Upper Bottom

After almost exactly a year of podcasting – spanning 51 episodes – co-hosts Ollie and Cess raise a glass to their favourite episodes, best interviewees, top personal stories, the most fervent supporters and more.  There is a cathartic close to the podcast, as Clare and Clara, wives of Ollie and Cess, respectively, answer puzzlers on what their spouse’s sobriety means to them. The replies – which t...

With Upper Bottom hitting a half-century of episodes – woo hoo!! – Ollie and Cess list their top 50 learnings from their sobriety journey. These are listed below – with links to relevant episodes. (Booze News and Just the Tonic return next week.)  1. "Upper Bottom" may raise eyebrows as a podcast name, but it a conversation starter that perfectly captures the essence of alcohol consumption that re...

Cess and Ollie welcome local south-east London friend Boo Darlison – who is Matron for Personal Cancer Care, Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust – to share her wisdom about how people should invest in their future selves by making good decisions with drink and food before a health disaster strikes. The interview with Boo comes just as America's top doctor, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, calls for r...

In the first episode of 2025, Ollie and Cess invite James Gwinnett to discuss his fascinating and insightful story of overcoming depression and alcoholism – he is nearly nine years sober – after a serious rugby injury, and going on to take part in Channel 4's SAS: Who Dares Wins and run a series of ultramarathons.   He’s recently released a book – READY, SET, LIFE, available on Amazon – which reco...

After a one-week break for the festive holiday, co-hosts Cess and Ollie return to discuss how their sober Christmas Days went – Botivo was a big hit for Cess! Ollie, meanwhile, shares a story about being sozzled in front of Princess Catherine. Oops! And, with the news that a record 15.5 million Britons (29% of the adult population in the UK) are planning to participate in Dry January, the pair hav...

In the final episode before Christmas – the hosts will take a break on December 24 – Cess and Ollie consider embarrassing drinking tales from work dos in the past. They also contemplate how to ensure a sober person can enjoy themselves during the especially boozy party season, and offer some tips and tricks. Given the time of year, there is also a reflection on the last 12 months – and the pair ha...

With the festive season in full swing, Cess – now a marathon runner – and Ollie explore how norms are changing regarding Christmas drinking. And it seems that really boring lot, Gen Zzz, is to blame (according to the Daily Mail). A new trend for "Dry Christmas" is gathering pace, quicker than a behind-schdule Rudolph. This movement is being helped by more low- and no-alcohol options. The hosts wel...

What was your relationship with alcohol like when growing up? To what extent did how your parents' drinking habits shape your own? And what do today's youngsters think about boozing? Ollie and Cess – who both gave up alcohol at least in part to set a better example for their children – try to answer these big questions. And to assist with the last puzzler, the co-hosts' offspring offer their words...

To answer this massive question, Ollie and Cess draw upon their own insights and the straight-talking wisdom of interviewee Gary Mairs – aka sobernsound ("sweary sobriety mentor") on Instagram. Gary's catchphrase for his 33,000+ followers is "get to midnight and go again". He attended AA in April 2014, but struggled with the idea of supplicating to God, or a higher power. Yet, through meditation a...

Dr Fiona Dowman, a clinical psychologist and addiction specialist, joins Cess and Ollie and shares many illuminating insights for Upper Bottoms – and those who have dropped lower. What are the signs of addiction? Are some people more predisposed to addiction than others? What are drinkers hoping to gain from boozing hard? And what are the tools and tips to gain better control over one's "relations...

Is a rock-and-roll lifestyle a shortcut to hitting rock bottom? Cess invites his musical pals Louis Brennan and Tom Bowen, who both stopped drinking during the pandemic, to explore the dangerous dance between sonic creativity and intoxicants. It's a wild jig – and a level lower than usual for Upper Bottom listeners. Indeed, Tom reveals that he was shocked into giving up boozing after a doctor said...

To mark episode 40, co-hosts Ollie and Cess have a heart-to-heart about the progress of the podcast, which began in February. They've packed a lot in the last nine months, spoken about their troubles and interviewed the great and the good in this space – but has it all been a form of therapy, albeit in a public forum? The soul-searching comes as listener numbers are stubbornly not rising – but doe...

When Ollie was drinking, "October 31 sounded the starting pistol to a one-person race for which there were no winners – apart from the venues where I would jollily buy outrageous Yuletide rounds," he writes in his latest Low No Drinker Magazine column. "I can now detect, while scrolling back through my phone to revisit nightmares of past Hallowe’en parties, the grinning glee of the two months of b...

