David Mitchell talks to Adam Buxton about why Teenagers smoke and hits the nail on the head.

How can you stop a teenager from smoking when they think it is cool?

I stopped listening to much talk radio a while back. I think it was possibly because it seems to be just a roundabout of Brexit, Trump and local council bin collection problems. I needed to listen to something a little more positive and entertaining.

So, I started listening to podcasts. At first it seemed strange that people would listen to these when they could listen to strangers moaning but after a while you start to realise that they are much more entertaining, informative and also perfect when walking the dog.

Adam Buxton has been one of the most well known podcasters for quite a while and when a new podcast of his drops (I think that’s how the hip kids term it), it is always worth a listen. This morning whilst walking the dog I started to play his latest podcast with comedian David Mitchell, and heard him talking about why young people smoke. As well as both being funny David made some great points about smoking that I think are well worth listening to and sharing. If you have a teenager and are unhappy they are smoking, it may have some ideas that you can use to help deal with the problem.

He was talking about why young people start smoking and why they want to do it even though it can kill you.

“I always think that the genius of smoking is that it is dangerous, there is a cool element to it. It’s to do with death, and therefore you can seem like a rebel. At the same time the danger is on a time scale that can’t possible impact on the teenagers who are thinking of taking it up. This could take years of the end of your life. Well, I’ll stop at some point. That warning I think actually adds to the cachet of the product.

If they said..well it doesn’t do you any harm, but it’s smelly..you would go oh yeh, it is smelly, maybe I should stop..but no, it’s dangerous!”

There’s lots more about this and of course many other topics that make the whole podcast a great listen. If you have teenagers who are starting smoking and you want to help, maybe you should not lecture them on the health issues, but just tell them they are smelly instead. Of course, some teenagers are not known for their hygiene standards but, hey you can try something different.

You can listen to the whole podcast with Adam Buxton and comedian David Mitchell here: http://adam-buxton.co.uk/podcasts/ep89-david-mitchell