Rethinking Wellness

Christy discusses what she’s been going through with IVF and how it’s affected her body image, plus 5 things she’s trying to keep in mind as she navigates a changing body amid the pressures of diet and wellness culture. This episode originally aired in June 2025. Check out the written version on our website for updates.

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Christy discusses how to make sure a “healthy” dietary change doesn’t spiral into disordered eating—and how to know your desire to change your eating is driven by health and not diet culture.  

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Religious-ethics scholar Liz Bucar, author of Beyond Wellness, joins us to discuss the religious roots of wellness practices, why bringing religion back into “spiritual” wellness spaces might be the key to promoting true well-being (even for non-religious people), and how the very human need for control shows up in diet and wellness culture. 

For paid subscribers, we do a deeper dive into how religion has contribute...

Christy shares some exciting announcements about the podcast! 

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• Subscriber-only Q&As and essays answering your burning questions about wellness/diet culture, with critical and rigorous reporting on the science (something you’ll never get from ChatGPT, which we don’t use for research or writing)
• Extended interviews with our guests, including all the juicy bits
• ...

Christy answers an audience question about whether artificial food colorings and other additives really have any impact on ADHD. This episode was originally published in November 2024.

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Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available...

Intuitive Eating co-author Elyse Resch joins us to discuss her history with the natural-food movement, how trying to eat “naturally” led her into orthorexia and other forms of disordered eating, how intuitive eating is being co-opted by wellness culture, what to consider if you’re interested in “natural” foods, and more. This episode was originally published in 2024.

Elyse Resch, MS, RDN, CEDS-S, Fiaedp...

Today is a very special episode, because Christy’s back from maternity leave!

To return to the show, she’s joined by our producer Amelia Hruby for a conversation about the wellness trends she noticed while she was away, the personal health issues she navigated postpartum, and the parenting shifts she’s made with two kids at home.

They also discuss why Christy’s found herself turning to Reddit more than PubMed ...

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Christy answers an audience question about the keto diet and whether it’s really all it’s cracked up to be. 

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Philosopher, professor, and podcaster Ellie Anderson, PhD joins us to discuss the realities of living in a “post-truth” era – where conspiracy theories, fake news, and anti-science rhetoric are everywhere.

Ellie also shares her personal experience with dubious diagnoses and the “divine feminine,” why studying phenomenology helps her understand lived experience, and how wellness culture permeates so many...

Christy discusses how to tell whether your symptoms are related to perimenopause or something else, what perimenopause has in common with dubious diagnoses (even though it’s a real condition), and what the best available evidence says about hormone therapy, weight gain, and more.

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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 practitioners claim), the critical article about “leaky gut syndrome” that resulted in death threats, and lots more.

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Christy answers an audience question about whether you really need to restrict a wide variety of “inflammatory” foods for thyroid health.

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Journalist, podcaster, and author Elise Hu joins us to discuss her background with modeling and disordered eating, why beauty culture is a cousin of diet culture, Elise’s experience with intense beauty standards in Korea, and the realities of pushing back against performances of femininity.

Behind the paywall, Christy and Elise discuss the rise of K-Beauty globally, problematic K-Pop body ideals, the lack of mental health supp...

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. 

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Christy shares the story of a woman who came to believe a “leaky gut” was behind all her health issues, and discusses the nuanced facts about this supposed diagnosis. (Adapted from The Wellness Trap.)

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Dr. Mara Einstein joins us to discuss how cult-like marketing tactics have taken over the wellness and diet industries.

She explains how Weight Watchers and other diet programs operate on cult-like principles, why food noise might be a kind of internalized cult leader, the many problematic aspects of how GLP-1s are marketed, and why conspirituality is so problematic.

For paid subscribers, Christy and Mara discuss the cult marketing s...

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Christy answers an audience question about whether magnesium is really the panacea it’s made out to be—or whether it’s just another example of wellness-culture hype.

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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 good science from hype, how ultra-processed foods have become so demonized despite a lack of strong evidence, how anti-fat bias is...

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Christy answers an audience question about what to do if you’re wary of buying supplements but want to listen to your doctor’s recommendations. 

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! 

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