Episode 6: Finding Moderation in an Alcohol Nation

Apr 6

You're a freshman at college. It's a school known for academics, athletics but, above all, "never losing a party." Drinking isn't just normalized but celebrated. How do you find moderation at a place like that? It can be a challenge, but scratch beneath the surface and the possibilities are endless. David, Meagen and Alexis walk through the benefits of limiting or refraining from alcohol—and how to navigate that decision.

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David Magee:
I'm David Magee, and this is The Mayo Lab Podcast.
The alcohol conversation is never an easy one when it involves teens and families, and it's been around as long as as teens have been around. And parents have long tried to figure out, "How do we manage this issue for the best of our children?" And it's not an easy one, and nothing has changed in that regard. In some ways, there might have been slight improvements, but in other ways there have been steps backwards for teens today. And we'll dig into that on this episode of The Mayo Lab Podcast. Alexis Lee, welcome.
Alexis Lee:
Hello.
David Magee:
And Dr. Meagan Rosenthal. Meagan, it's not a fact that teens are drinking more today, but they maybe are drinking in a more dangerous manner.
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
That's right. So if you look at the larger literature, we actually see a decrease in the amount of the number of overall teens who are drinking. But we're seeing a different kind of drinking taking place amongst those who are drinking. And this is the binge-drinking. So consuming huge amounts of alcohol in a really short period of time is what the shift that we've seen students moving to. And the negative consequence of that, I mean, we've seen that all over the news, when we're recording this it's spring break right now, and so in the lead up to spring break, we're seeing all kinds of news reports around spikes in binge-drinking and the negative outcomes of binge-drinking and the deaths associated with binge-drinking. But binge-drinking is a kind of alcohol consumption our young people now engage in.
David Magee:
Yeah, it's a thing. When I was a college student, I was living in a fraternity house, and all the stereotypes that go with it, and there was plenty of alcohol consumption obviously. But the binge episodes were pretty few and far between. It was more a Friday night and a friend might throw some light beers into a cooler and then they're going to sit around and laugh for a while or go somewhere. There wasn't this concept of, "If I'm going to do it, oh, this is a drinking night, I'm going to go until I'm essentially blacked out or I'm binging and I'm out of control." The binge episodes over the past two decades have increased dramatically while, as you know, we haven't really seen an overall rise, even some decline in overall teen alcohol consumption.
And this obsession though, for lack of a better word, of binge-drinking, has become a thing. And it starts often as early as middle school it can show up and carries on into high school and sometimes into adulthood. I think that's the question. And we don't exactly know what's behind that. I can't help but wonder if there's some correlation to the drinking age being 21. And at the same time, as that goes up to 21, it feels like some coveted thing. And so, "Oh my gosh, we got it now. We got to go all in." I have no idea. I think the studies are unclear in that. But what we know is something has happened in the binge episodes, and that's where a lot of dangerous behavior happens. Alexis, if you look at binging, that's where sexual assaults often happen, that's where, say missed classes. They miss class the next day, then they feel bad about what they've done, then they get behind. It becomes a perfect storm. In binging, a lot of bad things happen, yet that is the pervasive culture today.
Alexis Lee:
It is. And reflecting back, when I would have those weekends in college where my group of friends would all go out and have a time, at least one of our friends, that's what was happening. Now that I look back. In the moment, I don't think I realized that's what was going on. But looking back, that's exactly what happened. And having conversations with friends nowadays and situations they've been in that have added poorly of sexual assault or drinking and driving, and maybe there's a car accident, all started with that. It leads to something else. It always leads to something else. And for some reason though, it's prided on. People do it, it's like a pride thing of, "I'm going to drink so much so fast and we're going to have the best time." What's going on though inside? As we always say. What's going on underneath that's leading you to want to do that?
David Magee:
Well, and when you're old like me, you wish you could all tell them, "It's actually not a good time and you will feel not great later." And so forth and so on. But part of the problem is though, that we live in such an alcohol nation that if you're watching the Super Bowl, alcohol is built in around it. If you're going to sports, alcohol is built in around it. If you're going to a party, alcohol is usually built in around it. In fact, there was a point to where I reached middle age and thinking I needed to quit drinking alcohol, and I remember wondering, A, can I? B, because I wasn't sure I actually knew any people who didn't consume alcohol socially on a regular basis. So I felt like I'll just be out on some island. Increasingly these days though, that's not the case. You see sober movements, you see more conversation. We're even seeing the government starting to alter its language around recommendations around alcohol and so far. So the pendulum in alcohol may be swinging a little bit, though we're still stuck in this binge culture.
Alexis Lee:
And I'll speak for myself, I'm 26 and I do not drink. And I thought-
David Magee:
And how have you pulled that off? Congratulations. But how have you pulled that off?
Alexis Lee:
And that's like the first question people ask. If you're 26, you live in Oxford, Mississippi, how do you not do that? And it's a lot of willpower. And there's some days that are harder than others, and being in the city where we do a lot of things around alcohol. And it's so fun to be in around all the celebrations and all The Grove and the things you get to do. But at the end of the day, it doesn't benefit me. It doesn't serve me. And I know this now. When I decided to lay down alcohol, it was I isolated myself. I'll be honest, I didn't think I could do those things, could go out and be around people, could still be in the same scenes and settings that I was in before. But at the end of the day, we talk about it on this podcast, it's not a punishment. You get to live life so much more fully, so much more present with people. I remember everything now. You remember your friend's smallest comments and details and you can see through people a lot more. But I'll be-
David Magee:
See through yourself a lot more.
Alexis Lee:
Yeah, you can see through the BS of people a lot more and yourself. But I remember, and I'll confess this, when I got to college, and I've lied about this to this day to some of my best friends. My very first drink of alcohol was 2015 when I got to this campus, and it was a shot that I split with my best friend. But when I got here, I thought I couldn't tell people that. I thought I had to drink and I had to have drank in high school.
David Magee:
You had a stigma in reverse?
Alexis Lee:
Right.
David Magee:
You arrived at college as you never had a drink, but you were almost ashamed in a college environment to admit that.
Alexis Lee:
Right.
David Magee:
So therefore, your first experience would be something, even though you split one, which I haven't seen that a lot, but you split one, it still had connotations of... It was a shock. So it still had connotations of, "Okay, we're going to do this."
Alexis Lee:
Mm-hmm. And it was this. And it was one of the things, as soon as I tried it, I knew I loved it and it just escalated very quickly and rapidly. And the people I was around, that was kind of what we did. I loved it, but it brought out a side of me that I didn't love and a person I didn't want to be. And knowing what I know now, being in this field, knowing what I know now about addiction runs in my family, there are just sacrifices I made and there's things in the way I live that I want to live forever with that, knowing that I will be authentically myself and not have to wake up the next day not remembering anything or regretting what I did.
David Magee:
Yeah, there's nothing like waking up with a clear mind. But it's not easy. I'll tell you, for me, it even took me when I was like, "Alcohol's not going to be a part of my life." It took me a little while where I turned down party invitations. I did not feel that comfortable going. Frankly, I'd never gone to a party since I was 14 years old without alcohol, to be honest. And didn't mean that when I was a teen, there would be high quantities, but I just didn't know, that's just what we did. There was a party, you would go with some in you. And so then I become an adult, and that's what everybody does.
So that's kind of the problem that teenagers have is that they grow up with eyes on all of us, and we are role models to the younger generation, and they just have eyes on their parents, they have eyes on others, and we are constantly reaching, not you and I anymore, but we're constantly reaching for substances to change how we feel. And young people watch us do that. To do everything fun, we're going to alter how we feel with a substance. So therefore, talk about role models, we kind of are that. So there is this expectation that alcohol will be a part of their life and/or maybe they parlay that into the alcohol shows them... Talk about gateway drugs, and maybe the alcohol is just showing them, "Okay, well maybe that's not my thing, but I'm going to watch what you do and I'll use another substance."
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
And I think your comment about coming to the university in Oxford here and expecting that's what you do in college, you drink in college. That's part of the experience. And I think that's a really interesting perspective to take on all of this. You think about our young people on campus, and I got the privilege of talking to a great number of them a couple of years ago, and when we started talking about substance use and things like that, it's a really tricky conversation to have. And oftentimes with these groups, and the students I spoke to ran the spectrum of really high performers in the tippy top of the programs, to your average student who might be struggling, and then all the way down to your student who might be struggling academically. But all of them didn't talk about drinking as a problem.
