Quit Alcohol, Gain Clarity This New Year | James Swanwick

Was it a boozy start to the New Year? What if you could gain more clarity, energy, and better health by giving up drinking? Imagine a day when alcohol no longer dominates our thoughts—at holidays, celebrations, or even a quiet night in front of the TV. 

Alcohol-free expert James Swanwick says a cultural shift is underway, with alcohol slowly losing its grip on our social and professional lives. Even moderate drinking can quietly sap sleep, focus, and long-term wellbeing—especially for high achievers. 

In this conversation, Swanwick explains the neuroscience of addiction, why going alcohol-free is gaining momentum, and how the stigma around teetotalism is fading. He predicts that within decades, alcohol could be viewed with the same disdain as cigarettes.

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• 24:35 [Ad] Fit, Healthy & Happy Podcast
• 25:24 (Cont.) Quit Alcohol, Gain Clarity This New Year | James Swanwick

Transcript

James Swanwick: 0:27

We're going to look back on today and this time on alcohol with the same level of disdain we currently do cigarettes. This cultural shift has begun. I think 30 years is probably the amount of time that it's going to take,

where as a society we go 'Alcohol: 0:39

What were we thinking?'

Peter Bowes: 0:49

Hello, and a very happy New Year to you. January the 1st, 2026 as we publish this episode. Full disclosure we're actually recording this in November. But as we embrace the new year, is this the day or the month that you might think about giving up alcohol? Dry January, for many people, is a break from drinking, but why not make it a dry year or a dry rest of your life? Another question could be why should we? Does drinking really affect our longevity? Welcome to the Live Long podcast, I'm Peter Bowes. This is where we explore the science and stories behind human longevity. And I'm going to say right at the top. I haven't had an alcoholic drink for eight months now, and I'm loving it and loving the lifestyle. But will it help me live longer? Let's talk to James Swanwick, author, entrepreneur and founder of Alcohol Free Lifestyle

and Swanwick Sleep. James recently published book is Clear: 1:51

The Only Neuroscience Based Method for High Achievers to Quit Drinking Without Willpower, Rehab or AA. James, it's great to meet you.

James Swanwick: 2:01

Thank you Peter, it's great to meet you and to be here. Thank you.

Peter Bowes: 2:05

And let's just start with that. That really big question in terms of living an alcohol free lifestyle, could it potentially positively impact my longevity?

James Swanwick: 2:17

Well, the answer is absolutely yes. I have not had a drop of alcohol since 2010, and I feel as vibrant and as energetic as I think I've ever felt. I'm 50 years old, and I think that I have the body that nature intended me to have. I think I look the way nature intended me to have. It's not like I have a six pack abs or I'm, you know, leaping tall buildings or anything like that. I just feel like this is how life's supposed to feel at this age. And I think that is in part because I have chosen not to drink what I refer to as attractively packaged poison these past almost 16 years.

Peter Bowes: 2:59

And what got you started in this? Maybe it's obvious that if you're feeling so good about yourself and your life now, that certainly the implications of not drinking alcohol are there for all to see. But what piqued your interest in the first place was it? And to use that very cliched question, which I know you've faced before and people continue to face, is did you have a problem?

James Swanwick: 3:24

I was a socially acceptable drinker growing up in my native country of Australia, in that I would have 2 or 3 drinks most nights of the week, and then on weekends I would drink heavier. I did not get arrested. I didn't get a DUI. I wasn't what society might deem to be a in parentheses, an alcoholic. However, I got to the age of 35 and I had had almost 20 years of that consistency of drinking over that time, and almost 20 years of drinking 2 or 3 drinks a night. Most nights of the week really took its toll. And so in 2010, I was in Austin, Texas, and I was at that year's annual festival, the South by Southwest Festival. I had two gin and tonics at an industry party. I went back to my hotel outside of downtown Austin, went to sleep, and when I woke up in the morning. I looked and felt blah and blah is I was about 30 pounds overweight. I had wrinkles around my eyes. I had bags under my eyes, I was bloated, I was puffy, I was inflamed, I was envious of other people. I had jealousy of other people, I was irritable, my sleep wasn't great. And I just said, you know what, James? Enough this almost 20 years of drinking this way, even though I'm not doing something so horrendous, like getting a, you know, arrested or having these monumental relationship breakdowns, that mediocrity that I was feeling just had to change. And so I committed to 30 days of not drinking just as a, as an experiment. And it's now been almost 16 years. And, you know, I've lost weight, felt better, improved my relationships, got into personal development, learned how to have conscious communication, have more energy, focused on sleep. And now I just feel amazing.

