The Dictatorship

Why younger generations are embracing a ‘sober curious’ lifestyle

Published

1 year ago

January 1, 2025

Why younger generations are embracing a ‘sober curious’ lifestyle

If you’ve been on social media in the past five years, there’s a good chance you’ve come across the “sober curious movement.” On TikTok alone, the hashtag has hundreds of millions of views; on Instagram, almost 800,000 videos have the same tag.

As a recovering alcoholic, I’m a little ashamed to admit that — until recently, — I found the hype around the “sober curious movement” a bit annoying. I had no qualms with the concept — which encourages low or no alcohol consumption as a lifestyle choice and has been adopted largely by Gen Z and millennials — but the trendiness of the term grated on me. It joined a slew of similar phrases that have grown in popularity over the last decade: “Dry January,” “Sober October,” “soft sober” and “sober adjacent.”

The reason these semi-new buzzwords gnawed at me is that they made quitting drinking seem, at best, easy, casual and even fun.

At the core of these concepts is a fundamentally good idea: re-evaluating one’s relationship with alcohol. Research shows that even small to moderate amounts of alcohol can have harmful health effects. Societally, we’ve normalized a lot more than moderate alcohol use. It’s no accident that, in picking months to attempt sobriety, people have chosen the months that bookended the winter holidays: October and January. The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States says a quarter of the $49 billion-a-year distilled spirits industry’s profits come from the month between Thanksgiving and the New Year.

So, what could have been my problem with an objectively good, healthy phenomenon? I never would have said as much aloud, but the reason these semi-new buzzwords gnawed at me is that they made quitting drinking seem, at best, easy, casual and even fun. At worst, it appeared performative, and when the predictable fusion of influencers and sponsored mocktail marketing deals hit, it was too Goop-y for my taste.

Because, for me, getting sober was about as far from easy, casual or fun as a thing can be.

I got sober on Jan. 24, 2008 — not because of a last-ditch attempt at Dry January, but because I had no other option. The previous evening, I had been admitted to the emergency room with a potentially fatal blood alcohol content, and less than 24 hours later, I was on my way to the hospital’s psychiatric ward. There, a doctor explained that I had most likely survived such a high BAC because — despite being only 23 years old — I had a long history of chronic alcohol use that allowed my body to adjust to what amounted to daily poisoning.

Sobriety was a long, arduous process — one that involved a near-death experience, a stay in the psych ward and a month in an inpatient treatment center — all just to keep me away from alcohol for a month. After that, there were 12-step groups, therapy and the hard work of figuring out who I was and how to live as a sober person.

Through my limited perspective, I unconsciously put people into two separate buckets: The first was filled with people like me, who couldn’t control their alcohol use and for whom staying sober required talking about sobriety and recovery, and the second was “normal people,” who could use alcohol whenever and however they wanted to and it all worked out mostly fine.

Over the 16-plus years that followed, my beliefs about substance use, alcohol use disorder and recovery evolved. They became more expansive, inclusive and flexible. Those two disparate buckets became a Venn diagram: two significantly overlapping circles. I stopped seeing alcohol addiction as something one either had or didn’t have and started seeing it as one end of a very broad spectrum. It was the end to which I belonged, sure, but millions of people occupied every other space on that line, all the way to the polar opposite end: the people who’ve never picked up a drink.

It wasn’t a new or original way to think about substance use, but it was one that I didn’t see discussed as much as I would have liked. So I started writing about it, including in an advice column — first for a recovery website and later for Paste Magazine. I brought the column back as a Substack newsletter a few months ago. I alternate between answering questions about substance use and addiction and writing short essays about recovery-related topics.

The newsletter’s themes boil down to these: There’s no one right way to get sober, there are many paths to recovery, it’s personal and nonlinear, and we all have to find our way — ideally with a supportive community around us. An inclusive recovery landscape is vital because people aren’t getting much-needed help.

In the United States, deaths tied to excessive alcohol use rose 29% in just five years. Doctors say younger people, in particular, are experiencing a huge spike in alcohol-related liver disease.

