Dan Malleck
Historian – Author – Speaker
Making sense of the complex world of alcohol policy and research.
It’s enough to drive you to drink.
I provide research, commentary, and historical perspectives on alcohol and drug policy, health research, and regulation
Public Engagement
I regularly engage with academic, professional, industry, and public audiences through presentations, media appearances, panel discussions, and public lectures. My goal is to bring historical perspective and nuance to contemporary debates about alcohol, public health, and regulation.
History in Practice
I provide historical insight and contextual analysis for organizations, researchers, policymakers, and creative projects. Whether the goal is understanding a policy debate or developing a compelling story, my work helps place contemporary questions in their broader historical and cultural context.
My publications
My books and articles explore the history of alcohol and drug regulation, public drinking, public health, and the politics of risk. Together they offer a long-view perspective on some of today’s most contentious policy debates. And if I’m being brutally honest, they are pretty good reads.
About me
I study how societies think about alcohol, risk, regulation, and public health. As a historian of alcohol and drug regulation, my work explores the ideas, assumptions, and recurring debates that continue to shape contemporary policy discussions.
Through research, speaking, and consulting, I help place today’s controversies in their broader historical and cultural context.
Read the full self-indulgent bio here
From Distillations (my blog)
Thoughts about drink, risk, evidence, and culture.
- Representing risk in different ways: Number Needed to HarmAs I argued in an earlier post, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction’s 2023 “Low Risk Drinking Guidance” used a Years of Life Lost (YLL) calculation to determine what is a low, moderate, and high risk, but YLL makes no sense for individual risk calculation. Moreover, saying “more than two drinks per week… Read more: Representing risk in different ways: Number Needed to Harm
- How results can be massaged to reiterate harm(posted on LinkedIn 28 Aug 2026) If you’re interested in 1) research on cancer and alcohol and 2) an example of how researchers tend to skew their results to emphasize harms, go no further than a recent article in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, published May 2026 (Pinheiro et al “Reevaluating the Alcohol-Cancer Link:L… Read more: How results can be massaged to reiterate harm
- One drink? Let’s talk about risky behaviourIf you gird yourself to read the actual data presented by anti-alcohol–*ahem*–I mean alcohol researchers you may be wondering how in the world they can offer information about the risks of one drink per week. Consider this table from the CCSA 2023 guidance document: As you will notice, there is data suggesting that one drink… Read more: One drink? Let’s talk about risky behaviour
- Making risk meaningfulPart 1: The misrepresentation of individual risk In November 1986, public health officials met in Ottawa and developed the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. This shifted the priorities of public health to include the idea that public health should be informing citizens of risks in order to help them make informed decisions about their behaviour.… Read more: Making risk meaningful