Peter Bowes: 5:25

Do you think the aging process had anything to do with the fact that it did suddenly dawn upon you that you weren't dealing with alcohol in the same way as you might have done as a younger man?

James Swanwick: 5:38

Certainly. I mean, 35 is pretty young. I mean, I'm 50 as we're recording this, and so I'm happy that I had that insight at 35, because a lot of folks will wait till their late 40s or their 50s before realizing, wow, I have to make a change here. I mean, at 50 years old, possibly I'm halfway because the way that modern medicine is going now, we might live to 100, but let's just say I'm, you know, I live to the standard age that a man lives to these days, which is around 80. I've only only got 30 years left, so I'm thrilled that the last 15 years I've been alcohol free. And that's put me on this trajectory that I'm going to live well for the next 30 years. I don't necessarily desire to live longer if my health is going to feel mediocre, but I'll definitely desire to live longer. If I'm feeling good, feeling mobile, feeling happy, great mindset. I'm free of health challenges, so I would just encourage your listener or viewer. Don't wait until you are in your late 50s or 60s when the runway isn't as long as it has been, because then the last, say, 1020 years of your life might be filled with ailments, filled with regret, filled with health challenges that you could have prevented if you chose to live a healthier lifestyle.

Peter Bowes: 7:15

That's interesting, because I'm well into my 60s and really only just made the decision and went through the thought process that you've just described over the last eight months. And it was a kind of different experience for me. It was a very kind of organic movement into not drinking alcohol. It wasn't as if I said on one particular day or woke up one morning, that's it. And I was never really a heavy drinker anyway, but I just organically moved away from it. But the more I, the more that the time passed, the more I realized how good it was for me that clear headed 100% of the time, feeling and the extra energy and all the other benefits that you've described. And so the one thing I would say is that don't wait until you're in your 60s, but if you do, it's never too late.

James Swanwick: 8:07

I have a stop drinking process. It's called project 90. It puts people mostly over the age of 50 through a 90 day stop drinking process, and we help them to rewire their mindset. I can tell you that the average age of the client that we attract and who go through our process is in their mid 50s. And so there's something that we as human beings start to think about around that age, which is, you know what? I've got less time on this planet than I've already had. And so, wow, I really want the last, let's say, third of my life to be feeling considerably better than the first two thirds. And so, yes, it is an interesting phenomena because we don't tend to attract folks who are in their 30s, very few, many in their 40s. But really, the sweet spot when people come to us and they put up their hand and they say, hey, I need help, I want help, I want to change, tends to be in that mid-fifties age.

Peter Bowes: 9:09

And although we tend not to talk about the regrets in our lives, I'm quite open about saying that I do regret not drinking earlier in my life, because I can see how that would have benefited me in my 20s and 30s. Career, social life, everything would have been just so much better.

James Swanwick: 9:30

Well, look, I had a good life as a drinker. It wasn't horrible. It wasn't rock bottom. I had fun, I partied, I drank excessively on occasion, like it was a lot of fun. And I have some great memories from when I was drinking. But I gotta tell you, from age 35 onwards when I stopped drinking, life just became so much more enjoyable and pleasurable, and it was because I was sleeping better, and it was because I had greater clarity. It was because I had reduced my stress and anxiety. It was because I was less irritable. I'll just give you one anecdotal evidence of the shift, Peter. As a drinker, sort of in my 30s, let's say I was living in Los Angeles, California. Both of my parents lived in Brisbane, Australia at the time, and once a week they would phone me, you know, just to check in with their son. And I remember as a drinker, the phone call would come in around,

you know, 3:30, 4: 10:26

00 each week. And I would look at the phone when they were calling and I would get irritated. I'm like, oh, my parents always call at the most inopportune time because I was, you know, doing something. I was with someone and I would screen their, their call. And then when I stopped drinking, I noticed pretty quickly afterwards that when they phoned me at that,

you know, 3:30, 4:00, 5: 10:49

00 in the afternoon weekly out of the blue, I would go, oh, my parents are calling. Excuse me, I'm just going to go and take this. And I would actually desire to connect with them. That was that was a really big kind of insight for me, I think, because as a drinker with the with the consequences of, of the poison, irritability, frustration, fatigue, tiredness, all those kind of things. I was irritable. Right. Take that away. And all of a sudden, my mindset started to open up into being a much more positive mindset.

