Steven Bartlett and the 3 glasses of wine
· Business Insider
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- Steven Bartlett shared that drinking three glasses of wine ruined his life for as many days.
- The "Diary of a CEO" podcast host's comments sparked a debate about wellness culture.
- "Optimization is killing fun," was one response.
It has been two week weeks since Steven Bartlett's three-glasses-of-wine-ruined-my-life comments and the results are in: people are getting sick of optimization culture.
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In a clip from a 2025 episode of the British entrepreneur's "Diary Of A CEO" podcast that resurfaced on May 23, he recounted having his first alcoholic drink for a year. "I had a couple of glasses of wine, didn't get drunk, it ruined three days of my life because of the domino effect that it caused," he said. (Later in the podcast he said he drank three glasses of wine).
Bartlett, who had been sober for three years, added: "It meant that I got worse sleep that night, I ate more poorly the next day because my dopamine system or the cortisol system or whatever was all messed up. Then I podcasted worse, and I didn't go to the gym the day after, and I could track all of this on my Whoop."
Perhaps a year or two ago, Bartlett's comments would have been informative to some and eyeroll-worthy to others, but not newsworthy.
In today's longevity-obsessed world, where wearable tech that tracks your sleep, heart rate, and mood is commonplace, however, his words struck a nerve. Wrongly or rightly, he represented a prototypical health-optimizing biohacker acting in deference to his health tracker and the "grindset."
"Optimization is killing fun," Greg James, a British radio DJ, said in an Instagram reel shared on May 31.
"You can have ambitions and goals, get good at a skill, and do well in your life professionally, and also have a great time. Not everything has to be like work."
"I genuinely sometimes podcast better on a hangover," Fearne Cotton, a TV presenter and the host of the podcast "Happy Place," said.
Fellow TV presenter Laura Jackson wrote on Instagram: "Most people's legacy will be the people they loved, the laughs they shared and how they made others feel. Spoiler alert THESE are the things that matter. It's NOT their sleep score or their step count." Bartlett's representatives didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Wellness culture is just culture now
It's not surprising that people are fed up with optimization culture. From TV shows to grocery store shelves, it has become impossible to escape the $6.8 trillion global wellness industry.
In an episode of Ryan Murphy's "All's Fair," the 2025 lawyer drama starring Kim Kardashian, the female leads discuss the longevity treatments they've had, including laser collagen stimulation, long-lasting fillers, a muscle-contraction machine, and vaginal platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy. Many high profile people wear fitness trackers like Whoop bands and Oura rings. And a couple years ago, continuous glucose monitors went from a prescription-only tool for people with diabetes to a piece of buzzy over-the-counter wellness tech.
Of course, maintaining healthy habits like eating a balanced diet, exercising, and sleeping enough are incredibly important. But there's little evidence to suggest that the payoff of monitoring our daily bodily functions is worth the effort.
James, the presenter who posted on Instagram about "winegate," said that it wasn't Bartlett's choice to go sober that bothered him, as alcohol can of course be harmful, but that he seemed to prioritize a good score on his wearable over enjoying a night out.
"My issue is this endless optimization and measuring of everything to the point where it starts to make you feel a bit miserable," James said.
As of September 2025, you could buy a camera that lives in your toilet bowl and analyzes your poop in real time.
Yes, a wearable for your toilet. I'll leave you to ponder that.
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