Rethinking Wellness

Christy discusses GLP-1s and longevity—the discourse, the hype, where it comes from, and what the science really says.

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Registered dietitian Aaron Flores joins us to discuss why Andrew Huberman and other biohacking wellness bros have such massive appeal, and how their rhetoric can lead to disordered eating and body-image distress. In a deeper dive for paid subscribers, we get into how to talk to partners or loved ones who’ve come under the sway of bro-wellness culture—and how to set boundaries when their diet/fitness talk challenges our recovery from disordered eating. We also get vulnerable about mortality, grief, and why it’s so hard to confront aging and death head-on, and Christy shares an unexpected respon...

Christy answers an audience question about whether you need an anti-inflammatory diet, or other dietary changes, for migraines. 

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Nutritionist Abbie Attwood joins us to discuss how dealing with multiple autoimmune chronic illnesses led her down a path of dubious diagnoses and disordered eating, and how she ultimately found healing. We get into how disordered eating can trigger and aggravate chronic conditions, why she believed she had “adrenal fatigue” and “leaky gut,” and the role of obsession and OCD in orthorexia. We also talk about why it’s so easy to have your identity get wrapped up in disordered eating and chronic illness, how wellness culture preys on grief over physical limitations, the importance of self-compassion and how Abbie and...

Christy answers an audience question about the diets you *don’t* need to try in (peri)menopause—and ways to get your loved ones to stop talking about them.

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Author and pediatric surgeon Dana Suskind joins us to discuss her new book, Human Raised: Nurturing Connection, Curiosity & Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI. We get into why true caring is what makes us unique from machines, how human parenting instills critical thinking and empathy, the role of governments and regulators in dealing with AI harms, her HOPE framework for raising kids in the age of AI, and more. 

For paid subscribers, we do a deeper dive into the importance of “good enough” parenting—and how it compares to the gentle parenting and intensive parenting approaches. We also...

Christy discusses what she’s been going through with IVF and how it’s affected her body image, plus 5 things she’s trying to keep in mind as she navigates a changing body amid the pressures of diet and wellness culture. This episode originally aired in June 2025. Check out the written version on our website for updates.

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Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap...

Christy discusses how to make sure a “healthy” dietary change doesn’t spiral into disordered eating—and how to know your desire to change your eating is driven by health and not diet culture.  

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Religious-ethics scholar Liz Bucar, author of Beyond Wellness, joins us to discuss the religious roots of wellness practices, why bringing religion back into “spiritual” wellness spaces might be the key to promoting true well-being (even for non-religious people), and how the very human need for control shows up in diet and wellness culture. 

For paid subscribers, we do a deeper dive into how religion has contributed to Americans’ troubled relationship with food and how religious foodways can also help us heal from diet culture, with some detours into the longevity movement, GLP-1s and the thin ideal, and mor...

Christy shares some exciting announcements about the podcast! 

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Christy answers an audience question about whether artificial food colorings and other additives really have any impact on ADHD. This episode was originally published in November 2024.

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Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold. Order it here, or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore.

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Intuitive Eating co-author Elyse Resch joins us to discuss her history with the natural-food movement, how trying to eat “naturally” led her into orthorexia and other forms of disordered eating, how intuitive eating is being co-opted by wellness culture, what to consider if you’re interested in “natural” foods, and more. This episode was originally published in 2024.

Elyse Resch, MS, RDN, CEDS-S, Fiaedp, FADA, FAND, is a nutrition therapist in private practice with over 40 years of experience specializing in eating disorders, Intuitive Eating, and Health at Every Size. She is the co-author of Intuitive Eating, now in its 4th ed...

Today is a very special episode, because Christy’s back from maternity leave!

To return to the show, she’s joined by our producer Amelia Hruby for a conversation about the wellness trends she noticed while she was away, the personal health issues she navigated postpartum, and the parenting shifts she’s made with two kids at home.

They also discuss why Christy’s found herself turning to Reddit more than PubMed recently, how to find reliable information amidst so much AI slop, and topics for upcoming episodes — including GLP-1s, peptides, allergens, and more.

For p...

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Christy answers an audience question about the keto diet and whether it’s really all it’s cracked up to be. 

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Philosopher, professor, and podcaster Ellie Anderson, PhD joins us to discuss the realities of living in a “post-truth” era – where conspiracy theories, fake news, and anti-science rhetoric are everywhere.

Ellie also shares her personal experience with dubious diagnoses and the “divine feminine,” why studying phenomenology helps her understand lived experience, and how wellness culture permeates so many industries.

