In the early 90’s, at the height of the infomercial craze, Susan Powter’s “Stop the Insanity” program of weight loss and nutrition was worth $276 million, equal to over half a billion dollars today. A new documentary from filmmaker Zeberiah Newman entitled “Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter” (available Dec. 9 on Apple TV, Prime Video, and other platforms) examines what happened to the motivational icon after walking away from fame. Susan joins me to talk about the origins of “Stop the Insanity”; falling into poverty and struggling to make ends meet; making a horrible deal with producers, which left her fighting for control of her own name; and how much of her identity was wrapped up into that spiky blond buzzcut.

This is another Hurrdat Media Production. Hurrdat Media is a podcast network and digital media production company based in Omaha, NE. Find more podcasts on the Hurrdat Media Network by going to HurrdatMedia.com or the Hurrdat Media YouTube channel!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices