Rethinking Wellness

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Christy discusses what the science says about “hydration multipliers,” sports drinks, and other electrolyte beverages—and whether you’re really as dehydrated as you think.

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Get full show notes and references here.

Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold! Order it online or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore.

If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com

Christy answers an audience question about whether light drinking is really as risky as some wellness influencers make it out to be, and shares some ways to explore your relationship with alcohol.

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!

Get full show notes and references here.

Ask a question of your own for a chance to have it answered in a future episode!

Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold. Order it here, or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore. 

If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.

Q&A: A critical look at diet advice for period pain and endometriosis. This episode was originally published in 2023.

Check out the transcript for links to all referenced studies. 

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!

Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold. Order it online or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore. 

If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.  

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com

Christy answers an audience question about how much protein you really need—and explores why a certain piece of incorrect advice is so popular among influencers and “protein girlies.”

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!

Get full show notes and references here.

Ask a question of your own for a chance to have it answered in a future episode!

Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold. Order it here, or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore.

If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com

Christy discusses the carnivore diet, why it’s concerning from a disordered-eating perspective, and what the science really says about this fad diet that doesn’t want to die. 

This episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to a free preview here, and sign up for a paid subscription to hear the full episode!

Get full show notes and references here.

Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold! Order it online or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore. 

If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. 

Misinformation and media-literacy researcher Matthew Facciani joins us to discuss how he defines misinformation at a time when even the term itself is polarizing, why there’s so much misinformation about health and wellness in particular, how to navigate the current information landscape given the continued erosion of trust in institutions, and why people with certain ideologies are more likely to believe claims about “forbidden knowledge.” Behind the paywall, we get into how to avoid falling for misinformation (especially in an information environment that rewards outrage and extremism), how people’s social networks and identities affect their susceptibility to misinformation, why even very smart people fall for misinformation, and more.

Paid subscribers can hear the full interview, and the first half is available to all listeners. To upgrade to paid, go to rethinkingwellness.substack.com. 

Matthew Facciani is a postdoctoral researcher at The University of Notre Dame in the Computer Science and Engineering Department and has a PhD in Sociology from The University of South Carolina. His research interests include media literacy, identities, social networks, political polarization, misinformation, and artificial intelligence. His forthcoming book, Misguided: Where Misinformation Starts, how it spreads, and What to Do About It, will be published by Columbia University Press. Find him on Substack at Misguided: The Newsletter. 

If you like this conversation, subscribe to hear lots more like it! 

Support the podcast by becoming a paid subscriber, and unlock great perks like extended interviews, subscriber-only Q&As, full access to our archives, commenting privileges and subscriber threads where you can connect with other listeners, and more. Learn more and sign up at rethinkingwellness.substack.com.

Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold! Order it here, or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore. 

If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com

Christy answers an audience question about the diets you don’t need to try in (peri)menopause—and ways to get your loved ones to stop talking about them.

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!

Get full show notes and references here.

Ask a question of your own for a chance to have it answered in a future episode!

Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold. Order it here, or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore. 

If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.

Science and parenting journalist Melinda Wenner Moyer returns to discuss the importance of self-compassion and how to practice it, why conveying a growth mindset is much more helpful to kids than giving compliments about fixed qualities, misconceptions about resilience (and what the science really says), the difference between trauma and healthy distress, and her new book, HELLO, CRUEL WORLD: Science-Based Strategies for Raising Terrific Kids in Terrifying Times. Behind the paywall, we get into the evidence on how detrimental academic pressure is to kids, how to support and challenge children who are insatiably curious without making them feel pressured, how to teach kids media literacy and critical thinking skills, how to navigate screen time and social media with kids, and more.

Paid subscribers can hear the full interview, and the first half is available to all listeners. To upgrade to paid, go to rethinkingwellness.substack.com.

Melinda Wenner Moyer is an award-winning science journalist whose work explores the intersection of science and everyday life. She’s known for her deep dives into subjects that have both scientific and societal implications, often addressing issues that are relevant to parents and families. Her writing often challenges popular beliefs and provides readers with a clearer, more informed understanding of issues in child development, parenting, and the social sciences.

Moyer is a contributing editor at Scientific American magazine and a regular contributor — and former columnist — at The New York Times. Her first book, How To Raise Kids Who Aren’t Assholes, was published in July 2021 and won a gold medal in the 2022 Living Now Book Awards. Her second book, Hello Cruel World!: Science-Based Strategies for Raising Terrific Kids in Terrifying Times, was published on May 27, 2025.

Moyer was the recipient of the 2022 Excellence in Science Journalism award from The Society for Personality and Social Psychology and the 2019 Bricker Award for Science Writing in Medicine. She has a master’s in Science, Health & Environmental Reporting from NYU and a background in cell and molecular biology. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. Learn more and subscribe to her Substack at melindawmoyer.substack.com.

If you like this conversation, subscribe to hear lots more like it!

Support the podcast by becoming a paid subscriber, and unlock great perks like extended interviews, subscriber-only Q&As, full access to our archives, commenting privileges and subscriber threads where you can connect with other listeners, and more. Learn more and sign up at rethinkingwellness.substack.com.

Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold! Order it here, or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore.

If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.

Contains affiliate links to Bookshop.org, where I earn a small commission for any purchases made.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com

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—especially as we enter the summer season, with all the diet- and wellness-culture pressures that go along with it.

This episode is for paid subscribers. Listen to a free preview here, and sign up for a paid subscription to hear the full episode!

Get full show notes and references here.

Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold! Order it online or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore. 

If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. 

Journalist Virginia Sole-Smith joins us to discuss how GLP-1 hype has changed the conversation about diet culture, the importance of body autonomy, how “bro” diet culture became public policy, how she handles haters, the “fed is best” approach to parenting, and lots more. Behind the paywall, she shares her experience of weighing herself for the first time in years, what it’s been like to date for the first time in a larger body, how she’s changed her relationship to cardio, and more. 

Paid subscribers can hear the full interview, and the first half is available to all listeners. To upgrade to paid, go to rethinkingwellness.substack.com. 

As a journalist, Virginia Sole-Smith has reported from kitchen tables, graduated from beauty school, and gone swimming in a mermaid’s tail. Virginia's latest book, Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture, is a New York Times bestseller that investigates how the "war on childhood obesity" has caused kids to absorb a daily onslaught of body shame from peers, school, diet culture, and families—and offers research-based strategies to help parents name and navigate the anti-fat bias that infiltrates our schools, doctor’s offices and dinner tables. 

Virginia began her career in women’s magazines, alternatively challenging beauty standards and gender norms, and upholding diet culture through her health, nutrition and fitness reporting. This work led to her first book, The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image and Guilt in America, in which Virginia explored how we can reconnect to our bodies in a culture that’s constantly giving us so many mixed messages about both those things. 

Virginia’s work appears in the New York Times Magazine, Scientific American, and many other publications. She writes the newsletter Burnt Toast, where she explores anti-fat bias, diet culture, parenting and health, and also hosts the Burnt Toast Podcast. Virginia lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her two kids, two cats, a dog, and way too many houseplants. 

If you like this conversation, subscribe to hear lots more like it! 

Support the podcast by becoming a paid subscriber, and unlock great perks like extended interviews, subscriber-only Q&As, full access to our archives, commenting privileges and subscriber threads where you can connect with other listeners, and more. Learn more and sign up at rethinkingwellness.substack.com.

Christy's second book, The Wellness Trap, is available wherever books are sold! Order it here, or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore. 

If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.