Eye-Opening Truths About Pie, Tradition & America’s Hidden Alcohol Crisis

Eye-Opening Truths About Pie, Tradition & America’s Hidden Alcohol Crisis

This week on Viewpoints, a waitress will bring this big slab of cream pie to the table and just like you look to the table next to you and you look over and say, I want a piece of that, you know. It’s the holiday season and that means endless slices of pie. Then, they would have this thing called drink and drown.

In water you pay $7 and you go drink as many beers as you want. It’s a drug that’s celebrated, shared, and socially accepted, yet it’s also one of the deadliest. I’m Marty Peterson.

And I’m Gary Price. These stories in-depth this week on your Public Affairs magazine, Viewpoints. $5,000, that’s the average amount of money people in the U.S. are now spending on gas in a year.

Five grand. That’s crazy. If you drive, you have to download Upside, the free app that gives you cash back every time you get gas.

That’s right. You can earn real cash back with Upside just by buying the gas you’re already buying. You can literally start earning cash back today.

I use Upside every time I fill up and I’ve already made around $200, $300. You’re putting gas in your car anyway, why not get real cash back? If you like free money, download Upside. I’m saving the cash I earn from using Upside to help pay for a vacation later this year.

Download the free Upside app now to earn cash back every time you buy gas. Use promo code OWN to get an extra $0.25 per gallon on your first tank. You can cash out any time right to your bank, PayPal, or a gift card for Amazon and other brands.

Just download the free Upside app and use promo code OWN for a $0.25 per gallon bonus on your first tank. That’s code OWN for a $0.25 per gallon bonus. Sweet pies, hand pies, even fried pies.

The world of pie is endless. And delicious. From French silk to the more creative pies, including apple pear or butterscotch pecan, it’s a classic American dessert that withstands the test of time.

But if you travel back to medieval England during the dish’s early days, it was actually served as a savory pastry. Ever heard of pigeon pie? Doesn’t sound the most appetizing compared to the flavors of today. I do make an all-cranberry pie, but more typically I’ll just include a handful, maybe a cup and a half of fresh cranberries in an apple or an apple pear pie that, you know, especially this time of year, getting into the festive holiday season, it’s kind of nice to have that splash of red inside your filling.

That’s Ken Hadrick, and he lives for pie. He’s built a reputation for perfecting different variations of the delicacy and says everyone at any skill level can create one at home. Hadrick is a longtime food writer and cookbook author of Pie Academy.

Looking back, his love for the dish began when he was a child, and his parents would spend long afternoons baking in the kitchen. I was one of seven kids, and my mom and dad would put us in the Woody station wagon, and we’d go up into the foothills around Plainfields, New Jersey, where I grew up, and they would pick up big bushel baskets full of apples, and then we’d all come home, and the kids would sit around the table and watch mom and dad make their apple pie, and dad was the crust guy. He’d get out his can of Crisco and start whipping up a crust, and mom was the fruit gal, and she would cut up all the apples, you know, we’d wait around anxiously for the pie to come out, and it smelled so wonderful, so that is sort of, you know, when you grow up with your folks doing something like that, how could you not love pies, you know? From apple pie to triple-layer pumpkin chocolate, pie is celebrated around the world.

Sweet pies are a mainstay here in the States, but other countries, like Great Britain, specialize in savory pies, from pork pie to cottage pie, which is made of beef mincemeat topped with mashed potatoes. In Australia and New Zealand, hand-sized meat and gravy pies are a popular on-the-go snack. They’re also served at sports arenas and local eateries.

In the U.S., you can find pie at nearly every grocery store, but if you’re looking for an authentic slice, there’s nothing quite like sitting at a counter of a local diner and enjoying a piece with a cup of milk or coffee. Pedric explains how many diners are known for their hefty slices of homemade cream pie. Thick pastry cream filling and then the whipped cream mounded high on top, I mean, they’re just sometimes a meringue, and they’re just beautiful.

