Debug Information

Processing Details

• VTT File: GLSS4378818188.vtt
• Processing Time: September 11, 2025 at 02:13 PM
• Total Chunks: 1
• Transcript Length: 75,214 characters
• Caption Count: 639 captions

Prompts Used

Prompt 1: Context Setup

You are an expert data extractor tasked with analyzing a podcast transcript. 
I will provide you with part 1 of 1 from a podcast transcript. 
I will then ask you to extract different types of information from this content in subsequent messages. Please confirm you have received and understood the transcript content.

Transcript section:
[00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:06.560] Teams need professional quality content fast, but most don't have the time or creative support to get what they need.
[00:00:06.560 --> 00:00:11.040] Need Adobe Express, the quick and easy app to create on-brand content.
[00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:25.280] Whether you're launching a social campaign by end of day, building a client pitch deck, or creating an employee onboarding video, Adobe Express gives you the tools to create with confidence so you can make standout content that's always on brand and on time.
[00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:29.840] To learn more, head to adobe.com/slash go/slash express.
[00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:50.320] If you're a lineman in charge of keeping the lights on, Granger understands that you go to great lengths and sometimes heights to ensure the power is always flowing, which is why you can count on Granger for professional-grade products and next-day delivery so you have everything you need to get the job done.
[00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:54.800] Call 1-800-GRANGER, clickgranger.com, or just stop by.
[00:00:54.800 --> 00:00:58.560] Granger for the ones who get it done.
[00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:22.080] Hey, everyone, welcome to Conspirituality, where we investigate the intersections of conspiracy theories and spiritual influence to uncover cults, pseudoscience, and authoritarian extremism.
[00:01:22.080 --> 00:01:23.280] I'm Derek Barris.
[00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:24.400] I'm Julian Walker.
[00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:37.200] Matthew is away this week on a family vacation, but he has pre-recorded the brief and bonus for this weekend, so you can hear him then and we'll all be together next week.
[00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:44.640] For now, we are all on Instagram and threads at ConspiritualityPod, as well as individually on Blue Sky.
[00:01:44.800 --> 00:01:54.560] You can access all of our episodes ad-free, plus our Monday bonus episodes on Patreon at patreon.com/slash conspirituality.
[00:01:54.880 --> 00:02:00.000] You can also access our Monday bonus episodes via Apple subscriptions.
[00:02:00.520 --> 00:02:07.880] As independent media creators, we really appreciate your support.
[00:02:07.880 --> 00:02:14.200] Conspirituality 272, Jillian Michaels is the biggest loser.
[00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:21.800] The unavoidable question of the week: why is Jillian Michaels on CNN commenting on slavery exactly?
[00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:24.200] As it turns out, Netflix provides the answer.
[00:02:24.200 --> 00:02:40.840] The three-part talki series, Fit for TV, the reality of the biggest loser, creeps behind the scenes of this uber popular and uber disturbing 18-season reality show that weirdly promoted fat shaming while simultaneously pretending to alleviate it.
[00:02:40.840 --> 00:02:49.640] It turns out that sort of jujitsu falls apart when hearing directly from the producers, contestants, and one of the two celebrity trainers, Bob Harper.
[00:02:49.640 --> 00:02:54.920] Jillian declined to participate, which has now resulted in threats of a lawsuit.
[00:02:54.920 --> 00:03:03.640] And as we'll discuss today, we can't shake the feeling that the biggest loser from this entire mess is all of us.
[00:03:09.400 --> 00:03:11.960] This week in Conspiratuality.
[00:03:11.960 --> 00:03:19.560] Well, Jillian, another week has gone by, which means another year's worth of destruction over in Maha Land.
[00:03:19.960 --> 00:03:21.000] RFK Jr.
[00:03:21.160 --> 00:03:33.000] now has near total personal authority in deciding who is considered medically frail and who has special medical needs, as Mother Jones reports.
[00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:34.520] Why does this matter?
[00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:37.960] Well, if you're on Medicaid, it matters a lot.
[00:03:37.960 --> 00:03:47.360] Kennedy, who, as a reminder, has no medical training whatsoever, is now being given the power to decide who gives him a medical med off of that program.
[00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:58.080] Here's how Mother Jones describes it: A person with debilitating chronic pain or a serious autoimmune illness may appear able-bodied by the standards RFK Jr.
[00:03:58.320 --> 00:04:08.160] peers poised to implement, even as they face hurdles in qualifying for social security disability due to not being considered disabled enough.
[00:04:08.160 --> 00:04:09.360] Yeah, fuck these guys.
[00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:10.640] First of all, able-bodied.
[00:04:10.640 --> 00:04:17.280] If you'd followed the Maha challenge, watching them try to do push-ups and pull-ups, they're not very able-bodied themselves.
[00:04:17.280 --> 00:04:18.560] And I'm not being facetious.
[00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:27.840] I mean, if you're going to go online to millions of people and be like, this is our fitness program, and then just fuck off with the actual program, I have no love for you.
[00:04:27.840 --> 00:04:49.040] So, besides that, in terms of this particular piece with Medicaid, one public health official speculates that this could play out just like Trump's move of sending National Guard troops to major cities, target vulnerable people in blue states while accepting the same conditions for those in need in red states.
[00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:56.400] Obviously, this is stupid for a number of reasons, including the fact that no state is either all blue or all red.
[00:04:56.400 --> 00:05:03.600] So, indiscriminately kicking people off Medicaid in blue states in no way guarantees that they're Democrats.
[00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:07.920] But cruelty does not discriminate in this sense.
[00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:15.360] Number two, meanwhile, the Deli Beast reports this week that COVID vaccines could be a thing of the past in America.
[00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:21.640] Super anti-vaxxer and COVID contrarian Asim Maholtra told the publication that.
[00:05:21.880 --> 00:05:24.240] Many of those closest to RFK Jr.
[00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:31.960] have told him they cannot understand why the vaccine continues to be prescribed and that a decision to remove the vaccine from the U.S.
[00:05:32.040 --> 00:05:42.440] market pending further research will come within months, even if it is likely to cause fear of chaos and bring with it major legal ramifications.
[00:05:42.440 --> 00:05:46.120] Maholtra, we've covered him a little bit, but never really focused on him.
[00:05:46.120 --> 00:05:48.200] He's kind of a proto-Kennedy.
[00:05:48.200 --> 00:05:56.680] He's been relating diet to chronic diseases since at least 2014, and I don't mean in the eat better for better health kind of way.
[00:05:56.680 --> 00:06:08.760] Early into the pandemic, he published a book called the 21-day Immunity Plan, in which he claimed that diet could help people reduce their risk of getting or dying from the virus.
[00:06:08.760 --> 00:06:16.040] He's basically rewritten diet books for years and adapted them to whatever cultural situation suited the moment.
[00:06:16.040 --> 00:06:24.040] For example, he published a 21-day low-carb diet book in 2017 as well, jumping on the keto trend.
[00:06:24.040 --> 00:06:24.440] Yeah.
[00:06:24.440 --> 00:06:32.840] Now, strangely, he initially campaigned for the COVID vaccine before coming out hard against mRNA vaccines broadly.
[00:06:32.840 --> 00:06:35.640] We've seen that actually a number of times.
[00:06:35.640 --> 00:06:41.560] Now he's a leading advisor to the lobbying group, Make America Healthy Again Action.
[00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:44.120] And he's also a close friend of Kennedy.
[00:06:44.120 --> 00:06:49.640] So I'm going to take him at his word that HHS will at least try to make this happen.
[00:06:49.960 --> 00:06:53.960] Number three, last one from me, and then I know you got one.
[00:06:53.960 --> 00:07:01.320] Wall Street Journal reports that scientists are removing words like diverse and disparities from their federal research grants.
[00:07:01.320 --> 00:07:02.200] Jesus Christ.
[00:07:02.200 --> 00:07:06.680] You know, I write this script and then even as I'm reading it, I'm like, I can't believe this is fucking real.
[00:07:06.680 --> 00:07:12.280] So they're removing these words from grants in order to keep the money that HHS has initially promised.
[00:07:12.280 --> 00:07:29.280] Wall Street Journal talked to Tim Nurkowitz, a physiology, pharmacology, and toxicology professor at West Virginia University, who told the paper that an NIH official told him to remove the word diverse from his grants.
[00:07:29.280 --> 00:07:30.320] Here's the context.
[00:07:30.320 --> 00:07:31.760] Nerkowitz was baffled.
[00:07:31.760 --> 00:07:39.440] His work in Appalachia, studying how particles get into the lungs and affect health, has nothing to do with DEI.
[00:07:39.440 --> 00:07:48.240] The first sentence of his grant summary included the word diverse, but that pertained to diverse airborne toxicants.
[00:07:48.880 --> 00:07:51.520] God, he said the bad word.
[00:07:51.520 --> 00:07:59.600] Nerkowitz finally got his renewed funding after he changed the phrase to a large variety of airborne toxicants.
[00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:00.960] I'm working on a new book.
[00:08:00.960 --> 00:08:02.960] I'm like 25,000 words in.
[00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:08.320] It's really flying, but I realized it's sort of half the work I do on the podcast, half memoir.
[00:08:08.320 --> 00:08:10.960] And I'm talking about this stretch in college.
[00:08:10.960 --> 00:08:14.880] And I'm writing about diversity and the importance of diversity.
[00:08:14.880 --> 00:08:33.680] And there's a moment where I have to stop and actually in the text say, I didn't think when I was going to college in the 90s, when we were talking about issues of diversity, that 30 years later, I would need to reiterate it because I thought the culture was just going to assume that by that point.
[00:08:33.680 --> 00:08:47.600] And the fact that we are actually further back than we were 30 years ago in this regard in our understanding of the importance of diversity just kind of baffles my mind and is giving a framework for that work right now.
[00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:49.840] It is super frustrating.
[00:08:49.840 --> 00:09:02.200] We are recording this on Wednesday, the day before this runs, but I even have a feeling, given that I track Kennedy every day on Twitter, that by the time you're listening to this, there's going to be another half dozen stories that could fit into this segment.
[00:09:02.200 --> 00:09:05.240] And I think, Julian, you have at least one more.
[00:09:05.240 --> 00:09:12.200] Yeah, so let's just stay on the Maha-related tip, given that there's a constant deluge of this shit.
[00:09:12.520 --> 00:09:22.040] With the decades-long project of overturning Roe versus Wade firmly in the rear view, the anti-abortion movement now has its sights set on IVF.
[00:09:22.040 --> 00:09:34.120] Because some embryos are inevitably discarded in the process of creating a viable pregnancy, activists see the medical science assisting conception as a form of abortion.
[00:09:34.440 --> 00:09:40.840] One problem for these activists, however, is that Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to protect IVF.
[00:09:40.840 --> 00:09:43.080] Wait, that's not really a problem at all.
[00:09:43.080 --> 00:09:45.800] He even said he'd make sure it was covered by health insurance.
[00:09:45.800 --> 00:09:56.520] And not only has he not followed through on that promise at all, this past April, his administration dissolved a CDC panel that tracked IVF outcomes around the country.
[00:09:56.520 --> 00:10:03.400] And this allowed potential patients in the past to evaluate the success rates of different fertility clinics.
[00:10:03.400 --> 00:10:16.680] Now, opinions within GOP-led legislatures are divided, and this is illustrated by some state houses passing protections for IVF, sort of as promised, even as anti-choice bills try to encroach upon it.
[00:10:16.680 --> 00:10:26.440] Last year, the Alabama Supreme Court led the latter charge, ruling that IVF embryos have the status and rights of being people.
[00:10:26.760 --> 00:10:44.760] And then representatives in the Arkansas House have also floated bills which would charge IVF clinics with homicide, as well as trying to create a special license for clinics that offer the service, and then requiring the number of fertilized embryos and their outcomes to be reported to their state's Department of Health.
[00:10:45.040 --> 00:10:49.600] But the thing is, they're already doing that kind of reporting to the CDC.
[00:10:49.920 --> 00:10:55.440] Here's where the story starts to have recognizable conspiracuality contours.
[00:10:55.760 --> 00:11:11.920] Some anti-abortion conservatives, along with the Heritage Foundation, who would have thought, are using Maha-type language to promote a natural and holistic fertility treatment method, referred to as restorative reproductive medicine.
[00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:29.360] As listeners might guess, the website for the International Institute of Restorative Reproductive Medicine tells us that this approach seeks to identify the underlying health conditions that contribute to reproductive dysfunction and suboptimal reproductive health.
[00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:30.720] Close quotes.
[00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:42.560] They provide personalized treatment plans with methods that include what seems like a lot of tests, medications, supplements, surgeries, and lifestyle adjustments.
[00:11:42.560 --> 00:11:48.000] Yeah, it sounds like bespoke so-called functional medicine for the reproductive system.
[00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:57.520] When qualified fertility experts point out that these methods are not supported by medical science, proponents of RRM say they are being suppressive.
[00:11:57.520 --> 00:12:01.440] I'm sure Mark Hyman and his Function Health is going to get a contract for this.
[00:12:01.440 --> 00:12:06.000] I've called it for this fall when the private partner, public partnerships begin.
[00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:13.040] And I'm pretty sure Function, they've actually just recently bought a full-body MRI company.
[00:12:13.040 --> 00:12:16.400] Experts have said that most people don't need full-body MRIs.
[00:12:16.400 --> 00:12:18.720] It's just pretty much garbage and a waste of money.
[00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:20.080] But they bought that.
[00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:26.000] And I'm guessing it's going to line up with things like this for these types of partnerships.
[00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:29.680] I found some nice reporting on this topic from Kentucky Lantern.
[00:12:29.800 --> 00:12:48.840] They write: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists call RRM a non-medical approach and an unproven concept that can delay time to pregnancy and expose patients to needless and painful surgical interventions, such as procedures to treat polycystic ovarian syndrome.
[00:12:48.840 --> 00:12:59.560] It says the approach overwhelmingly puts the onus on women, ignoring that infertility causes are just as common in men, which is completely true.
[00:12:59.880 --> 00:13:18.840] They also point out that clinics have ties to private equity firms and other large corporations, which when you brought up Heritage Foundation, that puts it into context because they very much are about the privatization of as much health care as possible as they laid out Project 2025.
[00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:25.160] Yeah, and as you pointed out, the word surgeries is on that list of holistic treatments.
[00:13:25.160 --> 00:13:34.760] And this often refers also to surgical excision of endometriosis tissue, which is erroneously proposed as being the main barrier to pregnancy.
[00:13:34.760 --> 00:13:38.600] So you're not going to need all of that, like, you know, satanic IVF stuff.
[00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:43.240] We'll just go in there and cut things out, and then you'll be able to magically get pregnant.
[00:13:43.240 --> 00:13:45.160] What if they do psychic surgeries?
[00:13:45.160 --> 00:13:45.960] Yeah, exactly.
[00:13:45.960 --> 00:13:49.080] That would be probably as effective in some cases.
[00:13:49.080 --> 00:13:51.800] These procedures may be unnecessary.
[00:13:51.800 --> 00:14:03.880] They may expose the patient to the standard risks associated with surgery and have little or no impact on fertility, according to the American College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians.
[00:14:03.880 --> 00:14:19.760] Meanwhile, the state of Arkansas has actually passed a bill called the Restore Act, which requires that insurance companies, and this is part of what you were referencing a moment ago, Derek, in terms of people starting to wet their beaks, insurance companies have to cover these treatments.
[00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:24.240] Proponents refer to it as ethical IVF.
[00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:46.880] The Guardian also reports that last month, RFK Jr.'s Department of HHS posted a notice soliciting applications for a proposed $1.5 million grant to fund an infertility training center that would expand access to resources for holistic infertility treatments rather than assisted reproductive technology.
[00:14:46.880 --> 00:14:49.040] You know, there's already a term for ethical IVF.
[00:14:49.040 --> 00:14:50.640] It's called IVF.
[00:14:50.640 --> 00:14:51.920] IVF, yeah, exactly.
[00:14:51.920 --> 00:14:52.640] It's right.
[00:14:52.640 --> 00:14:54.160] It's a tautology.
[00:14:54.160 --> 00:15:11.200] To nail this whole crunchy meets conservative horseshoe that, you know, we endlessly describe firmly to the hoof, the National Catholic Bioethics Center's website claims that RRM seeks to get to the root cause of infertility.
[00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:12.400] Jesus Christ.
[00:15:12.400 --> 00:15:15.440] Root cause has made it into Catholic discourse.
