Making It Awkward

Psychiatrist Dr. Carole Lieberman, M.D., M.P.H . joins Jessica Wilson, M.S. RD. for a robust conversation about COVID, Dr. Fauci, RFK Jr., the MAHA report and whether supplements can fix our mental health.  Dr. Carole specializes in the psychology of terrorism, criminal behavior, and political breakdown. She's a frequent guest on Fox News , Newsmax , OAN , and leading patriot platforms. Her bold i...

Kaila Yu, author of the newly released Fetishized; A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty , joins Jessica Wilson, MS RD the show to talk about the fetishization of Asian women.  Kaila reflects on the women in the media who influenced her, and her path into the pinup and import modeling industry. She devotes a chapter to the book and film Memoirs of a Geisha and Jessica and Kaila talk...

MAHA's Making Our Children Healthy Again Strategy Report is out, and "strategy" is a generous term for this document. Beef farmer Trampus Harmon and public health dietitians Selena Salfen and Meghan Cichy return to the show to share their thoughts.  Post production note: Dr. Casey Means has resumed the path to becoming Surgeon General and is declaring her conflicts of interest.  Dr. Jessica Knuric...

Journalist Jamie Ducharme joins the show for the 100th episode!! She talks with Jessica about her  experiences after the TIME magazine article, "Still Processing; Not all  Ultra-Processed Foods are the same. Or, some argue, even unhealthy." * was published. RFK Jr entered the chat about the article and things got a bit out of hand.  The two talk about food as identity and nutrition journalism toda...

Bryan Johnson made a fortune and then decided to spend it on rivaling Jesus Christ and developing his Blueprint supplement line.  Johnson was born, raised and married Mormon before leaving that religion and family to pursue eternal life on his own. He is the health and tech crossover personified. His quest for longevity has led him to replace his plasma with that of his teenage son, and receive ge...

Dr. Maisha Davis joins the pod for a hilarious chat about using constant glucose monitoring devices (CGMs), the Levels app and the Oura ring . The two talk about how and why collecting and reviewing health data can be comforting to some people, and also how using a CGM could be a slippery slope.  Jessica and Maisha are currently using the Dexcom 7 and they share what their experiences have been us...

What can listeners take from Jessica's conversation with Dr. Robert Lustig ? She looks at the interview through a historical lens and addresses eugenics and war. She then shares some possible present day applications. Jessica also shares feedback she's gotten from listeners and from a few people working for UCSF. Lustig's article in Frontiers:  ⁠https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.20...

Dr. Lexi Brown returns to the show to talk to Jessica about her hospitalization last year and the options she was given to treat her epilepsy. Not interested in brain surgery, Jessica was willing to try the next option: a ketogenic diet. Since January Jessica has been trialing a ketogenic diet to mixed results, mostly due to her questionable choices. Today she's sharing what impact the diet has ha...

RFK Jr wants us all to be using wearable devices! Presumptive Surgeon General, Casey Means, co-founded Levels Health which pledges to unlock our metabolic health through the use of a constant glucose monitor(CGM). What is a CGM, what promises are made by Levels, and should we care? Jessica and Selena Salfen are going to find out! The two have teamed up in August to use a CGM, link it to Levels and...

Re-release! Originally published 9/14/23. After receiving an email from Dr. Robert Lustig about his concerns with Jessica's work she was fortunate enough to catch Dr. Lustig on the phone for this interview. In addition to giving her advice on what to tell a patient who needed to choose between a can of ravioli or nothing he shared his beliefs about calories, metabolic health, starvation, and how h...

Jessica is joined by Lindsay Lee Wallace for the second of two episodes about the womanosphere . The two talk about the performance of the womanosphere, and more of the media side of things including skinnytok and Evie magazine . Evie magazine is the conservative magazine for cis women that encourages us to seek truth and find beauty. Jessica gets the honor of introducing the new body ideal to Lin...

The womanosphere is here! Are we ready? In the first of two episodes exploring the womanosphere and what it means for us, dietitian and author Jessica Wilson is joined by Cecily Nelson-Alford to talk about feminism and gender. The two discuss Evie Magazine , social media and why the messages of the womanosphere might be appealing. Cecily talks about how value is attached to womanhood in society an...

Jessica Wilson, MS RD is joined by Malak (whose last name and appearance we're not sharing to protect her safety) to discuss the intersections of ICE, Palestine and Black liberation. Malak was recently a part of a mental health delegation that traveled to Palestine and shares the stories of those she met. The two talk settler colonialism, surveillance and over policing. They also talk about a shar...