They're like, "Well, that's my reward. That's my reward for working hard all week long and doing all the things I'm supposed to do and being part of the club that I'm supposed to be part of and maximizing my 'college experience.'" I'm putting quotes on that, they did not. But then you think about that in relation to binge-drinking. Well, if you only have one or two days a week to relax and unwind and then the other five days a week you're up to here with work and all of these other different stresses, well, doesn't it make sense that you have to maximize that time and really go for it in those couple of days that you're not in class all the time? And then of course it bleeds out from there and you're missing class and all those kind of things, for some of our students. But I think that attitude is pervasive amongst our students. It's your reward for working hard.
David Magee:
It's pervasive among teens and students everywhere because we have attached alcohol to celebration. Your cousin is getting married, and you go and there's this big alcohol celebration. The team made the championship, and you go and there's a big alcohol celebration. You'll find it at high school tailgates, where there's families and they're tailgating and there's alcohol. And I'm not picking on those that do it. It's part of our culture. I've certainly lived a life with it. But it does beg the question of when we're placing it as such an importance, there's no wonder that our teens today, maybe they're not using alcohol in as great a number, but when they do, it's being binged and binged in more frequency. Then also they're using marijuana and other substances at higher incidents. So maybe their alcohol looks like marijuana use to them, but they're just still using substances to change how they feel.
But it's very challenging because it is such a part of our culture that actually the stories don't always tell the truth, right? It's such a part of our culture. So I always blame Playboy magazine. And when I was young, Playboy magazine would start these party school lists, and those were always inaccurate. So yeah, you get flagship universities, you get places where there's big time sports, there certainly is some alcohol culture that goes on. But let's take the University of Mississippi for example. I know lots of students that do not drink alcohol at all. They do not drink alcohol at all. And the concept of the party culture, I say, "You want to see a big party? I can show you this church on a Wednesday night that has 700 students gathering. 700 college students. There's no alcohol. They're in a good mood. They're celebrating." And I think that often gets lost from the story.
But people ask me, "What do we as parents do? What can we do with our child related to alcohol?" I always have one answer, "Drink less. Drink less." And I'm sorry, I don't want to put that pressure on parents, but I have to. "Let them engage with you when you are not drinking. Let them have fun with you when you are not drinking." Ask my son Hudson, who's now 10, 11 years sober, ask him what one of the most important factors in his life is, I've heard him say, because he hangs out with me. And I'm no longer sitting there doing that.
Alexis Lee:
I think there's been this kind of swap where binge-drinking is increasing, but the sober movement is increasing. And that is something so new that we've not grown up around. And having those choosing that, not living it as a punishment of, "I just can't." Living in the alcoholic stigma of, "I just can't." But no, it's like, "I get to live this life. I get to do these things. And we get to have these conversations and experiences and have the fun with doing all of that still." You can still have fun and do it. And I think one of the most joyful things for me is being able to be around people who support that too and love me in that.
David Magee:
That's what you have to do. You have to find friends and others, and it's the same in high schools, and you have to find others or it is hard.
Alexis Lee:
Yes. And you create that space, which is what I challenge parents to be able to bring to their household.
David Magee:
Yeah, for me, I had a friend tell me once... Because I have benefited sans alcohol from so much joy. Honestly, I've made more money. I may have made more money before, but I hang onto it better. I don't know what happens in that whole scenario, but there is something that happens in that. And for me, I don't know if I made more. I hang onto it better. Certainly had more joy in life. And I had a friend tell me recently who'd stopped drinking for a year. He goes, "Hey, we've been friends for a while. Why didn't you tell me this? Why didn't you tell me this all along?" And I think that's actually a very good question. And I've started sharing that with young people. And I've been surprised at how responsive they are. "Do you want to be happy? Do you want more money? I promise, I think you'll find it this route." And they're surprisingly very responsive to that.
But it's all about here's this brain. It's the most precious organ we have, the brain. Nothing else works without it. Nothing. And yet, we have grown to celebrate so romantically in this country the concept of substances sent to punish that organ. We're just punishing it. We're just going to change how it was created to function. And we celebrate that, we romanticize that, and then therefore, we want to look at teens today and go, "What's wrong with you? Why are you changing how you feel with substances? And why are you so stressed and overwhelmed?"
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
All of this conversation gets to the heart of this, right? Because as you were talking, David, about this idea that we've celebrated the impacts of alcohol, my mind went immediately to that TV show Mad Men, how cool is it to come home, you get your drink, just this really romantic idea. And even though that show, if I remember correctly, did show kind of some of the negative sides of it, our brains-
David Magee:
In the end, yeah, it did take its toll.