For paid subscribers, Christy and Ellie explore the definition of “post-truth,” why so many Americans endorse conspiracy theories, and what they think of the hype around RFK Jr, GLP-1s, supplements, and more.

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Christy discusses how to tell whether your symptoms are related to perimenopause or something else, what perimenopause has in common with dubious diagnoses (even though it’s a real condition), and what the best available evidence says about hormone therapy, weight gain, and more.

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Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold! Order it online or ask for it...

Science communicator Jonathan Jarry joins us to discuss his history of turning to alternative cures for chronic pain, how he came to be skeptical of the wellness industry, the problems with science journalism, why you probably don’t have a leaky gut (despite what many influencers and wellness practitioners claim), the critical article about “leaky gut syndrome” that resulted in death threats, and lots more.

Paid subscribers can hear the full interview, and the first half is available to all listeners. To upgrade to paid, go to rethinkingwellness.substack.com. 

Jonathan Jarry is a science communi...

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Christy answers an audience question about whether you really need to restrict a wide variety of “inflammatory” foods for thyroid health.

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Journalist, podcaster, and author Elise Hu joins us to discuss her background with modeling and disordered eating, why beauty culture is a cousin of diet culture, Elise’s experience with intense beauty standards in Korea, and the realities of pushing back against performances of femininity.

Behind the paywall, Christy and Elise discuss the rise of K-Beauty globally, problematic K-Pop body ideals, the lack of mental health support in many Asian countries, and how the technological gaze is reshaping beauty standards online and around the world.

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Writer and linguist Amanda Montell joins us to discuss “magical overthinking” and the cognitive biases that make us vulnerable to misinformation, celebrity culture and its intersections with wellness culture, how to deal with panic headlines, cultish language to watch out for in wellness spaces, and more. 

Paid subscribers can hear the full interview, and the first part is available to all listeners. To upgrade to paid, go to rethinkingwellness.substack.com. 

Amanda Montell is a writer and linguist from Baltimore. She is the author of the acclaimed books Wordslut, Cultish, and The Age of Magical Overth...

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Christy shares the story of a woman who came to believe a “leaky gut” was behind all her health issues, and discusses the nuanced facts about this supposed diagnosis. (Adapted from The Wellness Trap.)

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Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are...

Dr. Mara Einstein joins us to discuss how cult-like marketing tactics have taken over the wellness and diet industries.

She explains how Weight Watchers and other diet programs operate on cult-like principles, why food noise might be a kind of internalized cult leader, the many problematic aspects of how GLP-1s are marketed, and why conspirituality is so problematic.

For paid subscribers, Christy and Mara discuss the cult marketing spectrum, influencers as “cult-like” figures and conspiracy theorists, the anxiety economy that profits from doomscrolling, MLMs, affiliates, and how to get out of brand cults.

Pa...

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Christy answers an audience question about whether magnesium is really the panacea it’s made out to be—or whether it’s just another example of wellness-culture hype.

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Registered nutritionist, author, and friend of the pod Laura Thomas joins us to unpack the problematic notion that you need to eat a ridiculously large number of plants per week for gut health, and what we actually know about how plant foods affect the gut microbiome. We also get into how to distinguish good science from hype, how ultra-processed foods have become so demonized despite a lack of strong evidence, how anti-fat bias is baked into the discourse about both gut health and ultra-processed foods, and lots more. 

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Christy answers an audience question about what to do if you’re wary of buying supplements but want to listen to your doctor’s recommendations. 

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Body image scientist and researcher Charlotte Markey, PhD returns to the show to discuss the many factors that impact body image and how parents can help their kids develop a positive sense of self.

Christy and Charlotte both share examples from their own parenting, including how to handle tricky conversations about body size, gender, and more. They also unpack the difference between body positivity and body neutrality—and why the popular definitions of those terms are different from their use in research.

For paid subscribers, Charlotte explains how she thinks about makeup for girls, adaptive vs...

Christy answers an audience question about going autoimmune diets and celiac disease, and there’s a bonus one for paid subscribers about going gluten-free for an autoimmune thyroid condition.

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Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold. Order it here, or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore.

If you're looking to...

New York Times bestselling author and former CNN political analyst Kirsten Powers joins us to discuss her history of chronic fatigue and illness, her experience with dubious diagnoses and wild wellness treatments, what she discovered about the true causes of her issues, how disordered eating helped mask and exacerbate her symptoms, how she’s rethought her relationship with work in general and her own past work in particular, her viral post “The way we live in the United States is not normal” and her decision to move to Italy, and more.

