Episode 66: Sober Summer Check-In, Dental Tourism, Wine O'Clock, and Lying OncologistsEpisode 66: Sober Summer Check-In, Dental Tourism, Wine O'Clock, and Lying Oncologists
Creative Sobriety
Kristen Bear offers a mid-summer sober check-in, unpacking wine o’clock habits, recovery language, health industry controversies and her upcoming dental tourism trip. The conversation centres on rewriting your story about alcohol, facing shame, and finding a recovery path that actually fits your life.
34:02•10 Aug 2026
Wine O’Clock Myths, Sober Summer Check-Ins and a Trip to Molar City
Episode Overview
- Mid-summer is a useful time to take honest inventory of how alcohol has shown up in your life and whether your habits match your intentions.
- Evening "wine o’clock" routines are often sold as stress relief but can quietly become entrenched loops that damage mental and physical health.
- There are many ways to get sober; if AA doesn’t fit, keep searching for approaches and voices that feel relevant to your experience.
- Understanding alcohol as a carcinogenic, highly marketed product can help shift blame away from the individual and towards the industry narrative.
- Sobriety can build unexpected resilience, making it easier to face practical challenges like long-avoided health or dental issues without shame.
“"You can start telling yourself a new story about booze and its place in your life anytime, any place that you'd like."”
This episode sheds light on the personal battles against addiction while also catching up on life, heatwaves and a surprising trip to "Molar City". Kristen Bear checks in mid-summer, talking about why August is a smart moment to pause and ask yourself some straight questions: how has alcohol shown up for you these past few months, and do you actually like the way you’ve been interacting with it?
She shares her own old "wine o’clock" routine from her restaurant days in West Hollywood, painting a vivid picture of rushing home to a cheap bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and believing that first glass was a life raft. As she puts it, "Alcohol cannot be consumed casually. There's nothing casual about alcohol. It is a class one carcinogen...
created to literally consume you." From there, she challenges the idea that alcohol is stress relief, arguing instead that quitting opened the door to real rest, regulated nerves and a life that doesn’t revolve around hangovers. Kristen also talks candidly about her issues with traditional "alcoholic" labels, especially for women carrying generations of shame while being sold wine as a cure-all.
She stresses that people drink for many reasons and that there are "so many ways you can get alcohol out of your life," urging you to keep looking until you find voices that speak your language. The conversation then shifts to health systems and trust, as she reacts to a Stat News investigation into the alcohol industry’s ties with public health organisations and a "lying oncologist" who admitted misleading the public about safe drinking levels.
Rounding things out, Kristen shares her upcoming dental tourism trip to Los Algodones, Mexico, describing how sobriety gives her the courage to face long-avoided dental work without drowning in shame. Her message is clear: you can start writing a new story about booze and about yourself any day you choose. So what story are you ready to start telling?
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