In the United States, deaths tied to excessive alcohol use rose 29% in just five years. Doctors say younger peoplein particular, are experiencing a huge spike in alcohol-related liver disease. What could be more necessary than a broad, nonprescriptive movement discussing the benefit of cutting back or quitting drinking?

I was a month or so into writing the newsletter when someone asked me what I thought of “the whole sober curious thing.” I was halfway into a Pavlovian eye roll when I realized how ridiculous I was being. The sober curious movement was generally talking to a different demographic than I was: I was writing for people who felt like they were struggling with alcohol; the sober curious seemed to be focusing on people who weren’t compulsively using alcohol but wanted lifestyle or health changes. But we were saying the same thing. Give it a shot. See what works for you. Talk to others about how it feels. Don’t beat yourself up if you slip; just evaluate how you got there and try again if you want to.

Watching a handful of “sober curious” videos, I realized I’d made yet another misjudgment. While there were plenty of people who appeared to take to the alcohol-free lifestyle pretty easily, others documented the challenges they faced — many of which depicted the kind of struggles I was used to talking to people about: craving, relapse and social avoidance. The sober curious tent was much bigger than I initially understood.

As for the trendiness of the terminology? I now see that as a blessing, especially during the holidays. The fact that it’s a ubiquitous term has normalized people’s being mindful about their alcohol use. People walking into holiday parties and other heavy drinking occasions now have a handy phrase at the ready should family members and friends start questioning why someone isn’t engaging more fully in holiday spirits.

In some circles, there has always been an unspoken assumption that if you can drink (i.e., you aren’t an alcoholic or pregnant or you otherwise have a condition that renders you unable to do so), you will drink. I wish people didn’t feel the need to have an excuse to abstain from alcohol, but until that happens, I’m immensely grateful that the sober curious movement — and the 50 zillion TikToks about it — exist.

Katie MacBride

Katie MacBride is a health and medical writer whose work has appeared in New York Magazine, Slate, The Daily Beast, Vice News, Buzzfeed News, Rolling Stone, and Longreads, among other publications. Her newsletter, Ask A Sober Ladyanswers questions and explores essays about substance use and recovery.

The Dictatorship

Why Trump and other G7 leaders meeting without China might be a mistake

Published

11 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Why Trump and other G7 leaders meeting without China might be a mistake

PARIS (AP) — From the outset, China wasn’t included when major powers gathered in 1975 at a chateau outside Paris to fix the slumping global economy, the first of what have become annual summits by the G7 club of wealthy nations to forward their interests.

No surprise there. Imagining Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong brainstorming with U.S. President Gerald Ford and other leaders would have been unthinkable.

China was in turmoil, nowhere close to becoming the economic giant it is now. Mao had also helped defeat France and U.S. forces in Vietnam, by militarily supporting Ho Chi Minh’s communists that took power. So Mao would have been the odd man out had he been at the inaugural Rambouillet summit of six nations, growing into the G7 when Canada joined the following year.

But as U.S. President Donald Trump and his G7 counterparts gather again in France from Monday, China’s exclusion from the informal club’s summits also looks odd, given its now immense sway over the world’s economic well-being and affairs.

Put simply: Without China, does the G7 make sense?

Here’s a closer look:

By the numbers, China would be a shoo-in

If determined only by economic success, China would already be in the club.

Its economy, swollen by decades of growth since Mao’s death in 1976, now dwarfs those of G7 nations Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada — leaving only the United States to catch. By this measure, a G7 summit without China is arguably like a soccer World Cup without 5-time winner Brazil.

From being “only a tiny, benign, panda bear” in 1975, ”China has become a great global dragon,” says John Kirton, a University of Toronto specialist on the G7.

“So many understandably ask: Would the G7 and the global community be better off if China became a member of the G7 club? A plausible answer is ‘Yes.’”

But it’s only for democracies

A year ago, Trump mused about possibly expanding the club to include China, saying “ it’s not a bad idea ” when a journalist asked him.

But an unwritten G7 rule has always been that it’s only for democracies.

