BBC radio presenter Greg James joins anti-Bartlett | UK News

BBC Radio 1 presenter Greg James has inspired people to be part of his ‘anti-Bartlett cult’ after Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett was mocked over saying two glasses of wine “ruined his life for three days”. On Wednesday (May 3), the 40-year-old broadcaster slammed the joyless tech-led “optimisation movement” inspired by the podcast host and other influencers.

Earlier this week, a viral clip circulated of Steven on his Diary Of A CEO podcast, where he admitted that the small quantity of alcohol he indulged in sabotaged the next three days. The 33-year-old businessman, who beforehand ditched the booze after noticing the numerous influence it was having on the data on his Whoop model, explained how the alcohol affected his sleep, diet, motivation to go to the health club and even his capacity to work on his podcast.

The response to his latest episode was poorly obtained by listeners, many of whom branded him “ridiculous” and said it was a “dramatic” response to having fun with a few glasses of wine. In response to the viral clip, Greg took to social media to ask people to “switch off” their fitness trackers and “go and have a nice time”.

He started: “Can we talk about this Bartlett thing? This wine thing…” The presenter then shared a clip of Steven, where he says: “I had a couple of glasses of wine, didn’t get drunk, it ruined three days of my life because of the domino effect that it caused.

“It meant that I acquired worse sleep that night time, I ate more poorly the next day because my dopamine system or the cortisol system or whatever was all messed up. Then I podcasted worse, and I did not go to the health club the day after, and I may observe all of this on my Whoop hashtag advert, hashtag sponsor, investor… whatever.”

Responding to Steven’s comment, Greg went on: “So I’ve type of been railing against this for years. Not the alcohol factor, truthful enough if you need to give up alcohol, it could destroy lives, acquired that – that’s not what my issue is.

“My issue is this endless optimisation and measuring of everything to the point where it starts to make you feel a bit miserable if you don’t quite hit your own targets.” The broadcaster then goes on to promote his e-book, where he describes an antidote to the strategy of measuring all the pieces from calories to sleep rating.

He explained: “So today this is available for 99p (shows his book All The Best For The Future), and essentially this is the anti-Bartlett. You can have ambitions and goals and get good at a skill, and do well in your life professionally, and also have a great time.

“Not all the pieces has to be like work, you could be on, and then you could be off. And this is a reminder to go and have a good time! Go and see your folks, take a good journey, call your mum. do one thing just for you.

“There’s a chapter in here called Waste a Day, where I encourage you to do nothing for a day. Optimisation is killing fun. We absolutely need to rail against that. So phones are down today. Go and have a nice time! And don’t log it.”

The video has since obtained a wave of constructive response from his fellow well-known mates, who also agreed with his “optimisation” development. Julia Bradbury, who was recognized with breast cancer in 2021, said that while she does sometimes observe her targets, life is about “progress not perfection”.

She wrote: “Agreed. As someone who’s written books about this, at the end of the day, it’s about progress, not perfection, and fun. I had cancer. Grateful for every day. I track on days I want to achieve some goals and go on instinct the rest of the time.”

Fearne Cotton chuckled: “I genuinely sometimes podcaster better hungover.” Beverley Turner added: “Totally. It’s also outsourcing instinct to tech. These people will become deskilled at listening to their bodies – not just whether your bloody sleep rhythms are off – but what’s pain? What is illness? What is just tiredness? It is disempowerment dressed up as success. It’s the opposite.”