Begin Again with Davina McCall - Begin Again Moments: Alcohol Awareness Week

Episode Date: July 5, 2026

In this special Begin Again Moments episode for Alcohol Awareness Week, we bring together two honest conversations about changing your relationship with alcohol, and discovering what life can look like on the other side. Spencer Matthews reflects on his journey from destructive drinking to a healthier, more intentional life. He shares how becoming a husband, father and entrepreneur transformed his priorities, why understanding the science behind alcohol changed his perspective, and how protecting everything he's built now matters more than chasing another night out. Ruari Fairbairns, founder of One Year No Beer, challenges the way we think about alcohol. He explains why the conversation shouldn't just be about addiction, but about what alcohol may be quietly taking away from all of us, from our energy and health to our relationships, happiness and potential. He shares the surprising benefits he experienced after changing his own drinking habits, and why even small changes can have a profound impact. Together, these moments offer a thoughtful, judgement-free look at alcohol, encouraging us to ask not just what we're giving up, but what we might gain. To hear the full conversations, watch the complete episodes on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Sponsored by: Do Health - The waitlist is open. Begin Again listeners get fixed early access pricing when they sign up today at dohealth.co/beginagain use code BEGINAGAIN Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I've really loved to talk to you about when, what's the moderate, moderate drinking? Moderation. Yeah. So, like, this is a really interesting and important thing for people to be able to learn to do. You can go from drinking a lot to moderate drinking. Or do you, in your opinion, would you have to stop? How did you start drinking again? and what made you realize you could?

I think if you are, if you have my kind of nature, call it an addictive nature, or an alcoholic nature, or whatever you want to call it. There's always, it's a slippery slope, always will be. I think the difference is responsibility and, you know, all of the good work that you do. Yes. I think, you know, me going out and destroying.

myself for days on end is going to get in the way of my business, it's going to get in the way of my career, it's going to get in the way of my marriage, it's going to, you know, it's not a good example for my children. I think having kids makes quite a big difference, you know, my kids have never seen me drunk, you know, and they never will, hopefully. I had a lot less on. I had a lot, a lot of turbulence in my mind before. I was lazy as well. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't try, I didn't push myself, I didn't have the aspirations I have now. Um, I used to drink probably at my worst when I was bored, you know, like between TV shows. I wouldn't go and meet my agent and think, right, what can we be doing?

How can we make more money? How can we, you know, better? What was it? I would just get pissed. Yeah. I was pretty loose, you know. I was just spiraling kind of all the time. And you think it's fun, but it's not, you know.

And I think, yeah. You know, have firstly what we spoke about earlier, you know, wanting to show up for Vogue, wanting to prove to Vogue that I wasn't some, you know, drunk loser was important to me. Then, you know, I wasn't sober for long before starting a business. And then all of a sudden your plate's kind of full and you're busy. So you don't even really feel like drinking much because you have a new addiction in my case then. And again, with that came responsibility to not be out drinking and drinking drunk, right? And then you have children.

and then it's all layers on top of, you know, each other. I think if I was the kind of person that now went out and had a couple of pints of beer and couldn't stop, then I wouldn't have the bit. You know, I'd just, I'd have the experience to just go, what's the point in any of this? The fact is I can have the occasional drink. Sometimes the occasional drink leads to several drinks in a night. But, you know, my relationship feels more normal now. Yes.

You know, and I think I read Dr. Anna Lemke's book called Dopamine Nation, which was just fantastic. If you've not read it. Oh, I haven't. So thank you. Oh, it's wonderful. And it's quite, you know, it's, it's neuroscientcy, but it's also an easy read. Yeah. Perfect.

Right up my street. No, but honestly, right up my street. For me, I mean, you know, I'm obviously not a scientist. So for me, it was a welcome read because I was so fascinated by it that I flipped through it in kind of no time. And it's all about kind of, you know, spikes in dopamine and how toxins and alcohol make you feel. But actually the result of what drinking actually does to your brain. And, you know, I think the more educated I've become about it, the less keen I am to be involved with it in that big scale anyway. This is alcohol, I mean, because realistically, and I'm sure I'm not ringing any alarm bells here, it's really bad for you.

you know, and I'm very interested in my health. So, you know, in the same way that I'll have a fried chicken sandwich every so often, I might also have a beer every so often. It's not a very big deal to me. And if it did feel like a big deal, I would stop. So, you know, I am conscious of it, though, like very conscious of it, you know. And I wouldn't ever want to threaten where I've got to. And I don't mean that in a kind of success scale.

I just mean so much good work has been achieved in the last few. few years. And I know that, you know, drinking could destroy that if I let it. So I think just being aware of it has been helpful. I'm like fascinated by this kind of idea of semi, like just being able to have a couple of drinks, though. It's really interesting that. And what's really nice about it is it's not making me think, oh, you could do that. I think for the first few years of not drinking, I really missed it. But it's been decades now and I don't miss it at all.

Yeah. I think... It's become habit to not drink. For me, I'm still discovering bits and bobs about it. I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up completely TOTAL, to be honest. I don't see an issue with it,

but I think it quite easily could be. I need still stints of extended periods of time off it. So, can't, wait for January, I'll do three, four months without a single drop, you know, then I'll probably have a few beers in the summer and then I'll go off again. It's, it's, it's, I try not to think about it too much. It's not, it's not really in the forefront of my mind ever. I don't walk

past a pub or a bar and go, I'd love a drink, you know, which I'm, I think I'm quite lucky, you know, in that regard. But alcohol is a truly destructive thing for me, and I haven't forgotten that. Yes. You know what I mean? It's quite a good memory to have, really. I think, you know, it's like if you've ever been really hurt by someone, you know, you might choose to move through it, but you don't forget it. Yes. Same thing with alcohol for me. You know, I'm fully aware that if I allow myself, oh, yeah, like, you know, I'm just not going to drink Monday to Wednesday, but, you know, Thursday to Sunday, I'm going to. Yeah, that's so dangerous.

See you later. Yeah. I'm gonzo, you know, so I just need to be conscious and careful around it, I suppose. But, you know, I have to say that it doesn't feel like a current issue. You know, I'm not walking around wondering if it's safe. I, to be honest, don't really think about it. I've partnered with Do Health for this episode, and I want to tell you why. 46% of Do Health members showed signs of hidden cardiovascular risk after doing their blood test.

46%. And do you know what? They had absolutely no idea. No symptoms. No big dramatic warning. And look, I get why people put this stuff off because results can feel really scary. You know, you think, what if I find out something I can't?

Oh, no. But finding things early can change everything. And that's what's great about what Dr. Orongan has done with Do Health. This app gives you something clear enough to question, understand, and then act on. It checks your blood three times a year, including lots of things many of us have never even been tested for. And then it explains what your body is telling you clearly and calmly. And then gives you a weekly plan with an in-app coach.

So you know what to do next. Not more worry, it's a way forward. Go to dohealth.com slash begin again and use code begin again to lock in early access pricing. Were you an alcoholic? Well, let's just check in on a couple of things here because this is a complicated answer. So first of all, the term alcoholic. That is a older term, not used by the scientific community today. So what we use now today is alcohol use disorder.

And if you're asking if I had alcohol use disorder in my life, absolutely. Most people who binge drink have alcohol use disorder. It ranges from mild, moderate, severe. You said binge drink specific. Not just binge drinking, but also daily drinking, all of those kind of things, absolutely. So do you want the exact definition of alcohol use disorder? So the specific, because I can't do them all, we'll do it through here. So mild is to have two of these, to consider two of these, moderate is four, and then more than that, you have severe alcohol use disorder. Yeah. Craving beverages containing alcohol. Okay. Continuing to

use these beverages, even though your drinking affects your relationship with your family, friends, and colleagues. Drinking more than you intended, or for longer than you intended. Everyone's been there, right, at some point? Spending lots of time obtaining and drinking these beverages or recovering from hangovers caused by drinking. This is starting to just sound like life in London right now. Repeatedly trying to reduce how much you drink every weekend. Repeatedly failing to meet work or family obligations because you're drinking. Giving up important social work or recreational activities because of alcohol. Using alcohol in physically hazardous situations.