I think there’s just something about them being these big American originals, you know? People just love these pies, and you see them, you know, someone will order one, the waiter or waitress will bring this big slab of cream pie to the table, and just like you look to the table next to you, and you look over and say, I want a piece of that, you know? Pedric himself plans to go a bit unconventional this Thanksgiving, straying away from the typical pecan and pumpkin, and instead opting for a creamier buttermilk pie. Never heard of it? The filling is made with pantry staples like butter, sugar, egg yolks, and buttermilk, all beaten together and folded in with whisked egg whites to create a rich southern custard pie. Top it with a dollop of whipped cream, and you’re all set.

He says pie fillings are often easier than most people assume, but that for home bakers, the most nail-biting part of the process is usually the crust. People don’t often know how much, first of all, how long to cut the fat into the flour, into the dry ingredients. They’re a little bit uncertain about how much liquid to add, that’s very common.

People will send me photos, or they’ll send me emails, and they have rolled out their crust and it’s very dry and crumbly. It’s usually because they didn’t add enough liquid, so that’s a very common problem. Sometimes the dough is too wet, it’s just the opposite thing, and it sticks to whatever surface they’re rolling it on.

So those are two of the most common problems right there. In order to get that buttery golden crust that’s able to hold the filling in place, stick to the following exact recipe, and give yourself enough time in case you make a mistake. Remember that creating crust from scratch takes patience and practice.

If you’re crunched for time during the holidays, pre-make the dough. I do that all the time. I make the dough, I shape it into a disk, and I wrap that disk in plastic and slip it into a plastic bag and I put that in the freezer.

And that’s a big help to have those pie doughs made ahead of time. You can even roll it out ahead of time and put it in your pan and get it all shaped and flute the edge and have that pie shell waiting for you in the freezer. If you’re short on time, you can also make and bake a pecan pie in the days before and then stick it in the freezer.

Just make sure you pull it out the night before so it has time to defrost. Making any kind of pie from home is something to be proud of. Every year the magazines have these killer pies on the cover, but people don’t realize that it’s taken a team of food stylists and bakers a week to make that pie and make it look fabulous.

So those are unrealistic expectations that we should just let go of when we’re making a pie and just know that ours is going to have some dings, it’s going to bubble over the edge, it’s going to be a lot of things, but it’s probably not going to be perfect. And that’s perfectly okay. Whether you stick to the traditional classics or venture outside the box this holiday season, remember that all pie is good pie.

To find additional links and archives of past shows, log on to ViewpointsRadio.org. This segment was written and produced by Amira Zoveri. Studio production by Jason Dickey. I’m Gary Price.

Coming up, 10% of Americans struggle with alcohol addiction. Why it’s more widespread than you may think when Viewpoints returns. $5,000, that’s the average amount of money people in the U.S. are now spending on gas in a year, five grand.

That’s crazy. If you drive, you have to download Upside, the free app that gives you cash back every time you get gas. That’s right.

You can earn real cash back with Upside just by buying the gas you’re already buying. You can literally start earning cash back today. I use Upside every time I fill up.

I’ve already made around $200, $300. You’re putting gas in your car anyway. Why not get real cash back? If you like free money, download Upside.

I’m saving the cash I earn from using Upside to help pay for a vacation later this year. Download the free Upside app now to earn cash back every time you buy gas. Use promo code OWN to get an extra 25 cents per gallon on your first tank.

You can cash out any time right to your bank, PayPal, or a gift card for Amazon and other brands. Just download the free Upside app and use promo code OWN for a 25 cents per gallon bonus on your first tank. That’s code OWN for a 25 cents per gallon bonus.

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Progressive nose road trips without your pet can be tough. Hi, this is Nick. Stop dog boarding.

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Scott, Squeaks is exactly the same as last time you called. Okay, let’s talk in 20 to see if anything’s changed. With Progressive, your pet is covered up to $1,000 in vet bills in case of a car accident.

So next time you can take your pet with you. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates not available in all states. Coverage for dogs and cats is included with the purchase of collision coverage and subject to policy terms.

Walk into nearly any grocery store or restaurant and you’ll see walls lined with beer, wine, hard seltzers, and spirits. In almost every country, drinking is woven into almost every social setting. But that normalization masks an uncomfortable truth.

