After a merry festive season, this is the time of the year when some of us decide to cut back on the booze. Dry January is a peculiar concept. Anyone who does it will tell you they feel great at the end of the month, but most of them can’t wait to get back to the pub.

In many ways, drinking doesn’t make sense. It often takes more than it gives. And yet we keep drinking, just like we have for tens of thousands of years. The question is, why?

To help Will with an answer, he is joined by Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, and author of ‘Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization’, Edward Slingerland.

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Read The Spectator Australia here.