Rethinking Wellness

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.comJournalist 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 a deep dive into the science. She also shares how working with a naturopath as a kid sparked her eating disorder, how she found her way to recovery, 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. Kate Leaver is an author, journalist and former professional fairy. She’s worked for a glossy magazine, a leading Australian women’s website, an evening radio show, and the digital offshoot of a major literary franchise. She covers topics like love, science, celebrity, pop culture and why dogs are so great. She’s currently writing her debut novel and she publishes the newsletter ENTHUSIASM. If you like this conversation, subscribe to hear lots more like it! Support the podcast by becoming a paid subscriber, and unlock great perks like extended interviews, subscriber-only Q&As, full access to our archives, commenting privileges and subscriber threads where you can connect with other listeners, and more. Learn more and sign up at rethinkingwellness.substack.com.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 make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.

Celebrity guest Oprah discusses promoting wellness trends and the hype around GLP-1 drugs. The podcast advocates for critical thinking and compassion when evaluating wellness trends in a world filled with hype and diet culture.

Registered dietitian Wendy Lopez and diabetes educator Jessica Jones discuss dispelling diet-culture myths about blood sugar and diabetes. They talk about why people with diabetes should not focus on weight loss, the harmful effects of diabetes 'remission' or 'reversal', the misuse of GLP-1 drugs as diet drugs, continuous-glucose-monitor trend among non-diabetics, and navigating prediabetes and other health conditions.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.comWriter 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 Overthinking (Bookshop affiliate links). Along with hosting the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Marie Claire, Harper's Bazaar, and more. She holds a degree in linguistics from NYU and lives in Los Angeles with her partner, plants, and pets. Find her on Instagram @Amanda_Montell.If you like this conversation, subscribe to hear lots more like it! Support the podcast by becoming a paid subscriber, and unlock great perks like extended interviews, subscriber-only Q&As, full access to our archives, commenting privileges and subscriber threads where you can connect with other listeners, and more. Learn more and sign up at rethinkingwellness.substack.com.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 make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.comChristy 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 paid subscription to hear the rest!Get full show notes and references here.Ask a question of your own for a chance to have it answered in a future episode!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 make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.

Endocrinologist Gregory Dodell debunks myths about hormone health, challenges weight-loss recommendations, and discusses managing thyroid conditions. Topics include 'adrenal fatigue,' the Ozempic craze, holistic approaches in endocrinology, intuitive eating, and misconceptions around adrenal fatigue and steroid medication usage.

Registered nutritionist Laura Thomas challenges the hype around consuming large amounts of plants for gut health. She discusses distinguishing good science from hype, the demonization of ultra-processed foods, and anti-fat bias in gut health discourse. Laura also emphasizes healing relationships with food and body through intuitive eating.

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, and more!Paid subscribers: Here's how to set up your private podcast feed to get bonus content in your podcast player.Get full show notes and references here.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 course.  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com/subscribe

Dietitian and author Julia Lévy-Ndejuru discusses fatphobia in wellness culture, the problems with sugar restrictions, determinants of health beyond weight, recognizing diets masquerading as wellness, and the importance of nuance in diet discussions.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.comIn 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 more. Jessica DeFino is an award-winning beauty reporter and critic (The New York Times, Vice, Vogue) and author of the newsletter The Unpublishable. She writes the Guardian's beauty advice column, Ask Ugly, and has been called “the woman the beauty industry fears the most” by the Sunday Herald. Find her at jessicadefino.substack.com.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 Christy’s book The Wellness Trap now for a deeper dive into the topics we cover on the pod, and strategies to support true well-being. 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 course.