[00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:26.960] Buzzwood the Boys is here to let you know that every college football Saturday, FanDuel is dropping profit boosts that can turn wins into bigger ones.
[00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:30.000] Sounds like we should rename Saturday Booster Day.
[00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:31.120] Nice.
[00:15:31.760 --> 00:15:33.600] 21 Plus and present in New York.
[00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:34.480] Opt-in required.
[00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:36.880] Bonus issued as non-withdrawable profit boost tokens.
[00:15:36.880 --> 00:15:40.160] Restrictions apply, including any token expiration and maximum amount.
[00:15:40.160 --> 00:15:42.480] See full terms at fan duel.com/slash sportsbook.
[00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:48.800] For help with a gambling problem, call 1-877-8 HOPENY or text Hope and Why 467-369.
[00:15:52.640 --> 00:15:55.840] When did making plans get this complicated?
[00:15:56.160 --> 00:16:01.320] It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together.
[00:16:01.640 --> 00:16:10.600] Use polls to settle dinner plans, send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th, and never miss a meme or milestone.
[00:16:10.600 --> 00:16:13.000] All protected with end-to-end encryption.
[00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:14.600] It's time for WhatsApp.
[00:16:14.600 --> 00:16:16.200] Message privately with everyone.
[00:16:16.200 --> 00:16:18.280] Learn more at whatsapp.com.
[00:16:18.600 --> 00:16:27.400] Labor Day savings are here at the Home Depot with up to 35% off, plus up to an extra $450 off select appliances like LG.
[00:16:27.400 --> 00:16:33.240] Keep your routines running smoothly with an LG refrigerator you can count on from the Home Depot.
[00:16:33.240 --> 00:16:38.920] And with the connected ThinQ app, you'll know if the door is left open and when to replace the filter.
[00:16:38.920 --> 00:16:44.920] Gear up for fall with Labor Day Savings on LG, America's most reliable appliance brand at the Home Depot.
[00:16:44.920 --> 00:16:46.920] Offer valid August 21st through September 10th.
[00:16:46.920 --> 00:16:47.080] U.S.
[00:16:47.160 --> 00:16:48.760] only, see store online for details.
[00:16:48.760 --> 00:17:00.040] I was watching CNN and I saw where Jillian Michaels was on there in a debate this sheep seemed to have started.
[00:17:00.040 --> 00:17:18.760] And they were talking about changes to the Smithsonian and how art and culture shifts between who has the power to dictate how the exhibits are written, who the exhibits are of, and everything.
[00:17:19.080 --> 00:17:29.720] And Jillian Michaels was like, it's so unfair that slavery in this country only gets blamed on one race.
[00:17:37.960 --> 00:17:42.360] Look, look, as outrageous as that is, that is genuinely funny.
[00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:46.080] Like, look.
[00:17:47.040 --> 00:18:00.560] Look, I'm not going to tell anybody how to feel, but if you heard the words I said that Jillian said, and you immediately got angry, I would ask you to take a step back.
[00:18:01.520 --> 00:18:03.120] I'm not going to tell you how to feel.
[00:18:03.120 --> 00:18:08.480] You could be angry if you want to be angry because it is a very short-sighted, ignorant thing to say.
[00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:11.200] But that's precisely why it's so funny.
[00:18:11.200 --> 00:18:14.400] It is absolutely hilarious.
[00:18:14.560 --> 00:18:15.120] All right.
[00:18:15.120 --> 00:18:28.320] Well, last week we played the CNN clip in question on the podcast, but I wanted to start off this discussion with a bit of a laugh that comes to you via the Daily Show correspondent and new host now, Josh Johnson.
[00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:40.560] Plus, there's a straight line from Jillian Michaels' role as one of the two coaches on the biggest loser to her now prominent role in Maha, where, for example, RFK Jr.
[00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:44.720] invited her to speak in front of Congress last fall.
[00:18:45.040 --> 00:18:49.760] She also regularly hosts Maha influencers on her podcast.
[00:18:49.760 --> 00:18:59.120] And I think the safest assumption that line drags across is she's completely unqualified for any position she's been in in her career.
[00:18:59.120 --> 00:19:03.200] But willing to speak very loudly and aggressively on whatever topic is in front of her.
[00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:04.240] Oh, absolutely.
[00:19:04.240 --> 00:19:09.840] I'll get into this when we do synopsis, but her as a coach is a fucking joke.
[00:19:09.840 --> 00:19:11.360] So we'll be clear on that.
[00:19:11.360 --> 00:19:21.280] The biggest loser is back in the cultural discourse, thanks to the Netflix docuseries, Fit for TV, which surveys a few select seasons from the show.
[00:19:21.280 --> 00:19:23.360] It's not exhaustive by any means.
[00:19:23.360 --> 00:19:26.720] Michaels was one of two trainers for the first 11 seasons.
[00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:29.200] She returned for seasons 14 and 15.
[00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:33.160] Her counterpart, Bob Harper, was a trainer on all 18.
[00:19:29.840 --> 00:19:36.760] He also did three for the Australian version of the show.
[00:19:37.080 --> 00:19:53.160] Notably, Michaels did not appear in the Netflix series while Harper did, which made for a lot of the blame placed on Michaels for offering contestants caffeine pills and for which she's now considering suing Netflix for.
[00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:54.040] We'll get there.
[00:19:54.040 --> 00:19:55.960] It's a little more complex than that.
[00:19:55.960 --> 00:20:01.320] But the fallout from the series, I think, is as interesting as the series itself.
[00:20:01.320 --> 00:20:05.480] Before we get into that, Julian, what did you think about Fit for TV?
[00:20:05.480 --> 00:20:14.840] I mean, I feel like, like a lot of people in our demographic, probably, I really missed out on the explosion of reality TV in general when it was happening.
[00:20:14.840 --> 00:20:20.040] So it's been a little bit of an anthropological expedition for me to learn about the show.
[00:20:20.040 --> 00:20:24.440] I'm stunned that it was hugely popular for 17 or 18 seasons.
[00:20:24.440 --> 00:20:26.760] I'll say more about why a little bit later.
[00:20:26.760 --> 00:20:46.520] Fit for TV, the documentary, is fascinating because it examines the cultural phenomenon of this hugely successful biggest loser series in which very heavy people, the average starting weight being about 328 pounds, competed to see who could lose the most weight week by week over a 30-week period.
[00:20:46.520 --> 00:20:56.120] And to do so, they utilized this combination of intense exercise, caloric restriction, dehydration, as it turns out, and other more controversial methods.
[00:20:56.120 --> 00:21:09.160] Overall, I feel like this documentary depicts a sickening blend of desperate enthusiasm, relentless shaming, and that weird live audience reality TV kind of circus vibe.
[00:21:09.160 --> 00:21:27.520] And Jillian Michaels, who we've been talking about lately in our Instagram quite a bit as well, rose to fame as a trainer on The Biggest Loser, which made me kind of feel like I was just watching another season of Jillian Michaels is an awful human being, especially given how much she's been in the news lately, as you flagged.
[00:21:27.520 --> 00:21:36.640] For anyone who had any doubt, going back and watching her on The Biggest Loser confirms she is someone with a rare level of unapologetic sadism.
[00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:39.040] And that's not a common trait.
[00:21:39.040 --> 00:21:48.720] The Netflix doc does something the actual show, as it turns out, failed to do, which is follow up with former contestants and check in on their physical and mental health.
[00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:49.760] So more on that to come.
[00:21:49.920 --> 00:22:15.040] Kara Swisher, the podcast host and journalist, was on Jillian Michaels' podcast and she actually posted yesterday about it, saying her reasons for being on it, but also saying that being in the room with Jillian, she was actually surprised by how confident she was in her own ignorance, basically, which I think is a good synopsis for other people that I've heard from who have interacted with Jillian on that level.
[00:22:15.040 --> 00:22:18.160] During this entire time, I never watched The Biggest Loser.
[00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:24.240] I watched season one of Real House on MTV in what, like 93, something like that.
[00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:27.040] That was the beginning of what we now know as Reality TV.
[00:22:27.040 --> 00:22:28.160] The Real World, you mean?
[00:22:28.160 --> 00:22:28.880] Real World, thank you.
[00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:29.840] It was in the house.
[00:22:29.840 --> 00:22:30.560] It was in the house.
[00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:32.320] I actually auditioned for that show.
[00:22:32.320 --> 00:22:33.840] I was like 21 years old.
[00:22:33.840 --> 00:22:34.320] Yeah.
[00:22:35.360 --> 00:22:36.640] I got to the second stage.
[00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:37.280] Wow.
[00:22:37.600 --> 00:22:39.920] I'm sorry you didn't make it further.
[00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:42.000] I'm really glad I didn't.
[00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:44.400] But that was my whole interaction.
[00:22:44.400 --> 00:22:48.000] Then I went to college and then reality TV just became a joke to me.
[00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:50.400] But I do remember when the series was running.
[00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:54.880] During the entire time it ran, I was a fitness instructor at Equinox.
[00:22:54.880 --> 00:22:56.800] So I was parallel to it.
[00:22:56.800 --> 00:23:04.440] And I want to be clear on one thing that I think is really important that I've learned for decades of teaching different modalities in fitness.
[00:23:04.760 --> 00:23:10.920] Different people take to different instructors and different kinds of instruction.
[00:23:10.920 --> 00:23:13.800] I was never one to yell at people.
[00:23:13.800 --> 00:23:15.000] I was not a screamer.
[00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:24.840] I tried to amp people up in kettlebell classes or cycling, but to actually degrade people was something that I and all of my colleagues that I knew at Equinox.
[00:23:24.840 --> 00:23:26.760] That was not what we did.
[00:23:27.080 --> 00:23:32.440] I do think there is a population that feeds off of that.
[00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:37.560] And that is what the biggest loser thrived from and sort of why it was a spectacle.
[00:23:37.560 --> 00:23:47.160] Famously, the boot camp scene, sometimes CrossFit had that ethos and mentality of like, no pain, no gain.
[00:23:47.160 --> 00:23:48.840] I don't like it.
[00:23:48.840 --> 00:23:51.800] I understand for some, it has utility.
[00:23:51.800 --> 00:23:58.040] I just want to be really clear on that because I'm super critical of what the biggest loser did is what we're going to get into.
[00:23:58.360 --> 00:24:12.360] But I do find one thing that really came out watching this series was how cult-like both Jillian and Bob were in their approach of breaking people down and then trying to build them back up.
[00:24:12.360 --> 00:24:14.840] Like that kept coming across.
[00:24:14.840 --> 00:24:26.120] And you can argue that it's the editing and the way it was positioned, which is very shady and very meant to invoke emotions in the watchers, the viewers, not the contestants.
[00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:34.840] But that came across over and over again, how they would just shit on people and then pretend like they were there to actually help them.
[00:24:35.160 --> 00:24:40.120] And big picture, I don't think that's helpful for anyone.
[00:24:40.440 --> 00:24:46.560] The series, as I said, it only looks at a couple of seasons and only a couple of contestants.
[00:24:46.560 --> 00:24:57.200] I think they did a pretty good job at giving a broad overview, but obviously with 18 seasons, they missed a lot, including in the few seasons they discussed.
[00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:02.720] That includes a big focus on the series, which is the seventh season, which was in 2009.
[00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:06.960] They did two seasons a year, so it didn't last for 17 or 18 years.
[00:25:07.280 --> 00:25:11.440] This was the second time they featured couples on the show.
[00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:16.080] There was a woman named Joelle Gwynn, who was heavily featured in Fit for TV.
[00:25:16.560 --> 00:25:20.320] She had a falling out with her friend, Carla Trippett.
[00:25:20.320 --> 00:25:29.200] So I went back and I watched the first episode of that season and then tagged and then watched a few other episodes in preparation for this podcast.
[00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:33.840] It turns out that the fallout happened in the first week of the season.
[00:25:33.840 --> 00:25:40.720] I mean, this fallout takes almost an entire episode of the three episodes, but it was only in week one of that season.
[00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:46.720] It couldn't have happened later because of a plot twist that the producers introduced into the series.
[00:25:46.720 --> 00:25:51.360] And I'm including it here because it highlights the sort of cruelty the show is infamous for.
[00:25:51.360 --> 00:25:55.360] And they really don't discuss this in the docuseries.
[00:25:55.360 --> 00:25:56.720] Think about this.
[00:25:56.720 --> 00:26:03.040] You're overweight and you want to get on the biggest loser to help you lose weight and to get healthy and to feel better about yourself.
[00:26:03.040 --> 00:26:06.880] You submit a tape with your friend or your relative and you get accepted.
[00:26:06.880 --> 00:26:12.320] The very beginning of the first episode, it features the contestants finding out they were chosen.
[00:26:12.320 --> 00:26:14.960] It was sheer excitement and joy.
[00:26:14.960 --> 00:26:22.080] Then, a week into filming, you take part in a race with your partner as part of the series.
[00:26:22.080 --> 00:26:27.200] As it turns out, the winner receives immunity at the first weigh-in.
[00:26:27.200 --> 00:26:34.200] So, the way that the show is structured, if you lose the least amount of weight in a week, you get kicked off the island.
[00:26:29.600 --> 00:26:35.560] So, winning this race is huge.
[00:26:35.720 --> 00:26:40.440] It means you could have lost the least amount of weight, but you wouldn't get kicked off.
[00:26:40.440 --> 00:26:47.880] Then you get to the weigh-in, and this is what happens: Tonight, there will be no eliminations.
[00:26:47.880 --> 00:26:48.280] What?
[00:26:49.720 --> 00:26:51.160] That is awesome.
[00:26:53.320 --> 00:26:54.600] Oh, my God!
[00:26:59.560 --> 00:27:00.760] I do it!
[00:27:01.080 --> 00:27:01.960] She's not done.
[00:27:01.960 --> 00:27:02.760] What's the catch?
[00:27:02.760 --> 00:27:03.320] What's the catch?
[00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:04.280] What's the catch?
[00:27:04.600 --> 00:27:11.960] Tonight, there will be no elimination.
[00:27:11.960 --> 00:27:24.840] But nine of you are going home.
[00:27:24.840 --> 00:27:34.600] Here's how it's gonna work: each team will weigh in, and it will be the team with the highest combined percentage of weight loss who will be above the yellow line.
[00:27:34.600 --> 00:27:37.800] Dane and Blaine, you want immunity this week.
[00:27:37.800 --> 00:27:43.960] So, you are the only couple that is safe here on campus tonight.
[00:27:44.280 --> 00:27:50.920] The only other couple that will be safe tonight is the couple that wins the weigh-in.
[00:27:52.200 --> 00:28:04.360] The nine teams who fall below the yellow line will have to choose one person from each couple to go home.
[00:28:04.360 --> 00:28:08.520] When Allison announced the twist, I was devastated.
[00:28:08.520 --> 00:28:10.520] I was just like, Are you kidding me?
[00:28:10.520 --> 00:28:12.600] We've only been here for a week.
[00:28:12.600 --> 00:28:14.960] Yeah, so just fucking cruel.
[00:28:14.960 --> 00:28:18.240] Like, and that was what they introduced for that series.
[00:28:14.600 --> 00:28:21.120] And I'm kind of surprised the documentary doesn't go into that.
[00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:23.120] But that's the mentality.
[00:28:23.120 --> 00:28:29.120] I think that's a good heuristic for understanding the mentality of the people behind this entire expedition.
[00:28:29.120 --> 00:28:29.760] Yeah, yeah.
[00:28:29.760 --> 00:28:44.800] And honestly, as someone who did not grow up in this country, like this, this could be just a microcosm of everything that people outside of America find so distasteful about so much of American entertainment and spectacle.
[00:28:44.800 --> 00:28:55.040] I feel like this kind of reality TV is the incestuous love child of the most based level social conditioning and primal emotions as stimulated by that over-the-top music.
[00:28:55.040 --> 00:29:03.040] And then that game that kids often play where you ask each other things like, if one of your parents had to die, would you pick your mom or your dad?
[00:29:03.040 --> 00:29:06.960] Or would you rather have a dog bite off three of your fingers or have your grandma go blind?
[00:29:06.960 --> 00:29:09.760] You know, it's like, what have we been doing here?
[00:29:09.760 --> 00:29:17.200] It creates car crash scenarios that you struggle to look away from, but the cultural collateral damage is really not worth it.
[00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:28.480] And my stomach tightens as I cringe for the hopeful, ordinary people thrust into the limelight to mostly just be sacrificed on the altar of crappy entertainment, right?
[00:29:29.120 --> 00:29:33.680] Now, regarding fitness and weight loss, of course, it's such loaded territory.
[00:29:33.680 --> 00:29:37.680] Everyone is better off if they maintain healthy levels of weight and activity.
[00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:38.800] And yeah, it's true.
[00:29:38.800 --> 00:29:44.080] People treat us differently when we fit certain ideals better than when we are obese.
[00:29:44.080 --> 00:29:51.440] It can feel empowering and even improve mental health to regain a sense of control over these areas of our lives.
[00:29:51.440 --> 00:30:07.880] But there are certain statistics that always stay with me that we've talked about before, Derek, like the facts that having a first-degree relative with type 2 diabetes increases the prevalence by two to three times when compared to the rest of the population.
[00:30:07.880 --> 00:30:13.880] And that goes up to a 70% likelihood of developing the condition if both parents have it.
