The Conscious Lee joins the show to debate the merits of his recent video about cured meats causing cancer and Jessica's video reply questioning the honesty of his presentation of the evidence.

Both of them reference the World Health Organization's 2015 report about carcinogens, and Jessica attempts to provide nuance to the carcinogen designation by discussing how substances are labeled as carcinogens and how it's the strength of the research, not the level of risk that makes something a carcinogen.

The Conscious Lee's video is part of a partnership with Farm Forward and references the Save Our Bacon Act.

This is a multi-part episode and Jessica will be back with guests in a couple weeks to follow up on this conversation. If you have thoughts or feedback that you want to share you can email the pod and send voice memos to [email protected].

The Conscious Lee's services

The Conscious Lee on Instagram

The Conscious Lee on YouTube

The Conscious Lee on Tiktok

Like this episode? You can rate, review, subscribe, follow, share and comment!

Questions about the show? Guest pitches? Email [email protected]

You can buy awkward merch!

You can become a Patreon member!

You can watch this episode at https://www.youtube.com/@MakingItAwkwardPod

Follow Jessica Wilson on Instagram @jessicawilson.msrd

Jessica Wilson's book: It's Always Been Ours; Rewriting the Story of Black Women's Bodies

Blake Flaugher, MPH and Caleb Haven Draper return to the show to review the horror film Leviticus from first time writer and director Adrian Chiarella. The film follows two queer teenage boys who live in an Australian town and are part of a small conservative church. In this review the three discuss the role that both fear and shame play in our lives and in society.

The three of them break down the plot of the movie in detail so there are spoilers. There isn't a big reveal at the end of the film, though, so they won't give away a plot twist.

During this episode we learn that Caleb's family is a founding family of a Christian mega church and more about Blake's Christian Evangelical fundamentalist upbringing. The two discuss the impacts of religion on their identity development.

Caleb and Blake's episode on queer men, body image, peptides and peacocking

Like this episode? You can rate, review, subscribe, follow, share and comment!

Questions about the show? Guest pitches? Email [email protected]

You can buy awkward merch!

You can become a Patreon member!

You can watch this episode at https://www.youtube.com/@MakingItAwkwardPod

Follow Jessica Wilson on Instagram @jessicawilson.msrd

Jessica Wilson's book: It's Always Been Ours; Rewriting the Story of Black Women's Bodies

Calvin Gilbert returns to the show to talk about self-medicating ADHD with exercise and the intersections with gender and disordered eating. Calvin talks about their all-or-nothing thinking, their history with alcohol abuse, and their experiences competing in two Iron Man races. We get into the multiple times they've come out to friends and family over the last 20+ years and their path to knowing they are non-binary.

The two start with new reflections of Jessica's recent trip to the ADA conference and how it brought Jessica to tears. Calvin reminds Jessica that her concerns about not being recorded were incredibly valid and offers support as the two recall their conference presentation that was disrupted by an unhinged attendee.

At the end of this episode Calvin pledges to work on a couple of adulting tasks and will follow up with this audience!

Like this episode? You can rate, review, subscribe, follow, share and comment!

Questions about the show? Guest pitches? Email [email protected]

You can buy awkward merch!

You can become a Patreon member!

You can watch this episode at https://www.youtube.com/@MakingItAwkwardPod

Follow Jessica Wilson on Instagram @jessicawilson.msrd

Jessica Wilson's book: It's Always Been Ours; Rewriting the Story of Black Women's Bodies

Dietitian Sherene Chou and Jessica had a drastically different experience at the ADA Scientific Sessions than the researchers who were removed! Sherene may have been the first person to include a Subway Take at a medical conference. Today's episode continues the conversation about the ADA conference, one that started a few weeks back with journalist Lindsay Lee Wallace.

Just last week, the medical journal Lancet published a recap of what happened to the researchers.

Jessica got to sit down with a representative at ADA and record her experiences as a clinician. You can catch her answers over on the Patreon!

This episode mentions the work of children's educator Ms. Rachel, who also came up in the first ADA conference recap with Lindsay.

Ms. Rachel on Dilley Detention Center

Ms. Rachel on Instagram

Like this episode? You can rate, review, subscribe, follow, share and comment!

Questions about the show? Guest pitches? Email [email protected]

You can buy awkward merch!

You can become a Patreon member!

You can watch this episode at https://www.youtube.com/@MakingItAwkwardPod

Follow Jessica Wilson on Instagram @jessicawilson.msrd

Jessica Wilson's book: It's Always Been Ours; Rewriting the Story of Black Women's Bodies

Have you wondered how 5G conspiracies developed or what makes some people more vulnerable to conspiracy theories?

Today Jessica talks with Dr. Eoin Flaherty, assistant professor at Maynooth University to find the answers to these questions and many others. The two talk about conspiracism and the post-truth era in which we're living.

Dr. Flaherty explains 5G and why some people believe it's dangerous. The two talk about Wi-Fi and 5G-free chicken, RFK Jr., how conspiracies generate and spread and Jessica asks him if she could be the next one to spread a theory of her own.

Jessica came to his work via the article "The conspiracy of Covid-19 and 5G: Spatial analysis fallacies in the age of data democratization", which he co-authored.

NBC: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. falsely claims measles vaccine protection 'wanes very quickly'

Like this episode? You can rate, review, subscribe, follow, share and comment!

Questions about the show? Guest pitches? Email [email protected]

You can buy awkward merch!

You can become a Patreon member!

