Making It Awkward

RFK Jr could be in charge of this country’s health and it will be…wild. Jessica and Alison Pill sat down to talk about it and who might lead the FDA under a Make America Healthy Again regime. 

The two get into the concern about fertility among MAHA supporters and what this really means: more babies on the pale end of the spectrum please!

Jessica recently consulted her own book for answers about how all of this happened. She realized that the answer is simple, she just forgot. The two discuss the man-of-it-all today.

Alison’s upcoming romcom, Young Werther!

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

The popular vote got us. Jessica and her dad reflect on the election and share a few things that may have contributed. Wilson takes issue with many things including non-white people voting for Trump, and what he thinks would happen if he went to a Klan meeting. He also shares why he’s not concerned with RFK Jr and what he thinks this podcast will be talking about in years to come. 

Jessica missed the memo on folks of color voting for Trump and how they must have been promised whiteness. She shares what she will be listening for in the future and how this could relate to the podcast.

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Dietitian Jessica Wilson is joined by Elizabeth Ayiku to talk about the award winning film Me Little Me, which Elizabeth wrote and directed. The film is based on her experience with disordered eating and the barriers she faced while seeking treatment. The pair get into the mechanics of indie film production including what it’s like to write, direct, cast, and financing a film when the rent is past due. They chat about the realities of many people who need mental health treatment but who aren’t able to press pause on their lives and access the time and funding to make it happen, and the different ways to find support in community. 

Check out Me Little Me beginning 11/8!

Me Little Me trailer

Where to watch

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

Making America Healthy Again Part 2! Jessica talks with 3 guests for their reflections and shares email feedback from a listener and her 18 year old daughter. Medical sociologist Dr. Natalie Ingraham joins the show to talk about the people part of all of this and the concept of “again.” She talks about the regulations of the 80s v 90s and has some solutions we could try on if we’re interested in future changes. Jessica talks to Kent Thomas about the men of it all in the MAHA conversation, and he asks Jessica why she’s looking into MAHA in the first place. Lastly Jessica brings you a conversation with her dad about his reflections of the episode. That chat was wide ranging and opened up many future podcast episodes. 

Video of Charlie Kirk

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

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

Jessica’s Curlfriends, Whitney Totter and Tigress Osborn, return to the show to talk about their hair. They share their hair journeys and chat about how hair continues to inform their identities. Hair intersections with eating disorders, mixed-race identity, health and fat liberation are spiritedly discussed! 

Steven on Love is Blind

Hannah Frankson’s hair routine 

Wonderful videos of women’s big chops 🥹

Jessica’s hairstylist Maya

Past Making it Awkward episodes with Tigress and Whitney

Whitney’s Patreon

naafa 

BIPOC Eating Disorder Conference 

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

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For the first episode about Make America Healthy Again, Jessica is joined by Mr Jeff Hutt, the spokesperson for the Super PAC. MAHA is “a powerful new political action committee dedicated to advancing the health-focused policies championed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. through the re-election of President Donald Trump.” Mr. Hutt provides an overview of the PAC and its principles, and the two have a wide ranging conversation about food, sustainable farming, corporate capture, mama bears, medical freedom and the concept of “again.”

Jessica is curious about the connections between MAHA, Wellness culture, and her own work; something that will be further explored in part 2. 

Mr. Kennedy’s campaign suspension speech.

Podcast with RFK Jr and Calley Means

Lyn Redwood

Texans for Medical Freedom

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

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

Jessica is back with fellow dietitian Sherene Chou for an episode about food conglomerates and their connection to the primary dietitian interest organization, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Jessica starts by recapping the past week's hysteria about the Siete food brand selling to Pepsico for $1.2B, and asks what that means.

Jessica then discusses the investments that food conglomerates and interest groups make in Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She talks to Sherene about her experiences in the Academy, from policy to bullying and burnout, and the influence of food and agriculture conglomerates on her work there. Sherene leaves listeners with insight into how the Dietary Guidelines are created. 

Stay tuned for a bonus episode about FNCE from Danielle Smiley, the Plastic Surgery Dietitian.

2022 article about corporate capture of the dietetics field

Academy response to the article

FNCE

2013 article about corporate sponsorship

Dave and Carol Stelts' 2,000lbs pumpkin

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Follow Jessica Wilson, MS RDon Instagram @jessicawilson.msrd and TikTok @byjessicawilson

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

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

Jessica talks with journalist Vicki Gonzalez, who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer after turning 40. Vicki didn’t have a family history of breast cancer or genetic predisposition which made her diagnosis even more surprising. The two talk about mammograms, ultrasounds, genetics, biopsies, lumpectomies, radiation, and Vicki’s decision to get a bilateral mastectomy in this interview. 

Vicki also shared her experiences of losing two pregnancies leading up to her diagnosis and how she decided to be open about her journeys.

Vicki also shares how people can be supportive of someone going through cancer treatment. 

Vicki’s Instagram

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

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

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

Jessica is back with her thoughts on the TIME Magazine article about her ultra-processed food experiment. She shares her takeaways, her favorite feedback and has some BIG FOOD fun! Patrilie Hernandez then joins Jessica to talk about Dr. Kevin Hall’s research on UPFs and the intersections of race and class with food. They then dive into Lunchables-gate, and food hysteria overall. 

You can become a podcast patron!

You can leave an awkward rating and review of this show!

You can email the show at [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

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

This week is a primer for next week’s discussion of the TIME mag article. Jessica revisits a few previous guests and a new critic to have a conversation about the discourse about ultraprocessed foods. Do we know how to define which foods are ultraprocessed? What does it mean if we don’t actually know what we’re talking about? Who benefits from that confusion? 

TIME article 

NOVA food classification

Dr. Robert Lustig episode

Dr. David Wiss episode

Amy Fletcher episode

You can join the podcast Patreon!

You can rate and review this show!

You can email the show at [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

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