Of no-or-low beer, wine, and spirits, the latter sub-category has most underwhelmed Cess since he started his sobriety journey on January 1, 2023 – can this week's guests change his mind? The co-hosts are joined by Michael Allen, Co-Founder of Scotland-based Naesip, producer of a non-alcoholic gin, called Munroe (much to Cess's excitement), and Casa Lumbre Spirits' Chief Innovation Officer, Iván S...

Cannabinoid (CBD) drinks and "functional" drinking are on the rise – indeed, the latter is enjoying a 38% year-on-year increase in the UK, according to Eoin Keegan, Co-Founder & CEO at Goodrays. His drinks are even available as part of the Waitrose meal deal at the moment. For this week's episode, Ollie and Cess dive into the CBD space with a fascinating interview with Eoin and Brendan William...

Ollie and Cess join Lou Pollitt, Category and Insights Director at Lucky Saint, for a 5-kilometre run around Regent's Park in London. This is a regular community-building event for the leading alcohol-free beer brand, which has rocketed since its establishment in 2018. The trio meets at the Lucky Saint pub, the company's headquarters, to discuss drinking trends and plans for the coming years – plu...

Over 5,000 adults were surveyed for the annual Drinkaware Monitor – since 2009, the UK’s only national survey that provides an insight into the country’s drinking habits, according to the official bumph. The 2024 Monitor, published on Sept 26, shows: Nine in ten UK drinkers moderate their drinking – up from 87% in 2023 and 84% in 2018 Yet in five (19%) UK drinkers – around eight million people – a...

Cess and Ollie invite Cami Vidal, Founder of La Maison Wellness, and Gaby Lamb, Co-Founder (with her husband) of 6PERCENT, to discuss a new alcohol-free subcategory: light. The interview – which takes place in Ollie's kitchen (as everyone is based in south-east London) – covers drinking trends, how long it takes to develop a 6% wine that people are happy with, predictions about the future of socia...

Ollie and Dan have been busy attending various no- and low-alcohol events, and they are wearing Upper-bottom t-shirts, of course. Here, they capture some of the main takeaways from Drink It In and the Club Soda Low, Light & Alcohol-Free Summit. So, where is the category right now? And what needs to happen to help it grow? Plus, what is the future of socialising? Is it nootropics bars? We'd lov...

The hosts catch up with Jack, aka Kickingthecans on Instagram. He previously featured in one of Upper Bottom's most popular episodes, Final whistle: Why is watching football so boozy, and what's it like sober? Now Jack has reached the milestone of a year sober. And, although he won't be celebrating as such, life is good – and much better than it was 12 months ago. His mental health is considerably...

For many, September ushers in the end of summer and a halt to holiday indulgence. It's the second reset month of the year after January, and that means reflection, positive change, detoxification, and possibly action. Cess and Ollie have both been active, with the former bagging a couple of Munros in the Highlands and the latter bettering Dame Kelly Holmes in the Big Half.  The hosts offer words o...

In this week's episode, just before schools reopen their doors for the new term, Ollie and Cess reflect on recent overseas holidays and how sobriety and drinking cultures vary in different countries – and how they have evolved. Special attention is paid to Ollie's experiences at a much-loved family retreat on the grape-growing slopes in Perpignan. Meanwhile, Cess takes a detailed look at Sweden, p...

Refreshed after a summer break, Cess and Ollie speak with Martyn Davies, organiser of Sober is Fun ( https://www.soberisfun.co.uk/ ), the UK's first regular sober comedy event, and Ben Jolliffe, who runs Feed the Fire ( https://feedthefire.me/dancing ), a no-drink or drugs rhythmic dance focused on freedom and connection. Both interviewees stopped drinking (and taking drugs) after being subjected...

Before taking a well-earned summer break, the podcast hosts Ollie and Cess interview Sean Halpin, a 24-year old who divides his time between Munich and Manchester. He has also just hit one year of sobriety, too. Congratulations, Sean! Sean is an aficionado of Bavarian beer and enthusiastic about the trend for sober curiosity in Germany and plenty of no-alcohol options. He also reveals some very in...

In the third and final episode of the three-part mini-series about work and drinking, Cess and Ollie chat about times when they have been boozing on the job – or at least felt the effects the day after a night on the sauce. Cess mentions how a clothes shop colleague was once sent to the stock room because he was feeling worse for wear and proceeded to curl up and nap. Ollie shares eyebrow-raising...