“We are each responsible for the government of an open, democratic society, dedicated to individual liberty and social advancement,” the founding leaders declared in Rambouillet in 1975.

China wouldn’t have cleared that bar then, during Mao’s rule that claimed many millions of lives through famine and revolutionary upheaval.

Nor, under President Xi Jinpingwould China do so now. By multiple measures, including the annual Freedom in the World study the World Press Freedom Index or the Canadian Fraser Institute’s ranking of economic freedom, China lags far behind G7 nations for civil liberties.

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China a priority subject for the G7

China’s clout impacts all G7 countries, in myriad ways. It sells far more goods than it buys, announcing a record trade surplus of almost $1.2 trillion in 2025, which is a source of friction with other industrial powers. It controls supplies of crucial rare minerals. Its technological advances and growing military strength are giving rivals cold sweats. And it is the world’s biggest emitter of climate-warming pollution.

All this means that China will be an elephant in the room at the Monday-to-Wednesday summit in the Alpine spa town of Evian-les-Bains.

As host, French President Emmanuel Macron has carved out time for the leaders to talk about how to rebalance trade with China, amid fears that soaring Chinese exports of cars and other products could wreck G7 industries.

The chemistry between Trump and other G7 leaders has been bad of late — over the Iran war and other bones of contention — but China could be an issue that unites them, said Cédric Dupont, who specializes in international politics at the Geneva Graduate Institute.

“They agree on the same thing, you know: China is a problem,” he said.

Beijing looking on warily

China’s Communist Party-led government has in the past criticized the G7’s exclusiveness and painted it as a relic of the Cold War when the world was more divided along ideological lines.

But in a statement to The Associated Press ahead of the Evian gathering, the Chinese Foreign Ministry took a more nuanced view, saying “the G7 should serve as a catalyst for solidarity and cooperation rather than an amplifier of division and confrontation.”

Beijing-based analyst Wang Zichen says that “Beijing is wary of the G7 because it sees the group as structurally aligned with U.S.-led Western power, and increasingly as a venue where China is discussed as a challenge or threat.”

But Chinese leaders cannot ignore it.

“China recognizes that the G7 still represents a very significant concentration of economic, technological, military and financial power,” said Wang.

China seen as a threat to G7 cohesion

Analysts say that admitting China into the club could wreck its cohesion, not only because Beijing’s authoritarian system of government, interests and its positions on Russia, Iran and other major issues don’t align with those of G7 democracies but also because its presence could test their long-standing alliances.

“China inside would indeed be a Trojan horse,” said Kirton. With a Chinese leader at the table, “individual members might be tempted to break G7 ranks to secure special favors from him on the economic, critical minerals, digital technology and other issues they address.”

Chris Alden, an international relations expert at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said that adding China “would make it very difficult for it to function.”

Russia’s example is also a barrier to China

The G7’s last expansion — accepting Russia as a member in 1998 — didn’t end well.

The club froze out Russian President Vladimir Putin when he seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, foreshadowing the full-scale war now raging since 2022.

Trump said last year that excluding Russia “was a very big mistake.”

But Kirton said the experience convinced other leaders “that they should never take a chance on a less than fully democratic power becoming a full member of their fully democratic club again.”

___

Associated Press writers Ken Moritsugu and E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.

The Dictatorship

U.S. and Iran say they have finally reached a deal, but details are still emerging

Published

14 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

U.S. and Iran say they have finally reached a deal, but details are still emerging

Jun. 14, 2026, 9:11 PM EDT

Iran and the United States reached a deal Sunday aimed at ending the Middle East war, according to President Donald Trump and Tehran’s deputy foreign minister, marking a major breakthrough after months of conflict and on-again, off-again negotiations.

The statements from Trump and Tehran raised hopes for an end to fighting that has left more than 7,500 dead, most of them in Lebanon and Iran, and rocked the global oil market.