Alcohol is one of the most addictive and destructive substances. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, known as SAMHSA, about 1 in 10 Americans ages 12 and older suffer from alcohol use disorder. For Christopher Nehera, this slow slide into addiction started in his hometown of El Paso, Texas, a city on the western tip of Texas that shares a border with Mexico.

It’s a Hispanic culture and drinking is really prevalent in all our culture here. It’s in birthdays, it’s in celebrations, it’s in weekend gatherings. Throughout his 20s, Nehera says he drank like most other people he knew, on the weekends, at bars, or with friends after work.

He was a college athlete who was fit, ate healthy, and after college worked a full-time job in Alcohol wasn’t a problem, until it was. COVID-2020 hit, and that’s when I really started drinking a lot more at home. And it became, after right around that time, it became an everyday use.

And in the end, I couldn’t stop. And then I couldn’t stop. And it was like being on autopilot.

I mean, it was like when I was in treatment center, I would talk to the doctors and I would talk this and to different people, and they witnessed the same thing, where it’s like you’re on autopilot and your brain is going to do whatever it takes. It thinks it needs it like water and food. And so you’re like, I don’t want to drink, but you were driving yourself to the liquor store.

At the peak of his addiction, Nehera would drink a pint of whiskey and around five or six beers every day, or every other day. Looking back, he shares what he lost through alcohol. And this slow, damaging slide into chronic alcohol consumption can happen to anyone.

Dr. Corey Hejskamp is an emergency medicine physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and explains how addiction is often a mix of several factors. Whether or not people become addicted to alcohol just based on genetics or consuming alcohol, it’s hard to say. I think it’s more likely a combination of environmental factors.

So upbringing, current living situations, stressors. I think a lot of people find comfort in alcohol. Hejskamp is also a postdoctoral research fellow in health and outcome services at Northwestern.

His research focuses on improving treatments for substance abuse disorders. Alcohol essentially is toxic to your body. Whether people want to accept that fact or not, it’s literally a poison, and that’s why you feel the effect of feeling drunk.

And so chronic consumption, like I said, your liver metabolizes alcohol. So over time, having to chronically metabolize alcohol, your liver starts to become damaged and your liver is responsible for production of essential proteins for your body and different enzymes. So that becomes problematic.

He says it’s often hard to pinpoint when someone has an alcohol addiction in a busy emergency room when he’s seeing patients for only a few minutes at a time. However, this picture becomes clearer when he has the chance to spend more time with someone or if they frequently visit the same ER while inebriated or are in withdrawal. I think part of the issue is identifying people in the ER who have alcohol use disorder versus someone who maybe just drank a little too much and needed somewhere to sleep but doesn’t necessarily have alcohol use disorder.

Alcohol withdrawal is a little different. Once someone develops dependence on alcohol, their neurons change in the way they use excitatory and inhibitory, or their body basically elicits excitatory and inhibitory hormones and neuronal activity. And so alcohol is a depressant, and if you chronically use a depressant, you’re depressing your brain activity and your bodily functions.

And when you take away that depressant, your body becomes hyperactive, essentially. And so they come in, they can’t stop shaking, their heart rate’s probably really high, they’re probably sweating. In cases of severe alcohol dependence, people can develop widespread vitamin deficiencies that lead to confusion, memory loss, and mobility issues.

Nehera shares some of what he went through. I think towards the end of my drinking, you know, the blackouts started happening. And I would wake up and be like, okay, where’s my wallet? Where’s it? How much did I spend last night? Well, okay, what happened? That’s when it starts becoming alarming.

That’s when it’s like, okay, I need to do something. But here’s the thing, is I would try to stop, you know, I would say, okay, yeah, I’m going to cut back. But then here comes two, three days come by, the withdrawals kick in, your mind’s craving it, you know, you maybe get a little bit of shakes, and you’re like, oh, you know what? You start craving it.

For many, reaching this acceptance is when they’re ready to seek help. But treatment for alcohol addiction in the U.S. can be difficult to access and costly, especially for inpatient or outpatient rehab programs. Hayscamp says the most effective medication in treating alcohol addiction today is naltrexone, which blocks certain receptors in the brain responsible for craving and euphoria.

