April Bonus: Oprah's Ozempic Special

no more fucks to give oprah. this is an infomercial, period.

I didn't even realize this came out. It never showed up in my feed 😭

Around minute 43, when Dr Jin (sp?) is speaking I was scared by my recognition of this type of medical speak (med-splaining, if you will). This reminds me of the "expert opinion" communication style that I saw being used to sow the seeds of the current opiate epidemic. For context, I trained in healthcare during that time. I was taught by people speaking like this about opiates and why we needed to prescribe them more if we were truly caring and responsible. I cannot describe my deep anger and disdain when I hear experts talk down to us all in order to get us to literally and figuratively swallow a pill. I am not accusing this particular doctor of anything, I am just saying I got some horrifying déjà vu while listening to this segment.

I came back to listen to this again because I saw a clip from a podcast comparing ozempic to AI because 'you don't have to do the work' and it made me incandescent with rage

The talk of WW wanting people to heal the pain that they created reminds me of all the times my parents have confronted me about my mental health issues and “disappointing” life performance, behavioral issues without realizing they caused every single one of those and want me to just get over it. “I don’t know what I ever did but holding onto grudges is not the way to live a healthy and satisfying life. Family is too important for this.”Fuck you. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you.

Revisiting this cause I saw an article this week saying “People experience this trouble symptom after getting off Ozempic!” and it’s… regaining weight. Sigh.

Wait, I need to understand the barefoot shoes comment! What are you saying, Michael?

Hold up do y’all have a Barefoot Shoes episode?? If not, PLEASE I will eat that up

great ep thank you guys for what you do. Mike, put your feet in a bucket of water and a wet cloth around your neck. No butt sweat necessary.

Aubrey is the GOAT I learn so much from her. Thank you so much Aubrey and Mike for doing the exhausting but necessary work you do!! We appreciate you 🙏🏻

https://open.substack.com/pub/virginiasolesmith/p/is-it-ozempic-or-is-it-your-marriage?r=ov3hh&utm_medium=ios Has anyone else seen this? Apparently, an unintended consequence of GLP-1s is that your relationships might implode. Personally, I’m neutral about GLP-1s. It’s your body, your choice. I hope you find the best way to care for your unique body with the help of a doctor you trust and your mental health is considered in conjunction with your body’s health. But the societal impact of these drugs is enormous and probably not good for the fat justice movement. At least there’s scientific acknowledgement that bigger bodies are not indicative of failed will power. But that concession only comes after a personality altering drug is on the market for a price.

I listened to the start of this episode having a chuckle yesterday, on an Australian 41 degree celsius day. Today it is 45. That is 113 Fahrenheit 🔥🫠

I know this is late, but Oprah saying anti-fatness is the last acceptable form of discrimination as a BLACK WOMAN???? trying to understand how she came by this opinion gives me a headache

So late to this party but Dr Butch and The Lady is an awesome band name

The Metformin side effects are REAL

Dear Aubrey and Mike, I was fortuitously listening to this Oprah+Ozempic special when I came across this article for a pill that regulates lactate and ketones in way to make a metabolism mimic the effects of running a half a marathon in a fasted state. If we wipe away the unhealthy “side-effects” of being fat, will the stigma remain? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13933763/amp/exercise-chronic-illness-pill.html

Late to the party, but this episode is peak MP. 🙌🏼

Thank goodness for you. THANK GOODNESS FOR YOU. I just saw a headline about...exactly what you predicted ages ago would happen...it's happening. And I just...I just need fat solidarity. Sitting here crying listening to you. Thank you for the work you do.

Man I wish it was 71 here. Summer where I live regularly gets into the triple digits

Now I need to go look and see if we left any nonsensical vaguely rude comments anywhere else. I love everything the Maintenance Phase team does, and keep the great work coming. If we are going to comment that is what I want to say.

I have no idea what happened here. Quite possible! Don't think he knows the word snobs yet, but we would never refer to M & A as such.

I was thin/"average" when I was really young and this episode unlocked a memory for me. Going to the doctors office as a kid I didn't receive fat shaming, but I did receive the opposite. I got thin affirmation. I got told I had a "good" weight. That I was "doing well" and I should "keep it up". I am positive this embedded some anti-fat stigmas in me. After all, if I was a doing a good job for being thin, it must mean fat people were doing a bad job.

