In this episode, Annika Theodoulou speaks to Dr Vera Buss, a Senior Research Fellow at University College London, and Professor Leonie Brose, a Professor of Addictions & Public Health at King's College London, UK. The interview covers Vera and Leonie’s research article examining the association between the national ‘Swap to Stop’ programme offering free vapes for smoking cessation and quit attempts in England.Background on the Swap to Stop program in England [01:10]The motivations behind the study [01:50]The Smoking Toolkit Study and using an Interrupted Time Series Analysis [03:00]The key findings of the study [04:50]The factors which Vera and Leonie adjusted for [07:00]The policy landscape in England regarding vaping as a smoking cessation aid [07:41]What can other countries learn from the findings [09:12]The surprising results of this study [09:50]The implications of the findings for policy and practice [10:36]About Annika Theodoulou: Annika is a Research Fellow at the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction at Flinders University, South Australia. Her work focuses on health behaviours, including smoking cessation and weight management, with an emphasis on evidence synthesis. She completed a Doctor of Philosophy in Primary Health Care at the University of Oxford, where her research examined socioeconomic inequalities in smoking cessation behaviours and outcomes using quantitative and qualitative methods. Her doctoral research was funded by the Society for the Study of Addiction and The Rotary Foundation. Annika is an Associate Editor of Nicotine & Tobacco Research and holds a Bachelor of Health Sciences and a Master of Clinical Science from the University of Adelaide.About Vera Buss: Vera is a Senior Research Fellow in Behavioural Science at the UCL Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group and part of the Behavioural Research UK consortium. Her research focuses on understanding and monitoring tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption across Great Britain, drawing on the Smoking and Alcohol Toolkit Studies to evaluate national policies and population‑level behaviour change. Alongside her research, Vera co‑leads undergraduate and postgraduate teaching on health psychology and statistics for public health.About Leonie Brose: Leonie is Professor of Addictions & Public Health at King's College London and Director of the National Institutes for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Policy Research Unit in Addictions. Most of Leonie's research has focused on tobacco control, smoking cessation, smoking and mental health and newer nicotine products and she has co-authored six government-commissioned reviews on vaping. Leonie is active in the Society for the Study of Addiction, the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco and its European chapter. She also contributes as an Editorial Board member for Addiction and Nicotine & Tobacco Research and as Programme Lead for the MSc Addictions at King's. Leonie is an Associate Editor for Addiction and a Trustee for the SSA.Original article: Associations between the national ‘Swap to Stop’ programme offering free vapes for smoking cessation and quit attempts in England: Results from a population-based survey https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70332The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.The SSA does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information in external sources or links and accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of such information.Music by Jack Shakespeare

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr Damon Morris, a Research Fellow in the Sheffield Addictions Research Group, School of Medicine and Population Health, at the University of Sheffield, UK. The interview covers Damon’s research article modelling the economic effects of reducing the consumption of unhealthy commodities.The drive to conduct this study [01:30]The economic outputs of interest to capture the net effects of the economy [03:00]What a simulation model is [04:10] An explanation of the commercial determinants of health input-output model [05:06]The unhealthy commodities used in this study [06:20]The key findings of the study [07:28]The difference between the off-trade and on-trade alcohol results [08:50]A summary of the key results [10:22]The break-even reallocation rate: the point at which the negative economic impacts of reduced spending are exactly offset by the positive impacts of increased spending on other products [10:55]The implications of the findings for policy makers [13:10]The generalisability of the findings to outside the UK [14:44]The missing pieces of the model [15:50]About Elle Wadsworth: Elle is an academic fellow with the Society for the Study of Addiction. She is based at the University of Bath with the Addiction and Mental Health Group and her research interests include drug policy, cannabis legalisation, and public health. Elle holds voluntary roles at The Loop, a non-profit service provider of drug checking in the UK, and the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy. About Damon Morris: Damon is a Research Fellow in the Sheffield Addictions Research Group (SARG), School of Medicine and Population Health, at the University of Sheffield. Damon’s current research is in the area of public health and labour economic modelling, primarily in ongoing development of the Sheffield Tobacco and Alcohol Policy Model (STAPM), an economic and epidemiological model of alcohol and tobacco consumption and health dynamics used to appraise public health policy.Declarations of interest: None Original article: Modelling the economic effects of reducing the consumption of unhealthy commodities: An inter-sectoral input–output approach https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70336The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.The SSA does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information in external sources or links and accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of such information.Music by Jack Shakespeare