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Christy delves into the science to answer several questions she’s gotten (and asked herself) about pregnancy. In the free version, we discuss whether the sex of the baby predicts nausea levels. Paid subscribers can hear whether methylated folate is better than folic acid (in pregnancy or otherwise), whether dates (the fruit) have really been shown to induce labor, and whether there’s an increased risk of stillbirth after 39 weeks for IVF babies.

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Pharmacist and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor Sarah-Jane Garcia joins us to discuss how smart people get caught up in wellness culture.

She shares her path from the realities of being a pharmacist experimenting with elimination diets to how getting certified in integrative medicine exacerbated her orthorexia to why becoming a parent finally opened her eyes to the fear-mongering happening in wellness communities.

For paid subscribers, Christy and Sarah-Jane discuss what it actually took for Sarah-Jane to break free from diet culture, as well as how she returned to conventional medicine through Intuitive Eating.

...

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In this bonus episode, Christy discusses the science (or lack thereof) behind the wellness-culture slogan “sunlight before screen light.” 

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Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold! Order it online or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore. 

If y...

Writer, speaker, and weight-inclusive health/fitness professional Ragen Chastain joins us to discuss the potential side effects and other downsides of using GLP-1 drugs (like Ozempic and its ilk) for weight loss, the massive influence the manufacturers of these drugs are having on the public discourse about them, why the media don’t often report on these conflicts of interest, how drugmakers have co-opted talking points about weight stigma and weight cycling, how opposition to these drugs in some integrative- and functional-medicine spaces still perpetuates stigmatizing ideas about body size, and more. 

Paid subscribers can hear the ful...

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Christy answers an audience question about creatine, with a deep dive into the scientific literature to see if the supplement is really worth the hype.

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Researcher Maxine Ali joins us to discuss how wellness micro-influencers and practitioners construct “authentic” online personas to spread misinformation.

We explore the ways that creators with smaller platforms build trust in seemingly less commercial ways than macro-influencers, including: personal stories of illness, medical encounter memes, and hyper-simplified straw man formats. Then Maxine explains why these ways of sharing can lead to powerful parasocial influence that undermines the perceived expertise of medical professionals worldwide.

For paid subscribers, Christy and Maxine unpack what influencers are doing when they’re “truth-telling,” why conspirituality and conspiracy theories thrive online, and how th...

A critical look at the evidence on hair analysis, DUTCH testing, and heavy metals in chocolate—and why it’s worth being skeptical of tests positioned as “new science.”

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The full version of this episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to the first question here, and sign up for a paid subscription to hear the rest!

Christy's new book, The Wellness Trap, is now available wherever books are sold. Order it online or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore. 

If you're looking to make p...

Anti-diet dietitian Leah Kern joins us to discuss how struggling with anxiety made her susceptible to a wellness diet that promised safety and longevity, how that diet quickly spiraled into full-on disordered eating, how being eco-conscious and “earthy” can easily lead into wellness traps, the connection between spirituality and wellness culture, why she finally stopped trying to fix her anxiety with food and started taking meds, and more.

Leah Kern is an anti-diet dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor who specializes in helping people heal their relationships with food and body. Her approach to coaching is firmly evid...

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Christy answers an audience question about anti-inflammatory diets: the hype, the science, and what the best available evidence really shows.

The full version of this episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to the question here, and sign up for a paid subscription to hear the rest!

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Ask a question of your own for a chance to have it answered in a future episode!

Christy's second book...

Social media researcher, professor, and author Renée DiResta joins us to discuss how anti-vaccine messaging spreads online – including ways we can combat the rise of wellness misinformation in 2026 and beyond.

We also discuss how viral rumors spread on social media, why wellness influencers have become invisible rulers, the difference between moderating “good” and “bad” information, and how algorithms become propaganda machines.

For paid subscribers, Renée offers advice on how to defend science in our local communities, simple ways to amplify good information online, what appropriate skepticism looks like, and why she still uses and recommen...

Christy discusses her upcoming maternity leave and shares a preview of what we’ll be covering here in 2026.

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Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold! Order it online or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore.

If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online co...

Journalist and professor Mallary Tenore Tarpley joins us to discuss her new book Slip and the realities of life in the middle of eating disorder recovery. She shares how losing her mother as a young girl led to disordered eating, why residential treatment was beneficial (and not), and how the pressures of maintaining “full recovery” led to years of struggle.

Behind the paywall, Mallary and Christy discuss the many definitions of “full recovery,” the challenges of writing a book about disordered eating that’s honest without being activating, and how Mallary talks to her kids about food.

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