“The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all! I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade,” Trump announced on Truth Social. “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”

Oil prices fell in the hours following the announcement, with U.S. crude oil tumbling nearly 5%. Stock futures rose and Asian-Pacific stock markets traded higher Monday morning as investors appeared hopeful for a long-term peace deal.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi confirmed on Iranian state media that a deal had been reached and would be signed Friday in Switzerland. He said Iran’s agreement came after 14 hours of talks with mediators from Qatar.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country has also worked as a mediator, announced on social media that “both sides have declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” where Israel has been battling the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.

“With the agreement now in place, mediators will facilitate a series of meetings this week,” Sharif said. “These pre-implementation discussions will lay the foundation for the technical talks and the official signing ceremony.”

The announcement comes after weeks of intensive negotiations mediated by regional partners after both sides had signaled in recent days that an agreement was close.

The memorandum is not a final peace treaty. Instead, it outlines commitments by both sides as negotiators work toward a broader agreement, establishing a framework for a 60-day negotiating period. That window is meant for U.S. and Iranian officials to resolve outstanding disputes and negotiate a more comprehensive agreement.

A senior administration official told reporters on a background call Friday that the framework includes commitments related to reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.

The proposed agreement, the senior administration official said, also calls for the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program, with highly enriched nuclear material to be destroyed on-site by the U.S. and a guarantee of “long-term peace in the region.”

A senior Iranian officialhowever, told Reuters that the U.S. had agreed to allow Iran to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium on Iranian soil under a final deal.

“I am somewhat concerned that Iran’s view of the agreement seems different than what the American negotiating team is claiming,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said as news of the deal emerged Sunday.

The senior Trump administration official said the agreement would include Israel and Iran’s terror proxies — a notable element given that renewed attacks between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon on Sunday threatened to derail the deal entirely.

The war began Feb. 28 with joint U.S. and Israeli airstrikes that killed hundreds, including Iran’s longtime supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Trump and others in his administration repeatedly promised it would be over in weeks and that deals to pause the fighting were imminent, only to walk back those statements.

Early in the fighting, dozens of children died when an airstrike destroyed a school. Despite reports from within the U.S. intelligence community that American forces were likely responsible, and that faulty intelligence may have played a part, the Pentagon has yet to acknowledge that, saying only that it was under investigation.

As combat wore on, Iran repeatedly fired missiles and drones at U.S. allies in the region and attacked ships trying to transit the Straight of Hormuz. Israel bombarded Beirut and other areas and sent ground troops into southern Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah leadership.

As gas prices in the U.S. soared, Trump’s approval ratings plummeted, piling tension on his relationship with congressional Republicans, especially those up for re-election.

Expectations for a deal had risen in recent days as officials from the U.S. and Pakistan, which has been acting as a mediator, indicated that progress was being made behind the scenes.

Though the deal is set to be signed next Friday, Trump said over the weekend that he expected a deal would be signed Sunday, which he first declared on social media a day earlier. He also shared a post from Sharif — who has played a key mediating role — announcing that an agreement was expected to be finalized “in the next 24 hours.”

Iranian officials poured cold water on the expected deal up until the last minute. Citing state media, Reuters reported Saturday that Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei denied that the memorandum of understanding would be signed Sunday, which also happened to be Trump’s 80th birthday.

“We will have to wait and see about the exact date of the signing of the memorandum of understanding, although it will not be tomorrow,” Baqaei said, according to Reuters.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Ebony Davis is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked at BLN as a campaign reporter covering elections and politics.

Julia Jester covers politics for MS NOW and is based in Washington, D.C.

The Dictatorship

Cage fighting, anyone? Welcome to Trump’s 80th birthday party on the White House lawn.

Published

14 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Jun. 14, 2026, 5:27 PM EDT

President Donald Trump is celebrating his milestone 80th birthday on Sunday with a spectacle of men cage fighting on the White House South Lawn.

“UFC Freedom 250,” a series of invite-only mixed martial art fighting competitions that are part of the Trump administration’s year-long ‘America250’ celebrations, brought lots of fanfare, and plenty of controversy.

The president is marking his new status as an octogenarian alongside administration officials, donors and family, despite criticism of the event’s venue, along with its potential to financially benefit those involved.

