As America's dry spell stretches on, one of our most reliable forms of social glue is drying up with it: hanging out at a bar, Axios' Josephine Walker writes.

• 🫂 Why it matters: Americans are drinking less to protect their health, improve their sleep and feel sharper. But we still need "third places" outside home and work where people can gather without much of a plan.

📚 Two recent articles explore what else may disappear as Americans retreat from alcohol, including neighborhood gathering spots and small rituals that help people connect:

1. Ginia Bellafante of the N.Y. Times traveled to Louisville, Ky., where the shrinking alcohol industry is threatening jobs, arts funding and civic institutions built around bourbon. "For all the benefits of cutting back, certain rituals were vanishing, and it was hard not to wonder what else the temperance revival had carried away with it," she writes. (Gift link)
2. Derek Thompson, in a Substack post ("Is This the End of Booze?"), took on the tension from a more personal angle, arguing that America's health-optimization boom can become "selfish optimization," squeezing other people out of our daily routines.

🏋️ Americans are prioritizing workouts, sleep hygiene and mental clarity.

• And there are fewer people to drink with: Run clubs and alcohol-free gatherings are rising.

💭 Josephine's thought bubble: I'm a reporter and a fitness instructor. So when a longevity trend takes off online, I'm usually trying it, scrutinizing it or doing both.

• I increasingly treat late-night cocktails like a hostile act against tomorrow's workout, and I'm hardly alone.

📉 By the numbers: The share of adults 35 and younger who say they drink fell 9 points in the past three years, from 59% to 50%, Gallup found.

• In 2025, 54% of U.S. adults said they drank at least occasionally — the lowest share in nearly nine decades. From 1997 through 2023, that figure never dipped below 60%.

Reality check: Excessive drinking causes immense harm, and alcohol is associated with cancer and other serious health risks.

• But Thompson argues that zero-tolerance rhetoric can obscure the difference between moderate and heavy drinking.

The bottom line: If we give up a social lubricant, we need to work harder to preserve the relationships built around it.

• Share this story.

Golden-hour light washes over a backyard garden and the mountains beyond in Taos, N.M.

• Thanks to reader Craig Woodward of Guntersville, Ala., for sending this photo by his friend Tobin Clark our way!