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
But our brains are magical in the sense that they only remember the good stuff. So we remember being cool and doing all the fun stuff and how that is so much over the top. And then we talk about what Alexis, the sober movement or the silver curious movement, it's catching a different kind of momentum now than we've ever seen in the past. I think we've reached this tipping point where we're not sure where we're going to go. But it starts with, as it often does, unfortunately, I guess for parents, it's in the home. How do we start doing differently and better and thinking and interrogating ourselves, "Okay, why do I have to have this drink? And is this serving me? And am I finishing a bottle of wine at night or am I doing a bottle and a half and suddenly I'm drinking by myself?" And all of these kind of red flags that we, over time, because it's not like a switch has flipped and you just go right off the deep end-
David Magee:
That's right. I actually did all of those, sadly, on that exact progression. But yes.
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
And I think everybody does, but we don't think about the consequences of that. And so pushing pause, "Is my teen or young person doing something that they ought not do?" Or thinking as we often talk about it in the lab, how do we start even earlier? "What am I showing to my little kids, to my little children as what is normal, what is acceptable? And having those conversations and thinking through what are the implications of my actions on my young people?" And I guess that's part of the deal that parents sign up for. But that's hard.
David Magee:
Well, and I tell parents, "I'm sorry to put this pressure on you, but you should let me tell you about my story." And frankly, so many other stories. Culturally, if they're growing up in a world of people changing their feelings with substances, they're going to do the same. If they grow up in a family of snow skiers, they're going to snow ski, likely. It's just a fact, right? But I always think about educating students, and sometimes I'm horrified, frankly, at how we educate students on alcohol in particular. Here's how this goes. You get in trouble at a school or a university, and you get arrested. Or you bring alcohol to a school function and you'll get sent to some class and they're going to start talking to you about, "This is a drink. This is how much alcohol is in a drink. This is how much is in five drinks." And look, is that accurate? Sure. Is that important? Sure. But it's not like they don't know. It's not like they don't know.
We're so often having the wrong conversations. They're pretty aware. They're actually so aware that they're working overtime to make sure they got bunches of quantities of ounces of drinks and what kind of alcohol and how it's used. This information is so readily available. They grow up with that. And we're having this crunchy, uncomfortable, clumsy conversation with them that they're rolling their eyes that, and, "These people, these old folks don't know." And they're exactly right. Instead of the conversation is, "The odds that these things happen when you're in a binge episode go up. Sexual assaults, that you might do something you regret." These kind of things. Here's an important one. When people are under the influence, others look at them differently. And there's some information about that there that are facts. It's helpful to know.
Because for me, one of the biggest reasons... Well, there's a lot of reasons I moved away from it, besides the fact that I wanted my life back and I actually wanted my family back. But there's also the fact that I realized when I thought I was amusing someone, they actually were not amused. And how others are reacting to you when you have alcohol in your system, you're not being seen as you often think you are being seen. And I think that if that were part of the education that deals with study facts, not just throwing random things at them, it can give people pause, if for vanity of nothing else, because we do want to be well perceived, we do want to be respected. That's just kind of innate human nature. But we've got to do a better job of parlaying that information to students at a younger age so they can make some informed decisions.
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
Well, and I think that you bring up a really great point. Oftentimes the conversation about alcohol use doesn't happen until something goes sideways.
David Magee:
When it goes wrong.
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
And rather than having that conversation earlier to say, "When you come to campus for this first time, hey, realize that maybe you didn't drink in high school. It's not an expectation when you get here either. Despite what may be the perception."
David Magee:
It actually is not.
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
Right? "And here's how you engage in the social life of the campus in a way that helps you protect that if that's important to you." Or, do you understand what your social interactions look like, like you said, David, if you're drinking too much and how you are? Because, like you said, we are social creatures, we want people to look at us and think we're good and be friends with us and all of those kinds of things. Or, "Here's the consequence of drinking too much. You're missing classes, you're not making grades. You're costing too much money because you got to do things over again. You're missing opportunities that you would otherwise be able to do." And having those conversations earlier and backing that up potentially into high school and giving students, like we talk about, the tools to make informed decisions. But this all comes back to us recognizing, as the grownups in the room, so to speak, that it starts with us.
