Get an Ethernet cable when you do video calls. For Moose Sake. I'm begging you. WiFi bandwidth is subject to interference and fundamentally slower than a wired connection, and even slower still if you are using a VPN.
Saying this as someone who worked in tech support for five years...
Holy crap yes! 50 feet of CAT6 costs like $15. Just run the ugly old cable down the hall and roll it up when you’re done.
Nobody should ever broadcast over WiFi. (I kinda think no one should ever video conference over WiFi unless they have a very good access point with ultra-reliable backhaul right next to them.)
I've been naltrexone-sober for at least five years, maybe longer, and there are a bunch of NA "liquors" and beers that scratch the taste-itch for me when I have it.
I do miss the feel of the buzz... but I was never good at just keeping it to the buzz and always needed to overdo it, so NA it is, for me!
(Last New Years I decided I was going to drink--took a naltrexone--and drank a few hard drinks. I ended up saying some stupid stuff--nothing terrible, just not smart, and was slightly more argumentative--and didn't feel physically good later in the evening or the next day. Weird, how I used to just accept all of that as worth the price.)
It works great for calorie control for me too. For me, anyway, that impulse to drink more than one comes almost entirely from the buzz and the disinhibition it causes.
So while I recognize it takes quite the focused exercise of will to only have one alcoholic drink. It's pretty trivial for me to limit myself to one NA beer or one mocktail. . . . as easy as limiting soda or candy.
So if you still got buzzed and hungover, what does the Naltrexone do for you?
I do too. There are so many good ones (Tsingtao 0.0 is my most recent favorite). My once usual nightly glass of wine or two is now almost always a non-alcoholic beer, and that's been the case for the last few years.
Yeah, this year I just started (like a few times this whole year) to have a few drinks when out. Totally a social thing and no more than 3 or 4. Usually like 2.
And I think I'm done. Each time, I feel like absolute crap the next day. And my Garmin watch doesn't let me pretend otherwise about my terrible sleep.
Now I did only have 1 last time. That seemed to be ok. So maybe I'll wait till after the meal, after everyone's put down their forks to chat and have a pint or something.
Please get your tech in order. Love the show, liked this episode, and I understand the the live streams are more casual. However, dozens of minutes of ordering and fiddling with commonplace gizmos would improve the listening experience. Mesh wifi, a mid range lavalier mic (or allegedly the new airpod pro 3), etc. I believe in BARpod!
I had to white-knuckle it, and if anyone needs another resource for issues with their drinking, I recommend the reddit chat /stopdrinking. Sorry for proselytizing, it comes from an urge to help anyone who developed a life-ruining problem like I did.
Something I always thought was weird about ppls' reactions to pharma solutions like naltrexone and ozempic is the implication that this somehow shortcutting or "cheating" on moral struggles, as if eating and drinking are the ONLY moral struggles.
If you kick these bad habits, there are still plenty of moral struggles for you to deal with, haha! You still have to be nice to your friends and acquaintances...Now, if they invented a pill that made you want to be polite, I'd be suspicious.
Ozempic shuts down the brain chemistry "reward center" portion of addiction, and can very likely help people to break a physical dependency. It's not going to do much about the psychological and emotional aspects of addiction, though.
Many addicts are also emotionally disregulated and highly narcissistic (in the 80s there was a trend in therapy to use the Alanon "12 step" process to treat what was then being called "dynfunctional families", and recognizing the parallels between the long term effects of narcissstic abuse and what was then called "adult children of alcoholics".
The "making amends" step in AA/12-step isn't necessarily about suffering, since it can be just a verbal apology (in some cases, that's all that can really be done anyway), as much as about facing the consequences that addict behaviors can and do have on others and developing empathy (which narcissists are generally lacking), and probably helping addicts to keep awareness of the damage they can do which they rarely consider while "in their disease".
I'm not expecting podcast level audio quality here and I'm fine with some faffing about in the beginning but please next time use a better connection and microphone, even a cheap USB lavalier mic would be alright!
There is a dog overpopulation crisis in the American Southeast where Katie now lives. Given how many perfectly wonderful dogs are being given a lethal injection because they're homeless, it is unethical for Katie to be so publicly encouraging dog breeding. Moose is special to Katie, but he isn't so unusually wonderful that his genes getting into the next generation would justify killing a litter of dogs instead of adopting them. I'm sorry if that's rude, but it's a serious ethical issue. Dogs' lives matter.
Re the vaping comments. I work with young people and those who vape can vape all day every day, including at school. These kids wouldn’t be able to get away with smoking more than a couple of real cigarettes. It’s better than them smoking, for sure, but not all those who vape would have smoked and for those kids, it’s bad for them.
This is the first one I saw typing in a rush on my way to the bus, I'm sure there's more you could search for. My pulmonologist didn't cite a study, he was just anecdotal with me that he sees patients come in with damage from vaping "all the time", & that since I already had emphysema, and a history of pleurisy, that for me to vape was like a patient with fatty liver chugging liquor.
Katie, for the love of Mike (Pesca), please stop looking at yourself in the phone. It feels like you're constantly checking to see if you're still hot. Just assume you are, and invest in a proper webcam and network infrastructure and set up your call so you're only looking at the comments or the other person on the call.
Loved this! I couldn’t remember Patrick (Fatrick’s) name, so I’m glad she correctly interpreted my “child” comment to get that story in 🤣Those episodes were bananas.
I'm so, so glad that Katie is writing this book. Naltrexone was something I discovered on my own, too, and hopefully this will get the treatment more into the mainstream.
KATIE KATIE KATIE KATIE KATIE KATIE KATIE KATIE KATIE KATIE KATIE KATIE KATIE KATIE KATIE
Get an Ethernet cable when you do video calls. For Moose Sake. I'm begging you. WiFi bandwidth is subject to interference and fundamentally slower than a wired connection, and even slower still if you are using a VPN.
Saying this as someone who worked in tech support for five years...
Holy crap yes! 50 feet of CAT6 costs like $15. Just run the ugly old cable down the hall and roll it up when you’re done.
Nobody should ever broadcast over WiFi. (I kinda think no one should ever video conference over WiFi unless they have a very good access point with ultra-reliable backhaul right next to them.)
If you can't run a cable, you can get "run a network over your power line" adapter that's often a huge improvement.
Also, modern mesh wifi setups are better than the classic standalone boxes.
Is that why her voice sounded muffled? I was listening on the podcast and had to pull up the video to see if something was wrong.
If your laptop doesnt have an Ethernet port, you could buy a docking station with one.
I like non alcoholic beer. I like the taste and it scratches that itch for me without the terrible sleep, hangover, and beer gut.
I've been naltrexone-sober for at least five years, maybe longer, and there are a bunch of NA "liquors" and beers that scratch the taste-itch for me when I have it.
I do miss the feel of the buzz... but I was never good at just keeping it to the buzz and always needed to overdo it, so NA it is, for me!
(Last New Years I decided I was going to drink--took a naltrexone--and drank a few hard drinks. I ended up saying some stupid stuff--nothing terrible, just not smart, and was slightly more argumentative--and didn't feel physically good later in the evening or the next day. Weird, how I used to just accept all of that as worth the price.)
It works great for calorie control for me too. For me, anyway, that impulse to drink more than one comes almost entirely from the buzz and the disinhibition it causes.
So while I recognize it takes quite the focused exercise of will to only have one alcoholic drink. It's pretty trivial for me to limit myself to one NA beer or one mocktail. . . . as easy as limiting soda or candy.
So if you still got buzzed and hungover, what does the Naltrexone do for you?
I do too. There are so many good ones (Tsingtao 0.0 is my most recent favorite). My once usual nightly glass of wine or two is now almost always a non-alcoholic beer, and that's been the case for the last few years.
Yeah, this year I just started (like a few times this whole year) to have a few drinks when out. Totally a social thing and no more than 3 or 4. Usually like 2.
And I think I'm done. Each time, I feel like absolute crap the next day. And my Garmin watch doesn't let me pretend otherwise about my terrible sleep.
Now I did only have 1 last time. That seemed to be ok. So maybe I'll wait till after the meal, after everyone's put down their forks to chat and have a pint or something.
Same for me since over 5 years. My life is so much better without alcohol.
I love it too. Heineken & Peroni are my favourites.
I've had a subscription of a couple of cases of Athletic Brewing every couple of months for a year now. They're really great.
Athletic is my favorite NA beer! It tastes suspiciously good and scratches the itch!
