Episode 344 - Dan Ahdoot

Dan Ahdoot came to Tom Papa’s Breaking Bread podcast four years ago to promote his book Undercooked. This time, he shows up with a 2018 Brunello and a story about being the only guest whose host actually read his book. But the real conversation—which ranges from wine regions to Broadway flops to the etiquette of QR codes—is a relaxed, digressive argument for a specific kind of pleasure-seeking: one that is deliberate, social, and willing to accept trade-offs.

The case for alcohol, and against data-driven living

A long stretch of the episode is a defense of drinking, especially wine, against the rising tide of sobriety and self-quantification. Ahdoot and Papa agree that Gen Z’s shift away from alcohol is real—wineries in Sonoma are pulling vines out of the ground—but they are skeptical of the trade-offs. Papa observes that “longevity and fun don’t go well together,” and Ahdoot points out that the young people who abstain from alcohol often just microdose mushrooms or smoke weed all day instead. The real problem, they argue, is not drinking itself but the way data has colonized leisure. Papa mocks the obsession with sleep scores and continuous glucose monitors: “What test are you trying to pass? Live your life. Have a shitty night of sleep and have a great bottle of wine.”