[00:30:13.880 --> 00:30:21.800] Current research also puts genetic factors at between 40% and 70% responsible for obesity, too.
[00:30:22.280 --> 00:30:24.920] I know we're going to inevitably talk about RFK Jr.
[00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:32.680] and Maha some more, but as a little preview here, you know, Kennedy loves to claim that 70% of Americans are obese.
[00:30:32.680 --> 00:30:46.920] And sometimes he corrects himself and says that 70% of Americans are overweight, which actually makes a big difference because the 40% of Americans that are actually obese are included in that larger number, with the rest being merely overweight.
[00:30:46.920 --> 00:30:56.920] When we look up these percentages for other Anglophile countries in the developed world, like the UK, Australia, Canada, they're all at around 65% overweight.
[00:30:56.920 --> 00:31:00.920] So it does seem to be a problem of wealthier societies.
[00:31:00.920 --> 00:31:12.840] And I would argue we might make up that, I would speculate here, we might make up that additional 5% that the US has over those other countries due to greater income inequality and food deserts.
[00:31:12.840 --> 00:31:24.040] But then let's also just step back and remember that all of this is based on BMI, which is an extremely flawed heuristic that was never designed to be used at a population level.
[00:31:24.040 --> 00:31:37.080] And that BMI rating also incorrectly skews many very healthy people with athletic muscle mass into overweight or even obese categories, no matter how fit or how lean they might be.
[00:31:37.400 --> 00:31:54.000] But this is an alarming factoid that Kennedy likes to use that plays into the conspiracist pseudoscience strategy of catastrophizing about a problem, speculating without evidence about its cause, and then claiming, hey, we've got the magical solution right here.
[00:31:54.000 --> 00:32:03.920] You know, it's going to be like tallow on your French fries and real sugar in Coca-Cola, and it's going to solve the obesity and diabetes epidemic, right?
[00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:19.120] Fat people get hugely stigmatized by all of this for reasons that are totally unfair and discriminatory, as if all of us would look like them unless we had such high levels of like moral and dietary fiber.
[00:32:19.120 --> 00:32:20.960] BMI is so frustrating.
[00:32:20.960 --> 00:32:21.920] I mean, I'm 6'3.
[00:32:21.920 --> 00:32:25.760] For so much of my life, I maintained a body weight of about 185.
[00:32:25.760 --> 00:32:31.920] And I remember friends and my wife would be like, You're not eating enough because of the workouts that I do.
[00:32:31.920 --> 00:32:38.560] And then finally, one thing about COVID is that I actually started to be like, Let me actually eat more.
[00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:42.480] Also started creatine, but let me see if I can actually put on mass.
[00:32:42.480 --> 00:32:45.360] And I'm up to 210 and I'm healthier than I've ever been.
[00:32:45.360 --> 00:32:47.680] I'm stronger than I've ever been at 50.
[00:32:47.680 --> 00:32:52.320] All of my blood markers that I get at the doctor, I'm in the top 1 or 2% for my age group.
[00:32:52.320 --> 00:32:57.440] But officially, according to the BMI calculator, I'm considered overweight.
[00:32:57.440 --> 00:32:57.920] Yep.
[00:32:57.920 --> 00:32:58.320] Yep.
[00:32:58.320 --> 00:32:58.880] Me too.
[00:32:58.880 --> 00:32:59.280] Me too.
[00:32:59.280 --> 00:33:00.800] And you haven't done that just with that.
[00:33:01.040 --> 00:33:02.320] You've been doing a lot of heavy lifting.
[00:33:02.320 --> 00:33:06.560] So you have packed on a certain amount of muscle through that deliberate process.
[00:33:06.560 --> 00:33:07.040] Exactly.
[00:33:07.040 --> 00:33:13.840] That's why I decided to put on weight because I was lifting above what my frame could handle and I was getting some back issues.
[00:33:13.840 --> 00:33:16.160] And I said, okay, let me actually address this.
[00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:16.880] And I did.
[00:33:16.880 --> 00:33:26.480] And I feel much better now than I did five years ago when I started, even though officially I'm overweight, according to what Maha references as being someone that needs to lose weight.
[00:33:26.480 --> 00:33:26.960] Totally.
[00:33:26.960 --> 00:33:29.680] Speaking of Maha, this entire series got me thinking about them.
[00:33:29.680 --> 00:33:37.880] You can't avoid it because the way that Bob and Jillian treat fat people sounds exactly like how Kennedy and his crew berate them.
[00:33:37.880 --> 00:33:42.120] So it makes sense that Jillian has become a big part of Maha.
[00:33:42.120 --> 00:33:49.640] Specifically, I kept thinking about Kennedy saying every American should get a free gym membership about a year ago.
[00:33:49.640 --> 00:33:55.960] On its face, if you were to just say, hey, everyone should have access to a gym for free, I'm actually down for that.
[00:33:55.960 --> 00:33:58.600] And there are actually opportunities like this.
[00:33:58.760 --> 00:34:02.440] I got into this with people on threads who are making the similar argument.
[00:34:02.440 --> 00:34:07.560] New York City, where I lived for a dozen years, they have city gyms all over the boroughs.
[00:34:07.560 --> 00:34:09.800] They cost $150 a year.
[00:34:09.800 --> 00:34:13.240] If you're 25 or under, you go for free.
[00:34:13.240 --> 00:34:17.240] If you're 65 or older, they cost $25 a year.
[00:34:17.240 --> 00:34:24.200] Here in Portland, where I now live, you can go to any rec city in the city for $30 a month.
[00:34:24.200 --> 00:34:25.560] But there's a catch.
[00:34:25.560 --> 00:34:30.360] If you're low income, you can get discounts up to free.
[00:34:30.360 --> 00:34:32.360] And it's an honors program.
[00:34:32.360 --> 00:34:34.360] You don't even have to prove your income.
[00:34:34.360 --> 00:34:38.520] I'm going to guess a lot of cities have similar programs.
[00:34:38.520 --> 00:34:44.920] Yet, only 20.6% of Americans have a gym membership.
[00:34:44.920 --> 00:34:51.160] On top of that, many gyms survive because people pay but don't go.
[00:34:51.160 --> 00:34:51.640] Oh, yeah.
[00:34:51.640 --> 00:34:58.040] I've read stats between 50 and 90% of members don't go to their gym once in a month, even though they're paying.
[00:34:58.040 --> 00:35:00.040] The cheaper the gym, the more people don't go.
[00:35:00.040 --> 00:35:06.520] So, Planet Fitness has about a 10% rate of people going every month because it costs $10 a month.
[00:35:06.520 --> 00:35:15.920] Now, where I worked at Equinox, which cost $225, $250 a month per gym, the retention rate was $50%.
[00:35:14.840 --> 00:35:20.000] That means half the people paying that money didn't actually go in a month.
[00:35:20.320 --> 00:35:27.040] Yeah, and most of those people who are not going are people who signed up as a New Year's resolution and paid for the whole year, right?
[00:35:27.360 --> 00:35:28.240] That's the model.
[00:35:28.240 --> 00:35:30.960] Yeah, you can't do that at Equinox, but with other gyms, that is correct.
[00:35:31.200 --> 00:35:31.680] Okay.
[00:35:31.680 --> 00:35:35.120] The story is way more complicated than get a gym membership.
[00:35:35.120 --> 00:35:41.040] What Kennedy and many other fit fluencers miss is the fact that people don't fucking like gyms.
[00:35:41.040 --> 00:35:46.480] And for a number of reasons: one is that fat people are relentlessly judged in them.
[00:35:46.480 --> 00:35:50.960] Now, obviously, this depends not only on the gym, but the time of the day you're able to go.
[00:35:50.960 --> 00:35:53.040] Here in Portland, I go to LA Fitness.
[00:35:53.040 --> 00:35:54.160] I'm there by 6 a.m.
[00:35:54.240 --> 00:35:55.200] every morning.
[00:35:55.200 --> 00:35:59.120] And the work crew is get in, get out.
[00:35:59.120 --> 00:36:03.200] It's blissfully quiet and calm as people do their thing.
[00:36:03.200 --> 00:36:07.040] But I've also gone later in the day sometimes, and it's a fucking zoo.
[00:36:07.040 --> 00:36:09.360] I get why people would hate that environment.
[00:36:09.360 --> 00:36:12.560] I'm someone who grew up in these spaces, basement gym.
[00:36:12.640 --> 00:36:14.720] My father built one when I was growing up.
[00:36:14.720 --> 00:36:18.800] He also, on a volunteer basis, ran his company gym.
[00:36:18.800 --> 00:36:20.960] And so I was going there all the time.
[00:36:20.960 --> 00:36:23.840] So for me, I swim in those waters.
[00:36:23.840 --> 00:36:25.360] A lot of people don't.
[00:36:25.360 --> 00:36:27.360] So to say, hey, you're overweight.
[00:36:27.360 --> 00:36:31.600] Get in this gym and expect people to just take to it is absurd.
[00:36:31.920 --> 00:36:42.160] You know, also, along the lines of this topic, it came out recently that Serena Williams lost 31 pounds by using GLP-1 medication.
[00:36:42.160 --> 00:36:46.000] She said that she struggled with her weight after the birth of her second child.
[00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:49.920] She's been posting workout photos mentioning how great she feels.
[00:36:49.920 --> 00:36:52.560] So there were a lot of rumors about how she lost the weight.
[00:36:52.560 --> 00:36:57.520] Now, right on queue, I saw a ton of comments about how she's cheating.
[00:36:57.840 --> 00:37:06.280] You have here one of the top tennis players ever to play the game who was criticized then for being larger.
[00:37:06.280 --> 00:37:10.600] And now that she's lost some weight, she's being criticized for how she lost it.
[00:37:10.600 --> 00:37:11.320] Can't win.
[00:37:11.320 --> 00:37:12.040] Exactly.
[00:37:12.040 --> 00:37:14.200] There's obviously some gender dynamics here.
[00:37:14.200 --> 00:37:23.240] In general, women are shit on way more for using Ozempic than men because assholes are always quicker to criticize women about anything.
[00:37:23.240 --> 00:37:31.800] But it's just the hypocrisy of people in this space, including Kennedy and Maha, most of whom hate GLP1 interventions.
[00:37:31.800 --> 00:37:37.880] As one commenter I saw wrote on one of the threads about Serena, just say you hate fat people.
[00:37:38.200 --> 00:37:47.720] The most outspoken critics of Ozempic at all that I've seen are fitness influencers and trainers because they stand to lose income from coaching and supplement sales.
[00:37:47.720 --> 00:37:52.920] Their stated reason always falls back on the personal responsibility trope.
[00:37:52.920 --> 00:38:00.280] You just don't have the willpower, Fatty, which is why Maha just feels like the latest season of the biggest loser.
[00:38:00.280 --> 00:38:00.920] Oh, yeah.
[00:38:00.920 --> 00:38:11.240] Kennedy's recent challenge alongside Pete Hagseth of doing 50 pull-ups and 100 push-ups is so fitting for this moment, even though they can't do it themselves.
[00:38:11.240 --> 00:38:13.480] It's all spectacle.
[00:38:13.480 --> 00:38:15.240] Oh, and Cash Patel, I posted this.
[00:38:15.240 --> 00:38:19.480] Cash Patel tried it, and that was a fucking nightmare as well.
[00:38:19.480 --> 00:38:21.160] It's like Kennedy dragging Dr.
[00:38:21.160 --> 00:38:23.800] Oz up the side of that hill.
[00:38:24.120 --> 00:38:25.240] Rock climbing things.
[00:38:25.400 --> 00:38:26.600] Like, oh boy.
[00:38:26.600 --> 00:38:30.280] These are our fearless leaders into like perfect health and fitness.
[00:38:30.280 --> 00:38:33.960] Do you know how hard pull-ups are for someone who doesn't know how to do it?
[00:38:34.040 --> 00:38:38.760] I know people who are very strong and fit and they can't do a pull-up.
[00:38:38.760 --> 00:38:41.640] It is a completely different exercise.
[00:38:41.640 --> 00:38:42.440] And same thing.
[00:38:42.440 --> 00:38:47.840] I mean, you know from yoga that Chaturangas, low push-ups are not for everyone.
[00:38:44.920 --> 00:38:51.600] Because people don't have the sort of training to do a proper push-up.
[00:38:51.840 --> 00:38:56.960] And then they go in yoga classes and they try to match the teacher doing a low push-up and they'll shred their shoulders.
[00:38:56.960 --> 00:38:58.640] Their neck is in the wrong position.
[00:38:58.640 --> 00:39:00.480] Their traps are all scrunched up.
[00:39:00.480 --> 00:39:02.720] Like just put your knees down or just stay in plank.
[00:39:02.720 --> 00:39:09.040] There's so many other options, but we just have this go, go, go mentality in all of our workouts in America.
[00:39:09.040 --> 00:39:14.480] And you're going to hurt people, which is what this challenge is going to do to people who are like, yeah, I can do these things.
[00:39:14.480 --> 00:39:15.280] No, you can't.
[00:39:15.280 --> 00:39:16.160] And that's okay.
[00:39:16.160 --> 00:39:17.520] It's okay that you can't.
[00:39:17.520 --> 00:39:28.240] Learn how to do one pull-up correctly with bands, however you need, but don't go pretend you could do 50 and then you look like ass like Hexeth or Kennedy who are doing chin-ups, first of all.
[00:39:28.240 --> 00:39:32.320] They're not even doing pull-ups and they can't even do those correctly.
[00:39:32.320 --> 00:39:35.040] And I'm not one to hate on people's workouts in general.
[00:39:35.040 --> 00:39:39.280] My thought has always been if you're exercising and having fun, go for it.
[00:39:39.280 --> 00:39:41.200] Zumba, your heart out.
[00:39:41.200 --> 00:39:52.560] But the former fitness instructor of me, just watching their dumb video, it's just so hard given that you need full range of motion for push-ups and pull-ups.
[00:39:52.560 --> 00:39:52.800] Yeah.
[00:39:52.800 --> 00:40:00.240] And Derek, how many people can actually do even 50 chin-ups?
[00:40:00.240 --> 00:40:01.200] Like, that's a lot.
[00:40:01.200 --> 00:40:04.240] Most people can't do 10 or five.
[00:40:04.240 --> 00:40:13.520] Like, that's actually an extraordinary challenge to just think you're going to walk into and do right away as someone who's not, you know, actively engaged like that.
[00:40:13.520 --> 00:40:14.640] In 10 minutes, too.
[00:40:14.640 --> 00:40:15.440] And that's the other thing.
[00:40:15.440 --> 00:40:17.360] They're putting a time limit on it.
[00:40:17.360 --> 00:40:20.960] And then you're watching videos, and it's a lot of people that they're resharing.
[00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:24.960] Like Riley Gaines, like Kennedy reshared her video, being like, I could do it.
[00:40:24.960 --> 00:40:25.680] No, you can't.
[00:40:25.760 --> 00:40:28.320] You know, you're, first of all, you're 36 weeks pregnant.
[00:40:28.320 --> 00:40:32.840] And second of all, like your form is horrible, which you do to her credit say that.
[00:40:33.160 --> 00:40:34.840] But it's like, why are you sharing this shit?
[00:40:34.840 --> 00:40:37.880] People don't need that, they need help, they don't need that spectacle.
[00:40:38.200 --> 00:40:38.600] Totally.
[00:40:38.600 --> 00:40:56.040] And the only reason I'm commenting is because they're presenting themselves as paragons of health and trying to, I don't know, inspire Americans to exercise, yet they don't even learn the exercises that they're challenging others to do, which is why Maha is as much a spectacle as the biggest loser.
[00:40:56.040 --> 00:41:00.440] It's not about helping people get healthy, it's about showing off that you are.
[00:41:00.440 --> 00:41:03.240] Jillian already got the call to join Maha.
[00:41:03.240 --> 00:41:06.200] I'm guessing Bob Harper will get the call next, though.
[00:41:06.200 --> 00:41:11.480] As we're going to discuss in the next segment, I'm pretty sure Jillian will box him out of that opportunity.
[00:41:11.480 --> 00:41:26.600] Yeah, and this is yet another perhaps unsurprising but nonetheless novel iteration of like how this influencer contrarian kind of assumption of expertise plays out even in the physical domain.
[00:41:26.600 --> 00:41:28.440] It's like, oh yeah, of course I could do that.
[00:41:28.440 --> 00:41:29.320] I can do anything.
[00:41:29.320 --> 00:41:33.480] I have strong opinions about everything, even though I've never studied it and I'm not qualified.
[00:41:33.480 --> 00:41:38.760] And I could just like go and do a bunch of pull-ups and push-ups on camera because of course I can.
[00:41:44.520 --> 00:41:48.760] Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real.
[00:41:48.760 --> 00:41:51.720] And so is the relief from EBGLIS.
[00:41:51.720 --> 00:41:58.520] After an initial dosing phase, about four in 10 people taking EBGLIS achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks.
[00:41:58.520 --> 00:42:02.760] And most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing.
[00:42:02.760 --> 00:42:14.200] EBGLIS Libericizumab, LBKZ, a 250 milligram per 2 milliliter injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema.
[00:42:14.200 --> 00:42:20.560] Also called atopic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies.
[00:42:20.560 --> 00:42:23.440] EBGLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids.
[00:42:23.440 --> 00:42:25.200] Don't use if you're allergic to EBGLIS.
[00:42:25.200 --> 00:42:27.200] Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe.
[00:42:27.200 --> 00:42:28.240] Eye problems can occur.
[00:42:28.240 --> 00:42:30.640] Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems.
[00:42:30.640 --> 00:42:33.120] You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with EBGLIS.
[00:42:33.120 --> 00:42:36.240] Before starting EBGLIS, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection.
[00:42:36.240 --> 00:42:37.360] Searching for real relief?
[00:42:37.360 --> 00:42:44.720] Ask your doctor about EBGLIS and visit ebglis.lily.com or call 1-800-LILLIERX or 1-800-545-5979.
[00:42:44.720 --> 00:42:49.680] Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just speaking into the void?
[00:42:49.680 --> 00:42:50.880] Void, void.
[00:42:50.880 --> 00:42:56.080] But with LinkedIn ads, you can know you're reaching the right decision makers, a network of 130 million of them, in fact.
[00:42:56.080 --> 00:43:01.920] You can even target buyers by job title, industry, company, seniority, skills, and did I say job title?
[00:43:01.920 --> 00:43:05.760] See how you can avoid the void and reach the right buyers with LinkedIn ads.
[00:43:05.760 --> 00:43:10.720] Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit for the next one.
[00:43:10.720 --> 00:43:13.120] Get started at linkedin.com/slash campaign.
[00:43:13.120 --> 00:43:14.880] Terms and conditions apply.
[00:43:15.200 --> 00:43:16.720] Hey, it's Paris.
[00:43:16.720 --> 00:43:19.040] You know, I love sparkly things, right?
[00:43:19.040 --> 00:43:20.160] Like stars.
[00:43:20.160 --> 00:43:21.040] Duh.
[00:43:21.040 --> 00:43:25.200] And thanks to Hilton and AutoCamp, I just slept under them.
[00:43:25.200 --> 00:43:35.040] Picture me serving looks by the fire outside my luxurious Airstream, making s'mores with the kids, while a national park is our backdrop.
[00:43:35.040 --> 00:43:37.920] The great outdoors meets Hilton hospitality?
[00:43:37.920 --> 00:43:39.120] That's hot.
[00:43:39.120 --> 00:43:42.560] Explore all the new ways to stay at Hilton.com.
[00:43:42.560 --> 00:43:44.400] Hilton for the stay.
[00:43:44.720 --> 00:43:52.240] One of the very prominent subplots here is that Jillian Michaels is one of the few cast members who declined to participate.