It's not just to check a box after you got busted. "Okay, I'm going to do my due diligence and naughty, naughty, naughty." How do we prevent that from happening at all? And I do think that if you look at the literature around drinking and alcohol use in particular, we have good evidence for how we can do a better job of that. Not just on college campuses, but all the way down. We've just not curated it, formulated it, looked at it in the way that it needs to be looked at to be usable. But it also requires, and we've been talking about this this entire episode, us to think about alcohol use differently as a culture, as an entire group of people in this country. It's not benign, it's not maybe cool in all circumstances, it's not all of those kind of things that we associate with it. And even if it does change how we feel, it's not changing how we feel in a way to solve the feeling.
David Magee:
Well, it actually never solves-
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
It just covers it over.
David Magee:
And ultimately usually makes it worse, right?
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
Right.
David Magee:
If you're feeling alone and you drink alcohol, which is a depressant, there's very high odds that when you wake up the next day and for the next two or three days as your body works that out, that you're going to feel more alone. But you made a point about the myth of the expectation of arriving on a college campus. And students fall for that. They do. But all of us, and I know we all would say the same thing, is that most every student leader I know at the University of Mississippi or that I get to engage with at other universities, I won't be so foolish to say 100% of them, but 90 plus percent of them are not binging hardcore on a regular basis. They're human, I'm not saying they don't have their moments, but they are not hardcore abusing alcohol and other substances, yet they have come to college and are becoming leaders in a myriad of areas. So that therefore speaks to itself that the myth is wrong, that it's not true, that it's not only not an expectation of college, that if you really want to have high success in college, it's actually not a part of what you do.
Alexis Lee:
And I talk to a lot of college students and we have these conversations and they're just so excited when I tell them, "It's okay, good for you." And they just want to feel that support from other people too, and they want to talk about it, but they just feel ashamed to talk about it, like they can't. And so every campus you go to, there are people that don't want to drink. And I think that number is increasing, as we've talked about. And don't be afraid to be that person that kind of puts the flag down and says, "Hey, this is what I'm doing. This is how I'm living my life." You're going to attract those people around you that are going to also live that life and do that. And then it's just a movement in its own, and you're supported and you're living your life forward.
But just what we've been talking about, circling back a little bit of how you're perceived when you drink, and then this paradox of social media that we've talked about, of you want to be perceived on social media this one way, but yet you're going to go out and drink and do all these other things? Tell me how that lines up. Tell me where that's at. And so I think they fuel each other in the worst possible way. It's like pouring gasoline on a fire. Then it's like I have to counteract that of and overdo that. And I've been sitting here thinking, and when we were talking, it kind of just clicked for me of we need to dig into this more, of that idea.
David Magee:
Well, it does. And I talked to a young lady who's a college student in the last couple of weeks, and she was talking about this guilt around this same thing. And she's like, "I haven't been..." I was trying to say, "Well, what do you mean?" And she said, "Well, I've been going out and drinking too much of friends, and then we usually feel bad and guilty. And then I realized, 'This is not who I am.'" And I said, "Well, see, we humans are complicated. I'm sure it's who you are. You're just still working out where you want to spend your time. I'm not saying you are that. I'm saying you are that in that you are human and you might make what you feel like is a mistake. That's human." But I said, "The fact that you're able to articulate it and talk through it, I think the key is just don't be too hard on yourself. You're human. You're trying to figure it out and you will." That alone gave her some freedom.
One thing, before we wrap this up, I have to say, and my role in this movement for student wellbeing, my personal role is really one is an advocate for students and students and families, and I don't spend any time on policy. And if I do ever make a move on policy, it's only because the research is so absolutely clear. But I got to speak the truth. I feel very conflicted about the 21 drinking age, and I'm not putting you on the spot to speak to it as far as how you feel. You're probably like me. I don't know that we have the answers, but here's what I do know. I live in a college community and I watch a lot of students arrive in college at 18. They're moving away from home, moving into a dorm. They're not under their parents' roof. The HIPAA laws treat them as an adult, and yet they cannot go into a bar unless they go get a fake ID, which is quite illegal to me and is fraud. And I got a lot of issues with that. And I don't like putting them in that uncomfortable situation.
I think that increasingly we are going to require more studies around this 18 to 21 drinking age to understand is this contributing to more binging or not? And also, if it were lowered, did laws around drunk driving do that more or did the drinking age? I just feel like we don't have all the answers there. But something is pushing our young people to more alcohol binging, and we need to really figure out what. And we might want to make a movement against whatever that is. Do I think it's the 21 drinking age? I don't know. It's purely anecdotal, but all I know is when it used to be 18, I saw a lot less binge-drinking. That's what I know.
