Have You Swapped Booze for Scrolling? with TJ PowerHave You Swapped Booze for Scrolling? with TJ Power
Sober Awkward
The surprising link between phones, dopamine and alcohol..
56:21•7 Jun 2026
Have You Swapped Wine for Your Phone? Vic and TJ Power on Sobriety and Scrolling
Episode Overview
- Alcohol and smartphones can stimulate the brain’s reward systems in surprisingly similar ways, making both feel essential even when they’re harming well-being.
- Creating physical boundaries with phones, such as keeping them out of the bedroom and delaying the first check of the day, can dramatically reduce anxiety.
- A structured 36-hour break from all screens, from Friday 9pm to Sunday 9am, can expose hidden exhaustion and help reset priorities around real-life connection.
- Spending more tech-free time with children and partners highlights how much presence has been lost to scrolling and can motivate lasting changes.
- Even a single drink after years of sobriety may feel jarring and unhelpful, reinforcing that alcohol adds stimulation rather than genuine happiness.
“I fundamentally believe you can't live with technology as a human being if you can't learn to live without it.”
What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? This conversation between Vic and neuroscientist TJ Power brings booze, brain chemistry and phone addiction into the same honest, messy, funny spotlight. TJ talks through his early relationship with alcohol, from mixing his dad’s vodka and tonics as a child to losing a promising golf career after getting drunk before a major competition.
He shares the festival “wake-up call” at 21 that pushed him towards sobriety and how watching his dad quit drinking after stage 3 bowel cancer completely shifted his view on what a good life could look like. As he puts it, “You will not have a bright future if this is the path that continues.” From there, the chat moves into modern life’s other big sedative: the smartphone.
TJ explains how technology hits the same dopamine systems as alcohol, keeping people in a constant stress response and masking just how exhausted they really are. He compares phone use to a toxic partner that “doesn’t let you leave the house without it”, and he’s brutally clear that checking a phone first thing in the morning is like taking that first sip of booze.
Vic opens up about her own struggle with screens, people pleasing and the fear of being “left behind” if she logs off. TJ offers practical ideas, including his 36-hour “9pm Friday to 9am Sunday” digital detox and simple rules like banning phones from the bedroom and taking dark, warm showers after work to reset the nervous system.
You’ll hear parallels between alcohol and tech everywhere: shame, distraction from kids, loss of presence, and that familiar feeling of “What the hell am I doing with my life?” By the end, Vic actually tries TJ’s detox and reports back feeling calmer, more present with her children, and pleasantly shocked to realise she hadn’t missed anything at all. It might leave you wondering: have you really quit numbing out, or have you just swapped the bottle for a glowing screen?
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