Peter Bowes: 11:30

Let's talk about the social side of not drinking, and maybe go back to the early days when you stopped drinking alcohol. In terms of and I think attitudes have changed over the years and continue to change. But the attitude of other people in your life who sometimes you think they almost resent what you're doing. I don't know why that should be. Maybe they want to be able to do it themselves. But how did you deal with that? You say you partied quite a bit. I think most of us did when we were much younger. But to still be in those same social circles, but be the one that's not drinking, how did you deal with that?

James Swanwick: 12:08

I remember at least twice a week, my friend Zach and my other friend Tom and I, we would go to this bar called the Jones Bar on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, California. And we might go there on a Tuesday night. We might go there on a Thursday night, and I would have a few drinks. Glass of wine, vodka soda, you know, on occasion, maybe a rum and Coke. And we did this for about 6 or 7 months. And then I remember the first night we went there on the Tuesday night and I said, you know what? I'm not drinking. I'm going to do this 30 day thing. I'm going to try it out. And my friend Tom said, oh, okay. Cool. And my friend Zach said, what are you talking about? Have a drink. And I said, no, no, I'm going to try this. So when it was Zach's round to go and get a drink, he came back and he said, there's your soda water. You know, and because I'd ordered soda water and I went to put it to my mouth. And as I did, I looked at him and he had this kind of guilty grin on his face. And I looked at him and I said, did you put vodka in this? And he said, yeah, I did. And I was like, wow. Even like my good friends seemingly are just not happy with the fact that I'm choosing not to drink. That was a really interesting situation for me. So to answer your question, I found it quite challenging in those first 30 days because my, you know, at least in this occasion, my good friend Zach didn't didn't approve of my choice and wanted me to drink and didn't think that it was a serious thing. My friend Tom respected it, and I did feel some level of social awkwardness for the first few months when I went out and people realized I wasn't drinking. But I got to tell you, it was only a few months, Peter, and by month four I was like telling people that I wasn't drinking. And most people most, not all, but most were like, oh, that's interesting. Tell me more about that. I wish I could cut back. And the more kind of evidence I got that people really didn't care that I was being alcohol free. And the more evidence I got that people were actually quite in admiration of the fact that I wasn't drinking, the more confident I felt, and then the easier it became.

Peter Bowes: 14:22

And I'm from Los Angeles. I know the culture that you're talking about, although I think there's less of a drinking culture here than there are in other places around the world. I'm originally from the UK. Of course you're Australian. Two countries that are known for their drinking cultures. But what I've noticed in recent years is, as you say, attitudes are changing. And I've noticed, especially amongst younger people, that that instant acceptance is you more likely to come across it now than than really ever before.

James Swanwick: 14:54

Generation Z has drunk less than any generation that came before generation Z, and in fact, even in, uh, I think it was August or September of 2025, there was a Gallup poll that came out and it suggested that only 54% of Americans now drink any amount of alcohol, and that is the lowest that it's been in the 90 years that they've been doing that poll. And in just two years, it went from 62% down to 58% down to 54%. So that's Americans as a whole. But generation Z is particularly leading that charge. And now they are increasingly health conscious. They're now doing these kind of morning community runs, these morning community activities. That generation in particular are now mating in a way that maybe our generation didn't back when I was young and I was trying to meet the opposite sex, it was all about going to a bar or to a pub or socializing with alcohol. These days, generation Z are socializing without the alcohol, which is fantastic and wonderful. So there is a cultural shift that is happening. I actually just completed filming a documentary that I'm making about that cultural shift, and we're seeing this in all cultures all over the world, that the youngest generation who could choose to drink are increasingly turning their back on it.

Peter Bowes: 16:32

And what is the main, main justification, do you think, amongst young people to take that attitude? Is it because you've referred to alcohol several times already as poison? Is it because it is poisoning us or potentially is poisoning us through our lives? Or is it just the here and now? Is it just the feeling better today, tomorrow and the next day? Or maybe more sensible combination of everything?