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim talks to Dr Philip Newall, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Bristol, UK. The interview covers Philip’s opinion and debate article on sludge, dark patterns and dark nudges: a taxonomy of online gambling platforms’ deceptive design features.The rationale behind Philip’s article [01:16]A background on the policy landscape associated with online gambling platforms [06:40]The three features that online gambling platforms use [09:18]The implications of these features for policymakers [14:30]The implications of these features for the gambling industry [17:22]The implications of these features for the people using online gambling platforms [19:46]The end goal of Philip’s research [21:24]About Tsen Vei Lim: Tsen Vei is an academic fellow supported by the Society for the Study of Addiction, currently based at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. His research integrates computational modelling, experimental psychology, and neuroimaging to understand the neuropsychological basis of addictive behaviours. He holds a PhD in Psychiatry from the University of Cambridge (UK) and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Bath (UK). About Philip Newall: Philip was a member of the Advisory Board for Safer Gambling from 2021 to 2025, which was an advisory group of the Gambling Commission in Great Britain. In the last three years, Philip has been a named researcher on projects funded by the Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling, Alberta Gambling Research Institute, Arts and Humanities Research Council, BA/Leverhulme, Canadian Institute for Health Research, Clean Up Gambling, Gambling Research Australia, and the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation. Philip has received honoraria for reviewing from the Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling and the Belgium Ministry of Justice, travel and accommodation funding from the Alberta Gambling Research Institute and the Economic and Social Research Institute, and open access fee funding from the Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling and Greo Evidence Insights.Original article: Sludge, dark patterns and dark nudges: A taxonomy of online gambling platforms' deceptive design features https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70085The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.The SSA does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information in external sources or links and accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of such information.Music provided by Jack Shakespeare.

In this episode, Dr Tsen Vei Lim talks to Igor Marchetti, an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Florence, Italy. The interview covers Igor’s research article that tests which personality traits are necessary conditions for problematic alcohol use, with insights from a 23-year longitudinal study.Why is understanding personality important for alcohol use? [01:18]The personality traits that are associated with problematic alcohol use [02:06]Why Igor and colleagues are looking at the necessary personality traits [03:16]The dataset used in the study [05:15]The key findings from the study [06:29]Low conscientiousness and problematic alcohol use [08:03]The link between impulsivity and conscientiousness [09:31]The necessary conditions to develop problematic alcohol use [11:29]Whether we can change parts of our personalities [13:42]The implications of the findings for policy and practice [15:01]The next steps for Igor and his team [17:00]About Tsen Vei Lim: Tsen Vei is an academic fellow supported by the Society for the Study of Addiction, currently based at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. His research integrates computational modelling, experimental psychology, and neuroimaging to understand the neuropsychological basis of addictive behaviours. He holds a PhD in Psychiatry from the University of Cambridge (UK) and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Bath (UK). About Igor Marchetti: Igor is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Florence, Italy. His research focuses on vulnerability to psychopathology, particularly depression, anxiety, and addiction. More recently, he has introduced the study of necessary conditions into mental health research.Original article: Which personality traits are necessary conditions for problematic alcohol use? Insights from a 23-year longitudinal study https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70417 The opinions expressed in this podcast reflect the views of the host and interviewees and do not necessarily represent the opinions or official positions of the SSA or Addiction journal.The SSA does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information in external sources or links and accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of such information.Music provided by Jack Shakespeare.