About

Phil Cain, the journalist running this site, was born and raised in Manchester, unwittingly absorbing the straightforward ethos of the first city founded on science and technology.

His interest in writing and journalism was fired when he started a mildly scurrilous school rag, later contributing to a student newspaper at Nottingham University, where he studied maths.

After finishing his studies he got a job writing books on the global media industry, before switching to journalism, first writing about internet technology in business and government, then ways that finance can better serve society. He was a founder of VoxPolitics, which charted the use of the internet in democracy.

He is an occasional correspondent for Southeast Europe with an eclectic output featuring in media including the BBC, CBC, Economist, Telegraph, Observer, POLITICO and Al Jazeera, and far-flung titles, like the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and ニューズウィーク (Japanese Newsweek). 

Looking for new avenues to explore in 2014 he began working on a book. In 2016 he published Alcohol Companion, a groundbreaking science-based account of alcohol for both professional and general readers, and the follow-on title Alcohol for Nerds, which explores the profound implications.

These two titles have spawned a wide range of activities, including speaking, investigations, opinion pieces, hosting events and offering comment and opinion. Readers are warmly encouraged to engage and discuss through social media and email.

In summer 2022 he became communication and policy manager at the European Alcohol Policy Alliance (Eurocare), an umbrella NGO  in Brussels. Its goal is to ensure alcohol product labels are required to provide the information and health warnings needed to make informed decisions.

 He continues there as an occasional consultant and also works with the WHO. ■

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