In this wide-ranging conversation with Noah Rothbaum and David Wondrich, some of the topics we cover include:

• How Dave transitioned from English professor, to Esquire columnist, to full-fledged cocktail historian, and how that journey brought him to collaborate with Noah at The Daily Beast and on their current Oxford Companion project.
• The difference between writing about spirits and cocktails in the early 2000s vs. today, and how our relationship to “The Truth” (in quotes here) is different than it was during those early days of our great cocktail revival.
• Why long-form booze writing has (paradoxically) spawned a lot of attention and accolades in today’s age of listicles and tweet threads.
• And how conducting historical research is very similar to noodling for catfish.
• Along the way, we discuss why Beachbum Berry can’t stand the Pina Colada, where Dave hid that lump of Ambergris he’s been missing for the past several years, the merits of a good rum punch, and much, much more.

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