[00:43:52.240 --> 00:44:07.080] So, unlike the other coach, the staff doctor, the producers, who all get to tell their side of the story along with several former contestants, Michaels instead just gets shown in all of her cruel drill sergeant intensity.
[00:44:07.080 --> 00:44:10.280] She gets in people's faces, she insults them, she berates them.
[00:44:10.280 --> 00:44:16.680] At one point, she throws a bucket of ice water over someone's head while they're like collapsed on the ground about to pass out.
[00:44:16.680 --> 00:44:20.600] Overall, she really just seems to have a real appetite for sadism.
[00:44:20.600 --> 00:44:39.560] The main controversy of the show involving Michaels is that the doctor, a guy named Robert Heusinger, has said that he forbade the use of caffeine pills based on safety reasons, but that Jillian went ahead and secretly gave them to the contestants on her team behind everyone's back.
[00:44:39.560 --> 00:44:50.520] And when this was discovered, they actually acknowledged it on the show in an episode, a very dramatic kind of moment, and gave her team a penalty because she broke the rules.
[00:44:50.520 --> 00:45:00.760] And then, for her part, she's unrepentant during the broadcast and in later interviews, saying that she stood by what she did because there was unlimited coffee available to everyone.
[00:45:00.760 --> 00:45:02.600] And so, what's the difference?
[00:45:02.600 --> 00:45:07.880] In fact, she thinks that caffeine pills are healthier than drinking tons of coffee.
[00:45:07.880 --> 00:45:12.520] Science actually disagrees, but when has that stopped anyone like her?
[00:45:12.520 --> 00:45:21.400] The New York Times just did a feature on Michaels, and I love that they pull a quote from her when she was talking to Rogan of being like, Who has the time to fact-check all these things?
[00:45:22.680 --> 00:45:25.080] You have a lot of time to run your mouth, though.
[00:45:25.080 --> 00:45:32.600] Some contestants alleged that other drugs like diuretics and even unnamed street drugs were allegedly used.
[00:45:32.600 --> 00:45:33.000] And Dr.
[00:45:32.960 --> 00:45:37.240] Huizinger is suing the New York Post for publishing those allegations.
[00:45:37.240 --> 00:45:39.960] And so they retract the article.
[00:45:39.960 --> 00:45:50.240] Michaels has now spoken out, and she said that she is considering suing Netflix and Barb Harper, the other trainer on the show, and the producers of the documentary.
[00:45:50.560 --> 00:46:00.960] And she's been sharing emails that show how on other seasons, caffeine pills actually were allowed and were distributed by her and Harper and the doctors and the dietitians on the show.
[00:46:01.280 --> 00:46:05.840] But of course, she's still acknowledging, yeah, I went behind people's backs, even though I wasn't allowed to do this.
[00:46:05.840 --> 00:46:12.720] Fuck Jillian Michaels in general and specifically to this episode, but kudos to her for saving the receipts.
[00:46:13.040 --> 00:46:18.560] So what happens is they do show that moment that she admitted it on the show.
[00:46:18.880 --> 00:46:23.040] And then you have everyone else being like, we didn't know about all this.
[00:46:23.360 --> 00:46:33.360] But then she comes out and she shares on Instagram text messages and emails showing that everyone was in on it all the time.
[00:46:33.360 --> 00:46:34.560] On all the other seasons.
[00:46:34.560 --> 00:46:42.400] On all the other seasons, but showing that it's a trend and that they were really pushing something called stackers to try to get in on it.
[00:46:42.400 --> 00:46:48.000] So she's framed as the worst person here because she wasn't involved.
[00:46:48.000 --> 00:46:49.680] She had a fallout, Bob Harper or whatever.
[00:46:49.680 --> 00:46:54.080] And she is a terrible human, but so is everyone on this show.
[00:46:54.400 --> 00:46:58.080] I have to give her credit for shoving it back into their face.
[00:46:58.080 --> 00:47:03.920] But overall, I'd rather they all fucking burn for partaking in this cruel project.
[00:47:03.920 --> 00:47:04.560] Yeah, yeah.
[00:47:04.560 --> 00:47:13.280] And I don't remember his name, but the main producer guy has so many moments where he's, it's just like, you seem like you're lying right now.
[00:47:13.280 --> 00:47:17.600] He really tries to act like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, and I don't know anything about that.
[00:47:17.600 --> 00:47:21.120] And then big swallow and kind of eyes look in four different directions.
[00:47:21.120 --> 00:47:23.120] It's like, I don't know about this.
[00:47:23.120 --> 00:47:35.160] Michaels, for her part, is also taking the opportunity now to speak out against the woke body positivity movement, which is being critical of the show in hindsight, right?
[00:47:35.160 --> 00:47:41.400] And she says, this is actually a conspiratorial psyop by Big Food.
[00:47:41.720 --> 00:47:47.080] The only good news for her is that maybe it's distracting from her boneheaded slavery comments.
[00:47:47.080 --> 00:47:47.560] I don't know.
[00:47:47.560 --> 00:47:51.400] People can hold multiple thoughts in their head when it comes to this level of egregiousness.
[00:47:51.400 --> 00:47:54.840] The full quote of what you just referenced, I think, is even more telling.
[00:47:54.840 --> 00:47:57.240] Quote, I'm 51 years old, you know.
[00:47:57.240 --> 00:47:59.400] I'm trying to take on bigger things.
[00:47:59.400 --> 00:48:03.960] I'm trying to help facilitate a change with big food and big pharma and big insurance.
[00:48:03.960 --> 00:48:08.360] And these are the 800-pound gorillas I want to jump in that ring with.
[00:48:09.240 --> 00:48:11.800] Her ego is just unmatched here.
[00:48:11.800 --> 00:48:27.640] I also just want to say the one shining moment of this entire podcast is Friend of the Pod, Arby Gordon, who does a fantastic job of contextualizing what has happened, what was happening during the show when it was happening, and then also how that reverberates throughout the culture.
[00:48:27.640 --> 00:48:32.440] So I do highly recommend the series, if not just to see her commentary on that.
[00:48:32.440 --> 00:48:33.400] Yeah, she's great on it.
[00:48:33.640 --> 00:48:35.480] Every moment she has is really strong.
[00:48:35.480 --> 00:48:35.800] Yes.
[00:48:35.800 --> 00:48:43.240] The biggest loser couldn't exist if our culture didn't buy into the idea that obesity is a personal failing.
[00:48:43.240 --> 00:48:55.640] While disdain for fat people predates the 80s, Reaganomics very specifically dictated that all health is personal as a way to avoid discussions of socialized medicine.
[00:48:55.640 --> 00:48:58.280] Still the same fucking thing happening right now.
[00:48:58.280 --> 00:49:01.240] And so you have another conspiratuality crossover.
[00:49:01.240 --> 00:49:13.640] The right disdains giving away anything for free, while the left, specifically a portion of the wellness community and the fit Fluencer community, loathes fatness.
[00:49:13.960 --> 00:49:16.720] There are overweight people who let things go.
[00:49:16.720 --> 00:49:18.160] I don't want to overlook it.
[00:49:18.160 --> 00:49:19.920] They have the means to eat better.
[00:49:19.920 --> 00:49:21.200] They can afford a gym.
[00:49:21.200 --> 00:49:24.720] They have the time to do all these things and they just don't.
[00:49:24.720 --> 00:49:27.440] I can't turn my eyes from that.
[00:49:27.440 --> 00:49:32.880] And if there weren't people like this, I don't think the biggest loser could even exist.
[00:49:32.880 --> 00:49:38.720] But personal responsibility is not the only reason people gain weight.
[00:49:38.720 --> 00:49:41.040] Let's just consider a few other reasons.
[00:49:41.040 --> 00:49:43.920] Genetic predisposition, which you mentioned earlier.
[00:49:43.920 --> 00:49:51.760] Medical conditions like hypothyroidism, polycystic ovary syndrome, Cushing syndrome, hypothalamic obesity.
[00:49:51.760 --> 00:50:03.680] Tons of medications promote weight gain, including steroids, antidepressants, antipsychotics, diabetes medications, beta blockers, seizure medications, birth control pills.
[00:50:03.680 --> 00:50:07.520] Aging, muscle mass decreases naturally over time.
[00:50:07.520 --> 00:50:13.200] So aging will inevitably increase weight for a lot of people.
[00:50:13.200 --> 00:50:14.640] Poor sleep is a huge one.
[00:50:14.640 --> 00:50:16.400] Chronic stress is a huge one.
[00:50:16.400 --> 00:50:18.080] Economic status is a huge one.
[00:50:18.080 --> 00:50:20.560] Built environment, work and time pressures.
[00:50:20.560 --> 00:50:25.680] Big wellness does address a few of these, but usually by trying to sell you something.
[00:50:26.240 --> 00:50:29.600] Not sleeping, pay for this app to track you to sleep.
[00:50:29.600 --> 00:50:30.960] Buy this supplement.
[00:50:30.960 --> 00:50:32.400] Stress the fuck out.
[00:50:32.400 --> 00:50:34.160] We have a workout program for you.
[00:50:34.160 --> 00:50:42.400] And I'm not even hating on those things because exercise does wonders for stress, which could have downstream weight loss effects.
[00:50:42.720 --> 00:50:47.080] But if you're a Jillian Michaels style-aspiring trainer.
[00:50:47.080 --> 00:50:51.520] How are you going to sell a program that addresses the fact that your family is poor?
[00:50:51.520 --> 00:50:53.760] That's not Maha's target audience.
[00:50:53.760 --> 00:51:06.360] Kennedy loves to yell about how many people are over-prescribed medications and is now using his power at HHS to launch an investigation into it, but connecting them with weight gain is a step too far.
[00:51:06.680 --> 00:51:16.680] And he's certainly not going to address the social determinants of health while making videos about how he loves to visit local gyms while he's traveling on his fucking private plane.
[00:51:16.680 --> 00:51:21.560] Then there's another layer, one which the New York Times covered back in 2016.
[00:51:21.880 --> 00:51:29.480] Most contestants put the weight back on, and for some, higher than their original weight after the show.
[00:51:29.480 --> 00:51:34.040] And that has little to do with personal responsibility.
[00:51:34.040 --> 00:51:39.160] I pulled a few graphs from an article that was from that New York Times story.
[00:51:39.160 --> 00:51:40.920] And Julian, can you read them in full?
[00:51:40.920 --> 00:51:42.840] I think it really sets the context here.
[00:51:42.840 --> 00:51:49.240] It has to do with resting metabolism, which determines how many calories a person burns when at rest.
[00:51:49.240 --> 00:51:59.880] When the show began, the contestants, though hugely overweight, had normal metabolisms for their size, meaning they were burning a normal number of calories for people of their weight.
[00:51:59.880 --> 00:52:10.600] When it ended, their metabolisms had slowed radically and their bodies were not burning enough calories to maintain their thinner sizes.
[00:52:10.600 --> 00:52:22.680] Researchers knew that just about anyone who deliberately loses weight, even if they start at a normal weight or even underweight, will have a slower metabolism when the diet ends.
[00:52:22.680 --> 00:52:29.320] So they were not surprised to see that the biggest loser contestants had slow metabolisms when the show ended.
[00:52:29.320 --> 00:52:32.520] What shocked the researchers was what happened next.
[00:52:32.520 --> 00:52:41.240] As the years went by and the numbers on the scale climbed again, the contestants' metabolisms did not recover.
[00:52:41.240 --> 00:52:45.040] They became even slower, and the pounds kept piling on.
[00:52:44.520 --> 00:52:51.120] It was as if their bodies were intensifying their effort to pull the contestants back to their original weight.
[00:52:51.920 --> 00:52:53.440] So fucking hypocritical.
[00:52:53.440 --> 00:53:09.120] You know, Casey and Callie-Means, the you know, the nominee for surgeon general and Kennedy's one of his main advisors, wrote a book called Good Energy, all about metabolic health, claiming that metabolic health is responsible for 90% of disease.
[00:53:09.120 --> 00:53:10.400] They don't mention this.
[00:53:10.400 --> 00:53:11.200] I read the book.
[00:53:11.200 --> 00:53:12.960] They don't talk about this phenomenon.
[00:53:12.960 --> 00:53:14.640] They want to sell you things.
[00:53:14.640 --> 00:53:20.640] They want to sell you levels, which is glucose monitoring programs and hardware.
[00:53:20.640 --> 00:53:22.240] They want to sell you supplements.
[00:53:22.240 --> 00:53:30.960] They want to pretend that metabolic health is all within your grasp if you just do these things when actual researchers know that's not true.
[00:53:30.960 --> 00:53:37.200] Yeah, it's the biohacking optimization version of Medicare for all.
[00:53:37.200 --> 00:53:38.320] It's just insane.
[00:53:38.320 --> 00:53:44.640] This whole phenomenon throws a big old wrench into the ethos presented on the show and one that is endemic to Maha.
[00:53:44.640 --> 00:53:48.160] Eat better, move more, and you're magically going to lose weight.
[00:53:48.160 --> 00:53:55.200] It's not that there's anything wrong, again, with those things, with eating better, perhaps eating less, without exercising more.
[00:53:55.200 --> 00:54:02.960] It's just that everybody responds to those things in the same way, especially if you've been overweight.
[00:54:02.960 --> 00:54:20.600] Yeah, and when you lose two or 300 pounds very, very rapidly and you put yourself through levels of activity that your body has not seen in your entire life in a very short period of time and you dehydrate yourself radically week after week.
[00:54:20.600 --> 00:54:32.040] Yeah, that's gonna, your whole system is gonna have a massive issue trying to integrate all of those intense, uh, you know, polarizing back and forth dynamics that are going on.
[00:54:32.040 --> 00:54:33.960] And it's not like this hasn't been studied.
[00:54:29.760 --> 00:54:37.480] I've worked in this industry for decades.
[00:54:37.480 --> 00:54:46.600] And one of the things that was true 30 years ago that's still true today is that a healthy amount of weight loss is one, maybe two pounds a week.
[00:54:46.600 --> 00:54:53.640] If you're doing more than that, maybe initially some people will lose a little more, mostly because of water weight when they start working out.
[00:54:53.800 --> 00:55:01.400] But if you're maintaining something above that, there's probably a whole lot of downstream effects that aren't going to be good for you.
[00:55:01.400 --> 00:55:20.120] So having a little bit of understanding of how the process works is really important because it'll help you mentally just to have a realistic goal here, which could mean 50 pounds over the course of a year if you work at it, if that is your goal.
[00:55:20.120 --> 00:55:25.320] But if you're dropping 200 pounds in 12 weeks, man, that is not a good thing for your body.
[00:55:25.320 --> 00:55:31.720] Yeah, but how exciting is a TV show in which you're losing one or two pounds a week?
[00:55:33.960 --> 00:55:38.520] So I said before, I found it just stunning that the show was so popular.
[00:55:38.520 --> 00:55:46.280] And it's because my first impressions, as most people are going to have watching Fit for TV, is that the premise is so cruel.
[00:55:46.280 --> 00:55:53.960] It creates spectacle out of people who are already socially devalued and seen as lacking in self-respect and discipline.
[00:55:53.960 --> 00:56:03.960] At the same time, it promised those contestants a way to redeem themselves by participating in a competitive ordeal with millions of people watching.
[00:56:03.960 --> 00:56:11.480] So, obviously, it was a pretty like extroverted kind of person who wanted attention, who ended up being on the show, as you saw from their audition videos.
[00:56:11.800 --> 00:56:21.040] And the redemption is not only about health, but it's about being more attractive, or to put it more honestly, about being less disgusting.
[00:56:21.600 --> 00:56:34.480] And that's all while defeating those not able to get back on the treadmill after vomiting or almost passing out while Jillian Michael screamed sadistic abuse in their face.
[00:56:34.480 --> 00:56:38.480] There's something very Roman Coliseum about it all to me.
[00:56:38.480 --> 00:56:47.520] And the fact that so many applicants were clamoring to be on it really gives the lie to prejudices about fat people being lazy or weak.
[00:56:47.520 --> 00:56:48.320] They're desperate.
[00:56:48.320 --> 00:56:50.400] They're like, oh, okay, I'll try this.
[00:56:50.400 --> 00:56:59.920] While also underlining their conditioned familiarity with being humiliated, like they've developed a tolerance for being treated that shittily.
[00:56:59.920 --> 00:57:12.880] It's also outrageous that each season had this winner-take-all grand prize of $250,000 with all of the loser-losers apparently being paid around $100 a day to be there.
[00:57:12.880 --> 00:57:16.640] Even though some negotiated for slightly more than that, it's still tiny in comparison.
[00:57:16.640 --> 00:57:23.680] Meanwhile, the stars of the show, the producers, and the network got very, very wealthy in the process.
[00:57:24.000 --> 00:57:47.520] Then there were all of the, this is the worst part for me, the weirdly exploitive temptation challenges, they called them, that involved choosing to either gorge yourself on as much high-calorie junk food as possible so as to then win prizes that might give you an advantage in the competition, or instead choosing to resist temptation and just stay on the straight and narrow with your weight loss goals.
[00:57:47.520 --> 00:57:49.680] That was also a really gross spectacle.
[00:57:49.680 --> 00:57:53.120] Yeah, I had no idea about that because, as I said, I didn't watch the show.
[00:57:53.120 --> 00:57:58.320] And what kind of broken brain thinks, hey, this is a good idea?
[00:57:58.320 --> 00:57:58.800] Yeah.
[00:57:58.800 --> 00:58:00.760] And then actually implements it.
[00:57:59.920 --> 00:58:01.400] It really does.
[00:58:01.560 --> 00:58:13.560] One thing the documentary does really well is pick out moments of where they are just humiliating the people intentionally, where they're carrying food around in their mouth running around.
[00:58:13.560 --> 00:58:15.720] And it's just, it's so dystopic.
[00:58:15.720 --> 00:58:17.640] Yeah, like picture that production meeting.
[00:58:17.640 --> 00:58:19.480] Hey, I've got a great idea, guys.
[00:58:19.480 --> 00:58:42.600] Let's have all of these fat people who are desperately trying to lose hundreds of pounds be faced with this temptation where if they just absolutely stuff food into their faces, the most like high, calorically dense junk food possible while we film them, they can have an advantage in trying to lose a ton of weight over the people they're trying to beat.
[00:58:42.600 --> 00:58:45.800] I mean, it's the whole thing is just really bizarre.
[00:58:45.800 --> 00:58:58.120] I think the documentary does a really good job of exposing this cruelty as well as the medical irresponsibility and the prioritizing of ratings and money over the physical and mental health of the participants.
[00:58:58.120 --> 00:59:18.680] It also holds up a mirror to the perhaps kind of literal, in this case, bread and circus American culture of competitive spectacle that thrives as much on rooting for the everyman as on also getting sadistic enjoyment out of his or her humiliation and defeat.