Dear god they’re just saying (44:47) yeah, you might get side effects, but you might stay fat instead, and that would be worse. I’m so tired.

Thank you for talking about the performative nature of the “weight loss journey”. It’s detrimental to think we owe society access to our weight and the health they associate with it.

I don't know if this is the place to comment, but I watched Your Fat Friend last night. I don't want to -shock- all of you . . . but it was AMAZING!!!! Whoddathunk?? (jk - 😆) MANY HUGE thanks to Jeanie Finlay, and especially to Aubrey for being so open (can't fathom how difficult I would find that. I'll be sitting with it for awhile - lots of parent/loved one stuff to process.) Can't recommend highly enough.

I had a weird romantic dream about Michael today and then I turn on a bonus episode and he narrates getting progressively more naked throughout, what is going on

I love you both so much 😻🫶🏻

Would love an update on Oprah’s follow-up special!

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMMKBerxe/

My husband and I loved “Your Fat Friend” and so did my parents. I’m trusting the internet that Aubrey is coming out with a new book? If so, is there a way to pre-order the audiobook through Audible?

A cheeky little bonus episode request from Aotearoa! I work for a cancer charity and am TIRED of the weight loss advocacy we do 😡 any thoughts and feelings?

Can yall do an episode on “mewing”? It seems so absurd to me. (Look up Dr. Mike Mew and the Netflix documentary, Open Wide lol).

Devastated that the streaming for Aubrey’s documentary isn’t available in New Zealand 💔 any chance of making it available for more countries?

Yr fat friend: 'That's my daughter' 💜 😭

Am I the only person in the world ozempic didn’t work on? 😂😂

Did you all watch the Oprah Making The Shift yet?

I have loved all of your Oprah content, and this is no exception! I’m wondering if you all could cover the James Frey “A Million Little Pieces” drama from forever ago. Maybe it would be a better fit for Peter and Michael, but I’m going to pitch it as a crossover! Oprah gets mad because a book about addiction recovery that she recommended wasn’t entirely truthful and invites the author on her show to yell at him. I remember being so angry about it given all the other blowhards she’s supported and never confronted.

Commenting here because I can't on spotify. You guys talked about a release schedule change for very good reasons and tbh. I'm just glad for the work done so far and the continued commitment to the quality and thoroughness, it's why I listen. Take as much time as yall need, if the show is too much, then quit. The podcast is an amazing work of dilligence and thoughtfulness and truth, to me anyway.

Dr Butch and the Lady sounds like a really killer romance novel ngl

Thank you so much for being who you each are. An island of reason in a world of maddening stances. I was cracking up at Mike’s narration over the Weight Watcher’s lady. (Unreal BTW.)

Dr. Butch and the Lady: new buddy cop/detective show?

Aubrey, it's 20C in Sheffield right now and I am *sweating*

What concern that is rising with these drugs is malabsorption and then people being malnourished. Something not mentioned in the podcast.

This is great! And also, I would love a completely fun off the wall patreon sometime!! Its sad to see you two be beaten down by ozempic. Make a fun episode about mike's twitter adventures or about a tv show like the bachelor! Whatever is fun for you guys, its great to hang out with you both!

Kept hearing the silly doctor people on the Oprah show calling “overweight and obesity” a disease and all I could think was “so is my XXL tshirt .. a medical device for my condition??”

(Pre-comment caveat, in the fine tradition of podcasts everywhere: I'm writing this as a bit of a thought experiment in "let's pretend this premise is complete and correct" and not "I totally agree with this premise." As has been said many times on MP, you can't just ignore anti-fat bias as a thing that drives our perceptions and treatment of people. But I've thinking that even if you assume anti-fat bias can be magically removed, treating obesity as a disease will still not reduce stigma for fat people. And, as a person with chronic illness from a family of people with chronic illness, I have both Thoughts and Feelings about that.) This may have already been said (and apologies if so), but listening to this episode really crystallized for me why I think treating obesity as a disease has not and never will result in reducing stigma. In order for "let's treat it as a disease and the stigma will go away" to work, you have to assume that there is no stigma associated with illness. This could not be further from the truth! I have chronic pain and I come from a family of people with chronic illnesses. The amount of stigma associated with just *not having a perfectly-working body* is unreal. You don't really realize it's there until you try to get medical care - but the number of doctors who have lost all interest in helping me feel better (e.g. pain management) because they can't figure out the cause of/can't cure my pain is ridiculous. We as a society don't like the reality that there are things about the human body - and by extension, one's own personal body - that we don't understand and can't control. And if we don't understand and can't control them, they might happen to us someday. This fear leads to a heck-ton of othering of people who are visibly ill, disabled, etc, and no amount of "it's a disease, not a choice" is going to shift that discomfort on its own. If we treat obesity as a disease, then the way people look (i.e. visibly fat, not the "right" shape, etc) is a physical and visual manifestation of that disease. You're basically walking around announcing your personal medical information to all and sundry. And because we in the US are deeply uncomfortable with any disease that can't be immediately diagnosed and cured with surgery or medication and return you to your pre-disease life unchanged, treating obesity as a disease will do absolutely nothing to reduce anti-fat bias and stigma for fat people.

I didn’t watch the special so it might just be a clip of the novo reps full answer, but being in pharma marketing (yes the cognitive dissonance is constant which is why I listen to this pod), it was extremely amusing to hear them sidestep Oprah’s question about the internal reaction to social media’s framing of ozempic. What I imagine happened was first, panic because I doubt it was an indication they were approved to advertise for since it was only ever mentioned as a side effect for diabetes treatment. Then seeing the opportunity, they frantically got approval from their legal team to advertise it as dually indicated for weight loss and started surrounding weight loss content with ads rather than blocking it as a contraindication. Not shocking (and probably not interesting to most) but wanted to add my two cents from the perspective of this corrupt industry ✨

Heads up Mike you can screenshot Hulu you just have to change your browser settings

This episode made me feel sad and a bit defeated. Life only improves because you're someone different. Everything else stays shitty. Plus you suck because you didn't suffer enough. This level of double cruelty is unreal.

Same thing as “it’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle” but with shame 😔

OH MY GOD! When the Weight Watchers 'doctor' said they were missing the third prong... did anyone else yell "CELLULAR VOLTAGE!"?

I noticed the WW sign in the background of your talk at Powell’s in Yr Fat Friend and wondered if that was just a weird coincidence. I’m not as familiar with that location.

My 12 yo’s doctor just said he should go on phentermine. I’m so fucking tired.

Oprah has such a track record of backing wack jobs that it puzzles me exceedingly that she still has an audience at all. The diet stuff though; I am also the child of a parent so soaked in diet culture that every bite is approached as a calculated risk, so I do get her inability to climb out of that mindset. I just wish Oprah & others of questionable info were publicly challenged more on their thinking. Thanks for the work you do to counter all the bullshit they dump on us!

Thank you for this episode. Just this week, my mom told me that she "watched the Oprah episode" and it has contributed to her choice to try Zepbound. It makes me sad that she still spends everyday feeling ashamed of her body and wanting to change it. I'm worried that Zepbound won't be the "magic pill" that is marketed and she will be once again blaming herself for not being thin.

Had to be on patreon cuz mike was naked. Can't be giving it away for free in this economy.

Oh man the woman telling Aubrey “I don’t know how to eat” after doing WW for her whole life is so relatable. I just spent a year and several thousand dollars working with a coach to relearn how to have normal hunger cues and normal reactions to hunger cues after too many years of diet shame.

Pussy? To mean weak? Do better Mike.

At 9 minutes. Me, a cishet white woman: "MIKE! Just turn off the Grindr notifications! It's not that hard!" My husband, a cisgender bisexual: "Actually, it is."

I’m going to struggle to put this into words but I was really horrified to realise that ozempic marketing is so insidious that even listening to this episode was kind of functioning promotionally for me personally. I’ve been offered ozempic by my endocrinologist (PCOS) and I’m resistant because it took me so many years to stop reflexively hating myself for my body and that hatred is so much worse for you than any physical issue could ever be. I’m unsure of how I’d handle Ozempic mentally, whether I did or didn’t lose a lot of weight, but there’s so much systemic pressure to try to be thin that even listening to this episode where you break down the ghoulish marketing, I started grappling with it again. It’s so tempting and that’s pretty horrifying. I’m Australian, I have no idea if it’s gov subsidised here, if I could even afford it. I haven’t looked into it because I kind of don’t want to know. Ps, didn’t Mike live in Australia for a while during uni? How did he cope? It’s late Autumn and gonna be 65f here today, and I’m in Melbourne, the cold city (I’m freezing)

I live in Texas. It’s 71 degrees in January here.

Listening to Mike complain abt mid 70s from my 88 degree midwest morning

Great episode but as a New Yorker, I'm seething with jealousy that you guys consider 75 degrees to be hot. the east coast is pure hell!!!

I love your show. This was the first one that legit made me sad. Like, most of the others make me angry but this hit a chord with me and I just am left sad.

I wish that first woman on Oprah special, who spoke about breaking down because she could finally find pants in a store, was more of a focus. It really sounds like she, in real time, reckoned with the fatphobia she'd experienced when she was fat. Literally anyone who is fat knows formerly fat people are some of the worst dispensers of fatphobia. I wish Oprah had the capacity to engage with her in the larger conversation of fatphobia because it really feels like she was just on the verge of reckoning with fatphobia as a concept. and it feels like Oprah just glossed right over it in true fashion.

I already commented but I had a thought. Aubrey said in this episode that a million people tagged her in that article and it honestly sounded like it got her down and was triggering to her. I've often seen stuff I've wanted to send to you guys too and I wonder if you could address how to do so in an appropriate and respectful way?

Actually i think Dr. Butch is a lesbian advice column

Super interesting that Aubrey mentioned metformin giving her bad GI side effects - I'm on it for Long Covid/ME, and myself and every other person I know who also takes it for LC/ME has a similar experience of metformin just ✨️destroying✨️ our digestive systems for the first 2 weeks, before that abates as a side effect and you start getting benefits from it

Lol Mike talking about Oprah being ageless without acknowledging she’s gotta be at least 80% botox by now…

Oof, Aubrey’s realization about people our parents age being fully bought in to diet culture and that’s going to be their way of life until they die really hit me hard. I just spent several days with my mid 60s mom and she’s the thinnest she’s ever been, obsessed with working out, and I had to make her eat breakfast at least once. It’s sad because I know that this is it. She’s going to be chasing thinness and battling her relationship with food for the rest of her life.

Unrelated to this episode, but I would love to see a response from Michael and Aubrey to Abby Mahler https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSFwadFQM/

Thank you both for watching this so I didn’t have to- I knew it was a thing but was very purposefully ignoring it because I have enough rage in my life. I appreciate the service you do our community by helping us process and sharing your time and knowledge. Also, 100% would watch Dr. Butch and The Lady- please someone write this show. Also, also- the comments section is especially 🔥for this episode, I love the MP community!

HAHAHAHA WOW THAT MADE ME SO SAD! Thanks guys. The hypocrisy from these industries is truly staggering. I was trying to articulate some of it for my husband and I was stammering because I literally couldn't find the words for how egregious they are.

"Dr Butch and the Lady" sounds like it should be a cozy-mystery series, wherein a lesbian couple solve murders in the Portland area. And I'd pay GOOD money to watch it!!!

As a public relations professional I am mighty impressed by weight watcher’s commentary. Well rehearsed! The reality though is that Michael and Aubrey are right.

I'd be fascinated to hear what your opinion of Johann Hari's book Magic Pill, also about ozempic et , but Hari has an interesting history with reliably quoting people and studies. I feel like it might be up your street. Thank you for your podcast it's my favourite.

Idk how Aubrey got through watching that special because I was at rage level 100 just seeing ads for it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you were fat and femme in the 90s/early 00s, you are entitled to financial compensation (especially if you were a teen). How we made it out alive, I’ll never know.

This helped me understand my mom a bit better. Thanks Aubrey and Mike. It’s so sad though, that someone with as much money and time as Oprah has, can’t escape the shame. I’ve always had an issue with her because of the ideas she spreads. She used ti make me feel weird when my mom would watch her when I was a kid, even when I didn’t understand what she was talking about.

This is making me want to scream. Thank you for spicing up my birthday!!

Oprah is now claiming that Ozempic is just a "maintenance tool" for her. Seems as if she is still trying to - at least indirectly - claim that her massive weight loss was all willpower and exercise and dieting, perhaps? Or maybe the headline in this video is just bad reporting(?) https://youtube.com/shorts/78sLZsaW05U?si=zkDmERqwBzcMLR7m

I want to connect the “it’s not your fault, it’s a disease that needs treatment” rhetoric about weight to other health issues that have received the same shift in thinking, namely addiction and mental illness. Fatness, addiction, and mental illness all occupied similar spaces of “bad people stuff” for a long time in medicine and society. I actually think that the weight loss industry’s shift to this perspective is purposefully mirroring the shift in thinking about addiction and mental illness because the disease model is generally seen as more progressive (and accurate) for those issues and they want the idea of fatness as a disease to be appealing to younger generations

This reminds me of my cousin who took ozempic for his diabetes. He stopped taking it, even though it drastically lowered his A1C level, because he wasn’t loosing any weight. Advertising the drug this way has a hugely negative impact the people it provides a non-weight loss function for.

Can I watch the Oprah special in Australia somehow ?

with so much love, god how I wish I could listen to this at .9x speed. or Michael at .75x and Audrey at regular speed

Aubrey ❤️

“Above 64 is where I start complaining.” <— I’ve never felt more aligned with the 2 of you.

Several years ago - maybe 10+ - I was in line at the grocery store and saw a cover of O magazine with Oprah standing next to a thinner picture of herself with a headline like “How did I let this happen again?” I said out loud to no one in particular, “Oh god, how many times is this woman going to drag us all through her fucking weight issues?” The woman standing in front of me said “Amen” or something similar and we ended up talking about how exhausting and damaging it was that she kept doing this. So it was espeically gratifying to hear both Aubrey and Michael express similar feelings because it’s honestly been endless. And the stuff about folks being concerned about their weight until the end of their lives was truly sobering and heartbreaking.

Awesome episode…there is so much to say on this topic and I appreciate the nuance, compassion, and also honesty that you discuss it with. My sister is on one of these types of medications for her Type 1 Diabetes (the kind where the pancreas is dying) …it’s helped her a ton with her blood sugar levels being more consistent and not spiking randomly. However she has a horrible time with GI side effects and can only eat a very limited number of food types without being quite ill. It’s not ideal…I hope they come up with something better for diabetics - they deal with so much, they deserve a medicine that works without making them miserable. 🥺 As a fat person myself I have been offered Ozempic a few times …I have great doctors that handle my multiple autoimmune diseases, so only a couple times have i been asked if it was something that felt like a good option for me, to which I said nope. I’m an anorexia survivor and have no interest in manipulating my body’s response to food at any time in my life on purpose ever again🫣 It’s a really personal choice, and I definitely don’t judge people that decide to take it. But I am tired of the ‘it’s a miracle drug’ attitude…*sigh* Thank you for commiserating Aubrey and Michael, you two are the best🫶🏽

For me, the key point of this special was when the WW lady admitted that diets don’t work. That is the real Headline News, IMO, but it didn’t hit anyone I know that same way. It’s too hard a truth to acknowledge, I guess. I am wearily tired of being in such a large body, and am on the drug to change that. I have an autoimmune disease so I’m used to idea that my body works against me and that drugs can help. My body my choice but I’m going in eyes wide open. It’s no picnic. It’s very serious, on the same level as the bariatric surgery. You don’t have to diet and exercise but you do need to be careful not to lose all your muscles, bones, hair and not to mention eff up your digestive system. I’m grateful to this podcast for helping me to “see” all the insanity and not get lost in it. There were so many truly slimy moments in this special. They brushed off talk of cost, availability, side effects. And honestly I think it would have been appropriate for someone to apologize for what they’ve done to us for all these decades. But nope, it’s just hype and exploitation.

I did have a medical professional tell me as a kid that I’d grow up to be 300lbs. I was 10 and the medical professional was my dad. We need to talk about the harm that well intentioned bias does.

I know that intuitive eating has been mentioned 1-2 times and it sounds like Aubrey isn’t a fan. Would love to hear pros and cons of it!

Not Michael complaining about the 71°, when I live in a place where 98° is like normal

Upper Midwesterner chiming in as a fellow member of the "if the temperature gets above 75 I riot" club

So much misinformation out there on type 2 diabetes - family history is a much better indicator than your weight

This episode is honestly such a great example of how this show has radicalised me so much. I didn't really think much about this stuff before but after hearing it all and the patterns and everything become like a patchwork that you just can't unsee. Also because of all that stuff I've learned from you guys im pretty sure im not the only person who had similar reactions to Aubrey alongside y'all 😅

Good ol Michael "extensive notes and hella clips" Hobbes

Wow…it’d be great if doctors and celebrities would put this much support behind care for individuals with substance use disorders.

Dr Butch and the Lady Dr would have been an amazing indie duo in the 2010s

Aubrey, my MIL is from Sheffield and when I need a jacket outside she says, “gosh it’s HOT”

The morass at the end 🤣🤣🤣

You are so right when you say that weight loss has become expected and performance. Except most of the time it's a "How to" guide for an eating disorder. And Aubrey, I'm remembering in your book "You Just Need to Lose Weight and Ten Other Myths About Fat People" that one of the myths is that fatness is the last socially acceptable discrimination. And that's what Oprah says although as we in marginalized communities know, there are so many communities that are still openly harrassed and stigmatized.

I’m a hospice cna- when you say “diet until the day you die” it is not an exaggeration. EVERY single lady I take care of complains about & apologizes for their weight/body. They are on diets. They are upset when their mobility exercises don’t help them lose weight. When I make them food they ask for smaller portions, regardless of how little they already eat due to lack of appetite. I became very close with a 95 pt of mine after spending 30+ hours a week with her, she was lovely in every way possible. But she anguished over her weight until she *literally* couldn’t speak anymore. I’d been in recovery from an ED for a few years by the time I started this job, but after these experiences I vowed to NEVER go back to those habits again. It breaks my heart in every way possible.

I envision Dr Butch to be a queer owned Portland based weed company

I wasn't aware of this special, thankfully, and won't watch. Halfway through your episode and I've screamed a half dozen times already. After a serious illness, I was put on steroids, which have spiked my blood sugar to diabetes-levels. Off the steroids, it's not coming down. I'm so afraid that they might tell me I need to take one of these drugs. I'll refuse, and ask for something else, and I so fear the response from doctors as well as family (if they find out).

The MORASssss🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 godammit michael! I love you guys so much!!!!!

I will agree that the behavior of many pharmaceutical companies, especially related to drug pricing can be reprehensible. But please stop equating the component cost of manufacturing a drug (or indeed anything, like an iPhone) with the cost to the company of creating that thing. Not only is there the actual manufacturing and shipping cost - the components don't just magically combine themselves into the drug at your pharmacy - the process of research and development, especially of drugs, is expensive. Developing a compound to the point where it is out in the world actually being sold is a long, slow process. Most potential treatments don't make it to trials, most that make it to early trials don't make it to late trials. While there are exceptions in the way some things are funded, the cost of drugs that make it to market needs to cover not only the development and manufacturing of that drug, but also part of that of all the other drugs that never made it to market to make back the development cost.

whatever sliver of grace I was holding on for Oprah is gone. that clip where the woman talks about crying in a dressing room about her ~fat self~ could have been from any of a thousand diet specials or ads and the fact that it’s on Oprah in 2024 about fucking Ozempix makes me want to burn down the proverbial house. how can you look at this and think it’s anything new???

The part about the cost of manufacturing the drug vs the consumer cost is SO REAL. I'm taking Zepbound because it's the only way to get a doctor to listen to me. Eli Lilly has a "savings card" that makes it $25 a month. If they can afford to do that, why not just make that the base price?!

Thinking about Medicare coverage: drs refuse to do joint replacement surgery until the patient loses weight. But the patient can’t lose weight, and in the meantime is in pain because they can’t get surgery. If drs are so concerned about weight loss for surgery, they should prescribe ozempic.

I’m in North Qld Australia where it’s a hot climate. I’m walking before sunrise, it’s 71 here and I’m freezing and covered up 😂

So Dr. Butch and the Lady is obviously a cosy mystery/romcom, where Dr. Butch is a gruff but lovable local doctor in a small Montana town with a deadpan comedy receptionist played by Elaine Miles. The Lady is a society deletante from the Big City who secretly wants to be a detective. The town is snowed in. There's a murder (Or Is There???) and The Lady decides to solve the case, but she needs help with something something forensics, and so she has to rope in the grumpy Dr. Butch. Shenanigans ensue, they fall in love, the "murder victim" was actually just caught out in the snowstorm, but holed up in an old fishing shack and is doing just fine, alls well that ends well, but The Lady decides to stay in town and hang up her shingle as a private eye, solving highly episodic small town mysteries.

