In this episode of Challenger Cities, we've got Pete Brown, one of the UK’s most thoughtful writers on beer, pubs, and drinking culture.

Pete has spent decades writing about pubs not as lifestyle accessories or nostalgic backdrops, but as places where history, behaviour, economics and everyday social life collide.

We talk about why pubs weren’t designed, branded or planned into existence, but evolved slowly through circumstance, need, and habit. Why that matters for cities obsessed with masterplans and placemaking. And why attempts to “recreate” pub culture so often feel hollow.

Pete offers a compelling reframing of alcohol as a form of social technology. Dangerous if mishandled, but deeply valuable when surrounded by the right rituals, spaces, and social rules. We explore how pubs moderate behaviour, teach people how  ...