clubbing culture, women in film industry, and DJing. (47:17)

Pop culture, soft drinks, and shelf life. (51:47)

Non-alcoholic drinks and their ingredients. (57:31)

Episode transcript

If you’ve got a favourite drink you’d like to share with us, or any other non-booze-related gossip, then email us at [email protected]. You can see what and where we've been drinking lately on Instagram @popculturedrinkspodcast, and join our mailbag! DM us a voice note, or your thoughts on all things drinks – we love to hear from you and we might share it on a future show.

Pop Culture is on Bookshop.org! Read books by us, our guests, and others we like, while helping to support the show. Thank you for listening and, apparently, keeeeeep drinking!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Fat Duck is one of the most creative restaurants in the world – we've paid to go, twice – and since 2018, Head Sommelier Melania Bellesini has made sure its soft drinks have measured up to its vast wine list. We were invited to get the gossip on their non-alc drinks and, unsurprisingly, jumped at the chance! From Melania's attempts at perfecting an own-label cola to the drink the staff vetoed, she shared her knowledge and then some – this is completely fascinating and has revolutionised how both of us think about putting a drink together and how we pair drinks with food. Put it this way – Helen's favourite drink is now a dead ringer for an Old Fashioned, and Kat's finally caved and brought some of the seasn 0% cocktail bitters which were used in lots of Melania's drinks, and is one step away from taking out shares in Wild Eve, Monin syrups, and Non. Plus, we asked Melania last week's listener question about food and booze, and someone fell down the stairs mid-interview – they're totally fine, but that's what the kerfuffle was all about. A big thank you to Melania Bellesini for her time and expertise, and to everyone at The Fat Duck for hosting us so beautifully. We did leave, eventually.

Episode summary

Introducing Melania. (3:21)

Where to start with creating a non-alcoholic drinks pairing. (8:07)

How to create a signature cocktail. (12:17)

Creating alternatives, not replacements. (19:21)

Pairing the right drink to the right dish. (26:16)

The importance of glassware – and coffee. (32:36)

What a sommelier drinks at home. (39:55)

The Fat Duck version of Coca-Cola. (46:11)

Non-alcoholic drinks at The Fat Duck restaurant. (52:34)

Episode transcript

The Fat Duck drinks menu

If you’ve got cool knowledge about soft drinks that you'd like to share with us, or any other non-booze-related gossip, then email us at [email protected]. You can see what and where we've been drinking lately on Instagram @popculturedrinkspodcast, and join our mailbag! DM us a voice note, a quesion, or your thoughts on all things drinks so we can share it on a future show.

Pop Culture is on Bookshop.org! Read books by us, our guests, and others we like, while helping to support the show. Thank you for listening and, until Helen comes up with another catchphrase, keeeeeep drinking!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy New Year and welcome to the show! Helen and Kat share their Christmas drinks and New Year's resolutions (spoiler: don't do them in January, it's miserable enough) before welcoming the genuinely divine Helen McGinn, wine expert, author, and star of Saturday Kitchen (and, as of Saturday night, Celebrity The Weakest Link!).

Helen was a supermarket wine buyer for 10 years before establishing her own brilliant wine site as @knackeredmother, and writing several books and now, novels, including The Island of Dreams which is out in February. Helen is also the author of A Wine Expert’s Guide to the Best Booze-Free Drinks and gives us her no-nonsense tips for non-alcoholic drinks with plenty of flavour and punch. We also discuss the 'mummy wine' trope and ways to relax and unwind.

Episode summary

Helen and Kat's Christmas drinks (0:00)

We try Bax Botanicals alcohol-free cocktails inna can. (5:00)

New Year's resolutions and what works (and doesn't) for us. (10:07)

Start of Helen McGinn interview. (15:06)

Making shrubs and homemade cocktails. (19:46)

Switchels and other ACV-based drinks (24:19)

Helen M's pick of decent non-alcoholic wines. (28:04)

Botanical drinks and functional alternatives to alcohol. (32:43)

The Mail Bag! (What's a good nickname for this? Let us know. It cannot be The Tea Bag) (39:09)

Listeners' Dry January drinks recommendations. (41:52)

Helen O's movie recommendations for January. (50:55)

Episode transcript

Another huge thank you to Helen McGinn who went above and beyond for two random women. It's always boring when people cite 'technical issues' on a podcast, but we had several pre-Christmas visitations from ghosts in the machine, which is ultimately why Kat sounds as though she is transmitting from deep inside a well. Thank you Helen, you are an absolute star and we hope you got everything you wanted for Christmas AND MORE.

If you’ve got a favourite drink you’d like to share with us, or any other non-booze-related gossip, then email us at [email protected]. You can see what and where we've been drinking lately on Instagram @popculturedrinkspodcast, and join our mailbag! DM us a voice note, or your thoughts on all things drinks.

Pop Culture is on Bookshop.org! Read books by us, our guests, and others we like, while helping to support the show.

Artwork: Ilutaka

Music: HoliznaCC0

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is it overkill to say that Ben Branson basically invented the non-alc drinks space as we have it now? Through his invention, Seedlip, a billion-dollar non-alc industry now exists, bringing quality drinks into restaurants, bars, and homes around the world. Ben tells us the hard truths of launching a new product when you're one person (especially when it's non-alcoholic), the best and worst things people said to him, his secret future plans... it was truly a breath of fresh air to speak to him.

Ben's latest invention is seasn cocktail bitters, beloved by sommeliers Melania Bellesini (The Fat Duck) and Helen McGinn (Saturday Kitchen – and check out our episodes with both of them to hear them raving about them). Ben was diagnosed with ASD and ADHD in 2022, and subsequently founded the charity Prism ND to bring better awareness of neurodivergence to media coverage. Prism ND's first project is The Hidden 20%, a brilliant podcast where Ben interviews neurodivergent people with a central concept that "great minds think differently". Kat especially is a huge fan, so check it out.

If you’ve got cool knowledge about soft drinks that you'd like to share with us, or any other non-booze-related gossip, then email us at [email protected]. You can see what and where we've been drinking lately on Instagram @popculturedrinkspodcast, and join our mailbag! DM us a voice note, a question, or your thoughts on all things drinks so we can share it on a future show.

Pop Culture is on Bookshop.org! Read books by us, our guests, and others we like, while helping to support the show. Thank you for listening and, until Helen comes up with another catchphrase, keeeeeep drinking!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.