Maintenance Phase: A Different Kind of Wellness Podcast
I’m a simple woman, easily delighted by life’s quotidian pleasures. Cracking the spine of a new book, coaxing a smile from a baby, savouring the first sip of a morning coffee - all are sources of unbridled joy. But nothing, nothing delights me quite like a rigorous, evidenced-based critique of the wellness industry. Luckily for me there’s a podcast out there doing just that. Welcome to Maintenance Phase, a brilliant show debunking the pseudoscience and nonsense behind the biggest wellness trends, scams and obsessions. Each episode will leave you thinking hard, laughing harder and uncontrollably spluttering “Dr. Oz is a liar!” to strangers on the street who will either choose to ignore your existence or whisper back: “who hurt you?”.
The global wellness market is on a path of rapid expansion and the podcast industry has not been left untouched by this growth. The Health & Fitness podcast category is saturated with shows that promise to help you sleep better, eat better, live better. This advice is dispensed by an eclectic mix of hosts that include influencers, nutritionists, television personalities, actual doctors and also people who are absolutely not doctors. Jokes aside, I don’t want to suggest that all of these podcasts are unequivocally bad. But taken as a whole I’d argue that the genre lacks a certain, shall we say, critical flair. Fortunately, Maintenance Phase has got critical flair in spades (boy, did that sentence read better in my head).
The show is co-hosted by Michael Hobbes (a reporter who you might recognize from his hit podcast, “You’re Wrong About”) and Aubrey Gordon (a writer who you might know from her work written under the pseudonym, Your Fat Friend). With their endearing rapport, infectious laughter and ability to handle even the heaviest of topics with humour and empathy, it’s virtually impossible not to feel like you’re sitting in on a conversation with close friends. You don’t even need a background or interest in health and wellness to appreciate this podcast. If you like smiling or just generally believe that science is real, then I’d say there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy the show.
Beyond developing a healthy skepticism toward Dr. Oz, what can you actually expect from Maintenance Phase? Well, the topics that have been tackled are vast, from dissecting the toxic messaging of the television series The Biggest Loser to unpacking the patently false claims made by the author of the The Master Cleanse. Regardless of the subject matter, every episode is grounded in the unconventional approach of situating wellness and weight loss in a broader cultural, economic and political context. By doing this, the show resists the tendency to position health and weight as an individual’s “problem” or “choice” and therefore it rejects the idea that solutions to these issues lie with the individual alone. Instead, the podcast urges us to explore the larger forces and multiple factors at play, like the ways that capitalism, marketing and public policy all materially affect people’s health. Put simply, Maintenance Phase offers listeners a more nuanced way of thinking about health and wellness that doesn’t rely on cheap tropes or conveniently directs all blame and responsibility to individuals. So the next time your government does something like, say, release a ham-fisted strategy to address obesity that involves a plan to introduce calorie labelling on restaurant menus, you’ll have a different kind of framework to evaluate it. A framework that encourages you to consider other interventions that might be more effective than crude calorie counting, like - I don’t know - a genuinely livable wage where people can actually afford quality food (*Gently closes laptop. Screams into the abyss. Gently opens laptop. Resumes writing*).
In terms of where to begin, I’d say you can pick up from any episode, though the introduction is certainly useful for anyone engaging with concepts such as anti-fat bias for the first time. Beyond that, just choose whatever subject piques your interest. I’d particularly recommend the recent episode on Celery Juice, which breaks down the questionable science underpinning the fad and the, er, questionable qualifications of the man it was popularized by. Other home runs include the episode detailing the little-known origins of Weight Watchers, its troubled history and the wider beliefs it cements in the national psyche. And, of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t shout out the iconic episode about America’s Doctor, America’s Sweetheart, the one and only Dr. Oz.
Despite its unflinching and deeply political take on wellness, the show is in no way prescriptive or dogmatic. Hobbes and Gordon aren’t telling you to dump your celery juice down the drain or rid your freezer of Halo Top ice cream. They lay out the facts and leave you to decide what is right for you (to such an extent that I think “You Do You, Sis!” could easily have been the podcast’s title). Maintenance Phase won’t tell you what to do, but it will prompt you to consider bigger questions like,“Who really benefits from me buying this product?” “What existing narratives about fat people does this idea contribute to?” and “What policy intervention could better tackle this problem?” In short, it nudges us to do the sometimes uncomfortable work of reflecting on ourselves, our environments, the economic reality that we live in and the ways in which our governments are - or are not - serving us.
It’s a relief to see Maintenance Phase disrupting the top tier of the Health & Fitness charts and breathing new life into a category that feels decidedly apolitical. This podcast isn’t peddling any products or selling us on a lifestyle. You won’t find a weight loss silver bullet or diet tips and tricks. At the end of the day, Hobbes and Gordon are simply asking listeners to think more critically and carefully about the advice and trends that the wellness industry packages to us as absolute truth. Have I been left with more questions than answers? Yes. Will I ever look at celery the same way again? Probably not. But Maintenance Phase has equipped me with information and tools that make me feel more confident and discerning when navigating the minefield that is wellness. And if the price I have to pay is lingering trust issues with a television doctor and general unease about a juiced vegetable, I’d say that’s a trade-off I’m more than happy to make.
