Susie Bright, all pink like ruby grapefruit!

Susie Bright, prolific author, editor, and sex-positive feminist pioneer, is on And The Next Thing You Know podcast!

Susie and I got together to talk about our evolving relationships with alcohol. For a lot of us, the social isolation of the pandemic shifted our drinking habits. This was true for me, as well as for Susie and her partner Jon.

My conversation with Susie about booze comes from a harm reduction perspective. Let’s be honest about how people choose to live and celebrate joy, and minimize the harm. In the era of early HIV/AIDS, Susie contributed to a more transparent cultural dialogue celebrating sex and sexuality, and helped us take the shame out of it. That’s how it’s done.

Susie Bright’s list of credits and accomplishments is vast! She was the editor of On Our Backs magazine from 1984 to 1991, author of Susie Sexpert’s Lesbian Sex World, author and editor of scores of other books and erotica collections, and one of Hollywood’s first intimacy coordinators—before it was even a thing—on the set of Lana and Lily Wachowski’s film Bound. She continues to share her prolific work with the world as a film and culture critic, expert teacher of writing and publishing, and audio producer who brought Allison Bechtel’s groundbreaking Dykes To Watch Out For comics to life for Audible last year.

Find Susie Bright at her blog
https://susiebright.ink

Me and a bespoke stack o’ books for Susie

Tristan Taormino’s Opening Up, Vito Russo’s The Celluloid Closet, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain

Susie’s commentary on queer self-hatred in The Children’s Hour from the 1995 documentary The Celluloid Closet, based on Vito Russo’s book. (YouTube link)

Radical Desire: Making On Our Backs Magazine at the Cornell University archive

Susie Bright’s books at Bookshop Santa Cruz 

Susie Bright on the director’s commentary for Lana and Lily Wachowski’s film Bound (1996) (YouTube link)
[*Note – the commentary on Bound was before Lana and Lily both publicly identified as trans, so they’re using their former names here.]

Alison Bechdel’s Dykes To Watch Out For review in the Advocate
“Bechdel said the project was the brainchild of Audible’s editor-at-large Susie Bright.”

Honey Lee Cottrell – Susie’s ex-partner, contributing photographer (and first centerfold!) On Our Backs magazine

Clip from Little Miss Sunshine (2006) directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, written by Michael Arndt, used for education and commentary only.

Sackler and Purdue Pharma lawsuit update from December, 2023

FACT CHECK: Did Snoop Dogg really quit smoking cannabis?

According to USA Today, this was a “humorous marketing ploy” to promote his smokeless campfire pit product. We talked about Snoop Dogg making a harm reduction move with cannabis here, but it seems like that wasn’t the case. Sorry for the factual error in the episode.

The Wall Street Journal interview with Black food historian and journalist Toni Tipton-Martin. Find Toni’s new book Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice: Cocktails from Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks at Toni Tipton-Martin dot Com.

The Pendennis Club bartender in Louisville who made a cocktail for Muhammad Ali was Tom Bullock. His influential book, The Ideal Bartender, was published in 1917.

The doomed legacy of Nancy Reagan’s Just Say No campaign

A special thanks goes out to Ryan Masters for introducing Susie and me. Check out Ryan’s excellent band, Smoke Chaser. They play a lush blend of indie psychedelia, super fun. Smoke Chaser’s album Alazapul is now out on Heroic Dose Records.

The list of resources for drug and alcohol support here includes traditional 12-step programs as well as harm reduction organizations.

Al-Anon (and Al-Ateen) – the 12-step program for family members and loved ones of people with alcohol and substance use issues who want support in those relationships

The Gottman Institute’s page on codependency

AA – Alcoholics Anonymous, the 12-step program for people with alcohol use and addiction issues

Harm Reduction model of working with drug and alcohol use from an evidence-based perspective

Harm Reduction Therapy Center – San Francisco Bay Area

Some of my favorite And The Next Thing You Know episodes about alcohol, drugs, harm reduction, and sobriety are The Real Drug Was Checking Out, All At Once, All At Once, and A Cruisible of Sorts with Amelia Ray.

The Surly Temple – a fantastic name for the classic low-alcohol drink, a bitters and soda. I first heard this moniker from my friend, San Francisco visual artist Heather Robinson. She doesn’t claim to have coined the term. Online, there are a lot of recipes for such a drink that more closely mimic the non-alcoholic Shirley Temple. But here’s how I do it:

Basic Surly Temple:
Rocks
Dash of your favorite bitters (I prefer the classic Angostura, but you can use Peychaud’s or any fancier bitters you like)
Top with club soda
Serve it all butch-style in a lowball glass, arrrgh!

Fancy Surly:
Muddle fresh mint and lime juice in your glass
Top with rocks, a dash of bitters, and club soda

NOTE on the alcohol content in bitters: A dash or two of Angostura bitters will deliver about a .5% alcohol content to a full sized beverage with no other alcohol in it. That’s about the legal limit to call a beverage “non-alcoholic.”

But that doesn’t mean you should feel any particular way about it as a sober person, or someone working on reducing the harm of alcohol in your life. If you want to maintain sobriety with zero alcohol, then bitters should be avoided. This article by cocktail professional Camper English has a sensitive discussion of the matter of bitters in an otherwise non-alcoholic beverage, and breaks down the math of the alcohol content.

For a zero-alcohol version of the Surly, try Wilderton Bittersweet Aperitivo instead of traditional bitters. (Wilderton is not a sponsor of the show, just a shout-out for an elegantly packaged, delightful non-alcoholic alternative to bitters or alcohol-based amaros.)

Susie’s eggnog recipe – make a batch without alcohol, and then, if you imbibe, you can add her recommended rum, cognac, brandy combination.

The Palm Beach Special
2 ½  oz Gin
¾ oz Grapefruit juice
½ oz Sweet vermouth
Serve on the rocks

A deeply felt thanks to all my beautiful patrons for helping me create this podcast. Your support and enthusiasm for the show keep my head in the game. Thank you.

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The banana peel is by Max Ronnersjö.
The theme and interstitial music are by Jon Schwartz.

Thanks everybody. We’re so glad you tuned in.