Join the writer and journalist James Wilt, and Paris Marx – technology writer, host of the award-winning Tech Won’t Save Us podcast, and author of Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation, in conversation to mark the publication of James’ new book, DRINKING UP THE REVOLUTION: How to Smash Big Alcohol and Reclaim Working-Class Joy.

In this much-needed exposé of the links between the global alcohol industry and capitalism, James Wilt explains why alcohol policy should be at the heart of any socialist movement..

With many people are drinking more now than ever before, already massive multinationals are consolidating further and new online delivery services are booming in an increasingly deregulated market. At the same time, public health experts are sounding the alarm about the catastrophic health and social impacts of rising alcohol use, with over three million people dying ever year due to alcohol-related harms.

Revealing the links between the alcohol industry and capitalism, colonialism and environmental destruction, Wilt expertly and yet accessibly demonstrates the failure of existing models of prohibition and deregulation, and instead focuses on those who profit from alcohol’s sale and downplay its impacts: producers, retailers, and governments.

Rejecting both the alcohol industry’s moralising against individual “problem drinkers” and the sober politics of “straight-edge” and wellness lifestyle trends, Drinking Up the Revolution is not just another call for prohibition or more governmental control, but it is instead a cry to reclaim alcohol for the people, in such a way that makes it safe and enjoyable for all those who want to use it.

James Wilt (he/him) is a freelance journalist, PhD student, and the author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Cars? Public Transit in the Age of Google, Uber, and Elon Musk (Between the Lines Books, 2020). His writing has appeared in publications such as The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, Vice, Canadian Dimension, Briarpatch, The Narwhal, Passage, National Observer, CBC Calgary, Alberta Oil, Ricochet, and Rabble. He lives in Winnipeg, Canada.

Paris Marx is a Canadian technology writer, host of the award-winning Tech Won’t Save Us podcast, and author of Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation.