In this conversation…
The “MAHA Moms” insist their healthy living movement is all about “the children,” who you’ll quickly learn are being “poisoned” by all the “toxic” ingredients in our food supply and corrupted by the crooked doctors in our medical system. But which kids is this “revolution” really for?
This episode is a Tour de Grift that explores some of the most notable figureheads, their claims, and how this information metastasizes—so that even @CrunchyMom6969 ends up sharing vaccine misinformation between enema cleanse updates.
References in This Episode
From Anti-Vaxxer Moms to Militia Men: Influence Operations, Narrative Weaponization, and the Fracturing of American Identity (2021) by Dana Beth Weinberg and Jessica Dawson for the Brookings Institute, where you can read the impressive organizing tactics shared by *checks notes* white nationalist militias and Moms for Liberty
Rabbit Hole Syndrome: Inadvertent, accelerating, and entrenched commitment to conspiracy beliefs (2023) by Robbie M. Sutton and Karen M. Douglas, accessed via ScienceDirect
Recursive patterns in online echo chambers (2019) by Emanuele Brugnoli, Matteo Cinelli, Walter Quattrociocchi & Antonio Scala, accessed via Scientific Reports, which said the World Economic Forum places things like wheels-off Facebook groups at the core of major global threats! Good!
“The Most Powerful Moms in America Are the New Face of the Republican Party,” for Kiera Butler by Mother Jones (2022), which does an outstanding job of sketching the origins of the proto-MAHA Mamas
The cursed historical text that is the Moms for Liberty recruiting video, in which a man who is almost certainly employed at least part-time as a magician and/or studied at the Criss Angel school of personal style says he is concerned his children are learning outlandish lessons in school, like that “systemic racism exists”
“Exclusive: White Nationalists and Anti-Vax Moms Plot Ottawa Copycat Convoys on Telegram,” by Kiera Butler for Mother Jones (2022)
This clip from Lara Trump’s new show in which she outlines the standard talking points that lead most people to assert we need universal healthcare, but instead, concludes that you should buy supplements from this former insurance salesman named Gary1
“The Black Stork: Eugenics Goes to the Movies,” by Stephen J. Taylor for the Hoosier State Chronicles (2016)
“The Finest Thing in the World a Happy Healthy Family”: Eugenics, Motherhood, and Advertising in the United States, 1910-1935,” by Alana Toulin (2013), which shows a soap ad from 1924 that says sickness is unnatural and wouldn’t happen in a “perfectly clean” world2
“Land Ho” by Gaby Del Valle for The Baffler (2023)
The Social Determinants of Health from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which says 70% of your health outcomes are attributable to how many Fruit Loops you consume (or, wait, sorry, that’s what it’ll say after Vani Hari makes her edits)
“How the Right Claimed Crunchy” by Lisa Miller for The New York Times (2024)
The full interview we discussed throughout this episode, in which Bari Weiss bravely takes us “inside” the MAHA “revolution” by lending her platform to three people whose opinions about vaccines are, for some undisclosed reason known only to Bari herself, worthy of broadcasting
“What is MAHA?,” which is a multi-part breakdown by a team of New York Magazine reporters from 2024
“The war on ‘prediabetes’ could be a boon for pharma—but is it good medicine?,” by Charles Piller for Science (2019) which talks about how the label “prediabetic” came to be and why the World Health Organization doesn’t recognize it as a diagnostic category
If you’re in the mood to be alarmed about every potential harm in mundane grocery store foods with a wink of anti-vax rhetoric, all while you’re sold a protein powder that I’m pretty certain does not “exist in nature,” might I recommend this ad from Turning Point USA influencer Will Witt for your viewing pleasure?
