The world of dieting and wellness is full of so-called snake oil salesmen—but what IS snake oil? This week, we take a wild ride through the history of health scams and discover a startling twist about an everyday idiom. Along the way, Aubrey delivers fun facts about sanitation from memory and Mike roasts the state where most of his family lives. 

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Links:

• Snake Oil, Hustlers & Hambones by Mary Anderson
• A History Of 'Snake Oil Salesmen' : Code Switch (NPR)
• How Snake Oil Got a Bad Rap (Hint: It Wasn’t The Snakes’ Fault) (Collectors Weekly)

Thanks to Ashley Smith for editing assistance and Doctor Dreamchip for our lovely theme song!

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This week we dissect the content and impact of one of America's most harmful TV experiments.  
 
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Links! 

• Aubrey’s article on The Biggest Loser
•  That's not reality for me': Australian audiences respond to the Biggest Loser 
• "Cheapening the struggle:" obese people's attitudes towards the Biggest Loser 
• The Effects of Reality Television on Weight Bias: An Examination of The Biggest Loser
• 'It's a miracle no one has died yet': The Biggest Loser returns, despite critics' warnings
• The Retrograde Shame of The Biggest Loser
• Analysis of all contestants
• Neoliberalism And The Realities Of Reality Television
• The “Reality” of Health: Reality Television and the Public Health
• Life after NBC's "The Biggest Loser": The Experiences and Perspectives of Former Reality TV Contestants 

Thanks to Ashley Smith for editing assistance and Doctor Dreamchip for our lovely theme song!

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WE’RE BACK! A new diet ice cream is taking your grocery store by storm. But what even is it? This week, Mike and Aubrey talk biohacking, dieting for straight dudes and the extremely ill-advised "Halo Top diet."

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Links!

• What is biohacking? The new “science” of optimizing your brain and body. (Vox) 
• Halo Top Is Now the Most Popular Pint of Ice Cream in America (Food and Wine) 
• What It's Like to Eat Nothing but This Magical, Healthy Ice Cream for 10 Days (GQ) 
• Is Halo Top Good For You? The Truth About Low-Calorie, Low-Fat Ice Creams (HuffPost)
• Seven in 10 young people would eat whole tub of low-cal ice cream (The Grocer UK)

Thanks to Ashley Smith for editing assistance and Doctor Dreamchip for our lovely theme song!

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To celebrate the release of her new book, Aubrey takes Mike on a tour through the statistics and debates surrounding weight bias. Anyone interested in body positivity, airline seats, 'skinny shaming' or the sugar content of melons is legally obligated to join us.

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Get Aubrey's book in the U.S.:

• Powell's Books
• Bookshop.org
• Beacon Press
• Buy from your local bookstore on Indiebound

Get Aubrey's book outside the U.S.

Thanks to Doctor Dreamchip for our lovely theme song!

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The Twinkie Defense has become a shorthand for disingenuous legal defense strategies. But was it disingenuous? (Yes, but not in the way you think!)

Thanks to Ashley Smith for editing assistance and Doctor Dreamchip for our lovely theme song!

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Links!

• Mike's "Victim's Rights" episode on his other show!
• The Trial of Dan White: The Diminished Capacity ("Twinkie") Defense
• Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death
• The Myth of the Twinkie Defense: The Verdict in the Dan White Case Wasn’t Based on His Ingestion of Junk Food
• Psychiatric Testimony and the Insanity Defense
• California’s Proposition 8 (1982)

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What's that Gwyneth Paltrow's drinking? It's MOON JUICE! This week, we're talking adaptogens, brain dust, hot sex milk and the wellness company that's taken L.A. by storm. Be sure to take your quinton shots before you listen to this one.

Thanks to Ashley Smith for editing assistance and Doctor Dreamchip for our lovely theme song!

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Links!:

• How Hollywood's Favorite Juice Bar Owner Eats Every Day (Elle)
• How Amanda Chantal Bacon Perfected the Celebrity Wellness Business (NYT)
• What Are Adaptogens? (NYT)
• Wellness Brand Moon Juice Has Plenty of Haters - And Its Founder is Cool With That (Entrepreneur)
• The Moon Juice Gospel of Self (The New Yorker)
• How Wellness Got Whitewashed (Glamour)

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They hit the market in 1992. Three years later, they were the best-selling cookie in America. This week, Mike and Aubrey dive into the low-fat craze of the 1990s and sample the snack that became the symbol of its rise and fall.  

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Links! 

• How the Ideology of Low Fat Conquered America 
• “Eat More, They’re Healthy”
• Anthology of “Cookie Man” ads
• “What if It’s All Been A Big Fat Lie?”
• “Ending the War on Fat”

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Fen-Phen & Redux were "the next miracle drugs" in the '90s, claiming to help people lose dramatic amounts of weight in just three months.  But within a few short years, they'd been pulled from the market.  They were just too effective! (Just kidding, they killed some people.)

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Links! 

• Dispensing with the Truth by Alicia Mundy
• The New Miracle Drug (Time Magazine)
• How Fen-Phen, A Diet 'Miracle,' Rose and Fell (the New York Times)
• Blowing the Whistle on Fen-Phen (Journal of Business Communication)
• Purdue OxyContin settlement would rank among largest in pharma history (Reuters)
• National Trends in Antiobesity Medication Use (JAMA Network)
• The Fen-Phen Finale: A Study of Weight Loss and Valvular Heart Disease (Obesity Research)

Thanks to Doctor Dreamchip for our lovely theme song!

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The shuttle run! The flexed arm hang! The v-sit reach! These terms are seared into the memories of an entire generation of American schoolchildren. But did the President's Physical Fitness Test actually make us fitter?  (Spoiler: lol no)

Thanks to Ashley Smith for editing assistance and Doctor Dreamchip for our lovely theme song!

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Links! 

• The Report That Shocked The President
• JFK’s Sports Illustrated article, “The Soft American”
• 1958–2008: 50 Years of Youth Fitness Tests in the United States
• The President's Council on Physical Fitness and the Systematisation of Children's Play in America
• Why is there so little critical physical education scholarship in the United States? The case of Fitnessgram
• The Modern Era: Blossoming of the Olympic Movement and the Conquest of Acute Disease
• The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports: The First 50 Years
• Do Fitness Test Performances Predict Students’ Attitudes And Emotions Toward Physical Education?

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Welcome to Maintenance Phase! In our first episode, we tell our origin stories and talk about some of the basic ideas behind the show.

Here's where to find us:
Aubrey: https://www.yourfatfriend.com/
Mike: https://rottenindenmark.org/

Thanks to Ashley Smith for editing assistance and Doctor Dreamchip for our lovely theme song!

Support us:

•  Subscribe on Patreon
• Donate on PayPal
•  Get Maintenance Phase shirts, stickers and more

Support the show