James Swanwick: 16:58

I think the latter. It's a combination of many things, but increased awareness is a huge thing. Peter. People now have got awareness that that claim in the 90s that a glass of wine was good, for your heart is now a nonsense, and that's been demonstrated now repeatedly through scientific studies in the 30 years since that claim came out. As bad as social media is that we know that, like if we've become addicted to it. Nevertheless, social media does a great job in educating people now about the health consequences of alcohol. If you follow any kind of health, I don't want to say guru, but if you follow any health influencer, many, if not all of them are now educating their followers that no amount of alcohol is good for you. The American Cancer Association came out and said zero amount of alcohol,is preferable. The World Health Organization three years ago said zero amount of alcohol is what is recommended. It's generally accepted now that alcohol is a poison. And because generation Z has access to that type of education. Their awareness level is now heightened and now they're able to make more educated choices.

Peter Bowes: 18:19

You just quoted from some of the established organizations that say, that suggest alcohol is a poison that I was actually going to mention to you, but there are still 1 or 2, and I'm very well aware that you can look at the scientific literature and pretty much find any argument to suit what you want to think. So that's a huge problem, I think for many people, not just with alcohol, but other aspects of diet and nutrition, that it's very difficult sometimes to get to the absolute truth of something. And that's to some extent the way that science evolves. The American Heart Association. This is 2023, suggests that low to moderate drinking may have a positive risk reduction for some CVD cardiovascular disease outcomes, and also acknowledges that heavier binge drinking is consistently associated with damage, but there is that little phrase there that suggests that some drinking of alcohol could potentially be beneficial for us. And I think that's what confuses so many people.

James Swanwick: 19:24

Yeah. One of my friends is a gentleman named Ben Greenfield, who's kind of like a biohacker and well established in that field. And he came on my podcast and argued for a glass of very clean, organic tequila each night. And he said that the response that it has in the body is much like if you go into the gym and you lift a weight, it breaks down the fibers of the muscles. But then because of that stress, because of that pressure, the muscle then comes back stronger with with rest. And so his argument is that, you know, a small amount of alcohol per day, as long as it's the cleanest alcohol that you can get, might actually be good for you. And there are various other people like that, biohackers and health people who also suggest that I'm not going to sit here and definitively say, let me just show you 100 studies here that suggest that's a nonsense. I would just ask people or I would invite people to just look at anecdotal evidence in their own body. How do they feel when they have any amount of alcohol if you have a wearable? I mean, I wear an Oura ring here, but you could wear a Fitbit or a Whoop or whatever and go to sleep on a drink or two and wake up the next morning and look at your results and see how much time you spent in that deep, restorative phase of sleep and the REM sleep anecdotally. How do you feel the morning after you've had a seemingly innocent drink the night before, and then track your sleep again, not drinking, and do that for a week, 14 days and then compare the results. I would be shocked if you didn't find a noticeable improvement in your sleep quality as a result of refraining from drinking any amount of alcohol. And so I would just say, look, there are studies, there's evidence, there's all this. You can find any study to support your theory. But really when it comes down to it, trust your own body. Trust your own anecdotal evidence.

Peter Bowes: 21:29

Well, that's what I always say. The best evidence is your own evidence, and it's how you feel. And I've done the aura ring test as well. And it's it's undisputable. And I talked to so many people that say exactly the same thing that sleep perhaps, is the number one issue relating to abstaining from alcohol that we can benefit from. And that's a definitely a here and now. But I also tend to say that, yes, the scientific literature can sometimes be confusing, but you've got to decide yourself and you can't be told because people have such strong views as you, as you've just quoted from one of your friends that might sway you in one direction or another, but it's ultimately down to how you feel. And the best judge of that is how I feel right now. I'm very interested in living for a long time, but perhaps even more important is the here and now and next week, and how it's affecting my performance and how I relate to other people and relate to my work. That is the biggest area of judgment for me. And and I think increasingly for a lot of people.

