The Alcohol Alert Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

In this month's podcast we spoke to Alfie Slade, Government Affairs Lead at the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA), about a new report called Killer Tactics. The report was developed by the OHA alongside the Alcohol Health Alliance and Action on Smoking and Health, and calls for MPs to reject corporate hospitality from these unhealthy product industries.

The report shares the common tactics used by these three industries in order to protect industry profits at the expense of public health.

On this month's podcast we spoke to Lisa Erlandsen, the Policy and Advocacy Manager at the Alcohol Health Alliance.

We discussed reasons to be cautiously optimistic with the new government regarding public health, what could prevent progress from being made, why the alcohol industry needs to be removed from health policy-making, and what the AHA will be focusing its attention on in the coming months.

In this month's podcast we spoke to economist Nicholas Woolley about a new report by Frontier Economics, which found that 184,000 preventable cancers diagnosed in 2023 will cost the UK economy £78 billion. We also spoke to Robert Stebbings of Adfam, about their new report: State of the Family Support Sector.

In this month's podcast we spoke to Lucy Bryant of IAS and Dr Carly Lightowlers of the University of Liverpool, about their new study that found that off-trade alcohol availability is a crucial driver of alcohol-related violence.

In our latest podcast we spoke to Anu Rumm of the Alcohol Health Alliance, about new polling data which suggests there is significant public support for political action on reducing alcohol harm. We also spoke to Ailar Hashemzadeh of Alcohol Change UK about Alcohol Awareness Week 2023.

In our latest podcast, we spoke to Professor John Holmes, Director of the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group, about Public Health Scotland's new report which concludes that minimum unit pricing has been effective in reducing health harms and should continue.

Also on our podcast, IAS's head of research Dr Sadie Boniface explains the findings of a new IAS study which highlights the inconsistency of government messaging around changes to alcohol duty over the past 15 years.

Hello and welcome to the Alcohol Alert, brought to you by The Institute of Alcohol Studies.

On the podcast this month, we are joined by our chief executive, Dr Katherine Severi, to discuss her proudest moments of the last three years, our new strategy, why we are focusing on inequalities, and what she’s most looking forward to.

Dr Courtney McNamara, a lecturer in public health at Newcastle University, also joined our podcast, to discuss her new analysis of the CPTPP trade deal, and why it could be a threat to public health.

Hello and welcome to the Alcohol Alert, brought to you by The Institute of Alcohol Studies.

Joining our podcast this week is Susan Taylor, Head of Alcohol Policy for Fresh and Balance in the northeast. We discussed the burden of alcohol-related harm in the northeast of England, and how the region still experiences disproportionate harm compared to other English regions.

Taylor explained that alcohol harm doesn’t need to be a political issue, and that whatever happens in the next General Election, any government should look at the evidence base and commit to policies to prevent further harm.

Listen to the end of our podcast, where you can hear from Dr Harriet Rumgay about her recent study on the economic cost of deaths from alcohol-related cancer in Europe.

Hello and welcome to the Alcohol Alert, brought to you by The Institute of Alcohol Studies.

On this month’s podcast, we spoke to Dr Peter Rice, an addiction psychiatrist and IAS's chair, about changes to alcohol duty made in the Spring Budget. Before that, we hear from Dr Sadie Boniface about a recent study that found minimum unit pricing reduced alcohol deaths in Scotland by 13.4%.

Hello and welcome to the Alcohol Alert, brought to you by The Institute of Alcohol Studies.

On this month’s podcast, we spoke to Nicola Merrin, Policy and Research Manager at Alcohol Focus Scotland. We discussed the proposals within Scotland’s alcohol marketing consultation, how Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation could affect the proposals, and tactics the alcohol industry are using to fight against the proposals.