Maintenance Phase

Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes are on a mission to tear apart the junk science propping up wellness fads, and they are having a genuinely great time doing it. Each biweekly episode -- typically 50 minutes to an hour and 20 minutes -- picks one health trend, diet program, or nutritional claim and puts it under a microscope built from peer-reviewed research, meta-analyses, and historical context. They have tackled everything from the BMI's bizarre origins to seed oil panic to the diet crimes of Metabolife. The show sits at 4.7 stars with over 16,500 ratings across 145 episodes, which is impressive for a show that essentially tells people the things they believe about health might be wrong. Gordon brings expertise as a fat acceptance author and researcher, while Hobbes contributes investigative journalism skills honed at HuffPost and other outlets. Their chemistry is the real engine of the show -- they bounce between genuine outrage at predatory wellness marketing and belly laughs at the absurdity of it all. Some episodes land closer to media criticism than health advice, which keeps the show from ever feeling preachy. Fair warning: a good chunk of content has moved behind a paywall (MP After Dark for $4.99/month), which frustrates some longtime listeners. But the free episodes remain consistently excellent at helping you sort real wellness science from expensive nonsense.