For the first time since the pandemic reshaped daily life, Americans as a whole are drinking less — yet this aggregate turn toward restraint conceals a quieter, more troubling story unfolding among older adults, who are consuming more alcohol now than before the crisis began. Younger generations appear to be absorbing the pandemic's harder lessons, pulling back from elevated intake in a meaningful cultural shift, while their elders move in the opposite direction, driven perhaps by isolation, loss, and the particular weight of aging in uncertain times. The nation's relationship with alcohol has