James Swanwick: 22:33

Yeah, I can tell you that there's a there's a pattern of pain when someone comes to, to me or to us or to my organization, Alcohol free Lifestyle. And the pattern of pain is not drinking. The pattern of pain is the consequence of their drinking, and the consequences of their drinking are a challenging relationship with the spouse. Maybe there's been a spouse ultimatum. They're either young children or adult children who are now disconnected from them. In other words, the the the person who's been drinking, the parent, hasn't been as present or attentive to their children as the child or the children would have liked them to have been, and that causes some friction and some resentment. The pattern of pain is also fogginess, uh, irritability, lamenting life choices. That's that is a very consistent pattern. And then, the other pattern is poor sleep, disrupted sleep, feeling tired and lethargic all the time. So it the problem is never really like do they drink too much. The problem is all of these other things which are being caused because of, of their choice of drinking the alcohol. So if you're listening and you're or you're watching and you have a challenging relationship with your spouse. You don't practice conscious communication. You you withhold from your spouse or your children don't call you or they've you have a challenging relationship with them. Look at whether your drinking habits are one of the culprits there. One of the reasons for that. And then just re-explore that relationship because I can just share with you anecdotally, Peter, Peter, people who come to us with those challenges and then they remove the alcohol tend to also remove the problems they have healing relationships, they sleep better, they're more clear, they're more focused, they've got more energy and their life just transforms.

Peter Bowes: 25:26

You work a lot with high achievers, people who arguably could have a lot of stress in their lives, whether it's work stress, whether it's financial stress. And clearly a lot of people turn to alcohol just to help them wind down and to assimilate some of that stress in their lives. How do you help people get over that particular hurdle?

James Swanwick: 25:50

Well, look, we have a lot of type A personalities. Is that how I might describe it? A lot of entrepreneurs, business owners, executives, we have doctors, lawyers, sales professionals, people who, you know, have been very successful, I guess, professionally in their life and have been able to overcome most of life's challenges except this one thing alcohol. So how do we help them to finally break free from alcohol when they haven't been able to previously is we educate them on what we refer to as the neuroscience. So we're demonstrating to them what happens to our brain circuitry when we consume alcohol. Our dopamine receptors light up like the 4th of July. And we kind of, from a very intellectual point of view, an educational lens demonstrate to them what is going on in our brain as we consume the alcohol and as we consume that alcohol over many months, many years, and then in many cases, decades. Then we demonstrate to them what happens to the brain circuitry when we stop feeding it the poison. What happens in the first month, few months, a year, few, a few years? What can happen? And once we have someone who's educated themselves on that, once they understand why they're a type A personality, why they're feeling stressed and anxious because of all these other things, and we can do that from a scientific point of view. It's kind of like a drop the mic moment, Peter, where, those high achievers go, ah, okay, now I get it. Now I get why I'm even reaching for a drink in the first place. Now I get why I why I'm positioning alcohol in my life as a stress relief, when in actual fact, the reality is it's a stress multiplier. Oh, okay, now I understand. Now I got it. And that's a very different approach to what's been referred to as traditional approaches, like a willpower doing a dry January, sober October using grit and brute force. It's when you can educate a high performer, educate a type A personality, and they get it from an intellectual point of view. Then change becomes probable, not just possible.

Peter Bowes: 28:17

Yeah, and I think that is accelerated when high achievers or indeed anyone gets to the point that they are getting as big a kick out of not drinking as they did out of when they did drink, whatever excited them most. So if it's a stressful environment that someone is working in and they feel as if I drink at the end of the day is a reward. Well, the reward now is the feeling of not drinking. And that equates to the excitement and the reward that they felt as if they were getting before. Does that make sense?

James Swanwick: 28:53

Yes. When people have been drinking for for many years, when they drink, what happens is the dopamine receptors fire off. And as I referenced before, it feels like the 4th of July. Okay, so your stress and anxiety feels like it's reducing initially and you get this kind of little pleasure release. The challenge is, is that over many years those dopamine receptors are dulled. And then now you need to drink more alcohol in order to get what initially was giving you that 4th of July feeling or reducing the stress. And then of course, the more you drink, the more pain and suffering you have, and then you become reliant on this alcohol. But when you can reduce the alcohol or preferably just give it up entirely. Over time, your dopamine receptors get to reset. And now what happens? What tends to happen then is that there is a slow release of dopamine as fulfillment starts to come back into life. So you stop chasing this pleasure that anyone can get, like stop chasing this pleasure. And what is replaced is that you get this release of fulfillment and joy and satisfaction. Void of the stress and anxiety that came from chasing the pleasure and then having a crash, experiencing pleasure and having a crash. Experiencing pleasure and having a crash. What you get now is this like compound interest, this release of fulfillment and joy and calm and peace and appreciation instead of expectation.

