It's a new year, and at least one of us at JOURNOS is celebrating Dry January. But what is this strange holiday? What are its origins? And how are booze brands evolving to adapt to the selfish preferences of those who forswear drinking for an entire month?

The hard seltzer White Claw offers some answers here, as it unleashes a zero-alcohol product, turning its seltzer into ... seltzer. It is an absurd miracle of form following function.

... Much like the second story we tackled, about how the lifeforms in the emoji kingdom don't match the biodiversity of the actual world. Is this a problem for our understanding of the natural world? An impediment to modern communication? Or should we leave ecology out of emoji and just stick to the ever-useful eggplant?

We get into these topics with a surplus of sobriety. In this episode, we promise less slurring ... plus, the ability to legally drive anywhere!

NOTES

Where Dry January came from // More people gettin' dry // Who's drinking worldwide? // Is Dry January good for us? // White Claw is very proud of White Claw // The Washington Post considers the value of zero-alcohol booze // The emoji biodiversity research // Extinct emoji and endangered emoji // Emojination // What's the most popular emoji?