Club Soda Community Podcast

Beyond Booze is a new podcast series from Club Soda exploring the world's best alcohol-free drinks. In this week's season opener, host Noah Villeneuve talks to Club Soda co-founder Dru Jaeger about his experience in the drinks industry. And together, they take a look ahead at what's coming up on Beyond Booze. Week by week, you'll learn more about alcohol-free drinks, get recommendations for cocktail serves, and find the best places to drink mindfully around the world. Subscribe now to get the latest episodes of Beyond Booze each week. Episode 1 is out on 4 April. Discover more about Beyond Booze.

Beyond Booze is a new podcast series from Club Soda exploring the world's best alcohol-free drinks. Hosted by Noah Villeneuve, who heads the cocktail programme at our Drury Lane Tasting Room, Beyond Booze introduces the amazing humans behind some of the best alcohol-free drinks on the market today. Week by week, you'll hear more about how their drinks came to be and get their views on the low and no industry. Noah's guests share the highs and lows of creating alcohol-free brands, recommendations for cocktail serves, and the best places to find alcohol-free drinks around the world. Catch Noah next week as he previews Beyond Booze with Club Soda co-founder Dru Jaeger. Then dive in for episode 1, launching on 4 April. Discover more about Beyond Booze.

We're taking a short break from the Club Soda podcast. If you've been a regular listener, thank you so much for your support. This podcast wouldn’t be possible without you. Lots of exciting things are coming soon, though. Right now, Noah Villeneuve is working on a new podcast series exploring alcohol-free drinks. He’ll be talking to beer, wine and spirit makers, diving deep into the world of non-alcoholic mood enhancers, and sharing his wisdom about making mindful cocktails. And Dru Jaeger is putting together new episodes on the basics of how to change your drinking. We’ll take you on a journey considering whether cutting down or quitting is right for you, how to take your first steps and how to keep going for the long term. Meanwhile, we've got 120 episodes in our back catalogue to explore. Check out our most popular episodes, including interviews with Rapper Dax about his hit Dear Alcohol, author Catherine Gray on sustaining long-term change and academic Dr Emma Davies on what we know about "normal" drinking. There’s so much to explore and lots to enjoy. And Club Soda isn’t going anywhere. So come and visit our Tasting Room at 39 Drury Lane in London to discover a world of low-alcohol and alcohol-free drinks. Connect with us across social @joinclubsoda. And find drinks, articles, courses, events and more at joinclubsoda.com. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter, delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning and packed with ways to help you choose better alcohol-free drinks, change your drinking and connect with other people who are drinking less or not at all. Music by ComaStudio from Pixabay.

On this week's podcast, the wonderful Yasmin Spark interviews Mark Wong, founder of the most relaxing of alcohol-free options, Impossibrew. You'll remember Club Soda friend Yasmin from her takeover of the Club Soda podcast for Black History Month last October. She interviewed so many amazing people that we couldn't fit them all into our schedule, but this one was too good to miss out. Mark Wong is the founder of Impossibrew, a beer that's sure to make you relax without using alcohol. With active herbs to keep you on track while also giving you that 'aah' feeling, Mark has created a range of alcohol-free options that begin to redefine alcohol-free options as not something less than alcohol, but something better than alcohol.

Looking for a cocktail conversation that really hits the spot? This week, resident Club Soda mixologist and cocktail expert Noah Villeneuve talks to Paul Mathew from Everleaf in our first-ever Club Soda drink special podcast. Paul is a biologist by background before he got into making delicious AF drinks. He's created this incredible drink Everleaf, of which we stock three tantalising flavours in the Club Soda Tasting Room in Covent Garden which Noah uses to make our signature AF cocktails with. Paul and Noah have this brilliant conversation all about flavor and botany and ingredients and cocktail making, so get ready to nerd out over the delight of Everleaf in alcohol-free drinks. For more great drinks inspiration, fantastic podcast guests, and tips, tricks, and guidance from our team, visit the Club Soda podcast and listen back to some great episodes!  The Club Soda podcast is all the inspiration you need to create and sustain a life that doesn’t centre on drinking. Find the advice and support you need, whether you are cutting down, taking a break or going alcohol-free for the long-term.

Club Soda co-founder Dru met the fantastic Lou Lebentz at a festival panel last summer and was drawn to her openness and warmth. Lou is a  therapist, trauma specialist, and speaker who, due to her own experiences with addiction both professionally and personally, has some great lessons and insights to share.  With 15 years of sobriety under her belt, as well as some fascinating experiences which helped her forge her career, Lou shares how she changed her drinking, and how, in turn, it changed her life. Her lesson was that it's not always the booze that's the problem, but to root out the trauma, you need to stay off the bottle. She talks to Dru about giving yourself over to the process of change, and how that is far more validating than drowning out your life.

For actor, writer, and singer Callum Hughes, pub culture has often gone alongside his working and personal life. Having had time to contemplate and write his new show, Thirst, during Covid isolation, Callum realised that he had the opportunity to tell his unique story of addressing his problematic relationship with alcohol while also celebrating the community that pubs provide. Callum jumped at the chance to bridge the gap between changing our drinking and pub culture and broaden the conversation about these two closely linked but rarely discussed topics. Having posted an advert for his new show on Club Soda's Events page, co-founder Dru couldn't wait to chat with Callum about his motivations for creating this funny, moving, and often musical show, and how drinking might have become a problem for him, but pub culture can still be a positive, nurturing environment, even if you're drinking 0% beer.

At Club Soda, we love nothing more than lively discussions in our Facebook group about the stuff that matters most to our community. One topic that we've noticed comes up often is that of sugar cravings, weight loss, and mindful eating alongside mindful drinking. On this week's podcast, our content writer, Anja Madhvani, had a wonderful conversation with nutritionist and mindset coach Gillian Bennett about how the idea of losing weight gets tied up in the business of changing our drinking and how closely related mindful eating and mindful drinking are as psychological concepts. Gillian and Anja's chat is enlightening in many ways, and we think you'll be reassured and inspired by this fascinating podcast.

When our team heard that Cat Sims of Not So Smug Now Insta fame had given up drinking, it was just another reason to love the blunt, topical, and frankly hilarious influencer. We couldn't wait to have her on our podcast to talk about alcohol, parenting, public personas, and how to have a private life when you're a social media star. Club Soda co-founder Dru has a frank and funny conversation with Cat about using terminology that allows you to live the life that you want to live when you give up drinking.  If you're new to quitting booze this January or you just need a little uplifting, insightful inspiration to get you through the winter months, you'll definitely want to put this podcast at the top of your January to-do list! Trigger warning: sexual assault is mentioned halfway through this podcast, at around 28 minutes in. If you need to skip over this part of the conversation, please do that.

In our last episode before Christmas, we're excited to introduce you to the newest members of Club Soda, our Tasting Room team. They've joined us recently as we began planning for Christmas in a new retail venue, and this fantastic bunch is helping to run the bar, Tasting Room, and everything else that goes with being in a shop environment.  This time last year we spoke to members of the Club Soda team, about how they were planning for Christmas, what they were drinking, and how they felt about drinking less or not at all over the Christmas holidays. They shared practical tips and skills and all those kinds of things, so go and listen to that episode, if you want to. And we're doing the same thing but with a whole new cast of people this year. We love hearing about what people love (and hate) about Christmas - we hope you enjoy learning more about the Club Soda team.