​Welcome to Binge Thinking. We invite professors and experts to give lectures in bars around Boston, NYC, and DC!

In a world of AI slop, doomscrolling and brainrot, Binge Thinking brings real experts into real places for nights of learning, conversation, and community.

Think Responsibly.

​TOPIC:
The Science Behind Smoking, Vaping and Nicotine: Can We Protect Young People While Helping Adult Smokers Move Away from Cigarettes?

​SPEAKER:
Dr. Vaughan Rees, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

​There's an old saying in tobacco science: people smoke for the nicotine, but they die from the smoke. Most of the serious damage comes from the chemicals released when tobacco burns, not from nicotine itself. And yet, plenty of people (doctors included!) still get this wrong.

​Here's where it gets tricky. Vapes and other smoke-free nicotine products could give adult smokers a less harmful way out of cigarettes. But those same products keep showing up in the hands of teenagers. So how do we help one group without hooking the other?

​In this talk, Dr. Vaughan Rees clears the air on what nicotine really does, what actually makes smoking deadly, and how public health can tackle two problems at once.

​Topics include:

​Why nicotine isn't the main villain behind smoking-related disease, and why so many people think it is

​The balancing act between helping adult smokers switch and keeping young people from starting

​What harm reduction is, how it has worked in other areas of public health, and where it hits its limits

​How science, regulation, product standards and youth prevention could work together

​Beyond the science, this is a conversation about tough trade-offs.

​Can we cut smoking-related deaths without making nicotine the next cool thing? Come find out, drink in hand.

​About the Speaker

​Dr. Vaughan Rees is Director of the Center for Global Tobacco Control and Senior Lecturer on Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He also leads the school's Tobacco Research Laboratory, where he studies how tobacco companies design their products to shape how people use them and how dependent they become.

​His academic background is in health psychology, specializing in substance use and dependence. He trained at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and completed postdoctoral training through the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse. His research covers secondhand smoke reduction, the evaluation of new and novel tobacco products, and regulatory strategies to reduce the harms of substance use.

​Agenda
7:00 PM - Doors Open (Grab a seat and drinks!)
7:30 PM - Lecture Begins
8:10 PM - Audience Q&A
8:30 PM - Drinks & Conversation
9:00 PM - Event Ends

​Join us and grab a drink as we clear the air on nicotine. Is vaping a lifeline for smokers or a trap for teens?