Well, Now

Eating disorders are one of the most deadly psychiatric disorders.But for decades, much of the criteria to diagnose one applied only to cisgender girls and those assigned female at birth – like a loss of menstruation. This meant that many cisgender boys and those assigned male at birth fell through the cracks. On this week’s episode of Well, Now: The rise in eating disorders among boys and men with Dr. Jason Nagata, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco. Maya and Kavita will discuss how eating disorders tend to manifest differently between boys and girls, and what signs to look for if you think you or someone you know needs care.For more information on eating disorders, you can visit the National Eating Disorders Association’s website.If you liked this episode, check out: Breaking Up With Diet CulturePodcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to wellnow@slate.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While most of the world moves on from Covid-19, millions of Americans remain in limbo: Those living with Long Covid.Long Covid symptoms are vast and can impact all parts of the body: from gastrointestinal tract issues and fatigue to autoimmune inflammation and cognitive impairment. On this week’s episode of Well, Now – Kavita and Maya talk with Dr. Wes Ely, an ICU physician based in Nashville, Tenn.As the co-director of the Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction and Survivorship Center, he is one of many doctors demanding our country’s leaders not to leave their patients behind.If you liked this episode, check out: Life After LockdownPodcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to wellnow@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization named Covid-19 a pandemic, and public health around the globe changed forever. Countries shut down their borders, businesses closed and furloughed workers, and millions of students went to remote learning. Two years in, more than one million Americans lost their lives.This week on Well, Now we mark this grim anniversary by talking about what we have and haven’t learned about this world-changing virus with one of the epidemiologists who first began sounding the alarm about Covid-19: Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding.Podcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to wellnow@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s impossible to ignore the impact of climate change. Sea levels are rising, and natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires are increasing in strength and number each year. A major contributor to a warming planet is the way we’re processing our food. So on this week’s episode of Well, Now we discuss ways to eat a full, balanced diet while keeping the health of the planet in mind with registered dietitian nutritionist Chris Vogliano.If you liked this episode, check out: Breaking Up With Diet CulturePodcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to wellnow@slate.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. healthcare system can split the country into two Americas.Your zip code, education, class status and more all play a role in the outcome of your health as well as the kind of care you receive. Fewer markers more clearly define these disparities than race. On this week’s episode of Well, Now Maya and Kavita talk about racism in American healthcare with Dr. Uché Blackstock. Her new book Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine gives a historical view of how racism has always played a role in U.S. healthcare. This book is also a memoir of her own experience as a physician carrying on the legacy of her late mother, Dr. Dale Gloria Blackstock.Health Resources Mentioned in the Episode: Health in Her HUE Irth App Podcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to wellnow@slate.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stress is all around us, but that doesn’t mean it needs to run our entire lives. According to Dr. Romie Mushtaq – a neurologist turned corporate wellness consultant – the main culprit behind our culture of stress is what she calls a “busy brain.”This week on Well, Now Dr. Kavita Patel and Maya Feller, RDN talk with Dr. Mushtaq about curing our busy brains and her latest book The Busy Brain Cure: The Eight-Week Plan to Find Focus, Tame Anxiety and Sleep Again.If you liked this episode, check out: What We Get Wrong About LovePodcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to wellnow@slate.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week’s episode of Well, Now’s ditching the flowers and grand romantic gestures we often see on Valentine’s Day.There’s tons of research about how loving relationships contribute to wellness, as well as how lacking those relationships can play a part in adverse health outcomes. But what if our entire understanding of love is misguided? Kavita and Maya talk with relationship expert Dr. Sara Nasserzadeh about what she says are the six components for creating real, long-lasting intimate relationships. Her latest book is called Love By Design: Six Ingredients to Build a Lifetime of Love.If you liked this episode, check out: What “Wellness” Is and Isn’tPodcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to wellnow@slate.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Super Bowl LVIII is this Sunday, amid decades of controversy surrounding football’s impact on traumatic brain injuries.But for many athletes, these long-term effects can be felt well before making it to the pros: on high school and college teams.On Well, Now this week: Maya and Kavita talk with physical therapist and concussion specialist John Doherty about the science surrounding youth contact sports and what we know about their relationship with brain injuries down the road.Podcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to wellnow@slate.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s award season in Hollywood, and it’s got the Well, Now team thinking about wellness and the entertainment industry. Can a medical drama really teach us accurate health information? Or is it all just high-stakes surgeries with beautiful actors?Maya and Kavita talk this out with physician, showrunner and Harvard lecturer Neal Baer. He brought powerful, data-supported stories on HIV, emergency contraception, cervical cancer and more to hit cable shows like ER and Law and Order: SVU.If you liked this episode, check out: Breaking Up With Diet CulturePodcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to wellnow@slate.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week’s episode of Well, Now, Maya and Kavita talk about practical ways to break up with diet culture with fitness instructor, speaker and educator Chrissy King. She’s the author of The Body Liberation Project: How Understanding Racism and Diet Culture Helps Cultivate Joy and Build Collective Freedom.Chrissy also ties in how breaking up with diet culture is a piece of a larger conversation about diversity, equity and inclusion in the wellness industry.If you liked this episode, check out: What “Wellness” Is and Isn’tPodcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to wellnow@slate.com Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now at slate.com/podcasts/well-now Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices