Writer and beauty-industry critic Jessica Defino joins us to discuss the intersections of wellness/diet culture and beauty culture, how she went from child beauty-pageant participant to working at the Kardashian-Jenner apps to eventually becoming an outspoken critic of the beauty industry, how social media is spreading harmful beauty ideals, the ageism of “anti-aging,” how to change your relationship with beauty standards, and more.  Jessica DeFino is an award-winning beauty reporter and critic (The New York Times, Vice, Vogue) and author of the newsletter The Unpublishable. She writes the Guardian's beauty advice column, Ask Ugly, and has been called “the woman the beauty industry fears the most” by the Sunday Herald. Find her at jessicadefino.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 bonus episodes with our guests, 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. 

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The Intersection of Beauty Culture and Wellness/Diet Culture with Jessica DeFino

Rethinking Wellness offers critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, and reflections on how to find true well-being. We explore the science (or lack thereof) behind popular wellness diets, the role of influencers and social-media algorithms in spreading wellness misinformation, problematic practices in the alternative- and integrative-medicine space, how wellness culture often drives disordered eating, the truth about trending topics like gut health, how to avoid getting taken advantage of when you’re desperate for help and healing, and how to care for yourself in a deeply flawed healthcare system without falling into wellness traps.

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Nutrition

Health & Fitness

Mental Health

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In this bonus episode, Christy discusses Netflix’s new gut-health documentary—and why the film’s claims that gut microbes directly influence weight and disease are more hype than science.  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.

What Netflix's New Doc Gets Wrong About Gut Health

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New York Times bestselling author and former CNN political analyst Kirsten Powers joins us to discuss her history of chronic fatigue and illness, her experience with dubious diagnoses and wild wellness treatments, what she discovered about the true causes of her issues, how disordered eating helped mask and exacerbate her symptoms, how she’s rethought her relationship with work in general and her own past work in particular, her viral post “The way we live in the United States is not normal” and her decision to move to Italy, 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. Kirsten Powers is a New York Times bestselling author and writes the bestselling Substack newsletter Changing the Channel. Kirsten served as a CNN senior political analyst for seven years, providing on-air analysis for major political and cultural events. The Columbia Journalism Review called her "an outspoken liberal journalist" in a sea of opposition at Fox News, where she previously served as a political analyst. She was a columnist for USA Today for more than a decade and, before that, for the Daily Beast and the New York Post. 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.

Healing from Dubious Diagnoses, Disordered Eating, and Overwork with Kirsten Powers

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Writer, speaker, and weight-inclusive health/fitness professional Ragen Chastain joins us to discuss the potential side effects and other downsides of using GLP-1 drugs (like Ozempic and its ilk) for weight loss, the massive influence the manufacturers of these drugs are having on the public discourse about them, why the media don’t often report on these conflicts of interest, how drugmakers have co-opted talking points about weight stigma and weight cycling, how opposition to these drugs in some integrative- and functional-medicine spaces still perpetuates stigmatizing ideas about body size, 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.  Ragen Chastain is a speaker, writer, researcher, Board Certified Patient Advocate, multi-certified health and fitness professional, and thought leader in weight science, weight stigma, health, and healthcare. Utilizing her background in research methods and statistics, Ragen has brought her signature mix of humor and hard facts to healthcare, corporate, conference, and college audiences from Kaiser Permanente and the Diabetes Education Specialists National Conference, to Amazon and Google, to Dartmouth, Cal Tech and canfitpro. Author of the Weight and Healthcare newsletter, the book Fat: The Owner's Manual, co-author of HAES Health Sheets, and editor of the anthology The Politics of Size, Ragen is frequently featured as an expert in print, radio, television, and documentary film. In her free time, Ragen is a national dance champion, triathlete, and marathoner who holds the Guinness World Record for Heaviest Woman to Complete a Marathon. Ragen lives in Oregon with her fiancée Julianne and a rotating cast of foster dogs. 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.

The Dangers of Diet Drugs: Behind the GLP-1 Weight-Loss Hype with Ragen Chastain

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In this bonus episode, Christy discusses the science (or lack thereof) behind the wellness-culture slogan “sunlight before screen light.”  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.

"Sunlight Before Screen Light" and Why You Don't Need to Worry

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Employee well-being consultant and health coach Heather Sayers Lehman joins us to discuss how workplace wellness programs often make people LESS well by promoting disordered eating, body shame, and even some woo-woo wellness trends. She also shares her history with diet and wellness culture, how having thyroid issues made her vulnerable to wellness 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.  Heather Sayers Lehman, MS, NBC-HWC, CSCS, NASM-CPT, CIEC, CWP, is a behavior change expert and certified health and wellness coach. She has enjoyed a passionate career in health and well-being for over 30 years. Heather is a TEDx speaker who loves speaking engagements for employee well-being and conferences. She founded and operates Overcoming U - Cultivating Employee Well-Being. Overcoming U provides in-depth health and well-being courses, webinars, and health coaching for employee wellness programs. The focus is building skillsets and changing mindsets to create and maintain healthy habits.  Heather hosts the podcast The Air We Breathe: Finding Well-Being That Works. She enjoys candid conversations with experts, doctors, creatives, and activists, debunking health myths, navigating health enhancement without diet culture, and learning to seek peace over perfection.  She authored Don’t Eat It. DEAL With It! Second Edition: Your Guidebook on How to STOP Eating Your Emotions to help you create a healthier relationship with food. The guidebook enables you to improve self-talk, expand emotional coping skills, create mindful eating practices, and foster self-compassion. You can find Heather at HeatherSayersLehman.com and OvercomingU.com. She is available for one-on-one health coaching, employee wellness program consulting, and weight-inclusive, anti-diet health education for employees. 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.

The Intersection of Beauty Culture and Wellness/Diet Culture with Jessica DeFino

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