Continuing to drink when you have a medical condition or mental disorder that gets worse when you drink. Side note here. Most mental disorders get worse when you drink. Having a high tolerance for beverages containing alcohol. Having alcohol withdrawal symptoms or drinking to avoid alcohol withdrawal symptoms or drinking to avoid alcohol with withdrawal. symptoms. So the definition now has changed from what was. And is the question, did I have what in society might call today a problem with alcohol? Well, no, I wasn't waking up in the morning pouring whiskey on my corn flakes. I was never during days and days and days on end. I was never what you

might, the society might consider as an alcoholic. But as an oil broker in London, I mean, IP week, I could be drinking from Monday morning at 9 o'clock for the entire week and getting a few hours sleep and all of the rest of that. So A is the change in definition, but to give people the context of where I was, I'm just a typical party boy social person. I was always first in and I was always last out. And I got all of my energy from being the most outrageous, wild, unbelievably crazy person, right? And so I love the party. I love that. And alcohol in my 20s also led to drugs. You know, I did a lot of

party drugs when I was younger. So despite having this relationship with alcohol and also it being part of my job as an oil broker, there were some things. And I think, you know, the things I didn't really realize, I didn't really link them to the alcohol consumption. I didn't realize that alcohol was causing these other things that I was trying to sort out. And I would say that when I did actually finally change my relationship with alcohol, that's when you look back and you go, oh, wow. You know, I didn't realize that I was not that bad, but that it was having that impact on me.

What were the things? So let's look at it from the other perspective. So it's hard in the moment to see what impact alcohol is having on you. because of its sort of not just its brainwashing, but society's expectations and also the ignorance and things like that. So what happens when you remove alcohol? Well, I mean, the lights go on, you know, the sudden increase in energy, clarity, productivity.

IBS, a decade of seeing doctors, Chinese health medicine, you've got IBS, taking medication, disappeared, right? So psoriasis, gone. So depression, anxiety, significantly reduced. So there were all of these things that I wasn't really attributing to this regular alcohol consumption. And even at the time, it was only two, maybe three times a week, drinking, probably binge drinking, sometimes heavily. So, and that still today is pretty normal. That's what normal drinking behavior looks like.

And yet I had all of these benefits. And talk about the other benefits, right? relationship significantly improved, happiness levels higher, you know, just doubled my business in the first 12 months of changing my relationship with alcohol. So it's, instead of us looking at it like what problems is alcohol causing you, let's have the conversation of what is alcohol robbing you of that you are not being? And I have a little thought here in this whole world is that actually, actually, the truth is, is that alcohol is a life not lived.

Okay? And what I mean by that is for many, many, many people, they're consuming alcohol because they are numbing out the feelings of their life. They're numbing out the toxic relationship that they haven't really sorted out. They're numbing out their shitty job with their boss that they hate. They're numbing out the poor health. all of these feelings, thoughts, difficult situations, do you know what, I'm just going to switch it off by having a drink. But the truth is, that's a life not lived.

Who are you being if you remove that and you start improving those relationships? If you start finding that job that you feel is most amazing, if you start making these positive changes in your life. And so I want to change the conversation to be, let's go to war, go to war on lives not lived. You know, our whole focus here and what I'm trying to do in the world is to help people really address. Because like I said, if I take somebody who's regularly drinking alcohol and they are like, well, my life's great. I'm fine. Absolutely great. And I can think of one particular individual, a very well-known, no more hints, a very well-known entrepreneur, hugely successful in the UK.

And he came on the program. And he said to me, after doing the program, he said, Ruri, I have built. multiple businesses, been hugely successful. I have all I've wanted, all of that wonderful stuff. And yet, coming through this program, you have made me realize that I have spent the last decade operating on 80%. Yes. I don't know what that's cost me, but it's millions. Now, he wasn't even a big drinker. He's just like, you know, there's lots of networking events. There's this. There's, oh, well, let's have dinner. Let's have that. There have a couple of drinks here. and he had a 20% performance uplift, what does that do to the bottom line?

You know, the cost to the UK economy estimated at $52 billion a year, and the vast majority of that is from loss of earnings. All of those sick days, all of that. So I think this is where the big shift that we are trying to continually pioneer is instead of following the rhetoric of, if you're, have a problem, you need to go over here and you're a problematic drinker and everyone else is okay, let's actually look at the gray area of drinking that ultimately any amount of alcohol is toxic for you, any amount of alcohol is toxic for the brain, toxic for the body, and what

happens if you choose to change your relationship with it? We're all the things you're missing out on.