Peter Bowes: 30:35

And another area of fulfillment and joy is not spending the money that you used to spend on alcohol and could potentially still spend on alcohol if those were the circles that you were moving in. That, for some people is a huge plus.

James Swanwick: 30:52

Let's do a little 32nd calculation, shall we, Peter? and before we do it, I always say to folks, I don't care as much about how much money you spend on alcohol. What I care more about is how much money you don't generate because of the consequences of alcohol. So if you take a business owner, let's just say hypothetically, this business owner generates $3 million in annual revenue in his or her business, and he or she is drinking alcohol and is irritable and tired and not sleeping great and is probably operating at, say, a six out of ten based on their capacity or their their peak potential. So at a six out of ten, this business owner makes $3 million in annual revenue. If that business owner even just reduce drinking. But let's just say quit drinking entirely. Now they're sleeping better. They got clarity. They got focus. They hire that person. They fire that person. They're making better strategic choices. Most business owners will probably feel in that scenario is an eight out of ten or a nine out of ten. Well, the difference between feeling like a six out of ten and generating $3 million and feeling like an eight out of ten could be an additional million dollars in revenue. So if you're feeling like an eight out of ten, you make better choices. You run a better business, and now you make $4 million as opposed to $3 million. Well, that's a $1 million revenue difference. What million dollars? So you can then say confidently, your drinking habit, Mr. Business Owner or miss business owner is costing you $1 million a year. And when you say it like that. Most business owners I speak to go, wow, my drinking habit is costing me $1 million a year in lost revenue. And then when you do this further calculation, Peter, and I'm just going to my iPhone now and pulling up the calculator, if we go $1 million divided by 365 days of the year, every day you choose to drink is costing you $2,739 a day in lost revenue. That's pretty eye opening.

Peter Bowes: 33:06

That's very eye opening. And it does bring me on to the other side of this story for you. And let's just talk about the trajectory in terms of your life. You are an entrepreneur and the alcohol free lifestyle has become a business. And we're seeing that in nonalcoholic drinks. We're seeing it in all many other aspects of glasses that help you wind down before you go to bed or all that kind of thing. What do you think are the most interesting and significant developments in terms of some of the products that this area has spawned over the years?

James Swanwick: 33:44

There's definitely been an explosion in alcohol free drinks and alcohol free brands. full disclosure I'm an investor in an alcohol free beer company called Groovy, which is out of Denver, Colorado. They're one of the smaller players in the field, but there's a company called Athletic Brewing, which does many millions of dollars and I think has $1 billion valuation. There are some alcohol free vodka companies. I think there's one called Lyre's. They have $1 billion valuation. So there's there's all of these new companies now that are coming up that are just exploding in popularity as people start to become more confident in sharing with people that they're alcohol free or that they're choosing alcohol free alternatives. So that is definitely that has been happening now for some years, and it's increasingly happening. Just as a side note, I don't think that history is going to be kind to these Hollywood celebrities like Dwayne The Rock Johnson or Ryan Reynolds or George Clooney, who own these tequila brands and vodka brands and gin brands. I think in 30 years, we're going to look back on today and this time on alcohol with the same level of disdain. We currently do cigarettes. And so it's begun. Like this cultural shift has begun. And just like we were referencing earlier, the generation Z are choosing healthier alternatives. Culture as a whole are choosing increasingly alcohol free alternatives. Now the the dam wall hasn't broken yet, But the shift has begun. And I think it's only going to increase with time. I think 30 years is probably the amount of time that it's going to take, where as a society we go alcohol. What were we thinking.

Peter Bowes: 35:46

And what is the benefit in terms of alcohol free drinks? What is the benefit of going to a party and having in your hand an alcohol free gin and tonic, as opposed to a glass of water? If you're not consuming the alcohol, what benefit is there through drinking something that has the image of what we used to think of as an alcoholic drink?

