How Athletic Brewing Sells Beer for a Post-Alcohol Generation episode artwork

EPISODE · Jan 23, 2026 · 26 MIN

How Athletic Brewing Sells Beer for a Post-Alcohol Generation

from Bold Names · host The Wall Street Journal

When Bill Shufelt left Wall Street to make non-alcoholic beer, most people thought he was crazy. At the time, the category made up less than 1% of U.S. beer sales and was widely seen as a joke. But nearly a decade later, Shufelt’s company Athletic Brewing is at the center of a major cultural shift around health and wellness. On this episode of Bold Names, he joins Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins to talk about the rise of non-alcoholic beer, how his company is navigating President Trump’s tariffs, and why beer giants like Heineken and Guinness are now chasing the category he helped create. To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes: How Corning Is Using Trump’s Tariffs To Its Advantage The Boldest Ideas of 2025 — And What’s in Store for 2026 McLaren CEO Zak Brown On F1 And Business Strategy At 200 Miles Per Hour How Tubi Is Coming for Netflix and YouTube in the New Streaming Wars Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected]. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column. Read Tim Higgins’s column.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Bill Shufelt left Wall Street to make non-alcoholic beer, most people thought he was crazy. At the time, the category made up less than 1% of U.S. beer sales and was widely seen as a joke. But nearly a decade later, Shufelt’s company Athletic Brewing is at the center of a major cultural shift around health and wellness. On this episode of Bold Names, he joins Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins to talk about the rise of non-alcoholic beer, how his company is navigating President Trump’s tariffs, and why beer giants like Heineken and Guinness are now chasing the category he helped create. To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes: How Corning Is Using Trump’s Tariffs To Its Advantage The Boldest Ideas of 2025 — And What’s in Store for 2026 McLaren CEO Zak Brown On F1 And Business Strategy At 200 Miles Per Hour How Tubi Is Coming for Netflix and YouTube in the New Streaming Wars Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at [email protected]. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column. Read Tim Higgins’s column.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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How Athletic Brewing Sells Beer for a Post-Alcohol Generation

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This episode was published on January 23, 2026.

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When Bill Shufelt left Wall Street to make non-alcoholic beer, most people thought he was crazy. At the time, the category made up less than 1% of U.S. beer sales and was widely seen as a joke. But nearly a decade later, Shufelt’s company Athletic...

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