Prompt 2: Key Takeaways

Now please extract the key takeaways from the transcript content I provided.

Extract the most important key takeaways from this part of the conversation. Use a single sentence statement (the key takeaway) rather than milquetoast descriptions like "the hosts discuss...". 

Limit the key takeaways to a maximum of 3. The key takeaways should be insightful and knowledge-additive. 

IMPORTANT: Return ONLY valid JSON, no explanations or markdown. Ensure:
- All strings are properly quoted and escaped
- No trailing commas
- All braces and brackets are balanced
Format: {"key_takeaways": ["takeaway 1", "takeaway 2"]}

Prompt 3: Segments

Now identify 2-4 distinct topical segments from this part of the conversation.

For each segment, identify:
- Descriptive title (3-6 words)  
- START timestamp when this topic begins (HH:MM:SS format)
- Double check that the timestamp is accurate - a timestamp will NEVER be greater than the total length of the audio
- Most important Key takeaway from that segment. Key takeaway must be specific and knowledge-additive.
- Brief summary of the discussion

IMPORTANT: The timestamp should mark when the topic/segment STARTS, not a range. Look for topic transitions and conversation shifts.

Return ONLY valid JSON. Ensure all strings are properly quoted, no trailing commas:
{
  "segments": [
    {
      "segment_title": "Topic Discussion", 
      "timestamp": "01:15:30",
      "key_takeaway": "main point from this segment",
      "segment_summary": "brief description of what was discussed"
    }
  ]
}

Timestamp format: HH:MM:SS (e.g., 00:05:30, 01:22:45) marking the START of each segment.

Prompt 4: Media Mentions

Now scan the transcript content I provided for ACTUAL mentions of specific media titles:

Find explicit mentions of:
- Books (with specific titles)
- Movies (with specific titles)  
- TV Shows (with specific titles)
- Music/Songs (with specific titles)

DO NOT include:
- Websites, URLs, or web services
- Other podcasts or podcast names

IMPORTANT: 
- Only include items explicitly mentioned by name. Do not invent titles.
- Valid categories are: "Book", "Movie", "TV Show", "Music"
- Include the exact phrase where each item was mentioned
- Find the nearest proximate timestamp where it appears in the conversation
- THE TIMESTAMP OF THE MEDIA MENTION IS IMPORTANT - DO NOT INVENT TIMESTAMPS AND DO NOT MISATTRIBUTE TIMESTAMPS
- Double check that the timestamp is accurate - a timestamp will NEVER be greater than the total length of the audio
- Timestamps are given as ranges, e.g. 01:13:42.520 --> 01:13:46.720. Use the EARLIER of the 2 timestamps in the range.

Return ONLY valid JSON. Ensure all strings are properly quoted and escaped, no trailing commas:
{
  "media_mentions": [
    {
      "title": "Exact Title as Mentioned",
      "category": "Book",
      "author_artist": "N/A",
      "context": "Brief context of why it was mentioned",
      "context_phrase": "The exact sentence or phrase where it was mentioned",
      "timestamp": "estimated time like 01:15:30"
    }
  ]
}