James Swanwick: 36:12

Yeah, it's, it's kind of like a prop, isn't it? It's like a for particularly introverted people, just the just nursing a glass there is kind of like a comfort, isn't it? It's like you hold it there and I guess it creates this impression that you're part of the tribe. Like, everyone's kind of. Consuming something, which gives us this feeling of bonding and connection. And we're kind of just there nursing this thing. A lot of these alcohol free drinks now taste very good. They taste pretty fruity, or they taste pretty good so you can mimic the taste. So that's another reason. And I guess just nursing a water, I think, in the reptilian brain of most human beings would feel a little antisocial at the moment, or at least not as social as consuming something that maybe the host has gone to great lengths to provide for you. Maybe lots of other people are drinking either alcohol or alcohol free alternatives. They've got colorful cans. Maybe it looks like, you know, you've got the red color from raspberry or cranberry or you've got the green or the the grayish color from a from a minty drink, etc. so there's still that ritual involved, isn't there? There's still that ritual of like having something that's been prepared with care or everyone else is doing. And so there's that feeling of fitting in a little bit more. So...

Peter Bowes: 37:41

I wonder as time passes, whether that attitude will change. As, as you were saying that maybe in 20 or 30 years time, we'll look back and equate drinking alcohol to the same as, as cigarettes, that maybe at some point in the future we're just going to think of drinks, not alcohol free drinks, but just drinks that you that are nice and colorful and tasty at a party. But you're not trying. As I kind of just mentioned, you're not trying to mimic something from a bygone age.

James Swanwick: 38:08

It's a nice thought. It's a nice, uh, vision for us to have. Let's see how it plays out. Peter, we human beings are peculiar creatures, aren't we? So we'll find out. But I certainly am seeing evidence to suggest that that is happening now, increasingly.

Peter Bowes: 38:26

James, let me ask you about the year ahead. It is the beginning of a new year. You're not approaching this year. Like some people might be thinking, is this going to be the year when I stop drinking? So I was wondering, I'm curious, what are your aspirations for this year ahead?

James Swanwick: 38:41

Thank you. Well, on a professional level, my aspirations are to have my documentary released. I traveled to 14 cities around the world throughout 2025, filming, and doing interviews with various experts on alcohol. So 2026, that documentary will be released, and I hope that that makes a small dent in the universe and opens up people's eyes to the consequences of drinking even modest amounts of alcohol, and that it inspires people to live increasingly alcohol free. Also, professionally, my goals for 2026 are to continue to support more people through our stop drinking programs at my company Alcohol Free Lifestyle. And then on a personal, personal level, I've just become a father to a baby girl. And so I want to really be the best father I can be and the best partner I can be for my wife. And that's very important to me. I also desire to continue to give my parents, who are both in their 80s first class experiences by flying them over to visit me around the world and, and, having them go on little trips together, that's important to me. And then from a health perspective, I want to feel like I'm in the top 1% of someone who's in his 50s. And top 1% doesn't mean six pack abs and like being the so regimented. But what it means to me is that I want to be able to continue to run, be mostly injury free, feel flexible, feel mobile. I like to go to the gym and lift weights. I like to walk at least 10,000 steps a day, preferably at least 12,500 steps a day. I just want to feel the way that nature always intended me to feel in my 50s. And I think if I can do those things and have the professional goals met, the personal goals and the health goals, I think I'm going to continue to just have what feels like an extraordinary life and a particularly extraordinary 2026.

Peter Bowes: 40:45

Yeah. And in fact, you've just referenced really what I was going to ask you about, and that is how not drinking alcohol as one of those many interventions that we can use to to live a better life, how it fits in with your daily exercise regime, your daily nutrition regime. And I think especially in terms of exercise, it seems obvious to me that if you're clear headed and you're feeling good, you're much more inclined to take that exercise.

James Swanwick: 41:13

Absolutely. I mean, I can remember when I was tired and irritable, you know, the morning that I would wake up after having just a couple of seemingly innocent drinks the night before, my motivation to go to the gym or to get up and exercise was very low. But when you're consistently alcohol free and you wake up in the morning, your motivation to go to the gym and walk and exercise, play with your kids, do things is considerably higher. And so going alcohol free just gets you into momentum. It just gets you moving more, gets you doing more things. It gets you surrounded by other health conscious people. And it's this beautiful kind of spiral effect where life just becomes quite easy or quite simple. Maybe easy is not the right word. Let's just say simple. It's very simple. You're not feeling like you're.

Peter Bowes: 42:11

Or simpler.

James Swanwick: 42:12

Simpler is a better way of saying it. Peter. Thank you. Yes.

