Making It Awkward

How much should we fear glyphosate? We get drastically different answers depending on who you ask. Trampus Harmon, Making it Awkward's farmer in residence, returns to the show to provide us the facts, context and nuance that was missing from podcaster and Wellfluencer Courtney Swan's Realfoodology podcast episode about glyphosate. Trampus loves facts over fearmongering, and prefers nuance and complexity with statements about the state of farming. Trampus points out the dichotomies of Swan discussing the distrust in corporations while doing ads for them throughout the podcast and on social media.

The two discuss the claim from the MAHA Moms "this is not what we voted for" and Swan's false assertion that "the dose makes the poison" no longer applies. Trampus gives Jessica some things to listen for when she attends the People vs Poison rally on April 27th at the Supreme Court.

Additionally Trampus shares a bit about the grant proposal he wrote in college titled "A study of long-term effects of herbicides on the American Farm Family" and he couldn't leave without Jessica asking him about potential cuts to SNAP.

Supposedly glyphosate free foods

RFK's glyphosate statements

Executive order on pesticides

Glyphosate article retraction

Glyphosate in kids

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

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is the original nutrition influencer. It has used the same alarmist language that gets traction currently used on social media for over 50 years. Sherene Chou returns to the show to talk about our shared experiences reading CSPI's Nutrition Action Healthletter, and how calories are the things that the org cares about. The two of them find multiple examples of CSPI's racism and sh*ting on cultural foods.

CSPI is a lobbying organization, and if they're setting the priorities what does that mean?

"1993: CSPI publishes the first in a series of landmark investigative reports (beginning with Chinese-restaurant food)."

DON'T EAT SALT

DON'T EAT BACON

Counting calories in Thai, Chinese, Mexican, Italian, and other cuisines

CSPI's list of food additives

CSPI's vegan burgers and their list

CSPI's MLK Day post.

CSPI's dietary guidelines

Archived timeline of CSPI wins

CSPI x Dr. Jessica Knurick

Zane and his weight release

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

Today's ep is to wrap up the conversation about Jillian Michaels, phew! And will provide some brief initial feedback received on last week's episode with MAHA Mom Leslie Voorhees Means. Today you'll hear from two college students whose moms were influenced by Jillian Michaels and the continued impacts on their physical and mental health. You'll also hear a dietitian's path to her career via an almond mom and doing a workplace weight loss challenge before recognizing the harm of anti-fatness in our culture and our field.

Jessica shares an anonymous voicemail she received from a Jillian Michaels devotee and it's...a lot.

Jillian Michaels on Surrounded

Jillian part 1 episode

Marcy x Jillian follow up episode

Zane and his weight release

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

MAHA Mom Leslie Voorhees Means joins the show to talk about people, politics and making the effort to be curious and find humanity. Leslie is the wife of Calley Means, a senior adviser for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Their conversation covers a lot of ground! The two chat about how they got connected, healthcare as a human right, food access, universal healthcare, MAHA wins and goals, moms and ICE.

Jessica and Leslie may not agree on everything, but they found an opportunity to build a relationship that will continue their education and understanding. This is a conversation that invites curiosity and also knowing that one hour isn't the end!

Regular listeners of the podcast will know that for thought provoking episodes Jessica does a follow up episode. And the follow-up episode about MAHA moms will come in May, after she attends the People vs. Poison Rally at Supreme Court on April 27th.

Leslie Voorhees Means video about her confinement nanny

Episode on confinement nannies

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Tigress Osborn debated Jillian Michaels about the health and wellness field on Jubilee Media's Surrounded–and won! Tigress, the Executive Director of NAAFA, comes back to the show to talk about her experience being one of (supposedly) 20 body positivity activists to debate Jillian. The two talk about her experiences including the production and editing of the show, how she ended up in one of the 20 seats, what it's like to sit across from Jillian, how Jillian likely knew who Tigress was before she sat down, and what she would have liked to have discussed with Jillian if given the chance. Tigress also shares critiques she may get for being on the show, and the two discuss whether or not to fact check Jillian on social media.

Events at NAAFA

NAAFA's campaign for size freedom

NAAFA blog

Fat bias in news media

Jillian part 1 episode

Marcy x Jillian follow up episode

Zane and his weight release

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

Jillian Michaels is a one hit wonder who keeps trying to make a comeback. She also is also loud about her changing politics. About her becoming a Conservative in 2020, "I was forever gone. Took the red pill."

Today is a prequel to next week's episode with NAAFA Executive Director Tigress Osborne who got to debate Jillian for the newest episode of Jubilee Media's Surrounded.

In today's episode editor Jen Jacobs joins Jessica to explain how the show works and take a brief look at what Jillian has been up to lately. The two have concerns. And, also, Jillian stays basic and boring.

Content note: no clips of Jillian yelling at people!

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

Welcome back to MIA, Jessica Wilson, dietitian and author of IABO.

Would you ever add chia seeds to your latte? Levels Health, a health-tech startup co-founded by presumptive Surgeon General Casey Means, is a deeply unserious company and provides both hilarious and irresponsible guidance on its app.

Public health dietitians Selena Salfen and Meghan Cichy return to the show to discuss our 30 days of using a CGM paired with the Levels app.

Jessica didn't find what she was looking for in her CGM data and laughed at the app's inaccuracies.

Meghan thought she was working harder than Levels, and found both more helpful and nicer CGM feedback with ChatGPT.

Selena shared her history with health anxiety and her longer term use of a Stelo CGM. She shares how her experience was impacted when Levels provided her with incorrect data and biometric analyses.

The three get into whether we should be using CGMs and if so, under what conditions.

The three also discuss the most recent Levels podcast #280 and how it seems to answer a lot of concerns Selena and Jessica had in the CGM intro episode. The episode also discussed a lack of research to back up claims made by Levels and Casey Means herself. Host Ben Grynol and guest Dom D'Agostino, PhD took an unexpected turn and veered into the closed off "adult" section of Blockbuster; could there be a tie to food choices and curiosity?

Imprecision Nutrition? Intraindividual Variability of Glucose Responses to Duplicate Presented Meals in Adults Without Diabetes

Casey's Instagram post with her food scores

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

Dr. Casey Means went to Congress last week. On February 28 2026 she went before the Senate's committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions to make her case to be the next Surgeon General.

During the hearing Casey was asked about her statements on vaccines, her medical license, birth control, and her social media sponsors, but were those the questions that needed to be asked? Today public health dietitians Meghan Cichy and Selena Salfen return to the show to share their thoughts on the hearing, what Senators could have asked Casey, and a potentially controversial chat about whether she should be confirmed. They discuss Mean's media training and her focus on "shared clinical decision making."

Casey Means has been featured on her podcast in the past. We had one episode about her upbringing with brother Calley Means, and two on her health tech start up, Levels which provides constant glucose monitoring, a tracking app and lab tests for hundreds of dollars.

Filing FTC complaint

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

Welcome back to MIA, Jessica Wilson, dietitian and author of IABO. you can find me on IG at.

RFK told us that "We are ending the war on saturated fats" with the release of his food triangle and accompanying Dietary Guidelines. Dr. Selina Wang, Faculty Director at the UC Davis Olive Center, returns to the show to talk about the triangle which emphasizes "healthy fats" like olive oil, butter and tallow. RFK has told us over and over that saturated fats are actually healthy for us, but is that true? Consumers are confused.

Selina also shares how olive oil is made, the difference between virgin olive oil, extra virgin olive oils and what goes into refining oils. She also has helpful advice for us when choosing oils to cook with.

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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

Tigress Osborn, Executive Director of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance returns to the show to discuss Mike Tyson's Super Bowl ad for MAHA and the inverted food triangle. The fat shaming ad is part of an ongoing appeal to the manly man, providing us with boxer Mike Tyson telling us about how he wanted to kill himself when he was fat, and telling us all that "something needs to be done about processed food in this country." It's an ad for realfood.gov and was directed by Brett Ratner who directed the Amazon financed film Melania. Tony Lyons created the ad and financed it through the nonprofit MAHA Center.

Tyson has since been at press conferences with RFK Jr and Brook Rollins, the head of the USDA.

There are official government AI generated images of MAHA leaders with Tyson's face tattoo.

Tyson joined Calley Means and RFK Jr for a Fox News interview.

Donut violence video

Mashable article: We need to talk about that Mike Tyson Super Bowl ad

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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