You can watch this episode at https://www.youtube.com/@MakingItAwkwardPod

Follow Jessica Wilson on Instagram @jessicawilson.msrd and TikTok @byjessicawilson

How to support this podcast? Follow/subscribe, rate and review and share with a friend!

Jessica Wilson's book: It's Always Been Ours; Rewriting the Story of Black Women's Bodies

Closing out Pride Month with a conversation about body image in queer men. Blake Flaugher MPH returns to the show and joins Caleb Draper to talk about gym culture among queer men including a selfie-specific locker room mirror, peacocking among queer men, nudes, looksmaxxing, dating apps and body dysmorphia. The three of them got to be besties while playing kickball with Outloud Sports, stories about which you'll hear sprinkled in the episode. These two are a lot of fun and will be back next month with their reviews of the Australian horror film Leviticus.

Caleb tried Monch Monch!

Clavicular

Leviticus trailer

Like this episode? You can rate, review, subscribe, follow, share and comment!

Questions about the show? Guest pitches? Email [email protected]

You can buy awkward merch!

You can become a Patreon member!

You can watch this episode at https://www.youtube.com/@MakingItAwkwardPod

Follow Jessica Wilson on Instagram @jessicawilson.msrd

Jessica Wilson's book: It's Always Been Ours; Rewriting the Story of Black Women's Bodies

The American Diabetes Assoc. conference got spicy! But was that intentional? Did it have to? Lindsay Lee Wallace returns to the show to talk about her recent trip to the Health Journalism 2026 conference and the ADA conference where police escorted researchers out of the venue after they distributed paper copies of a published editorial. The researchers detained were not allowed back, including those who were scheduled to speak.

Health Journalism 2026 was in Minneapolis, and Lindsay shares how being there post Operation Metro Surge influenced some sessions at the conference. She also talks about what was missing from the presentations, and shares a unique and unhygienic experience while eating chicken tender sliders. Lindsay provides context for the no one is covering this effect that I am always asking her about and in a fun reveal she shares her story of getting kicked out of a Sundance event regarding AI, which may be featured in an upcoming documentary.

There's some great bonus content coming from this interview including my dad in all of his Pride merch over on the Patreon!

Like this episode? You can rate, review, subscribe, follow, share and comment!

Questions about the show? Guest pitches? Email [email protected]

You can buy awkward merch!

You can become a Patreon member!

You can watch this episode at https://www.youtube.com/@MakingItAwkwardPod

Follow Jessica Wilson on Instagram @jessicawilson.msrd

Jessica Wilson's book: It's Always Been Ours; Rewriting the Story of Black Women's Bodies

Happy Pride month! 🏳️‍🌈 50% off Ozempic for Pride!!! Jessica traveled to NYC in 2024 and got to investigate an ad for Ozempic. Kent Thosmas, MSW joined Jessica to talk about this ad and her visit to the clinic offering the deal, and what this means for gay men. Kent shared how his Christianity played into his eating disorder and the two talk about queer men, and how religion, queerness, and health are connected. They also talk about the normate body and hardness for gay men.

Kent's original reel

Dr. Jeff Iovanonne

Additional ad

And salmon injections…

Email the show: [email protected]

Follow Jessica on Instagram @jessicawilson.msrd and TikTok @byjessicawilson

You can watch this episode on Spotify and at ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@MakingItAwkwardPod⁠

How to support this podcast? Follow, rate and review and subscribe to ⁠Patreon⁠ membership with access to bonus content and announcements!

Jessica's book: ⁠It's Always Been Ours; Rewriting the Story of Black Women's Bodies⁠

Spoilers! Meghan Cichy, trad wife Leslie Voorhees Means, Selena Salfen and Alison Pill are back on the show for Part 2 of a conversation about Yesteryear, a novel about a tradwife, Natalie, and her curated yet frightening life. Yesteryear offers the reader two lived experiences for Natalie. One in contemporary times, the other in the 1850s. The novel switches back and forth between these two lives without context or explanation. In this second episode the group discuss their thoughts about the twist in the book. They also share their thoughts on the book ending, including predictions they'd had.

This conversation gets into the complexities of motherhood and the different places in which the novel struck a chord for the five of them.

Like this episode? You can rate, review, subscribe, follow, share and comment!

Questions about the show? Guest pitches? Email [email protected]

You can buy awkward merch!

You can become a Patreon member!

You can watch this episode at https://www.youtube.com/@MakingItAwkwardPod

Follow Jessica Wilson on Instagram @jessicawilson.msrd and TikTok @byjessicawilsonJessica Wilson's book: It's Always Been Ours; Rewriting the Story of Black Women's Bodies

No spoilers! Meghan Cichy, trad wife Leslie Voorhees Means, Selena Salfen and Alison Pill are back on the show for Part 1 of a conversation about Yesteryear, a novel about a tradwife and her curated yet frightening life. Each of them shares who, if any, of the characters they connect with. They also discuss trad wives and whether we can define them, the idea of family values and the valuing of what is typically thought of as women's work. They spend a lot of time discussing motherhood. They get into what a possible difference in Progressive and Conservative values may be, though that topic isn't fully resolved today!

Part 2 will come next week with the spoilers of the book and our analysis of the protagonist.

Like this episode? You can rate, review, subscribe, follow, share and comment!

Questions about the show? Guest pitches? Email [email protected]

You can buy awkward merch!

You can become a Patreon member!

You can watch this episode at https://www.youtube.com/@MakingItAwkwardPod

Follow Jessica Wilson on Instagram @jessicawilson.msrd and TikTok @byjessicawilson

Jessica Wilson's book: It's Always Been Ours; Rewriting the Story of Black Women's Bodies