A breakdown of the ~$6 trillion global wellness industry, by the “Global Wellness Institute”
“The link between Big Pharma and the supplement industry,” by Anne-Marie Roche for Elsevier (2023), because you’ll never believe who sells the majority of supplements in this country and why they’re totally cool with the lax regulatory environment
“What VAERS Is (And Isn’t)” from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which might help explain why everything from “gunshot” to “imprisonment” are reported as vaccine side effects
“Eradicating polio” from UNICEF, which notes that 400 million children annually receive the polio vaccine, but I don’t know, maybe Jillian Michaels is right and we should Do Our Own Research
“Tiny Coffins: Measles is Killing Thousands of Children in Congo,” by Stephanie Nolen and Arlette Bashizi for The New York Times
A segment with Zen Honeycutt, a MAHA Mom whom CNN decided we needed to hear from, who believes “the GMOs in the food supply” were making her children sick and that the “independent research” she’s seen indicates vaccines are “weakening our immune systems”
“The Cost of a GMO-Free Basket of Food in the United States,” a 2015 report that found, on a per-ounce basis, foods labeled “non-GMO” cost 73% more, and higher consumer willingness to pay for non-GMO foods coincided with lower levels of education about what GMOs actually are
Reproductive Health Risks Associated with Occupational and Environmental Exposure to Pesticides (2021) accessed via MDPI, which analyzed a collection of studies that researched effects on fertility for people who work with pesticides
“Farmer Tackling Monsanto’s Seed Policy Gets a Day in Supreme Court” by Dan Charles for NPR (2012)
“Trump’s FDA pick made his name by bashing the medical establishment. Soon he may be leading it,” by Matthew Perrone for AP News (2025), about the way in which Dr. Marty Makary’s speech often “veers into hyperbole,” which you’ll see for yourself in this interview we watched clips from
Infertility: A common target of antivaccine misinformation campaigns (2024) by Tara C. Smith and David H. Gorski for Elsevier, accessed via ScienceDirect
Fear about adverse effect on fertility is a major cause of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the United States (2021), accessed via Wiley Online Library
Infertility and Impaired Fecundity in Women and Men in the United States, 2015–2019, by Colleen N. Nugent, Ph.D., and Anjani Chandra, Ph.D. for the National Health Statistics Report (2024) for the CDC, as well as this 2013 version of the report which covered the period between 1982 and 2010 and found essentially the same results
“Calling for federal action, watchdog says there’s no evidence dietary supplements for infertility help women get pregnant” by Sharon Begley for Stat (2019)
US Infertility Rate Plateaus (2022) from Johns Hopkins Medicine, which notes infertility is an issue “more common among women who are older, who are non-Hispanic Black and who have less income or education, and women without access to sexual and reproductive health services,” not those who have failed to replace their plastic toothbrush head with a Bamboo one
“Exposure to air pollution increases infertility risk, US study finds,” by Tom Perkins for The Guardian (2024)
Air pollution exposure in vitrified oocyte donors and male recipient partners in relation to fertilization and embryo quality (2024), accessed via ScienceDirect
“Under RFK Jr., US Health Policy and FDA Operations May See Major Shifts,” by Avia M. Dunn, Maya P. Florence, Rachel Turow, and Nicole L. Grimm for Skadden (The Nucleus: Life Sciences Enforcement and Regulatory Updates) (2025)
Experimental Evidence Shows That Housing Vouchers Provided Measurable Benefits, Including Parent Stress Reduction (2024) by Sandra Newman, Tama Leventhal, C. Scott Holupka, and Fei Tan for Health Affairs
And finally, Alex Clark talking to Charlie Kirk about how “hammering the health and wellness” is the key to “cinching” the mom vote for Donald Trump
Bonus Reading & Resources
“Live Free or DEI” by Gaby Del Valle for The Baffler
RFK Jr. and the Rise of the Anti-Vax Movement on Maintenance Phase, for more specific RFK Jr. coverage
Doppelganger by
, which we quoted several times in this episode for her ability to incisively sketch the connections between wellness, “purity,” the “natural,” and conspiracy thinkingThe Wellness Trap by Christy Harrison, a book that discusses elements of this topic but with more specific health-forward commentary which we are, of course, woefully unqualified to provide lol
Point of clarification:
A big thanks to Big Fat Liars (complimentary) Kirsten,
, and , who pointed out the difference between the process of selectively breeding foods (a form of genetic modification) and “genetically modified organisms,” which are known as “GMOs.” In the episode, I (Katie) stated that genetically modified foods are everywhere in our food supply, in reference to the broader category of foods that have been intentionally modified. My intention was to emphasize that this process is (a) common and (b) not inherently dangerous, but specifically GMO crops are less universal than was implied by my statements.That said, GMO crops are not poisonous for human consumption, so my broader sentiment—that vilifying them as dangerous or toxic for one’s individual health is fear mongering—stands. Please forgive the conflation, I am but a humble Googler doing her best!
He excitedly tells Mario Lopez (?) that “80 is the new 40!” (??)
And by “perfectly clean,” of course they are referring to a master race lol
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