Despite its efficacy, it’s still under-prescribed. Number one, you need providers willing to treat alcohol use disorder, which isn’t that common. Some people might think it’s a primary care physician’s job.

Some people might think it’s more along the lines of an addiction medicine provider. And so, you know, you have to, if you’re someone who is seeking treatment with pharmacological agents for alcohol use disorder, you have to find a provider that’s willing to use these medicines and to find a provider that’s willing to do that, you have to find someone who’s comfortable with that. And so that kind of starts with like training doctors earlier on to treat alcohol use disorder, which isn’t very common.

I think also people likely get introduced to these medications at rehabilitation centers. And so it just depends on, I mean, unfortunately, I think the problem is like this has probably been commonly used and widely available for people who have private health insurance or commercial health insurance who are affluent and have means to an end that can afford to go to quote unquote functional rehab center and be introduced to these medications versus someone who maybe doesn’t have any really financial means. For Nehara, finding help took persistence.

After years of drinking, he found the right outpatient program for him with a medical treatment plan. I needed medication to stop my dopamine and serotonin levels in my brain were completely out of whack. And that’s why I was having the cravings and the urges to drink.

But with the medications that they gave me and I’m not a doctor, I can’t tell you what medications for you to take. But a provider that deals with addiction can provide medication to help those serotonin, dopamine levels and balance your cravings out. Hayes Camp says that he and other doctors are working to start these medications earlier and ideally at the point of crisis in the ER when patients are most motivated to get sober.

Today, Nehara is celebrating almost two and a half years sober and says his life looks completely different. At one year sober, alcohol free is when I really started seeing the game change and how everything started becoming more clear. My relationships started coming back, you know, some of my with my family and everything started changing for me.

And the clarity when my mind, it was almost like the phase and the haze and the haze of all the alcohol started dissipating and everything started becoming clearer. My thoughts started coming clear. But it was at that one year mark and now two years and four months, I still have liver issues.

And that’s why I’m saying like the repercussions could be long term. With the holiday season and all the gatherings this time of year, it can be easy to drink more than usual. Hayes Camp says it’s an important moment to check in with yourself and be mindful of how much you’re drinking.

He refers to a metric that Alcoholics Anonymous uses. So if you’re thinking you’re going to have one or two drinks with your family and go and black out despite trying to control your consumption, that might be a red flag and a good reason to maybe look into treatment. The other one would be attempting to stop drinking completely and being unable to stay stopped.

So if you’re heading into the holidays and thinking, I’m just not going to drink, but you are completely unable to not drink and you do drink, then I think those are two easy ways to kind of conceptualize at least how AA defines alcoholism, which I think is a good starting point for some people. If you or someone you know is struggling with alcohol addiction, you can call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration helpline at 1-800-662-HELP or visit FindTreatment.gov. To learn more about Alcoholics Anonymous and locate meetings near you, head to A-A.org. Also, check out Christopher Nehara’s book, The Hard Truth, Stopping Alcohol, now available online. You can find a link to the book and other resources by visiting our website, ViewpointsRadio.org. This segment was written by our executive producer, Amir Zaveri.

Our studio manager is Jason Dickey. I’m Marty Peterson. Viewpoints returns in just a moment.

Five thousand dollars, that’s the average amount of money people in the U.S. are now spending on gas in a year. Five grand. That’s crazy.

If you drive, you have to download Upside, the free app that gives you cash back every time you get gas. That’s right. You can earn real cash back with Upside just by buying the gas you’re already buying.

You can literally start earning cash back today. I use Upside every time I fill up and I’ve already made around two, three hundred dollars. You’re putting gas in your car anyway.

Why not get real cash back? If you like free money, download Upside. I’m saving the cash I earn from using Upside to help pay for a vacation later this year. Download the free Upside app now to earn cash back every time you buy gas.

Use promo code OWN to get an extra 25 cents per gallon on your first tank. You can cash out any time right to your bank, PayPal or a gift card for Amazon and other brands. Just download the free Upside app and use promo code OWN for a 25 cents per gallon bonus on your first tank.

That’s code OWN for a 25 cents per gallon bonus. This is Viewpoints Explained. I’m Ebony McMorris.