I just drink real beer and tell everyone it's non alchoholic.
I only do that at AA meetings. At the bar it’s NA all the way.
Is hair prohibited in the Pesca household?
Where can I buy a “Don’t Buy The Merch” cap or t-shirt?
Please get your tech in order. Love the show, liked this episode, and I understand the the live streams are more casual. However, dozens of minutes of ordering and fiddling with commonplace gizmos would improve the listening experience. Mesh wifi, a mid range lavalier mic (or allegedly the new airpod pro 3), etc. I believe in BARpod!
I had to white-knuckle it, and if anyone needs another resource for issues with their drinking, I recommend the reddit chat /stopdrinking. Sorry for proselytizing, it comes from an urge to help anyone who developed a life-ruining problem like I did.
I also went the white knuckle and /stopdrinking route! That place is fricking amazing.
Hey Jane! That place is indeed amazing. High-five for also white-knuckling it, my friend.
Something I always thought was weird about ppls' reactions to pharma solutions like naltrexone and ozempic is the implication that this somehow shortcutting or "cheating" on moral struggles, as if eating and drinking are the ONLY moral struggles.
If you kick these bad habits, there are still plenty of moral struggles for you to deal with, haha! You still have to be nice to your friends and acquaintances...Now, if they invented a pill that made you want to be polite, I'd be suspicious.
Ozempic shuts down the brain chemistry "reward center" portion of addiction, and can very likely help people to break a physical dependency. It's not going to do much about the psychological and emotional aspects of addiction, though.
Many addicts are also emotionally disregulated and highly narcissistic (in the 80s there was a trend in therapy to use the Alanon "12 step" process to treat what was then being called "dynfunctional families", and recognizing the parallels between the long term effects of narcissstic abuse and what was then called "adult children of alcoholics".
The "making amends" step in AA/12-step isn't necessarily about suffering, since it can be just a verbal apology (in some cases, that's all that can really be done anyway), as much as about facing the consequences that addict behaviors can and do have on others and developing empathy (which narcissists are generally lacking), and probably helping addicts to keep awareness of the damage they can do which they rarely consider while "in their disease".
I'm not expecting podcast level audio quality here and I'm fine with some faffing about in the beginning but please next time use a better connection and microphone, even a cheap USB lavalier mic would be alright!
There is a dog overpopulation crisis in the American Southeast where Katie now lives. Given how many perfectly wonderful dogs are being given a lethal injection because they're homeless, it is unethical for Katie to be so publicly encouraging dog breeding. Moose is special to Katie, but he isn't so unusually wonderful that his genes getting into the next generation would justify killing a litter of dogs instead of adopting them. I'm sorry if that's rude, but it's a serious ethical issue. Dogs' lives matter.
Re the vaping comments. I work with young people and those who vape can vape all day every day, including at school. These kids wouldn’t be able to get away with smoking more than a couple of real cigarettes. It’s better than them smoking, for sure, but not all those who vape would have smoked and for those kids, it’s bad for them.
Vaping also still causes lung damage. When I got emphysema, my Pulmonologist was very clear that there is no amount of "safe" vaping.
Was there a study supporting that?
THC and nicotine aren't good for you, but what's the evidence that vaping is bad for your lungs?
This is the first one I saw typing in a rush on my way to the bus, I'm sure there's more you could search for. My pulmonologist didn't cite a study, he was just anecdotal with me that he sees patients come in with damage from vaping "all the time", & that since I already had emphysema, and a history of pleurisy, that for me to vape was like a patient with fatty liver chugging liquor.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9843649/
Katie, for the love of Mike (Pesca), please stop looking at yourself in the phone. It feels like you're constantly checking to see if you're still hot. Just assume you are, and invest in a proper webcam and network infrastructure and set up your call so you're only looking at the comments or the other person on the call.
Worst episode in a long time.
Ha, I was gonna make this joke
You’re gonna need to be more specific
Like, worst episode in 98.4 days?
Loved this! I couldn’t remember Patrick (Fatrick’s) name, so I’m glad she correctly interpreted my “child” comment to get that story in 🤣Those episodes were bananas.
I'm so, so glad that Katie is writing this book. Naltrexone was something I discovered on my own, too, and hopefully this will get the treatment more into the mainstream.
Katie … WE ALL want to breed our best pet friends …. You are forgiven!