A friend in the entertainment industry here in LA texted me this week. They said they'd been sober curious at times lately. They drink more than they need to when they drink. They weren’t out of control. They've just built up enough of a tolerance to keep it together, which they seemed to understand wasn't quite the reassurance it sounds like.

It wasn’t a confession. It just sounded like something a lot of people often feel, but don’t always say out loud. The work dinners, the birthday celebrations, the end-of-week drink that became two. For a lot of people, it's just what this life looks like, and some would say it’s part of many cultures.

My own consumption has dropped naturally over the past couple of years. Smaller social circle after moving to LA, a new baby at home, a quieter life than I used to have. I wasn't looking for a reason to change anything. So when my friend texted, I went and looked at what the research actually says. What I found actually surprised me, so I wanted to share with you all this week.

In January 2025, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a formal advisory on alcohol and cancer. Not a think piece. A Surgeon General's Advisory, the same category of document that in 1964 told America that cigarettes cause cancer and set off fifty years of cultural and policy change.

The finding: alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States, after tobacco and obesity. Directly linked to at least seven types of cancer, including breast, colorectal, liver, and esophageal. Nearly 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 deaths every year, more than alcohol-related traffic fatalities.

And less than half of Americans know any of this.

The Surgeon General called for cancer warning labels on alcohol bottles, the same kind that now appear on cigarettes. In 2028, Ireland will become the first country to require them. The label will read: "There is a direct link between alcohol and fatal cancers."

Here is the part that checked me. Half of all alcohol-attributable cancers are not caused by heavy drinking. They are caused by light and moderate drinking. The people who think they are being careful are still in the risk pool.

And one number that lands differently if you're in your thirties or forties: colorectal cancer rates in Americans under 50 have risen 2.4% every year since 2012. Alcohol is one of the few modifiable risk factors directly linked to it.

The breast cancer data is worth knowing, too. Risk increases with even one drink a day, and this one affects people in your life whether or not it affects you directly.

I grew up watching cancer take people I loved. That shapes how I think about preventable risk. When I find out that a leading cause of cancer has been sitting in plain sight, quietly normalized, and that most people don't know about it, passing it on feels like the least I can do. For whatever reason, I missed this report entirely last year. I imagine a lot of people did too.

But here is what I also found.

People are already changing.

According to Gallup, just 54% of Americans reported drinking alcohol in 2025, the lowest rate in nearly 90 years of tracking. Three straight years of decline. For the first time, a majority of Americans now say that even one or two drinks a day is bad for their health. Nearly half of all Americans are actively trying to drink less. Non-alcoholic beer volume is up 175% since 2019. Sober bars are opening across the country.

My friend's text isn't a personal struggle at all. It's part of a cultural shift already underway, one that you might have been thinking about while holding on to habits shaped by what you grew up in, cultural norms, and more.

I want to be clear about what I'm not saying. A cold beer on a sunny patio is one of life's genuine pleasures. A glass of wine at a long dinner. A drink after a hard week. For many people, that's exactly what it should be. Maybe what's worth examining is the drinking that isn't quite chosen. The glass that appears because it always does. The drink that the room decides for you.

More good news: reducing your intake lowers your risk, and it is never too late to start. The body responds and this isn't a life sentence.

No prescription here. Everyone's relationship with alcohol is personal, and this letter isn't telling you what yours should be.

What it is saying is that most of us have likely been deciding without the full picture. That picture is clearer now than it has ever been, and more people than you might think are already acting on it.

The most useful thing isn't a tracker or a challenge. It's a question worth sitting with honestly, the same one my friend in LA is sitting with right now:

What do I want my drinking habits to be and why?

If the answer is clear, great. If it isn't, that's worth being aware of as well.

These topic deep dives have been some of my favorite letters to write. If there's something you've been curious about and want me to dig into, hit reply and let me know.

See you next Sunday,

Eric

P.S. This one might be worth forwarding. Most people in your life haven't seen the Surgeon General's report, and this is the kind of topic that can be easier to share than to bring up in conversation. It's a topic most people don't bring up, but worth talking about. And yes, the timing is what it is: Happy St. Patrick's Day.

P.P.S. If your relationship with alcohol is something you're actively working through, the SAMHSA helpline is 1-800-662-4357.