Across grocery aisles, the American shopping cart is shrinking. After years of steady food inflation, more adults are simply buying less. A shift some analysts have started calling the half cart trend.

An AP-NORC poll released in August found that 53 percent of adults polled say grocery costs are now a major source of stress in their life. And this outlook is changing habits. Almost 90 percent of polled consumers told LendingTree they’ve adjusted how they shop by buying more store brands, firmly sticking to their list and paying closer attention to price tags and weekly sales.

In response, more big box stores are also adapting. Chains like Kroger and Walmart report stronger sales on their store brand lines and are expanding bulk discounts and loyalty programs to keep shoppers coming back. At the same time, purchases of premium or impulse categories like snacks, desserts and ready to eat meals have slightly fallen.

A February 2025 report by Nielsen IQ found that 42 percent of poll shoppers are spending less on snacks and drinks, reflecting a broader pullback on extra items as prices remain above average. And this shift isn’t just about consumer preferences and spending habits. It points to something larger happening in the economy.

The reality is that a lot of Americans still feel uncertain about job stability, unexpected price hikes, the political climate and the possibility of a potential recession in the next year or two. Only time will tell if consumer confidence rebounds and the fun extra items make their way back onto the grocery list. That’s Viewpoint explained for this week.

More in a moment. Welcome to Culture Crash, where we examine what’s new and old in entertainment. Vince Gilligan has proven himself to be one of the smartest and most engaging writers in the TV business.

After cutting his teeth in television on The X-Files, Gilligan went on to win four Emmys and six Writers Guild Awards with the show Breaking Bad, which he created, wrote for and directed for. After Breaking Bad wrapped, he went on to co-create its spinoff, Better Call Saul. And on Saul, he first started working with actress Rae Sehorne.

She gave one of my favorite TV performances of all time on Better Call Saul, starring as an attorney named Kim Wexler. Now, Gilligan and Sehorne have teamed up on a new sci-fi psychological thriller black comedy called Pluribus on Apple TV. Across the run of Breaking Bad, Gilligan proved himself to be a crafty writer and a clever showrunner who always seemed to be a step or two ahead of his audience.

Breaking Bad would often use its cold open segment to intrigue its audience. For instance, introducing a very villainous set of twins across multiple episodes. Frequently, Gilligan’s audiences don’t know exactly what they’re looking at or looking for, and their joy comes in watching each of his meticulously crafted strands come together to form a larger picture.

His new show, Pluribus, starts with all of those skills very finely honed to create one of the most propulsive and intriguing pilot episodes I’ve seen in years. The actual plot would be hard to describe, and the experience is better left savored than explained all at once. But suffice to say, the peak TV era master of suspense is up to his old tricks, leaving audiences breathlessly trying to keep up as scientists make massive breakthroughs and Sehorne’s character, Carol, is left having a massive breakdown.

I’ve been in on Pluribus from the moment it was announced. Sehorne was absolutely masterful on Better Call Saul, and Gilligan has proven himself to be one of the greats. While it is still in its early going, I can already see that Pluribus is the kind of show you’re going to want to get in on at the ground floor.

Pluribus streams on Apple TV. I’m Evan Rook. $5,000, that’s the average amount of money people in the U.S. are now spending on gas in a year.

$5,000, that’s crazy. If you drive, you have to download Upside, the free app that gives you cash back every time you get gas. That’s right.

You can earn real cash back with Upside just by buying the gas you’re already buying. You can literally start earning cash back today. I use Upside every time I fill up, and I’ve already made around two, $300.

You’re putting gas in your car anyway. Why not get real cash back? If you like free money, download Upside. I’m saving the cash I earn from using Upside to help pay for a vacation later this year.

Download the free Upside app now to earn cash back every time you buy gas. Use promo code OWN to get an extra $0.25 per gallon on your first tank. You can cash out any time right to your bank, PayPal, or a gift card for Amazon and other brands.

Just download the free Upside app and use promo code OWN for a $0.25 per gallon bonus on your first tank. That’s code OWN for a $0.25 per gallon bonus. And that’s Viewpoints for this week.