Paul Saladino is LOUD and literally banks on fear. He thinks we live in a zoo. He used to be a carnivore and sold the idea, and then started eating plants. He's said many deeply ridiculous and dangerous things. He is the reason Erewhon has a raw meat smoothie and the primary reason we overthink seed oils. He knows how much meat Jessica should eat in a day. He's a Lot. Clips of his claims are sprin...

The first MAHA report, the " Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment " came out on 5/22/25, and Selena Salfen, MPH RDN , and Meghan Cichy MPH RDN join Jessica to discuss it. The report came out at least two additional times, due to " formatting errors " which was a fancy label for AI errors . NOTUS was the first news outlet to report the citations that don't exist. The three discuss what RFK ge...

This podcast's origin story! Originally airing 10/26/23 Jessica is joined by nurse practitioner Calvin Gilbert to recount their presentation about weight stigma in trans care at UCSF's 2023 Trans Health Summit and what led to a medical doctor being escorted out of the room. Jessica talks with Calvin about what happened the previous day and why it motivated her to start Making it Awkward and make a...

It's been 100 days of Hellth in America and boy do we need a vacation. This week Jessica is joined by dietitians Meghan Cichy and Selena Salfen to discuss what has happened in public health this year, and break down the  MAHA Commission . They talk through what RFK Jr. and MAHA have been up to and how it will impact childhood nutrition. Jessica asks Selena and Meghan what happened to  "childhood o...

How do we get beef tallow and is it actually less processed than seed oils? And if companies are using colostrum for their supplements, are they taking it away from baby cows? Dr. Sarah Dougherty and Beef farmer Trampus Harmon return to the show for a spirited conversation about the renaissance of cow byproducts. Trampus explains how he makes tallow at home and discusses market trends for cow bypr...

Re-release Making America Healthy Again Part 2! Original air date: 10/31/24. Jessica talks with three guests for their reflections on her interview with Jeff Hutt , spokesperson for the Make America Healthy Again PAC and shares email feedback from a listener and her 18 year old daughter. Medical sociologist Dr. Natalie Ingraham joins the show to talk about the people part of MAHA and the concept o...

Great British Bake-Off  alum  Mike Wilkins  joins the show to talk about farming and queerness in the UK! He is a fourth -generation farmer, working alongside his family on their farm,  Nolands . He has a weekly  Instagram series  about what he's been up to on the farm and it's an absolute joy to watch. In this episode Jessica and Mike chat about the  intersections among farming, queerness and men...

Soda taxes take 2. Jesica is joined by Raeann Bowlds, MPH and Blake Flaugher, MPH to discuss Dr. Kelly Brownell's claims that crack, soda, Cheetos, and baby formula do the same things in our brains and our bodies. The three talk about tobacco and soda taxes to see if the two are the same, and what Berkeley CA has done (or hasn't done) with its soda tax revenue. Jessica asked Blake and Raeann to te...

Jessica Wilson is joined by medical historian Dr. Bethany Johnson of University of South Carolina* to talk everything measles: their history, what we should know, what won't treat them, and what happens after someone has them. Bethany gets deep into the medical history of measles and mumps outbreaks and the two talk about RFK's claim that everyone got measles when he was a kid and it all worked ou...

Jessica Wilson , MS RD is joined by Dr. Kelly Brownell, Director Emeritus of the World Food Policy Center at Duke University. The two talk about soda taxes, food systems, policy, and marketing. Jessica asks Dr. Brownell about the Duke World Food Policy Center's Identifying and Countering White Supremacy Culture in Food Systems report . And to wrap up, Dr. Brownell shares how he thinks we achieve h...

Jessica Wilson i s joined by author Tessa Rapaczynski for the next episode in the re-grifting series. Tessa's article for Medium titled "The Long Con and dirty dong of Andrew Huberman, PhD" immediately caught my eye. Today's episode is their conversation about the evolution of Huberman and his path from nerdy professor who didn't leave his lab to podcast bro with 7.3 million followers and multiple...

Eating disorder awareness week is this week and it falls during Black History Month. Tigress Osborn, Dr. Whitney Trotter, Angela Goens and Elizabeth Ayiku return to the pod to talk about these intersections and Elizabeth's film Me Little Me . Elizabeth first talked about the film on the pod 11/7/24. They chat about their thoughts on the film, how it's been received at festivals and by the eating d...