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
Well, and I think if you look to other places, and again, I don't know the right answer either, but to other places around the world, we see great variation in the legal drinking age, and the outcomes within those places are dramatically different than they are here in the United States. Now, a not insignificant part of that is the culture of this space, because people often point to you places in European countries where drinking is normalized, and for the most part... And they still have problems just like everybody does, but for the most part, it's not problematic in the same kind of way as drinking might be here.
David Magee:
They don't binge as much, but they have pretty high incidents of adult alcoholism.
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
Right, exactly.
David Magee:
But the binging is less.
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
Exactly. And so I think it is worthy of our digging into in a different kind of way. But also, at the same time, I think it necessitates a much bigger, and we always say this, and I feel like it's kind of probably annoying, but a much bigger conversation as a group. What is acceptable or not acceptable? Because this conversation even amongst us having the discussion of Alexis admitting, "I don't drink." I don't either, but in certain company, I would never say that.
David Magee:
You wouldn't even... Well, thank you. You just told the whole world here, Meagan.
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
Right. But I wouldn't say that because it's not something that is acceptable.
David Magee:
Oh, totally agree.
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
And it puts you in a different kind of position to the people around you.
David Magee:
It give an answer to.
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
But what's the big deal? Really, what is the big deal about that? But it is a big deal. Or if you sit down at a group at a professional setting as an adult and you're not drinking, people are like... Not because you're not drinking yourself, but because suddenly the perception is, "I'm going to judge you for it."
David Magee:
I was at a party the other day and people that know me know, but those that don't, they tried to get me a drink like six times. And actually I get a little weary of... So imagine being a teenager, when I'm not even comfortable and sure who I am, and let's say it's a celebration night and this binge thing is going down, I can barely fight that off as an adult. For them, I think there's some real pressure there.
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
Absolutely. And I think until we as a group grapple with the reality of that, look, if you want to drink and it's not causing you problems in your life, go drink. It's fine. Who cares?
David Magee:
Absolutely.
Dr. Meagan Rosenthal:
If you made a decision not to drink for a host of different reasons, either it's not serving you, or if you've had a problematic relationship with it in the past, whatever that looks like, fine. Who cares? But until we get, the kind of large we, get okay with that, delving into what the drinking age should or should not be, delving into any of these other issues is going to be incredibly problematic because we're not being honest with ourselves.
Alexis Lee:
I had a friend literally this past weekend, had wedding festivities, and someone came up to her, she wasn't drinking and said, "Are you pregnant?" And had this whole conversation.
David Magee:
Oh. Oh. Stop it.
Alexis Lee:
And she texted me immediately. And I was like, "This is a problem." Yeah, don't project onto other people vice versa kind of thing. You're just like, "No, it's not that." And then also I want add into this of the legal versus illegal thing of students getting fake IDs, drinking underage, getting away with doing illegal things earlier in life. They just know that they can get away with it then, continuing to get away with it, and then it spirals into right worse things also.
David Magee:
I think that these type of conversations we have on these many episodes, I just sat here when y'all were having that and thought, "What if we could get something created in cities or regionally where we could get young people around a round table?" I would love to hear their thoughts on the drinking age. I would like to hear their thoughts on the alcohol culture. I would like to hear their thoughts on stronger street marijuana, these kind of things. As we're just having this I thought, "What if we convened a round table of students and we really let them flesh that out? It might shed a lot of light." Thank y'all so much, Dr. Meagan Rosenthal and Alexis Lee. I'm David McGee. Come back and see us next time.
Alexis Lee:
The Mayo Lab Podcast is produced by Dr. Natasha Jeter, Dr. Meagan Rosenthal, David Magee, Alexis Lee, and Slade Lewis. This podcast was recorded at Broadcast Studio in Oxford, Mississippi. The show was mixed and mastered by Clay Jones, and our original music was composed by Slade Lewis. The Mayo Lab Podcast is brought to you by the William Magee Institute for Student Wellbeing. For more information on The Mayo Lab, head over to themayolab.com and follow us on social media @TheMayoLab. If you enjoyed listening to The Mayo Lab Podcast with David Magee, we need your help. Tell others about it, and we'd love for you to subscribe, rate, and give us a review on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you are listening to this podcast. This podcast represents the opinions of David Magee and guests of the show. This podcast is not intended to be a substitute for the medical advice of a licensed counselor or physician. The listeners should consult with their mental health professional in any matters relating to his or her health, or the health of a child.