About this episode

The episode explores the nuanced perspectives on alcohol, social media, and diet soda as vices in modern wellness culture.

Everyone has a vice. Drinking, smoking, social media, diet soda. And the modern wellness internet will tell you that if you want to live a long, healthy life, you need to cut every single one of them out. But is that actually true? In this episode of Two Percent, we take a nuanced look at vices and whether some of them might actually enhance your life when you use them the right way. We don't have to live like monks to live a good life. First up is Dean Stattmann, a GQ reporter who spent three months sober and wrote a now-viral piece titled "Why My 2026 Resolution Is to Start Drinking Again." His Whoop scores got better, but his friendships, his marriage, and his mood got worse. Dean explains what alcohol actually does for human connection, what anthropologists call "costly signaling," and why moderate drinking might not be the villain the internet has made it out to be. Then Taylor Lorenz, author of Extremely Online and host of the Power User podcast, joins to argue something that sounds heretical in 2026: social media is not addictive. We break down the real science on dopamine (spoiler: it's probably cortisol), the recent California Meta verdict, Section 230, KOSA…

More episodes of Two Percent with Michael Easter

• The Subtraction Mindset: How To Get More By Doing Less | Dr. Leidy Klotz · May 5, 2026 · 50 min
• Find Joy in Any Job: Lessons from a Top Doctor and a Vagabond · April 28, 2026 · 57 min
• Build Better Habits & Break the Food-Addiction Cycle | Melissa Urban, Whole 30 Founder · April 21, 2026 · 59 min
• Boston Marathon Secrets, Super Shoes, Ultra Processed Foods & a Ridiculous Trail Recipe · April 16, 2026 · 1h 27m
• Donnie Vincent: Hunting, Hard Things, and the Mindset That Gets You Through Storms · April 14, 2026 · 1h 12m
• How Walking Rewires Your Brain & Body: Endurance, Habits, Pain Tolerance & Longevity · April 7, 2026 · 1h 1m

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Two Percent with Michael Easter podcast page.