Rethinking Wellness

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Psychologist Alexis Conason joins us to discuss her background in “obesity” research, how she came to question the conventional weight paradigm and move to a weight-neutral approach, the industry influence behind the American Medical Association’s decision to classify obesity as a disease in 2013, the men...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com 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 practitioner...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Christy answers an audience question about how much protein you really need—and explores why a certain piece of incorrect advice is so popular among influencers and “protein girlies.” The full version of this episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to the first question here, and sign up for a paid subscr...

Katie Dalebout guest-hosts the show to interview Christy about her new book, The Wellness Trap ! Christy shares why she wanted to write a book about wellness, the potential harms of integrative and functional medicine (and why we’re understandably attracted to these approaches), the connections between wellness culture and diet culture, the legacy of the “hysteria” diagnosis and why women are stil...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Psychotherapist, nutrition counselor, and author Pixie Turner joins us to discuss her history with wellness culture, the Belle Gibson scandal and how it ignited her skepticism, how we can think critically about the plant-based diet trend, the truth about “what I eat in a day” videos, and how social media...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com In this bonus episode, Christy discusses Netflix’s new gut-health documentary—and why the film’s claims that gut microbes directly influence weight and disease are more hype than science.  This episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to a free preview here, and sign up for a paid subscription to hear the...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com 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 a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com 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 abo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com In this bonus episode, Christy discusses the science (or lack thereof) behind the wellness-culture slogan “sunlight before screen light.”  This episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to a free preview here, and sign up for a paid subscription to hear the full episode! Get full show notes and references h...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Employee well-being consultant and health coach Heather Sayers Lehman joins us to discuss how workplace wellness programs often make people LESS well by promoting disordered eating, body shame, and even some woo-woo wellness trends. She also shares her history with diet and wellness culture, how having th...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Journalist and author Kate Leaver joins us to discuss her experience with long Covid, all the weird wellness-y stuff she tried out of desperation, and why it’s so hard to think critically about interventions that promise healing when you’re so sick you barely have the energy to read an email, let alone do...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com In this bonus episode, Christy discusses the GLP-1 hype pipeline, how celebrities like Oprah have helped keep the hype flowing, and how to keep your cool when the whole world is losing their sh*t over the latest wellness/diet fad. This episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to a free preview here, and si...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Registered dietitians and diabetes educators Jessica Jones and Wendy Lopez join us to discuss why people with diabetes don’t need to focus on weight loss, why the popular wellness-culture notion of diabetes “remission” or “reversal” can be harmful, how the popularity of Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs as di...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com 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....

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Christy answers an audience question about the “adrenal body type” and unpacks the weight stigma, ageism, and pseudoscience embedded in this twist on the dubious diagnosis of “adrenal fatigue.” The full version of this episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to the first question here, and sign up for a p...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Endocrinologist Gregory Dodell joins us to discuss myths and facts about hormones, including the problems with doing diets and supplement protocols for “hormone balancing,” why weight-loss recommendations aren’t helpful for hormone health, how to manage thyroid conditions without falling prey to wellness...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com 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 g...

This episode is an audio version of this week’s newsletter, which is an essay about the one-year anniversary of this podcast, what’s working and what’s not, and a new experiment we’re trying with the bonus interviews starting this week.   Upgrade to a paid subscription to support the show and get great perks like extended interviews, subscriber-only Q&As and essays, full access to our archives, an...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Dietitian and author Julia Lévy-Ndejuru joins us to discuss fatphobia in health and wellness spaces, the problems with making sugar and snacks off-limits, the determinants of health that have nothing to do with our weight, how to recognize diets that masquerade as wellness, the importance (and limitations...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com In this bonus episode, writer and beauty-industry critic Jessica Defino returns to discuss the problems with skin products and skincare in general, why acne topicals aren’t long-term solutions, how to have compassion for yourself as you navigate through beauty culture and inevitably get sucked in, and mor...

Writer and beauty-industry critic Jessica Defino joins us to discuss the intersections of wellness/diet culture and beauty culture, how she went from child beauty-pageant participant to working at the Kardashian-Jenner apps to eventually becoming an outspoken critic of the beauty industry, how social media is spreading harmful beauty ideals, the ageism of “anti-aging,” how to change your relations...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com In this bonus episode, psychologist and ATTENTION SPAN author Gloria Mark returns to discuss what to do when stress leads to difficulty focusing, how to reclaim your attention from your inbox, how to help kids cultivate attentional well-being, and more. Gloria Mark is Chancellor’s Professor Emerita at the...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com Christy answers an audience question about wellness podcaster Andrew Huberman and his promotion of intermittent fasting, cold showers, and other dubious wellness practices. The full version of this episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to the first question here, and sign up for a paid subscription to h...

Psychologist and ATTENTION SPAN author Gloria Mark joins us to discuss the connection between attention and well-being, the technologies manipulating our attention (and why social-media algorithms are just the tip of the iceberg), why modern life isn’t “causing” ADHD, the individual and societal changes needed to improve attentional well-being, how to discover your own personal rhythm of attention...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com In this bonus episode, author Jessica Elefante returns to discuss how to use your powers of influence for good, the importance of setting limits and boundaries, how people with small businesses (including authors, journalists, and clinicians with private practices) can sell our products/services without u...