How the Grift is Grifted

The wellness-to-alt-right pipeline has led many Americans to a diet that we didn't even know we were on. Find out what's true, half-true and completely false in a sea of claims about beef liver, regenerative agriculture, raw milk, raw carrot salad, cow colostrum, bioavailability, seed oils, HTMA tests, nutritional therapy practitioners, Weston A Price, collagen, adrenal cocktails, ancestral eating, tallow skincare, the big-money vegan agenda, hormones, sourdough, fertility, cholesterol, remineralization, naked carbs, blood sugar, antinutrients, DIY baby formula, supplements, and tradwives.

Despite what most coaches would have you to believe, many of them are struggling to make the kind of money and bring in the kind of engagement, attention and enrollment they used to. Why is the coaching industry crumbling? To answer that question, we delve into several more: Why do people say the coaching industry is a giant pyramid scheme? What should people do if they feel that they've been scammed by their coach? And what's about ethical coaches? Clinical input and research courtesy of Mary Claire Ferachi (MA, LPC, LAC) and Katie Smith (MA, LPC, MFT-C) Theme music by Will Shishmanian

What happens when spirituality and wellness-related tools end up giving us material for obsessive and unhealthy fixations?

Susun Weed is a well-known herbalist living on a farm in Upstate New York. For decades, her survivors have told stories of being beaten, broken down, drugged and trafficked by her while paying for her courses and apprenticeships, yet Susun remains praised and platformed in the American herbalism community. How can this be, when so many (including law enforcement) have known about her abuse for so long?

How exactly do new-age and wellness influencers successfully convince people to give them so much money? This episode explores nine specific sales tactics, from love-bombing to prosperity gospel

Guess what- most of those divine femininity influencer ladies? sleep with each other. all the time. While simultaneously building brands off of content that only acknowledges the validity of heterosexual relationships.   This is the story of how a community that claims to accept everyone manages to be homophobic as hell.

wtf is homeopathy? Does it refer to all holistic health practices, or one modality in particular? How is it different from herbalism? And most importantly, does it have any credibility? 

What drives someone to do vigorous exercise in a hot room packed with smelly, stinky people? Is sweating actually an effective form of detox, and does hot yoga really deliver the workout you think it does? This episode investigates three specific hot yoga brands- Bikram Yoga, Forrest Yoga and Baptiste Yoga- and explores the question of whether or not it's ethical to create your own trademarked yoga name brand in the first place. CW: sexual abuse Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to 'Cornucopia' by Jose Calarco

What happens when cultural appropriation becomes deadly? James Arthur Ray killed three people in October 2009, but has been able to successfully re-launch his career as a spiritual self-help salesman. How was he able to manipulate people to override their most hard-wired survival instincts, and how was he able to bounce back and even profit off of the story? Seeksafely.org Support this work: https://www.patreon.com/katyaweissandersson

This episode does two things:  1. Explores the story of the mysterious death of Carla Jean Shaffer and the local self-fashioned guru, Aaravindha Himdara, who swears he had no part in it 2. Explores the dilemma of what happens when both sides of a story give you red flags    Scofield's original piece on Carla Shaffer's death Scofield's Love Has won Audio Documentary Support this work