If no media is mentioned, return: {"media_mentions": []}

Full Transcript

[00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:06.560] Teams need professional quality content fast, but most don't have the time or creative support to get what they need.
[00:00:06.560 --> 00:00:11.040] Need Adobe Express, the quick and easy app to create on-brand content.
[00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:25.280] Whether you're launching a social campaign by end of day, building a client pitch deck, or creating an employee onboarding video, Adobe Express gives you the tools to create with confidence so you can make standout content that's always on brand and on time.
[00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:29.840] To learn more, head to adobe.com/slash go/slash express.
[00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:50.320] If you're a lineman in charge of keeping the lights on, Granger understands that you go to great lengths and sometimes heights to ensure the power is always flowing, which is why you can count on Granger for professional-grade products and next-day delivery so you have everything you need to get the job done.
[00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:54.800] Call 1-800-GRANGER, clickgranger.com, or just stop by.
[00:00:54.800 --> 00:00:58.560] Granger for the ones who get it done.
[00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:22.080] Hey, everyone, welcome to Conspirituality, where we investigate the intersections of conspiracy theories and spiritual influence to uncover cults, pseudoscience, and authoritarian extremism.
[00:01:22.080 --> 00:01:23.280] I'm Derek Barris.
[00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:24.400] I'm Julian Walker.
[00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:37.200] Matthew is away this week on a family vacation, but he has pre-recorded the brief and bonus for this weekend, so you can hear him then and we'll all be together next week.
[00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:44.640] For now, we are all on Instagram and threads at ConspiritualityPod, as well as individually on Blue Sky.
[00:01:44.800 --> 00:01:54.560] You can access all of our episodes ad-free, plus our Monday bonus episodes on Patreon at patreon.com/slash conspirituality.
[00:01:54.880 --> 00:02:00.000] You can also access our Monday bonus episodes via Apple subscriptions.
[00:02:00.520 --> 00:02:07.880] As independent media creators, we really appreciate your support.
[00:02:07.880 --> 00:02:14.200] Conspirituality 272, Jillian Michaels is the biggest loser.
[00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:21.800] The unavoidable question of the week: why is Jillian Michaels on CNN commenting on slavery exactly?
[00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:24.200] As it turns out, Netflix provides the answer.
[00:02:24.200 --> 00:02:40.840] The three-part talki series, Fit for TV, the reality of the biggest loser, creeps behind the scenes of this uber popular and uber disturbing 18-season reality show that weirdly promoted fat shaming while simultaneously pretending to alleviate it.
[00:02:40.840 --> 00:02:49.640] It turns out that sort of jujitsu falls apart when hearing directly from the producers, contestants, and one of the two celebrity trainers, Bob Harper.
[00:02:49.640 --> 00:02:54.920] Jillian declined to participate, which has now resulted in threats of a lawsuit.
[00:02:54.920 --> 00:03:03.640] And as we'll discuss today, we can't shake the feeling that the biggest loser from this entire mess is all of us.
[00:03:09.400 --> 00:03:11.960] This week in Conspiratuality.
[00:03:11.960 --> 00:03:19.560] Well, Jillian, another week has gone by, which means another year's worth of destruction over in Maha Land.
[00:03:19.960 --> 00:03:21.000] RFK Jr.
[00:03:21.160 --> 00:03:33.000] now has near total personal authority in deciding who is considered medically frail and who has special medical needs, as Mother Jones reports.
[00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:34.520] Why does this matter?
[00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:37.960] Well, if you're on Medicaid, it matters a lot.
[00:03:37.960 --> 00:03:47.360] Kennedy, who, as a reminder, has no medical training whatsoever, is now being given the power to decide who gives him a medical med off of that program.
[00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:58.080] Here's how Mother Jones describes it: A person with debilitating chronic pain or a serious autoimmune illness may appear able-bodied by the standards RFK Jr.
[00:03:58.320 --> 00:04:08.160] peers poised to implement, even as they face hurdles in qualifying for social security disability due to not being considered disabled enough.
[00:04:08.160 --> 00:04:09.360] Yeah, fuck these guys.
[00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:10.640] First of all, able-bodied.
[00:04:10.640 --> 00:04:17.280] If you'd followed the Maha challenge, watching them try to do push-ups and pull-ups, they're not very able-bodied themselves.
[00:04:17.280 --> 00:04:18.560] And I'm not being facetious.
[00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:27.840] I mean, if you're going to go online to millions of people and be like, this is our fitness program, and then just fuck off with the actual program, I have no love for you.
[00:04:27.840 --> 00:04:49.040] So, besides that, in terms of this particular piece with Medicaid, one public health official speculates that this could play out just like Trump's move of sending National Guard troops to major cities, target vulnerable people in blue states while accepting the same conditions for those in need in red states.
[00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:56.400] Obviously, this is stupid for a number of reasons, including the fact that no state is either all blue or all red.
[00:04:56.400 --> 00:05:03.600] So, indiscriminately kicking people off Medicaid in blue states in no way guarantees that they're Democrats.
[00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:07.920] But cruelty does not discriminate in this sense.
[00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:15.360] Number two, meanwhile, the Deli Beast reports this week that COVID vaccines could be a thing of the past in America.
[00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:21.640] Super anti-vaxxer and COVID contrarian Asim Maholtra told the publication that.
[00:05:21.880 --> 00:05:24.240] Many of those closest to RFK Jr.
[00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:31.960] have told him they cannot understand why the vaccine continues to be prescribed and that a decision to remove the vaccine from the U.S.
[00:05:32.040 --> 00:05:42.440] market pending further research will come within months, even if it is likely to cause fear of chaos and bring with it major legal ramifications.
[00:05:42.440 --> 00:05:46.120] Maholtra, we've covered him a little bit, but never really focused on him.
[00:05:46.120 --> 00:05:48.200] He's kind of a proto-Kennedy.
[00:05:48.200 --> 00:05:56.680] He's been relating diet to chronic diseases since at least 2014, and I don't mean in the eat better for better health kind of way.
[00:05:56.680 --> 00:06:08.760] Early into the pandemic, he published a book called the 21-day Immunity Plan, in which he claimed that diet could help people reduce their risk of getting or dying from the virus.
[00:06:08.760 --> 00:06:16.040] He's basically rewritten diet books for years and adapted them to whatever cultural situation suited the moment.
[00:06:16.040 --> 00:06:24.040] For example, he published a 21-day low-carb diet book in 2017 as well, jumping on the keto trend.
[00:06:24.040 --> 00:06:24.440] Yeah.
[00:06:24.440 --> 00:06:32.840] Now, strangely, he initially campaigned for the COVID vaccine before coming out hard against mRNA vaccines broadly.
[00:06:32.840 --> 00:06:35.640] We've seen that actually a number of times.
[00:06:35.640 --> 00:06:41.560] Now he's a leading advisor to the lobbying group, Make America Healthy Again Action.
[00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:44.120] And he's also a close friend of Kennedy.
[00:06:44.120 --> 00:06:49.640] So I'm going to take him at his word that HHS will at least try to make this happen.
[00:06:49.960 --> 00:06:53.960] Number three, last one from me, and then I know you got one.
[00:06:53.960 --> 00:07:01.320] Wall Street Journal reports that scientists are removing words like diverse and disparities from their federal research grants.
[00:07:01.320 --> 00:07:02.200] Jesus Christ.
[00:07:02.200 --> 00:07:06.680] You know, I write this script and then even as I'm reading it, I'm like, I can't believe this is fucking real.
[00:07:06.680 --> 00:07:12.280] So they're removing these words from grants in order to keep the money that HHS has initially promised.
[00:07:12.280 --> 00:07:29.280] Wall Street Journal talked to Tim Nurkowitz, a physiology, pharmacology, and toxicology professor at West Virginia University, who told the paper that an NIH official told him to remove the word diverse from his grants.
[00:07:29.280 --> 00:07:30.320] Here's the context.
[00:07:30.320 --> 00:07:31.760] Nerkowitz was baffled.
[00:07:31.760 --> 00:07:39.440] His work in Appalachia, studying how particles get into the lungs and affect health, has nothing to do with DEI.
[00:07:39.440 --> 00:07:48.240] The first sentence of his grant summary included the word diverse, but that pertained to diverse airborne toxicants.
[00:07:48.880 --> 00:07:51.520] God, he said the bad word.
[00:07:51.520 --> 00:07:59.600] Nerkowitz finally got his renewed funding after he changed the phrase to a large variety of airborne toxicants.
[00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:00.960] I'm working on a new book.
[00:08:00.960 --> 00:08:02.960] I'm like 25,000 words in.
[00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:08.320] It's really flying, but I realized it's sort of half the work I do on the podcast, half memoir.
[00:08:08.320 --> 00:08:10.960] And I'm talking about this stretch in college.
[00:08:10.960 --> 00:08:14.880] And I'm writing about diversity and the importance of diversity.
[00:08:14.880 --> 00:08:33.680] And there's a moment where I have to stop and actually in the text say, I didn't think when I was going to college in the 90s, when we were talking about issues of diversity, that 30 years later, I would need to reiterate it because I thought the culture was just going to assume that by that point.
[00:08:33.680 --> 00:08:47.600] And the fact that we are actually further back than we were 30 years ago in this regard in our understanding of the importance of diversity just kind of baffles my mind and is giving a framework for that work right now.
[00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:49.840] It is super frustrating.
[00:08:49.840 --> 00:09:02.200] We are recording this on Wednesday, the day before this runs, but I even have a feeling, given that I track Kennedy every day on Twitter, that by the time you're listening to this, there's going to be another half dozen stories that could fit into this segment.
[00:09:02.200 --> 00:09:05.240] And I think, Julian, you have at least one more.
[00:09:05.240 --> 00:09:12.200] Yeah, so let's just stay on the Maha-related tip, given that there's a constant deluge of this shit.
[00:09:12.520 --> 00:09:22.040] With the decades-long project of overturning Roe versus Wade firmly in the rear view, the anti-abortion movement now has its sights set on IVF.
[00:09:22.040 --> 00:09:34.120] Because some embryos are inevitably discarded in the process of creating a viable pregnancy, activists see the medical science assisting conception as a form of abortion.
[00:09:34.440 --> 00:09:40.840] One problem for these activists, however, is that Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to protect IVF.
[00:09:40.840 --> 00:09:43.080] Wait, that's not really a problem at all.
[00:09:43.080 --> 00:09:45.800] He even said he'd make sure it was covered by health insurance.
[00:09:45.800 --> 00:09:56.520] And not only has he not followed through on that promise at all, this past April, his administration dissolved a CDC panel that tracked IVF outcomes around the country.
[00:09:56.520 --> 00:10:03.400] And this allowed potential patients in the past to evaluate the success rates of different fertility clinics.
[00:10:03.400 --> 00:10:16.680] Now, opinions within GOP-led legislatures are divided, and this is illustrated by some state houses passing protections for IVF, sort of as promised, even as anti-choice bills try to encroach upon it.
[00:10:16.680 --> 00:10:26.440] Last year, the Alabama Supreme Court led the latter charge, ruling that IVF embryos have the status and rights of being people.
[00:10:26.760 --> 00:10:44.760] And then representatives in the Arkansas House have also floated bills which would charge IVF clinics with homicide, as well as trying to create a special license for clinics that offer the service, and then requiring the number of fertilized embryos and their outcomes to be reported to their state's Department of Health.
[00:10:45.040 --> 00:10:49.600] But the thing is, they're already doing that kind of reporting to the CDC.
[00:10:49.920 --> 00:10:55.440] Here's where the story starts to have recognizable conspiracuality contours.
[00:10:55.760 --> 00:11:11.920] Some anti-abortion conservatives, along with the Heritage Foundation, who would have thought, are using Maha-type language to promote a natural and holistic fertility treatment method, referred to as restorative reproductive medicine.
[00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:29.360] As listeners might guess, the website for the International Institute of Restorative Reproductive Medicine tells us that this approach seeks to identify the underlying health conditions that contribute to reproductive dysfunction and suboptimal reproductive health.
[00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:30.720] Close quotes.
[00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:42.560] They provide personalized treatment plans with methods that include what seems like a lot of tests, medications, supplements, surgeries, and lifestyle adjustments.
[00:11:42.560 --> 00:11:48.000] Yeah, it sounds like bespoke so-called functional medicine for the reproductive system.
[00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:57.520] When qualified fertility experts point out that these methods are not supported by medical science, proponents of RRM say they are being suppressive.
[00:11:57.520 --> 00:12:01.440] I'm sure Mark Hyman and his Function Health is going to get a contract for this.
[00:12:01.440 --> 00:12:06.000] I've called it for this fall when the private partner, public partnerships begin.
[00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:13.040] And I'm pretty sure Function, they've actually just recently bought a full-body MRI company.
[00:12:13.040 --> 00:12:16.400] Experts have said that most people don't need full-body MRIs.
[00:12:16.400 --> 00:12:18.720] It's just pretty much garbage and a waste of money.
[00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:20.080] But they bought that.
[00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:26.000] And I'm guessing it's going to line up with things like this for these types of partnerships.
[00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:29.680] I found some nice reporting on this topic from Kentucky Lantern.
[00:12:29.800 --> 00:12:48.840] They write: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists call RRM a non-medical approach and an unproven concept that can delay time to pregnancy and expose patients to needless and painful surgical interventions, such as procedures to treat polycystic ovarian syndrome.
[00:12:48.840 --> 00:12:59.560] It says the approach overwhelmingly puts the onus on women, ignoring that infertility causes are just as common in men, which is completely true.
[00:12:59.880 --> 00:13:18.840] They also point out that clinics have ties to private equity firms and other large corporations, which when you brought up Heritage Foundation, that puts it into context because they very much are about the privatization of as much health care as possible as they laid out Project 2025.
[00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:25.160] Yeah, and as you pointed out, the word surgeries is on that list of holistic treatments.
[00:13:25.160 --> 00:13:34.760] And this often refers also to surgical excision of endometriosis tissue, which is erroneously proposed as being the main barrier to pregnancy.
[00:13:34.760 --> 00:13:38.600] So you're not going to need all of that, like, you know, satanic IVF stuff.
[00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:43.240] We'll just go in there and cut things out, and then you'll be able to magically get pregnant.
[00:13:43.240 --> 00:13:45.160] What if they do psychic surgeries?
[00:13:45.160 --> 00:13:45.960] Yeah, exactly.
[00:13:45.960 --> 00:13:49.080] That would be probably as effective in some cases.
[00:13:49.080 --> 00:13:51.800] These procedures may be unnecessary.
[00:13:51.800 --> 00:14:03.880] They may expose the patient to the standard risks associated with surgery and have little or no impact on fertility, according to the American College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians.
[00:14:03.880 --> 00:14:19.760] Meanwhile, the state of Arkansas has actually passed a bill called the Restore Act, which requires that insurance companies, and this is part of what you were referencing a moment ago, Derek, in terms of people starting to wet their beaks, insurance companies have to cover these treatments.
[00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:24.240] Proponents refer to it as ethical IVF.
[00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:46.880] The Guardian also reports that last month, RFK Jr.'s Department of HHS posted a notice soliciting applications for a proposed $1.5 million grant to fund an infertility training center that would expand access to resources for holistic infertility treatments rather than assisted reproductive technology.
[00:14:46.880 --> 00:14:49.040] You know, there's already a term for ethical IVF.
[00:14:49.040 --> 00:14:50.640] It's called IVF.
[00:14:50.640 --> 00:14:51.920] IVF, yeah, exactly.
[00:14:51.920 --> 00:14:52.640] It's right.
[00:14:52.640 --> 00:14:54.160] It's a tautology.
[00:14:54.160 --> 00:15:11.200] To nail this whole crunchy meets conservative horseshoe that, you know, we endlessly describe firmly to the hoof, the National Catholic Bioethics Center's website claims that RRM seeks to get to the root cause of infertility.
[00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:12.400] Jesus Christ.
[00:15:12.400 --> 00:15:15.440] Root cause has made it into Catholic discourse.
[00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:26.960] Buzzwood the Boys is here to let you know that every college football Saturday, FanDuel is dropping profit boosts that can turn wins into bigger ones.
[00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:30.000] Sounds like we should rename Saturday Booster Day.
[00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:31.120] Nice.
[00:15:31.760 --> 00:15:33.600] 21 Plus and present in New York.
[00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:34.480] Opt-in required.
[00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:36.880] Bonus issued as non-withdrawable profit boost tokens.
[00:15:36.880 --> 00:15:40.160] Restrictions apply, including any token expiration and maximum amount.
[00:15:40.160 --> 00:15:42.480] See full terms at fan duel.com/slash sportsbook.
[00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:48.800] For help with a gambling problem, call 1-877-8 HOPENY or text Hope and Why 467-369.
[00:15:52.640 --> 00:15:55.840] When did making plans get this complicated?
[00:15:56.160 --> 00:16:01.320] It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together.
[00:16:01.640 --> 00:16:10.600] Use polls to settle dinner plans, send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom's 60th, and never miss a meme or milestone.
[00:16:10.600 --> 00:16:13.000] All protected with end-to-end encryption.
[00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:14.600] It's time for WhatsApp.
[00:16:14.600 --> 00:16:16.200] Message privately with everyone.
[00:16:16.200 --> 00:16:18.280] Learn more at whatsapp.com.
[00:16:18.600 --> 00:16:27.400] Labor Day savings are here at the Home Depot with up to 35% off, plus up to an extra $450 off select appliances like LG.
[00:16:27.400 --> 00:16:33.240] Keep your routines running smoothly with an LG refrigerator you can count on from the Home Depot.
[00:16:33.240 --> 00:16:38.920] And with the connected ThinQ app, you'll know if the door is left open and when to replace the filter.
[00:16:38.920 --> 00:16:44.920] Gear up for fall with Labor Day Savings on LG, America's most reliable appliance brand at the Home Depot.
[00:16:44.920 --> 00:16:46.920] Offer valid August 21st through September 10th.
[00:16:46.920 --> 00:16:47.080] U.S.
[00:16:47.160 --> 00:16:48.760] only, see store online for details.
[00:16:48.760 --> 00:17:00.040] I was watching CNN and I saw where Jillian Michaels was on there in a debate this sheep seemed to have started.
[00:17:00.040 --> 00:17:18.760] And they were talking about changes to the Smithsonian and how art and culture shifts between who has the power to dictate how the exhibits are written, who the exhibits are of, and everything.
[00:17:19.080 --> 00:17:29.720] And Jillian Michaels was like, it's so unfair that slavery in this country only gets blamed on one race.
[00:17:37.960 --> 00:17:42.360] Look, look, as outrageous as that is, that is genuinely funny.
[00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:46.080] Like, look.
[00:17:47.040 --> 00:18:00.560] Look, I'm not going to tell anybody how to feel, but if you heard the words I said that Jillian said, and you immediately got angry, I would ask you to take a step back.
[00:18:01.520 --> 00:18:03.120] I'm not going to tell you how to feel.
[00:18:03.120 --> 00:18:08.480] You could be angry if you want to be angry because it is a very short-sighted, ignorant thing to say.
[00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:11.200] But that's precisely why it's so funny.
[00:18:11.200 --> 00:18:14.400] It is absolutely hilarious.
[00:18:14.560 --> 00:18:15.120] All right.
[00:18:15.120 --> 00:18:28.320] Well, last week we played the CNN clip in question on the podcast, but I wanted to start off this discussion with a bit of a laugh that comes to you via the Daily Show correspondent and new host now, Josh Johnson.
[00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:40.560] Plus, there's a straight line from Jillian Michaels' role as one of the two coaches on the biggest loser to her now prominent role in Maha, where, for example, RFK Jr.
[00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:44.720] invited her to speak in front of Congress last fall.
[00:18:45.040 --> 00:18:49.760] She also regularly hosts Maha influencers on her podcast.
[00:18:49.760 --> 00:18:59.120] And I think the safest assumption that line drags across is she's completely unqualified for any position she's been in in her career.
[00:18:59.120 --> 00:19:03.200] But willing to speak very loudly and aggressively on whatever topic is in front of her.
[00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:04.240] Oh, absolutely.
[00:19:04.240 --> 00:19:09.840] I'll get into this when we do synopsis, but her as a coach is a fucking joke.
[00:19:09.840 --> 00:19:11.360] So we'll be clear on that.
[00:19:11.360 --> 00:19:21.280] The biggest loser is back in the cultural discourse, thanks to the Netflix docuseries, Fit for TV, which surveys a few select seasons from the show.
[00:19:21.280 --> 00:19:23.360] It's not exhaustive by any means.
[00:19:23.360 --> 00:19:26.720] Michaels was one of two trainers for the first 11 seasons.
[00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:29.200] She returned for seasons 14 and 15.
[00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:33.160] Her counterpart, Bob Harper, was a trainer on all 18.
[00:19:29.840 --> 00:19:36.760] He also did three for the Australian version of the show.
[00:19:37.080 --> 00:19:53.160] Notably, Michaels did not appear in the Netflix series while Harper did, which made for a lot of the blame placed on Michaels for offering contestants caffeine pills and for which she's now considering suing Netflix for.
[00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:54.040] We'll get there.
[00:19:54.040 --> 00:19:55.960] It's a little more complex than that.
[00:19:55.960 --> 00:20:01.320] But the fallout from the series, I think, is as interesting as the series itself.
[00:20:01.320 --> 00:20:05.480] Before we get into that, Julian, what did you think about Fit for TV?
[00:20:05.480 --> 00:20:14.840] I mean, I feel like, like a lot of people in our demographic, probably, I really missed out on the explosion of reality TV in general when it was happening.
[00:20:14.840 --> 00:20:20.040] So it's been a little bit of an anthropological expedition for me to learn about the show.
[00:20:20.040 --> 00:20:24.440] I'm stunned that it was hugely popular for 17 or 18 seasons.
[00:20:24.440 --> 00:20:26.760] I'll say more about why a little bit later.
[00:20:26.760 --> 00:20:46.520] Fit for TV, the documentary, is fascinating because it examines the cultural phenomenon of this hugely successful biggest loser series in which very heavy people, the average starting weight being about 328 pounds, competed to see who could lose the most weight week by week over a 30-week period.