Peter Bowes: 42:15

I'm with you. Totally. And in terms of your this is a podcast all about longevity. And as I say, aspiring to a great healthspan not necessarily focusing on on lifespan, which is just a number of years that your heart is beating. You're actually alive, but may not necessarily be in the best state of health. But I'm curious and I think you've you've covered this to some extent, but your own personal longevity aspirations, is it something you think about?

James Swanwick: 42:39

I think about it more now that I've turned 50 because it feels like, whereas in my 40s or 30s or earlier, I didn't really have this clock ticking. It was just like, oh, I've got this runway, this is life in the future, in the future. But now turn 50. Father to a daughter I start thinking about, I wonder how long I'm going to live. I wonder when I'm going to die. Like, when is my death day? And let's just say conservatively, it's in my 80s. Well, what I'm realizing is that I'm making choices now at 50 with that in mind. So, for example, when I learned that I was going to be a father to my daughter. And I was thinking, well, let's see when she's going to be 18. That's 18, 19 years from now. Maybe I'd want her to, you know, have finances. I'm going to put money away now. So I made bets financial investments with an 18 year horizon as opposed to what I did in my 40s, which is, oh, you know what, I'll just try to make a gain this year, take some gains, etc.. So I'm making 20 year investments financially and then physically. I'm making 20 and 30 year investments now by making sure that I'm in the gym at least three times a week, by I'm trying by trying to get to 10,000 steps every day, by writing in my diary every day 20 things that I'm grateful for because I know that living a life of appreciation instead of expectation has been scientifically proven to reduce stress and anxiety. And I'll tell you, the biggest killer, in my opinion of dreams is, unnecessary stress and anxiety. So if I can remove as much stress and anxiety as possible through exercise, through appreciation, then I think I'm going to have a pretty great life and my longevity. Maybe I get into my 90s. Maybe I get into post 100 because I'm making those investments now in in, in the now.

Peter Bowes: 44:51

And just a final thought from me on those things that you mentioned there, a lot of the interventions that, necessarily interventions that just simple lifestyle hacks are free writing in your journal, your 10,000 steps a day, not drinking alcohol. Not only is it free, but it's actually going to, as you've described, it's going to generate income for you. We don't have to invest in a lot of the newfangled things that we hear about. A lot of these things are free and actually quite easy.

James Swanwick: 45:22

They absolutely are. What I would say that one could invest in is accountability and community. So one of the reasons why my project 90 program is so effective in helping people quit drinking is because there is a community which gives you accountability. And so we humans, if left to our own devices, tend to like, ah, you know, we start something and then we kind of fall by the wayside. But if you have that accountability, if you invest your money into a community or a program or an app or whatever it is, it's a symbol of seriousness. And when something is free, we don't treat it with the same level of respect than if we pay for something. And I agree with you, Peter, a lot. All the things that we coach in our paid program and in our paid community you can do for free, but will you? And knowing human behavior and behavioral psychology. Sadly, the answer is most of the time we won't, at least not to the degree that we would do it if we did invest in it. So it is crazy that we human beings have to. We don't have to, but it is crazy that we're paying for things that are free. However, in my experience, I pay for coaches, I pay for accountability, I pay for community. And because I do that, I tend to generate the results that I desire more so than if I was just left to my own devices.

Peter Bowes: 47:00

You mentioned a documentary that you've been making. When will that be out? How can we see it?

James Swanwick: 47:05

Thank you for asking. Yeah, it will be out towards the middle or end of 2026. The platform is being negotiated at the moment, but it should be on either Netflix or Apple. We'll see how we go. As of recording right now, I can't say definitively, but the working title is Attractively Packaged Poison, and it's designed to educate, be somewhat provocative and also to inspire people. So let's see.

Peter Bowes: 47:35

I will look out for it. James, this has been a really fascinating conversation. I wish you a happy a very healthy 2026. And thank you so much for your time.

James Swanwick: 47:45

You're welcome, Peter, and thank you very much. I appreciate it to you too.

Peter Bowes: 47:49

The Livelong Podcast is a Healthspan Media Production. I'm Peter Bowes. You can contact me through our website, livelongpodcast.com where you'll also find show notes for this episode.

DISCLAIMER: 48:00

This podcast is for informational, educational and entertainment purposes only. We do not offer medical advice. If you have health concerns of any kind or you are considering adopting a new diet or exercise regime, you should first consult your doctor.