Trump and his friend Dana White, Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO, have repeatedly claimed that the spectacle was only coincidentally timed with the president’s birthday. “It happens to be my birthday, but I didn’t do it for that reason,” Trump said. “‘Sir, we like the June 14 date.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s my birthday,’” he recounted. “They didn’t know it, but they picked it.”

But Vice President JD Vance wished his boss a happy birthdaysaying, “Looking forward to celebrating later today at the UFC fight!”

“Happy Birthday to the GOAT,” Vance wrote in an X post.

Several members of the Trump family were spotted in Washington for the president’s birthday weekend, including his daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner, and granddaughter Kai Trump. First lady Melania Trump was also set to join the wrestling festivities on the South Lawn, according to a White House official. The president was slated to have dinner with his family before the birthday brawl, the White House said.

Notably, Kushner — a businessman with investments in the Middle East who is not currently employed by the administration — is playing an active role in negotiations to end the war with Iran, which Trump telegraphed he hoped would reach a new breakthrough on Sunday with the possible signing of a new negotiating framework.

The podcast and social media stars who were instrumental to Trump’s 2024 election victory, including Joe Rogan, came to Washington for the spectacle. Rogan, a longtime UFC commentator, previously criticized the decision to hold the fight outdoors because of potentially dangerous weather conditions — a prescient warning with rain, wind and thunderstorms in the forecast.

On Sunday afternoon, the White House said “rain or shine, we’re celebrating our great country no matter what” after The Weather Channel posted an ominous forecast on social media.

John Shahidi, a major content creator manager and Trump ally, was also expected to be in attendance, along with two NELK Boy members, the popular YouTube podcasters who backed then-candidate Trump in 2024, Kyle John Forgeard and Salim Sirur. John Fisher, a golf creator known as “Big John,” were in the mix, too, according to a person familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

The presence of viral influencers is a reminder of the political capital the president’s team needs to restore ahead of the crucial 2026 midterms, given that the president’s approval ratings have sharply dropped in recent months. UFC’s most loyal fanbase — young men —are a critical voting bloc for the GOP, who have grown frustrated with the economy under Trump.

Rogan has repeatedly taken aim at Trump’s policies, including disagreement with Trump’s mass deportation campaign, tariffs and the war with Iran. Nonetheless, the host of the most-listened-to-podcast has remained in Trump’s orbitMS NOW previously reported, demonstrating the president’s acknowledgement of Rogan’s reach to his base.

Unlike typical 12-to-15 fight Ultimate Fighting Championship events, UFC Freedom 250 consists of only seven fights. Rather than taking place in a traditional indoor sports arena or stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, the White House fight night was orchestrated underneath a 90-foot red, white and blue steel arch structure estimated to cost around $60 million. White has repeatedly insisted that the UFC — not taxpayers — are funding production costs.

MS NOW captured video on a jumbotron screen of “The Claw,” as it’s known, erected on the South Lawn. It was a compilation of imagery from the nation’s founding, civil rights protests, first responders at the scene of the 9/11 attacks, the first moon landing, boxing legend Muhammad Ali and UFC fighters in the ring — a nod to the United States’ 250th anniversary.

The imagery of the civil rights era, however, stands in stark contrast to efforts by the Trump administration to remove references to slavery or racial discrimination in museums and on federal websites. “Our fighting spirit is a living legacy of all who step forward when the moment demands,” a narrator says. “We’re a nation born of revolution, so fight is in our DNA.”

The Claw and its towering canopy and location drew fierce criticism from those who said it desecrates the historic building that represents the government’s executive branch. Critics also bemoaned the use of federal property, given Trump — whose financial disclosures showed he invested in UFC’s parent company in March — along with his allies, including Paramount CEO David Ellison, who is airing the fight, could profit from the extravaganza.

A federal judge on Friday denied an emergency request by a watchdog group to block the fights.

Lindsey Pipia contributed to this report.

Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.

Akayla Gardner is a White House correspondent for MS NOW.