[00:20:46.520 --> 00:20:56.120] And to do so, they utilized this combination of intense exercise, caloric restriction, dehydration, as it turns out, and other more controversial methods.
[00:20:56.120 --> 00:21:09.160] Overall, I feel like this documentary depicts a sickening blend of desperate enthusiasm, relentless shaming, and that weird live audience reality TV kind of circus vibe.
[00:21:09.160 --> 00:21:27.520] And Jillian Michaels, who we've been talking about lately in our Instagram quite a bit as well, rose to fame as a trainer on The Biggest Loser, which made me kind of feel like I was just watching another season of Jillian Michaels is an awful human being, especially given how much she's been in the news lately, as you flagged.
[00:21:27.520 --> 00:21:36.640] For anyone who had any doubt, going back and watching her on The Biggest Loser confirms she is someone with a rare level of unapologetic sadism.
[00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:39.040] And that's not a common trait.
[00:21:39.040 --> 00:21:48.720] The Netflix doc does something the actual show, as it turns out, failed to do, which is follow up with former contestants and check in on their physical and mental health.
[00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:49.760] So more on that to come.
[00:21:49.920 --> 00:22:15.040] Kara Swisher, the podcast host and journalist, was on Jillian Michaels' podcast and she actually posted yesterday about it, saying her reasons for being on it, but also saying that being in the room with Jillian, she was actually surprised by how confident she was in her own ignorance, basically, which I think is a good synopsis for other people that I've heard from who have interacted with Jillian on that level.
[00:22:15.040 --> 00:22:18.160] During this entire time, I never watched The Biggest Loser.
[00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:24.240] I watched season one of Real House on MTV in what, like 93, something like that.
[00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:27.040] That was the beginning of what we now know as Reality TV.
[00:22:27.040 --> 00:22:28.160] The Real World, you mean?
[00:22:28.160 --> 00:22:28.880] Real World, thank you.
[00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:29.840] It was in the house.
[00:22:29.840 --> 00:22:30.560] It was in the house.
[00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:32.320] I actually auditioned for that show.
[00:22:32.320 --> 00:22:33.840] I was like 21 years old.
[00:22:33.840 --> 00:22:34.320] Yeah.
[00:22:35.360 --> 00:22:36.640] I got to the second stage.
[00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:37.280] Wow.
[00:22:37.600 --> 00:22:39.920] I'm sorry you didn't make it further.
[00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:42.000] I'm really glad I didn't.
[00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:44.400] But that was my whole interaction.
[00:22:44.400 --> 00:22:48.000] Then I went to college and then reality TV just became a joke to me.
[00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:50.400] But I do remember when the series was running.
[00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:54.880] During the entire time it ran, I was a fitness instructor at Equinox.
[00:22:54.880 --> 00:22:56.800] So I was parallel to it.
[00:22:56.800 --> 00:23:04.440] And I want to be clear on one thing that I think is really important that I've learned for decades of teaching different modalities in fitness.
[00:23:04.760 --> 00:23:10.920] Different people take to different instructors and different kinds of instruction.
[00:23:10.920 --> 00:23:13.800] I was never one to yell at people.
[00:23:13.800 --> 00:23:15.000] I was not a screamer.
[00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:24.840] I tried to amp people up in kettlebell classes or cycling, but to actually degrade people was something that I and all of my colleagues that I knew at Equinox.
[00:23:24.840 --> 00:23:26.760] That was not what we did.
[00:23:27.080 --> 00:23:32.440] I do think there is a population that feeds off of that.
[00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:37.560] And that is what the biggest loser thrived from and sort of why it was a spectacle.
[00:23:37.560 --> 00:23:47.160] Famously, the boot camp scene, sometimes CrossFit had that ethos and mentality of like, no pain, no gain.
[00:23:47.160 --> 00:23:48.840] I don't like it.
[00:23:48.840 --> 00:23:51.800] I understand for some, it has utility.
[00:23:51.800 --> 00:23:58.040] I just want to be really clear on that because I'm super critical of what the biggest loser did is what we're going to get into.
[00:23:58.360 --> 00:24:12.360] But I do find one thing that really came out watching this series was how cult-like both Jillian and Bob were in their approach of breaking people down and then trying to build them back up.
[00:24:12.360 --> 00:24:14.840] Like that kept coming across.
[00:24:14.840 --> 00:24:26.120] And you can argue that it's the editing and the way it was positioned, which is very shady and very meant to invoke emotions in the watchers, the viewers, not the contestants.
[00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:34.840] But that came across over and over again, how they would just shit on people and then pretend like they were there to actually help them.
[00:24:35.160 --> 00:24:40.120] And big picture, I don't think that's helpful for anyone.
[00:24:40.440 --> 00:24:46.560] The series, as I said, it only looks at a couple of seasons and only a couple of contestants.
[00:24:46.560 --> 00:24:57.200] I think they did a pretty good job at giving a broad overview, but obviously with 18 seasons, they missed a lot, including in the few seasons they discussed.
[00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:02.720] That includes a big focus on the series, which is the seventh season, which was in 2009.
[00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:06.960] They did two seasons a year, so it didn't last for 17 or 18 years.
[00:25:07.280 --> 00:25:11.440] This was the second time they featured couples on the show.
[00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:16.080] There was a woman named Joelle Gwynn, who was heavily featured in Fit for TV.
[00:25:16.560 --> 00:25:20.320] She had a falling out with her friend, Carla Trippett.
[00:25:20.320 --> 00:25:29.200] So I went back and I watched the first episode of that season and then tagged and then watched a few other episodes in preparation for this podcast.
[00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:33.840] It turns out that the fallout happened in the first week of the season.
[00:25:33.840 --> 00:25:40.720] I mean, this fallout takes almost an entire episode of the three episodes, but it was only in week one of that season.
[00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:46.720] It couldn't have happened later because of a plot twist that the producers introduced into the series.
[00:25:46.720 --> 00:25:51.360] And I'm including it here because it highlights the sort of cruelty the show is infamous for.
[00:25:51.360 --> 00:25:55.360] And they really don't discuss this in the docuseries.
[00:25:55.360 --> 00:25:56.720] Think about this.
[00:25:56.720 --> 00:26:03.040] You're overweight and you want to get on the biggest loser to help you lose weight and to get healthy and to feel better about yourself.
[00:26:03.040 --> 00:26:06.880] You submit a tape with your friend or your relative and you get accepted.
[00:26:06.880 --> 00:26:12.320] The very beginning of the first episode, it features the contestants finding out they were chosen.
[00:26:12.320 --> 00:26:14.960] It was sheer excitement and joy.
[00:26:14.960 --> 00:26:22.080] Then, a week into filming, you take part in a race with your partner as part of the series.
[00:26:22.080 --> 00:26:27.200] As it turns out, the winner receives immunity at the first weigh-in.
[00:26:27.200 --> 00:26:34.200] So, the way that the show is structured, if you lose the least amount of weight in a week, you get kicked off the island.
[00:26:29.600 --> 00:26:35.560] So, winning this race is huge.
[00:26:35.720 --> 00:26:40.440] It means you could have lost the least amount of weight, but you wouldn't get kicked off.
[00:26:40.440 --> 00:26:47.880] Then you get to the weigh-in, and this is what happens: Tonight, there will be no eliminations.
[00:26:47.880 --> 00:26:48.280] What?
[00:26:49.720 --> 00:26:51.160] That is awesome.
[00:26:53.320 --> 00:26:54.600] Oh, my God!
[00:26:59.560 --> 00:27:00.760] I do it!
[00:27:01.080 --> 00:27:01.960] She's not done.
[00:27:01.960 --> 00:27:02.760] What's the catch?
[00:27:02.760 --> 00:27:03.320] What's the catch?
[00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:04.280] What's the catch?
[00:27:04.600 --> 00:27:11.960] Tonight, there will be no elimination.
[00:27:11.960 --> 00:27:24.840] But nine of you are going home.
[00:27:24.840 --> 00:27:34.600] Here's how it's gonna work: each team will weigh in, and it will be the team with the highest combined percentage of weight loss who will be above the yellow line.
[00:27:34.600 --> 00:27:37.800] Dane and Blaine, you want immunity this week.
[00:27:37.800 --> 00:27:43.960] So, you are the only couple that is safe here on campus tonight.
[00:27:44.280 --> 00:27:50.920] The only other couple that will be safe tonight is the couple that wins the weigh-in.
[00:27:52.200 --> 00:28:04.360] The nine teams who fall below the yellow line will have to choose one person from each couple to go home.
[00:28:04.360 --> 00:28:08.520] When Allison announced the twist, I was devastated.
[00:28:08.520 --> 00:28:10.520] I was just like, Are you kidding me?
[00:28:10.520 --> 00:28:12.600] We've only been here for a week.
[00:28:12.600 --> 00:28:14.960] Yeah, so just fucking cruel.
[00:28:14.960 --> 00:28:18.240] Like, and that was what they introduced for that series.
[00:28:14.600 --> 00:28:21.120] And I'm kind of surprised the documentary doesn't go into that.
[00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:23.120] But that's the mentality.
[00:28:23.120 --> 00:28:29.120] I think that's a good heuristic for understanding the mentality of the people behind this entire expedition.
[00:28:29.120 --> 00:28:29.760] Yeah, yeah.
[00:28:29.760 --> 00:28:44.800] And honestly, as someone who did not grow up in this country, like this, this could be just a microcosm of everything that people outside of America find so distasteful about so much of American entertainment and spectacle.
[00:28:44.800 --> 00:28:55.040] I feel like this kind of reality TV is the incestuous love child of the most based level social conditioning and primal emotions as stimulated by that over-the-top music.
[00:28:55.040 --> 00:29:03.040] And then that game that kids often play where you ask each other things like, if one of your parents had to die, would you pick your mom or your dad?
[00:29:03.040 --> 00:29:06.960] Or would you rather have a dog bite off three of your fingers or have your grandma go blind?
[00:29:06.960 --> 00:29:09.760] You know, it's like, what have we been doing here?
[00:29:09.760 --> 00:29:17.200] It creates car crash scenarios that you struggle to look away from, but the cultural collateral damage is really not worth it.
[00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:28.480] And my stomach tightens as I cringe for the hopeful, ordinary people thrust into the limelight to mostly just be sacrificed on the altar of crappy entertainment, right?
[00:29:29.120 --> 00:29:33.680] Now, regarding fitness and weight loss, of course, it's such loaded territory.
[00:29:33.680 --> 00:29:37.680] Everyone is better off if they maintain healthy levels of weight and activity.
[00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:38.800] And yeah, it's true.
[00:29:38.800 --> 00:29:44.080] People treat us differently when we fit certain ideals better than when we are obese.
[00:29:44.080 --> 00:29:51.440] It can feel empowering and even improve mental health to regain a sense of control over these areas of our lives.
[00:29:51.440 --> 00:30:07.880] But there are certain statistics that always stay with me that we've talked about before, Derek, like the facts that having a first-degree relative with type 2 diabetes increases the prevalence by two to three times when compared to the rest of the population.
[00:30:07.880 --> 00:30:13.880] And that goes up to a 70% likelihood of developing the condition if both parents have it.
[00:30:13.880 --> 00:30:21.800] Current research also puts genetic factors at between 40% and 70% responsible for obesity, too.
[00:30:22.280 --> 00:30:24.920] I know we're going to inevitably talk about RFK Jr.
[00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:32.680] and Maha some more, but as a little preview here, you know, Kennedy loves to claim that 70% of Americans are obese.
[00:30:32.680 --> 00:30:46.920] And sometimes he corrects himself and says that 70% of Americans are overweight, which actually makes a big difference because the 40% of Americans that are actually obese are included in that larger number, with the rest being merely overweight.
[00:30:46.920 --> 00:30:56.920] When we look up these percentages for other Anglophile countries in the developed world, like the UK, Australia, Canada, they're all at around 65% overweight.
[00:30:56.920 --> 00:31:00.920] So it does seem to be a problem of wealthier societies.
[00:31:00.920 --> 00:31:12.840] And I would argue we might make up that, I would speculate here, we might make up that additional 5% that the US has over those other countries due to greater income inequality and food deserts.
[00:31:12.840 --> 00:31:24.040] But then let's also just step back and remember that all of this is based on BMI, which is an extremely flawed heuristic that was never designed to be used at a population level.
[00:31:24.040 --> 00:31:37.080] And that BMI rating also incorrectly skews many very healthy people with athletic muscle mass into overweight or even obese categories, no matter how fit or how lean they might be.
[00:31:37.400 --> 00:31:54.000] But this is an alarming factoid that Kennedy likes to use that plays into the conspiracist pseudoscience strategy of catastrophizing about a problem, speculating without evidence about its cause, and then claiming, hey, we've got the magical solution right here.
[00:31:54.000 --> 00:32:03.920] You know, it's going to be like tallow on your French fries and real sugar in Coca-Cola, and it's going to solve the obesity and diabetes epidemic, right?
[00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:19.120] Fat people get hugely stigmatized by all of this for reasons that are totally unfair and discriminatory, as if all of us would look like them unless we had such high levels of like moral and dietary fiber.
[00:32:19.120 --> 00:32:20.960] BMI is so frustrating.
[00:32:20.960 --> 00:32:21.920] I mean, I'm 6'3.
[00:32:21.920 --> 00:32:25.760] For so much of my life, I maintained a body weight of about 185.
[00:32:25.760 --> 00:32:31.920] And I remember friends and my wife would be like, You're not eating enough because of the workouts that I do.
[00:32:31.920 --> 00:32:38.560] And then finally, one thing about COVID is that I actually started to be like, Let me actually eat more.
[00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:42.480] Also started creatine, but let me see if I can actually put on mass.
[00:32:42.480 --> 00:32:45.360] And I'm up to 210 and I'm healthier than I've ever been.
[00:32:45.360 --> 00:32:47.680] I'm stronger than I've ever been at 50.
[00:32:47.680 --> 00:32:52.320] All of my blood markers that I get at the doctor, I'm in the top 1 or 2% for my age group.
[00:32:52.320 --> 00:32:57.440] But officially, according to the BMI calculator, I'm considered overweight.
[00:32:57.440 --> 00:32:57.920] Yep.
[00:32:57.920 --> 00:32:58.320] Yep.
[00:32:58.320 --> 00:32:58.880] Me too.
[00:32:58.880 --> 00:32:59.280] Me too.
[00:32:59.280 --> 00:33:00.800] And you haven't done that just with that.
[00:33:01.040 --> 00:33:02.320] You've been doing a lot of heavy lifting.
[00:33:02.320 --> 00:33:06.560] So you have packed on a certain amount of muscle through that deliberate process.
[00:33:06.560 --> 00:33:07.040] Exactly.
[00:33:07.040 --> 00:33:13.840] That's why I decided to put on weight because I was lifting above what my frame could handle and I was getting some back issues.
[00:33:13.840 --> 00:33:16.160] And I said, okay, let me actually address this.
[00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:16.880] And I did.
[00:33:16.880 --> 00:33:26.480] And I feel much better now than I did five years ago when I started, even though officially I'm overweight, according to what Maha references as being someone that needs to lose weight.
[00:33:26.480 --> 00:33:26.960] Totally.
[00:33:26.960 --> 00:33:29.680] Speaking of Maha, this entire series got me thinking about them.
[00:33:29.680 --> 00:33:37.880] You can't avoid it because the way that Bob and Jillian treat fat people sounds exactly like how Kennedy and his crew berate them.
[00:33:37.880 --> 00:33:42.120] So it makes sense that Jillian has become a big part of Maha.
[00:33:42.120 --> 00:33:49.640] Specifically, I kept thinking about Kennedy saying every American should get a free gym membership about a year ago.
[00:33:49.640 --> 00:33:55.960] On its face, if you were to just say, hey, everyone should have access to a gym for free, I'm actually down for that.
[00:33:55.960 --> 00:33:58.600] And there are actually opportunities like this.
[00:33:58.760 --> 00:34:02.440] I got into this with people on threads who are making the similar argument.
[00:34:02.440 --> 00:34:07.560] New York City, where I lived for a dozen years, they have city gyms all over the boroughs.
[00:34:07.560 --> 00:34:09.800] They cost $150 a year.
[00:34:09.800 --> 00:34:13.240] If you're 25 or under, you go for free.
[00:34:13.240 --> 00:34:17.240] If you're 65 or older, they cost $25 a year.
[00:34:17.240 --> 00:34:24.200] Here in Portland, where I now live, you can go to any rec city in the city for $30 a month.
[00:34:24.200 --> 00:34:25.560] But there's a catch.
[00:34:25.560 --> 00:34:30.360] If you're low income, you can get discounts up to free.
[00:34:30.360 --> 00:34:32.360] And it's an honors program.
[00:34:32.360 --> 00:34:34.360] You don't even have to prove your income.
[00:34:34.360 --> 00:34:38.520] I'm going to guess a lot of cities have similar programs.
[00:34:38.520 --> 00:34:44.920] Yet, only 20.6% of Americans have a gym membership.
[00:34:44.920 --> 00:34:51.160] On top of that, many gyms survive because people pay but don't go.
[00:34:51.160 --> 00:34:51.640] Oh, yeah.
[00:34:51.640 --> 00:34:58.040] I've read stats between 50 and 90% of members don't go to their gym once in a month, even though they're paying.
[00:34:58.040 --> 00:35:00.040] The cheaper the gym, the more people don't go.
[00:35:00.040 --> 00:35:06.520] So, Planet Fitness has about a 10% rate of people going every month because it costs $10 a month.
[00:35:06.520 --> 00:35:15.920] Now, where I worked at Equinox, which cost $225, $250 a month per gym, the retention rate was $50%.
[00:35:14.840 --> 00:35:20.000] That means half the people paying that money didn't actually go in a month.
[00:35:20.320 --> 00:35:27.040] Yeah, and most of those people who are not going are people who signed up as a New Year's resolution and paid for the whole year, right?
[00:35:27.360 --> 00:35:28.240] That's the model.
[00:35:28.240 --> 00:35:30.960] Yeah, you can't do that at Equinox, but with other gyms, that is correct.
[00:35:31.200 --> 00:35:31.680] Okay.
[00:35:31.680 --> 00:35:35.120] The story is way more complicated than get a gym membership.
[00:35:35.120 --> 00:35:41.040] What Kennedy and many other fit fluencers miss is the fact that people don't fucking like gyms.
[00:35:41.040 --> 00:35:46.480] And for a number of reasons: one is that fat people are relentlessly judged in them.
[00:35:46.480 --> 00:35:50.960] Now, obviously, this depends not only on the gym, but the time of the day you're able to go.
[00:35:50.960 --> 00:35:53.040] Here in Portland, I go to LA Fitness.
[00:35:53.040 --> 00:35:54.160] I'm there by 6 a.m.
[00:35:54.240 --> 00:35:55.200] every morning.
[00:35:55.200 --> 00:35:59.120] And the work crew is get in, get out.
[00:35:59.120 --> 00:36:03.200] It's blissfully quiet and calm as people do their thing.
[00:36:03.200 --> 00:36:07.040] But I've also gone later in the day sometimes, and it's a fucking zoo.
[00:36:07.040 --> 00:36:09.360] I get why people would hate that environment.
[00:36:09.360 --> 00:36:12.560] I'm someone who grew up in these spaces, basement gym.
[00:36:12.640 --> 00:36:14.720] My father built one when I was growing up.
[00:36:14.720 --> 00:36:18.800] He also, on a volunteer basis, ran his company gym.
[00:36:18.800 --> 00:36:20.960] And so I was going there all the time.
[00:36:20.960 --> 00:36:23.840] So for me, I swim in those waters.
[00:36:23.840 --> 00:36:25.360] A lot of people don't.
[00:36:25.360 --> 00:36:27.360] So to say, hey, you're overweight.
[00:36:27.360 --> 00:36:31.600] Get in this gym and expect people to just take to it is absurd.
[00:36:31.920 --> 00:36:42.160] You know, also, along the lines of this topic, it came out recently that Serena Williams lost 31 pounds by using GLP-1 medication.
[00:36:42.160 --> 00:36:46.000] She said that she struggled with her weight after the birth of her second child.
[00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:49.920] She's been posting workout photos mentioning how great she feels.
[00:36:49.920 --> 00:36:52.560] So there were a lot of rumors about how she lost the weight.
[00:36:52.560 --> 00:36:57.520] Now, right on queue, I saw a ton of comments about how she's cheating.
[00:36:57.840 --> 00:37:06.280] You have here one of the top tennis players ever to play the game who was criticized then for being larger.
[00:37:06.280 --> 00:37:10.600] And now that she's lost some weight, she's being criticized for how she lost it.
[00:37:10.600 --> 00:37:11.320] Can't win.
[00:37:11.320 --> 00:37:12.040] Exactly.
[00:37:12.040 --> 00:37:14.200] There's obviously some gender dynamics here.
[00:37:14.200 --> 00:37:23.240] In general, women are shit on way more for using Ozempic than men because assholes are always quicker to criticize women about anything.
[00:37:23.240 --> 00:37:31.800] But it's just the hypocrisy of people in this space, including Kennedy and Maha, most of whom hate GLP1 interventions.
[00:37:31.800 --> 00:37:37.880] As one commenter I saw wrote on one of the threads about Serena, just say you hate fat people.
[00:37:38.200 --> 00:37:47.720] The most outspoken critics of Ozempic at all that I've seen are fitness influencers and trainers because they stand to lose income from coaching and supplement sales.
[00:37:47.720 --> 00:37:52.920] Their stated reason always falls back on the personal responsibility trope.
[00:37:52.920 --> 00:38:00.280] You just don't have the willpower, Fatty, which is why Maha just feels like the latest season of the biggest loser.
[00:38:00.280 --> 00:38:00.920] Oh, yeah.
[00:38:00.920 --> 00:38:11.240] Kennedy's recent challenge alongside Pete Hagseth of doing 50 pull-ups and 100 push-ups is so fitting for this moment, even though they can't do it themselves.
[00:38:11.240 --> 00:38:13.480] It's all spectacle.
[00:38:13.480 --> 00:38:15.240] Oh, and Cash Patel, I posted this.
[00:38:15.240 --> 00:38:19.480] Cash Patel tried it, and that was a fucking nightmare as well.
[00:38:19.480 --> 00:38:21.160] It's like Kennedy dragging Dr.
[00:38:21.160 --> 00:38:23.800] Oz up the side of that hill.
[00:38:24.120 --> 00:38:25.240] Rock climbing things.
[00:38:25.400 --> 00:38:26.600] Like, oh boy.
[00:38:26.600 --> 00:38:30.280] These are our fearless leaders into like perfect health and fitness.
[00:38:30.280 --> 00:38:33.960] Do you know how hard pull-ups are for someone who doesn't know how to do it?
[00:38:34.040 --> 00:38:38.760] I know people who are very strong and fit and they can't do a pull-up.
[00:38:38.760 --> 00:38:41.640] It is a completely different exercise.
[00:38:41.640 --> 00:38:42.440] And same thing.
[00:38:42.440 --> 00:38:47.840] I mean, you know from yoga that Chaturangas, low push-ups are not for everyone.
[00:38:44.920 --> 00:38:51.600] Because people don't have the sort of training to do a proper push-up.
[00:38:51.840 --> 00:38:56.960] And then they go in yoga classes and they try to match the teacher doing a low push-up and they'll shred their shoulders.
[00:38:56.960 --> 00:38:58.640] Their neck is in the wrong position.
[00:38:58.640 --> 00:39:00.480] Their traps are all scrunched up.
[00:39:00.480 --> 00:39:02.720] Like just put your knees down or just stay in plank.
[00:39:02.720 --> 00:39:09.040] There's so many other options, but we just have this go, go, go mentality in all of our workouts in America.
[00:39:09.040 --> 00:39:14.480] And you're going to hurt people, which is what this challenge is going to do to people who are like, yeah, I can do these things.
[00:39:14.480 --> 00:39:15.280] No, you can't.
[00:39:15.280 --> 00:39:16.160] And that's okay.
[00:39:16.160 --> 00:39:17.520] It's okay that you can't.
[00:39:17.520 --> 00:39:28.240] Learn how to do one pull-up correctly with bands, however you need, but don't go pretend you could do 50 and then you look like ass like Hexeth or Kennedy who are doing chin-ups, first of all.
[00:39:28.240 --> 00:39:32.320] They're not even doing pull-ups and they can't even do those correctly.
