Making It Awkward

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are out RFK Jr decided to give us an inverted food triangle and tell us it's a new and improved food pyramid . Dietitian and public health badass Meghan Cichy, MPH RDN returns to the show to discuss the new dietary guidelines and the focus on "real food". She walks Jessica through all of the public health language and limitations and also asks who all of this i...

Have you been thinking clean thoughts and manifesting for 2026? Lindsay Lee Wallace returns to the show to talk about the idea of thought hygiene, OCD, magical thinking and manifesting. Lindsay shares the highlights of the conversation she had with a manifestation coach and she brings her thoughts about wellness as a line item in your budget. Lindsay and Jessica start the episode with a discussion...

Re-release!  Chrissy King joins Jessica Wilson, MS RD for a conversation about being childfree by choice. Chrissy talks about how she made her decision and how Jessica didn't ever think it was a choice she needed to make. Chrissy got to share her thoughts on many things including the marketing of parenthood, the idea of it taking a village to raise a child and aging like the Golden Girls. The two...

Re-release! Jessica talks with  Sherene Chou about the whiteness of the Mediterranean Diet and its origins. The two chat about their mixed reviews of speaking at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health's Healthy Kitchens Healthy Lives . Sherene discusses a variety of "healthy diets" out there and how they fall short of meeting the moment. She also spills the beans on the next superfood. Jessica is...

Dietitian Sherene Chou returns to the pod, this time to talk about her experience having a confinement nanny for a month after giving birth. Confinement nannies families in the post-partum period, to help manage household tasks, and prepare nutritious meals according to Chinese postpartum rules, and also helps with feeding of the infant.  Leslie Voorhees Means, wife of White House food and nutriti...

Calley Means has returned to the White House as a Senior Advisor supporting food and nutrition policy. Since his return the Dietary Guidelines have been delayed and should(may) now be delivered to us in January 2026. Additionally, TIME has reported that there may be a return to the Food Pyramid in the updated Guidelines.  Selena Salfen returns to the show to share the many reasons why Calley shoul...

Cheryl Hines, wife of RFK Jr, wrote a memoir and "wrote" is used loosely in this context. Her publication team didn't do her any favors with this lightly edited, sprawling account of Cheryl's life and path to becoming the unwilling wife of the Secretary of HHS– or is he the secretary of HHR?  Cheryl doesn't understand that her choices have consequences, even as they continue to pile up, including...

Selena Selfan, MPH, RD is back for the next installment in the re-grifting series! She is the resident Means Siblings Scholar and talks to host Jessica Wilson, MS RD about her deep dive! Dr. Casey Means is currently the presumptive nominee for Surgeon General. Her brother Calley Means is a special advisor to RFK Jr and cofounder of Truemed . The two are fervent MAHA supporters and foot soldiers in...

Jocelyn Green of @ audhd_academic joins Jessica to discuss the concept of "losing an autism diagnosis" and what's often missing when discussing autism research. The two discuss the limitations of autism statistics and how their misuse can become unethical. They also talk about disability, what conditions may present to make someone seek an autism diagnosis later in adulthood, support needs for aut...

Today Dr. Theresa Lyons, founder and CEO of Navigating AWEtism joins Making it Awkward. She reached out to Jessica sharing that as an Ivy League scientist and mom to a non-speaking autistic daughter, she's used her expertise to guide other parents of autistic children. Dr. Lyons introduces a study that says 37% of kids can go on to lose their autism diagnosis and Jessica has follow-up questions. T...

Dr. Bethany Johnson returns to the show to share the deep history of the plague, and how we should be thinking about it today. She talks about how anti-Chinese and anti-Mexican sentiment impacted the mitigation and spread of the plague in the early 1900s. Bethany also talks about how climate change may impact infectious disease, antibiotic resistance, lyme disease, pet safety, mitigation measures,...

We've been a lot of places with RFK Jr, his conspiracy theories, magical thinking, lies, his meltdowns in front of Senate committees, and seen that he doesn't understand half of the things he talks about. Exhibit A: He thinks babies are grown in placentas Let's make sure we're clear on RFK's indisputable, irrefutable cause of autism going forward. Today I share his gold standard science-certified...

Kyle Davis, MSW, LICSW, joins the show to talk about his experience with Assertive Community Treatment for supporting people with severe and persistent mental illness. He shares details of that model today and what autonomy can actually look like when people are out of institutions and living in society. In Jessica's interview with psychiatrist Dr. Carole Lieberman, Dr. Carole shared her belief th...

MAHA and Cuteservatives are okay with spending millions on measles outbreaks yet want to control people's food choices in the name of "health." People are able to buy raw milk with SNAP, yet shouldn't be allowed to buy a candybar? The math is not mathing. Today's episode is a follow up to the episode released 10/1/25, "Fauci Needs to Be Locked Up!" with Dr. Carole Lieberman. Jessica responds to so...

Jessica Wilson, MS. RD. is joined by Blake Flaugher, MPH , to give Jessica a full breakdown of poppers and RFK Jr.'s AIDS denialism. Jessica is very curious about butt stuff and Blake expertly answers her questions. He also answers a listener question about the spectrum of asexuality. The two have this conversation at a brewery and got the opportunity to make things awkward! Blake updates Jessica...

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...