This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.
Available now on the documentary from the BBC World Service.
Ireland's seen the introduction of some of the strongest warning labels on bottles and cans of drink in the world,
linking alcohol with cancer and liver disease.
The drinks industry calls this fearmongering,
but campaigners say the Irish public need to better protect their health.
Listen now by searching for the documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
When was the last time you opened a book and you were able to really concentrate on it?
No interruptions for more than five or ten minutes.
No scrolling on your phone between paragraphs.
For many of us, that kind of deep immersive reading is being lost.
There's this quote from the writer Neil Postman, and he says,
What George Orwell feared were those who would ban books.
What Aldous Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book
because there would be no one who wanted to read one.
We first came across this quote in a piece written by our guest today, James Marriott.
He's worried that Aldous Huxley might be right,
and he's written an essay on the substack that's gone viral about the dawn of a post-literate society.
which basically means what happens if people stop reading books altogether.
This essay was so gripping that we wanted to break away from our usual format to explore it.