[00:39:32.320 --> 00:39:35.040] And I'm not one to hate on people's workouts in general.
[00:39:35.040 --> 00:39:39.280] My thought has always been if you're exercising and having fun, go for it.
[00:39:39.280 --> 00:39:41.200] Zumba, your heart out.
[00:39:41.200 --> 00:39:52.560] But the former fitness instructor of me, just watching their dumb video, it's just so hard given that you need full range of motion for push-ups and pull-ups.
[00:39:52.560 --> 00:39:52.800] Yeah.
[00:39:52.800 --> 00:40:00.240] And Derek, how many people can actually do even 50 chin-ups?
[00:40:00.240 --> 00:40:01.200] Like, that's a lot.
[00:40:01.200 --> 00:40:04.240] Most people can't do 10 or five.
[00:40:04.240 --> 00:40:13.520] Like, that's actually an extraordinary challenge to just think you're going to walk into and do right away as someone who's not, you know, actively engaged like that.
[00:40:13.520 --> 00:40:14.640] In 10 minutes, too.
[00:40:14.640 --> 00:40:15.440] And that's the other thing.
[00:40:15.440 --> 00:40:17.360] They're putting a time limit on it.
[00:40:17.360 --> 00:40:20.960] And then you're watching videos, and it's a lot of people that they're resharing.
[00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:24.960] Like Riley Gaines, like Kennedy reshared her video, being like, I could do it.
[00:40:24.960 --> 00:40:25.680] No, you can't.
[00:40:25.760 --> 00:40:28.320] You know, you're, first of all, you're 36 weeks pregnant.
[00:40:28.320 --> 00:40:32.840] And second of all, like your form is horrible, which you do to her credit say that.
[00:40:33.160 --> 00:40:34.840] But it's like, why are you sharing this shit?
[00:40:34.840 --> 00:40:37.880] People don't need that, they need help, they don't need that spectacle.
[00:40:38.200 --> 00:40:38.600] Totally.
[00:40:38.600 --> 00:40:56.040] And the only reason I'm commenting is because they're presenting themselves as paragons of health and trying to, I don't know, inspire Americans to exercise, yet they don't even learn the exercises that they're challenging others to do, which is why Maha is as much a spectacle as the biggest loser.
[00:40:56.040 --> 00:41:00.440] It's not about helping people get healthy, it's about showing off that you are.
[00:41:00.440 --> 00:41:03.240] Jillian already got the call to join Maha.
[00:41:03.240 --> 00:41:06.200] I'm guessing Bob Harper will get the call next, though.
[00:41:06.200 --> 00:41:11.480] As we're going to discuss in the next segment, I'm pretty sure Jillian will box him out of that opportunity.
[00:41:11.480 --> 00:41:26.600] Yeah, and this is yet another perhaps unsurprising but nonetheless novel iteration of like how this influencer contrarian kind of assumption of expertise plays out even in the physical domain.
[00:41:26.600 --> 00:41:28.440] It's like, oh yeah, of course I could do that.
[00:41:28.440 --> 00:41:29.320] I can do anything.
[00:41:29.320 --> 00:41:33.480] I have strong opinions about everything, even though I've never studied it and I'm not qualified.
[00:41:33.480 --> 00:41:38.760] And I could just like go and do a bunch of pull-ups and push-ups on camera because of course I can.
[00:41:44.520 --> 00:41:48.760] Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real.
[00:41:48.760 --> 00:41:51.720] And so is the relief from EBGLIS.
[00:41:51.720 --> 00:41:58.520] After an initial dosing phase, about four in 10 people taking EBGLIS achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks.
[00:41:58.520 --> 00:42:02.760] And most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing.
[00:42:02.760 --> 00:42:14.200] EBGLIS Libericizumab, LBKZ, a 250 milligram per 2 milliliter injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema.
[00:42:14.200 --> 00:42:20.560] Also called atopic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies.
[00:42:20.560 --> 00:42:23.440] EBGLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids.
[00:42:23.440 --> 00:42:25.200] Don't use if you're allergic to EBGLIS.
[00:42:25.200 --> 00:42:27.200] Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe.
[00:42:27.200 --> 00:42:28.240] Eye problems can occur.
[00:42:28.240 --> 00:42:30.640] Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems.
[00:42:30.640 --> 00:42:33.120] You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with EBGLIS.
[00:42:33.120 --> 00:42:36.240] Before starting EBGLIS, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection.
[00:42:36.240 --> 00:42:37.360] Searching for real relief?
[00:42:37.360 --> 00:42:44.720] Ask your doctor about EBGLIS and visit ebglis.lily.com or call 1-800-LILLIERX or 1-800-545-5979.
[00:42:44.720 --> 00:42:49.680] Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just speaking into the void?
[00:42:49.680 --> 00:42:50.880] Void, void.
[00:42:50.880 --> 00:42:56.080] But with LinkedIn ads, you can know you're reaching the right decision makers, a network of 130 million of them, in fact.
[00:42:56.080 --> 00:43:01.920] You can even target buyers by job title, industry, company, seniority, skills, and did I say job title?
[00:43:01.920 --> 00:43:05.760] See how you can avoid the void and reach the right buyers with LinkedIn ads.
[00:43:05.760 --> 00:43:10.720] Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit for the next one.
[00:43:10.720 --> 00:43:13.120] Get started at linkedin.com/slash campaign.
[00:43:13.120 --> 00:43:14.880] Terms and conditions apply.
[00:43:15.200 --> 00:43:16.720] Hey, it's Paris.
[00:43:16.720 --> 00:43:19.040] You know, I love sparkly things, right?
[00:43:19.040 --> 00:43:20.160] Like stars.
[00:43:20.160 --> 00:43:21.040] Duh.
[00:43:21.040 --> 00:43:25.200] And thanks to Hilton and AutoCamp, I just slept under them.
[00:43:25.200 --> 00:43:35.040] Picture me serving looks by the fire outside my luxurious Airstream, making s'mores with the kids, while a national park is our backdrop.
[00:43:35.040 --> 00:43:37.920] The great outdoors meets Hilton hospitality?
[00:43:37.920 --> 00:43:39.120] That's hot.
[00:43:39.120 --> 00:43:42.560] Explore all the new ways to stay at Hilton.com.
[00:43:42.560 --> 00:43:44.400] Hilton for the stay.
[00:43:44.720 --> 00:43:52.240] One of the very prominent subplots here is that Jillian Michaels is one of the few cast members who declined to participate.
[00:43:52.240 --> 00:44:07.080] So, unlike the other coach, the staff doctor, the producers, who all get to tell their side of the story along with several former contestants, Michaels instead just gets shown in all of her cruel drill sergeant intensity.
[00:44:07.080 --> 00:44:10.280] She gets in people's faces, she insults them, she berates them.
[00:44:10.280 --> 00:44:16.680] At one point, she throws a bucket of ice water over someone's head while they're like collapsed on the ground about to pass out.
[00:44:16.680 --> 00:44:20.600] Overall, she really just seems to have a real appetite for sadism.
[00:44:20.600 --> 00:44:39.560] The main controversy of the show involving Michaels is that the doctor, a guy named Robert Heusinger, has said that he forbade the use of caffeine pills based on safety reasons, but that Jillian went ahead and secretly gave them to the contestants on her team behind everyone's back.
[00:44:39.560 --> 00:44:50.520] And when this was discovered, they actually acknowledged it on the show in an episode, a very dramatic kind of moment, and gave her team a penalty because she broke the rules.
[00:44:50.520 --> 00:45:00.760] And then, for her part, she's unrepentant during the broadcast and in later interviews, saying that she stood by what she did because there was unlimited coffee available to everyone.
[00:45:00.760 --> 00:45:02.600] And so, what's the difference?
[00:45:02.600 --> 00:45:07.880] In fact, she thinks that caffeine pills are healthier than drinking tons of coffee.
[00:45:07.880 --> 00:45:12.520] Science actually disagrees, but when has that stopped anyone like her?
[00:45:12.520 --> 00:45:21.400] The New York Times just did a feature on Michaels, and I love that they pull a quote from her when she was talking to Rogan of being like, Who has the time to fact-check all these things?
[00:45:22.680 --> 00:45:25.080] You have a lot of time to run your mouth, though.
[00:45:25.080 --> 00:45:32.600] Some contestants alleged that other drugs like diuretics and even unnamed street drugs were allegedly used.
[00:45:32.600 --> 00:45:33.000] And Dr.
[00:45:32.960 --> 00:45:37.240] Huizinger is suing the New York Post for publishing those allegations.
[00:45:37.240 --> 00:45:39.960] And so they retract the article.
[00:45:39.960 --> 00:45:50.240] Michaels has now spoken out, and she said that she is considering suing Netflix and Barb Harper, the other trainer on the show, and the producers of the documentary.
[00:45:50.560 --> 00:46:00.960] And she's been sharing emails that show how on other seasons, caffeine pills actually were allowed and were distributed by her and Harper and the doctors and the dietitians on the show.
[00:46:01.280 --> 00:46:05.840] But of course, she's still acknowledging, yeah, I went behind people's backs, even though I wasn't allowed to do this.
[00:46:05.840 --> 00:46:12.720] Fuck Jillian Michaels in general and specifically to this episode, but kudos to her for saving the receipts.
[00:46:13.040 --> 00:46:18.560] So what happens is they do show that moment that she admitted it on the show.
[00:46:18.880 --> 00:46:23.040] And then you have everyone else being like, we didn't know about all this.
[00:46:23.360 --> 00:46:33.360] But then she comes out and she shares on Instagram text messages and emails showing that everyone was in on it all the time.
[00:46:33.360 --> 00:46:34.560] On all the other seasons.
[00:46:34.560 --> 00:46:42.400] On all the other seasons, but showing that it's a trend and that they were really pushing something called stackers to try to get in on it.
[00:46:42.400 --> 00:46:48.000] So she's framed as the worst person here because she wasn't involved.
[00:46:48.000 --> 00:46:49.680] She had a fallout, Bob Harper or whatever.
[00:46:49.680 --> 00:46:54.080] And she is a terrible human, but so is everyone on this show.
[00:46:54.400 --> 00:46:58.080] I have to give her credit for shoving it back into their face.
[00:46:58.080 --> 00:47:03.920] But overall, I'd rather they all fucking burn for partaking in this cruel project.
[00:47:03.920 --> 00:47:04.560] Yeah, yeah.
[00:47:04.560 --> 00:47:13.280] And I don't remember his name, but the main producer guy has so many moments where he's, it's just like, you seem like you're lying right now.
[00:47:13.280 --> 00:47:17.600] He really tries to act like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, and I don't know anything about that.
[00:47:17.600 --> 00:47:21.120] And then big swallow and kind of eyes look in four different directions.
[00:47:21.120 --> 00:47:23.120] It's like, I don't know about this.
[00:47:23.120 --> 00:47:35.160] Michaels, for her part, is also taking the opportunity now to speak out against the woke body positivity movement, which is being critical of the show in hindsight, right?
[00:47:35.160 --> 00:47:41.400] And she says, this is actually a conspiratorial psyop by Big Food.
[00:47:41.720 --> 00:47:47.080] The only good news for her is that maybe it's distracting from her boneheaded slavery comments.
[00:47:47.080 --> 00:47:47.560] I don't know.
[00:47:47.560 --> 00:47:51.400] People can hold multiple thoughts in their head when it comes to this level of egregiousness.
[00:47:51.400 --> 00:47:54.840] The full quote of what you just referenced, I think, is even more telling.
[00:47:54.840 --> 00:47:57.240] Quote, I'm 51 years old, you know.
[00:47:57.240 --> 00:47:59.400] I'm trying to take on bigger things.
[00:47:59.400 --> 00:48:03.960] I'm trying to help facilitate a change with big food and big pharma and big insurance.
[00:48:03.960 --> 00:48:08.360] And these are the 800-pound gorillas I want to jump in that ring with.
[00:48:09.240 --> 00:48:11.800] Her ego is just unmatched here.
[00:48:11.800 --> 00:48:27.640] I also just want to say the one shining moment of this entire podcast is Friend of the Pod, Arby Gordon, who does a fantastic job of contextualizing what has happened, what was happening during the show when it was happening, and then also how that reverberates throughout the culture.
[00:48:27.640 --> 00:48:32.440] So I do highly recommend the series, if not just to see her commentary on that.
[00:48:32.440 --> 00:48:33.400] Yeah, she's great on it.
[00:48:33.640 --> 00:48:35.480] Every moment she has is really strong.
[00:48:35.480 --> 00:48:35.800] Yes.
[00:48:35.800 --> 00:48:43.240] The biggest loser couldn't exist if our culture didn't buy into the idea that obesity is a personal failing.
[00:48:43.240 --> 00:48:55.640] While disdain for fat people predates the 80s, Reaganomics very specifically dictated that all health is personal as a way to avoid discussions of socialized medicine.
[00:48:55.640 --> 00:48:58.280] Still the same fucking thing happening right now.
[00:48:58.280 --> 00:49:01.240] And so you have another conspiratuality crossover.
[00:49:01.240 --> 00:49:13.640] The right disdains giving away anything for free, while the left, specifically a portion of the wellness community and the fit Fluencer community, loathes fatness.
[00:49:13.960 --> 00:49:16.720] There are overweight people who let things go.
[00:49:16.720 --> 00:49:18.160] I don't want to overlook it.
[00:49:18.160 --> 00:49:19.920] They have the means to eat better.
[00:49:19.920 --> 00:49:21.200] They can afford a gym.
[00:49:21.200 --> 00:49:24.720] They have the time to do all these things and they just don't.
[00:49:24.720 --> 00:49:27.440] I can't turn my eyes from that.
[00:49:27.440 --> 00:49:32.880] And if there weren't people like this, I don't think the biggest loser could even exist.
[00:49:32.880 --> 00:49:38.720] But personal responsibility is not the only reason people gain weight.
[00:49:38.720 --> 00:49:41.040] Let's just consider a few other reasons.
[00:49:41.040 --> 00:49:43.920] Genetic predisposition, which you mentioned earlier.
[00:49:43.920 --> 00:49:51.760] Medical conditions like hypothyroidism, polycystic ovary syndrome, Cushing syndrome, hypothalamic obesity.
[00:49:51.760 --> 00:50:03.680] Tons of medications promote weight gain, including steroids, antidepressants, antipsychotics, diabetes medications, beta blockers, seizure medications, birth control pills.
[00:50:03.680 --> 00:50:07.520] Aging, muscle mass decreases naturally over time.
[00:50:07.520 --> 00:50:13.200] So aging will inevitably increase weight for a lot of people.
[00:50:13.200 --> 00:50:14.640] Poor sleep is a huge one.
[00:50:14.640 --> 00:50:16.400] Chronic stress is a huge one.
[00:50:16.400 --> 00:50:18.080] Economic status is a huge one.
[00:50:18.080 --> 00:50:20.560] Built environment, work and time pressures.
[00:50:20.560 --> 00:50:25.680] Big wellness does address a few of these, but usually by trying to sell you something.
[00:50:26.240 --> 00:50:29.600] Not sleeping, pay for this app to track you to sleep.
[00:50:29.600 --> 00:50:30.960] Buy this supplement.
[00:50:30.960 --> 00:50:32.400] Stress the fuck out.
[00:50:32.400 --> 00:50:34.160] We have a workout program for you.
[00:50:34.160 --> 00:50:42.400] And I'm not even hating on those things because exercise does wonders for stress, which could have downstream weight loss effects.
[00:50:42.720 --> 00:50:47.080] But if you're a Jillian Michaels style-aspiring trainer.
[00:50:47.080 --> 00:50:51.520] How are you going to sell a program that addresses the fact that your family is poor?
[00:50:51.520 --> 00:50:53.760] That's not Maha's target audience.
[00:50:53.760 --> 00:51:06.360] Kennedy loves to yell about how many people are over-prescribed medications and is now using his power at HHS to launch an investigation into it, but connecting them with weight gain is a step too far.
[00:51:06.680 --> 00:51:16.680] And he's certainly not going to address the social determinants of health while making videos about how he loves to visit local gyms while he's traveling on his fucking private plane.
[00:51:16.680 --> 00:51:21.560] Then there's another layer, one which the New York Times covered back in 2016.
[00:51:21.880 --> 00:51:29.480] Most contestants put the weight back on, and for some, higher than their original weight after the show.
[00:51:29.480 --> 00:51:34.040] And that has little to do with personal responsibility.
[00:51:34.040 --> 00:51:39.160] I pulled a few graphs from an article that was from that New York Times story.
[00:51:39.160 --> 00:51:40.920] And Julian, can you read them in full?
[00:51:40.920 --> 00:51:42.840] I think it really sets the context here.
[00:51:42.840 --> 00:51:49.240] It has to do with resting metabolism, which determines how many calories a person burns when at rest.
[00:51:49.240 --> 00:51:59.880] When the show began, the contestants, though hugely overweight, had normal metabolisms for their size, meaning they were burning a normal number of calories for people of their weight.
[00:51:59.880 --> 00:52:10.600] When it ended, their metabolisms had slowed radically and their bodies were not burning enough calories to maintain their thinner sizes.
[00:52:10.600 --> 00:52:22.680] Researchers knew that just about anyone who deliberately loses weight, even if they start at a normal weight or even underweight, will have a slower metabolism when the diet ends.
[00:52:22.680 --> 00:52:29.320] So they were not surprised to see that the biggest loser contestants had slow metabolisms when the show ended.
[00:52:29.320 --> 00:52:32.520] What shocked the researchers was what happened next.
[00:52:32.520 --> 00:52:41.240] As the years went by and the numbers on the scale climbed again, the contestants' metabolisms did not recover.
[00:52:41.240 --> 00:52:45.040] They became even slower, and the pounds kept piling on.
[00:52:44.520 --> 00:52:51.120] It was as if their bodies were intensifying their effort to pull the contestants back to their original weight.
[00:52:51.920 --> 00:52:53.440] So fucking hypocritical.
[00:52:53.440 --> 00:53:09.120] You know, Casey and Callie-Means, the you know, the nominee for surgeon general and Kennedy's one of his main advisors, wrote a book called Good Energy, all about metabolic health, claiming that metabolic health is responsible for 90% of disease.
[00:53:09.120 --> 00:53:10.400] They don't mention this.
[00:53:10.400 --> 00:53:11.200] I read the book.
[00:53:11.200 --> 00:53:12.960] They don't talk about this phenomenon.
[00:53:12.960 --> 00:53:14.640] They want to sell you things.
[00:53:14.640 --> 00:53:20.640] They want to sell you levels, which is glucose monitoring programs and hardware.
[00:53:20.640 --> 00:53:22.240] They want to sell you supplements.
[00:53:22.240 --> 00:53:30.960] They want to pretend that metabolic health is all within your grasp if you just do these things when actual researchers know that's not true.
[00:53:30.960 --> 00:53:37.200] Yeah, it's the biohacking optimization version of Medicare for all.
[00:53:37.200 --> 00:53:38.320] It's just insane.
[00:53:38.320 --> 00:53:44.640] This whole phenomenon throws a big old wrench into the ethos presented on the show and one that is endemic to Maha.
[00:53:44.640 --> 00:53:48.160] Eat better, move more, and you're magically going to lose weight.
[00:53:48.160 --> 00:53:55.200] It's not that there's anything wrong, again, with those things, with eating better, perhaps eating less, without exercising more.
[00:53:55.200 --> 00:54:02.960] It's just that everybody responds to those things in the same way, especially if you've been overweight.
[00:54:02.960 --> 00:54:20.600] Yeah, and when you lose two or 300 pounds very, very rapidly and you put yourself through levels of activity that your body has not seen in your entire life in a very short period of time and you dehydrate yourself radically week after week.
[00:54:20.600 --> 00:54:32.040] Yeah, that's gonna, your whole system is gonna have a massive issue trying to integrate all of those intense, uh, you know, polarizing back and forth dynamics that are going on.
[00:54:32.040 --> 00:54:33.960] And it's not like this hasn't been studied.
[00:54:29.760 --> 00:54:37.480] I've worked in this industry for decades.
[00:54:37.480 --> 00:54:46.600] And one of the things that was true 30 years ago that's still true today is that a healthy amount of weight loss is one, maybe two pounds a week.
[00:54:46.600 --> 00:54:53.640] If you're doing more than that, maybe initially some people will lose a little more, mostly because of water weight when they start working out.
[00:54:53.800 --> 00:55:01.400] But if you're maintaining something above that, there's probably a whole lot of downstream effects that aren't going to be good for you.
[00:55:01.400 --> 00:55:20.120] So having a little bit of understanding of how the process works is really important because it'll help you mentally just to have a realistic goal here, which could mean 50 pounds over the course of a year if you work at it, if that is your goal.
[00:55:20.120 --> 00:55:25.320] But if you're dropping 200 pounds in 12 weeks, man, that is not a good thing for your body.
[00:55:25.320 --> 00:55:31.720] Yeah, but how exciting is a TV show in which you're losing one or two pounds a week?
[00:55:33.960 --> 00:55:38.520] So I said before, I found it just stunning that the show was so popular.
[00:55:38.520 --> 00:55:46.280] And it's because my first impressions, as most people are going to have watching Fit for TV, is that the premise is so cruel.
[00:55:46.280 --> 00:55:53.960] It creates spectacle out of people who are already socially devalued and seen as lacking in self-respect and discipline.
[00:55:53.960 --> 00:56:03.960] At the same time, it promised those contestants a way to redeem themselves by participating in a competitive ordeal with millions of people watching.
[00:56:03.960 --> 00:56:11.480] So, obviously, it was a pretty like extroverted kind of person who wanted attention, who ended up being on the show, as you saw from their audition videos.
[00:56:11.800 --> 00:56:21.040] And the redemption is not only about health, but it's about being more attractive, or to put it more honestly, about being less disgusting.
[00:56:21.600 --> 00:56:34.480] And that's all while defeating those not able to get back on the treadmill after vomiting or almost passing out while Jillian Michael screamed sadistic abuse in their face.
[00:56:34.480 --> 00:56:38.480] There's something very Roman Coliseum about it all to me.
[00:56:38.480 --> 00:56:47.520] And the fact that so many applicants were clamoring to be on it really gives the lie to prejudices about fat people being lazy or weak.
[00:56:47.520 --> 00:56:48.320] They're desperate.
[00:56:48.320 --> 00:56:50.400] They're like, oh, okay, I'll try this.
[00:56:50.400 --> 00:56:59.920] While also underlining their conditioned familiarity with being humiliated, like they've developed a tolerance for being treated that shittily.
[00:56:59.920 --> 00:57:12.880] It's also outrageous that each season had this winner-take-all grand prize of $250,000 with all of the loser-losers apparently being paid around $100 a day to be there.
[00:57:12.880 --> 00:57:16.640] Even though some negotiated for slightly more than that, it's still tiny in comparison.
[00:57:16.640 --> 00:57:23.680] Meanwhile, the stars of the show, the producers, and the network got very, very wealthy in the process.
[00:57:24.000 --> 00:57:47.520] Then there were all of the, this is the worst part for me, the weirdly exploitive temptation challenges, they called them, that involved choosing to either gorge yourself on as much high-calorie junk food as possible so as to then win prizes that might give you an advantage in the competition, or instead choosing to resist temptation and just stay on the straight and narrow with your weight loss goals.
[00:57:47.520 --> 00:57:49.680] That was also a really gross spectacle.
[00:57:49.680 --> 00:57:53.120] Yeah, I had no idea about that because, as I said, I didn't watch the show.
[00:57:53.120 --> 00:57:58.320] And what kind of broken brain thinks, hey, this is a good idea?
[00:57:58.320 --> 00:57:58.800] Yeah.
[00:57:58.800 --> 00:58:00.760] And then actually implements it.
[00:57:59.920 --> 00:58:01.400] It really does.
[00:58:01.560 --> 00:58:13.560] One thing the documentary does really well is pick out moments of where they are just humiliating the people intentionally, where they're carrying food around in their mouth running around.
[00:58:13.560 --> 00:58:15.720] And it's just, it's so dystopic.
[00:58:15.720 --> 00:58:17.640] Yeah, like picture that production meeting.
[00:58:17.640 --> 00:58:19.480] Hey, I've got a great idea, guys.
[00:58:19.480 --> 00:58:42.600] Let's have all of these fat people who are desperately trying to lose hundreds of pounds be faced with this temptation where if they just absolutely stuff food into their faces, the most like high, calorically dense junk food possible while we film them, they can have an advantage in trying to lose a ton of weight over the people they're trying to beat.
[00:58:42.600 --> 00:58:45.800] I mean, it's the whole thing is just really bizarre.
[00:58:45.800 --> 00:58:58.120] I think the documentary does a really good job of exposing this cruelty as well as the medical irresponsibility and the prioritizing of ratings and money over the physical and mental health of the participants.
[00:58:58.120 --> 00:59:18.680] It also holds up a mirror to the perhaps kind of literal, in this case, bread and circus American culture of competitive spectacle that thrives as much on rooting for the everyman as on also getting sadistic enjoyment out of his or her humiliation and defeat.