Thanks for once more wading into the thick of it to bring us this stunning episode! May the boomers be delivered from the throes of diet culture, Amen 🙏

THANK YOU for this episode! And my friends thank you because now I can stop yelling at them about how Oprah made me BIG MAD with this BS.

The section about so many people having terrible symptoms on metformin is so interesting! I've been taking it for about a year and I have multiple family members who are long time users and none of us have side effects, yet NONE of my friends or others that I've talked to that have tried it could stand it. I had no idea that was so common!

I also wonder about how some docs’ anti-fat / weight loss above all other outcomes mindset contributes to harm, re Ozempic side effects My dad was on Ozempic to treat his T2D. When he started having major GI issues, he PCP couldn’t fathom that it would be the ozempic because he felt it was “helping him lose weight” and it was “so important” to make sure my dad keeps losing weight. After 3 trips to the ER, the pcp finally got on board with my suggestion to pause ozempic and see if that helped - and it did! 🤦🤦 My dad still has some intermittent GI issues that flare up from time to time and is being tested to see if he has some residual gastroparesis from the meds. I can’t help but wonder how the PCP’s anti-fat bias and strong emphasis on weight loss above all other health outcomes contributed to the harm to my dad.

If you’re need a little joke release I love Jackie Kashian always but especially for this very topical bit: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTL9Vhagr/ *(sorry it’s a TikTok but I couldn’t find the same clip on any other official platform/channel)

Been waiting for this since the special. Infomercial is a perfect description. I wonder how many people are saying “If it’s good enough for Oprah, it’s good enough for me!” Hope you guys eventually touch on the blue zone craze.

Celebrating that someone no-longer experiences anti-fat bias now they’re thin, is like celebrating making all BIPOC folks white and saying “look, now there’s no racism”. It’s just another version of asking people to our assimilate into broken mainstream western culture. Ugh. 😵‍💫🤬

I had the unique opportunity to be present at a friend’s recent virtual doc appt where she was asking about perimenopause, one of the symptoms of which was a gain of 10 pounds that correlated with starting a new birth control pill (my friend wanted to understand what was going on and discuss how to manage the side effect). Somehow my friend was not aware of the ozempic+ class of drugs, and so when the doctor brought it up (inexplicably), my friend asked what it was. The doc mentioned the term “appetite suppressor” and my friend immediately said “No, not for me, I’ve got enough issues with being regular.” The doctor mentioned a supplement and some deal about 100s (drinking water, eating protein, reducing carbs, blah blah), but literally came back to the ozempic nonsense 3 or 4 more times. It 100% felt like I was in a documentary about the opioid epidemic- like someone must be getting paid to push this. So fucking bizarre.

So sad that you made this episode before the puff piece in the New York Times ran this Sunday. Shiny, happy people losing weight! - no side effects need be mentioned in the "paper of record". My mother read it to me while I rolled my eyes so hard they almost stuck that way.

Listening to these Oprah clips and wondering if this is how one reacts to a victim who groomed you into being another victim - I hear your pain and I acknowledge how terribly you’ve been abused… but also I wouldn’t be so deep into all this if not for you drawing me into this mindset while also perpetuating so much ugliness. And ultimately she’s still at it Sorry but Covid has used up all my empathy stores. It’s been terrible for her but she can cry about it to her personal staff while I’m disabled and struggling. But hey at least I never platformed John of God so there’s that…

Thank you for doing this episode so that I don't have to watch the special.

This episode reminded me of the compassion to have for my mom even though her beliefs/anti fat bias has been really harmful to me. She’ll never live outside the world of dieting and anything i do to try to introduce her to new ideas is immediately disregarded or shut down because it challenges that world she lives in/believes.

So funny, I take Mounjaro and when I lost over 60 pounds, and when people find out they practically BEG me to say I changed my diet and exercise drastically and that it wasn't just the medicine. When I say no it actively upsets them.

I’m the same re: Oprah. She’s been mid-40s my entire life (I’m 37).

I only have one beef with this episode. Michael, how in the hell can you have Grindr notifications turned on? If I log on and leave the app open in the background the notifications alone will sap my battery within an hour. It’s not because I’m hot, that’s just how thirsty men are. For the love of all that is holy Michael turn off your notifications.

I'm on Mounjaro for my T2D and I just... have so many feelings about fat bias and how these drugs interact. I'm shamed for being fat, and I'm shamed for being on a medication, and I have to deal with the side effects and the availability and price of this drug, and I have to anticipate whether there will be a major health fallout at some point ("Surprise, those medications I endorsed from the 2020's cause x condition!" -- Oprah at 80, probably), but also if I don't manage my blood sugars I know I *will* have health fallout and is that better or worse than what could happen in the future and just. I'm so tired of "obesity is a disease." The messaging is not fixing fatphobia, y'all. Stop. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but who cares? Chickenpox is a disease, but those of us who had it prior to the vaccine don't literally get treated like subhuman because we have chickenpox scars. I just. As Aubrey said like ten times in this bonus ep... "AAAUUGGHHH /tableflip"

I’ve been waiting for this episode!

So much screaming fuck you at Dr Jen.

Dr. Butch and The Lady needs to be on Masterpiece Mystery as a new detective show where a butch lesbian doctor and femme detective solve murders

This may sound like an idiotic question, but it's one I've been thinking about for awhile. If fat loss=healthy Why don't more doctors recommend liposuction?

I find it so odd how Michael says he actively uses Grindr yet in a recent episode of one of his podcasts said he doesn't know of a position besides top/bottom DESPITE "SIDE" BEING AM OPTION ADDED TO GRINDR LIKE A YEAR AGO. Also, Grindr is a technical mess. He would be on Scruff.

I love how Aubrey holds her boundaries around not reading things like The Cut article that she knew would ruin her day and/or month. Self care queen!

LOL at me literally shopping for barefoot sandals while mike is going off about barefoot shoe-vangelism

Loved this episode, concerned that Mike will die if he stays in NY for the summer.

Pharmaceutical companies are like the family members on succession and I can’t be convinced otherwise

Really good point from Aubrey about her discussion with the health care provider about anecdotal reports of side effects telling a much different story than the research. I’ve found the same with antipsychotics, where a side effect I’m experiencing is considered “very rare” but many people I talk to who are taking a particular psych med will have experienced the same thing. I think it’s important to have some critical information literacy with regard to medical research and consider who the key stakeholders are, who is funding the research, and whose voices are being excluded. I think it’s quite easy to fall into the binary of “evidence-based = good” and “lesser-studied = bad,” when really there is a need for a more nuanced conversation that doesn’t devolve into ridicule about alternative approaches or claims of conspiratorial thinking when questioning the validity of research. Thanks for a great episode, M & A!

This gives me so much perspective on why my mom consistently talks about her weight and her diets/cleanses. Instead of feeling triggered I can also appreciate why this is on the top of her mind.

Omg why do I have meetings interrupting my listening joy!

my grandmother is in her 90s and still gets mad at herself when she eats bread. some people are just in too deep to know anything else

I won’t watch the Oprah special because my time is precious, but I really feel the tension between loving your body and trying to change it. I’m at that weird stage, and I don’t know how to move off it. As a middle-aged women whose body is changing, regardless of what I do, I want to love my body, but why does it feel like it’s deceiving me? Bah.

I am 13 minutes in and I have cried, laughed and been enraged. As a 51 year old woman, I grew up watching her battle her weight and it took me 46 years to undo what anti-fat bias did to me.

Mike failed at galaxy braining Aubrey but it totally worked on me 😂 I literally went “yeah!! wait what??”

I was scared to listen to this episode, as I have been actively avoiding the Oprah special. But it just makes me sad for her and the people on this episode. I am glad I am no longer in diet culture, but man....so painful and triggering.

I can't tell you how angry I was when I saw the first ad for this special. Not only because fuck diet culture, but because it pushed The Bachelor an hour. Absurdity.

Not sure how many of y’all can relate, but man, it was such a bummer that even with all the reading/listening/work I have done, I still found myself watching this damn special. Similarly disappointing is that there are times where it seems like Oprah is 🤏 *this* close to getting it. She comments on how much better she’s been historically treated in a smaller body, and then instead of saying “man, aren’t we fucked—shouldn’t we just treat people like people,” she’s like, “so now I’m here, taking this shot and feeling better than ever!!! They were right!! Thin is best!!!!” All that to say, I’m excited for this episode to heal my brain.

I keep my AC at 78 because chocolate melts at 80. Welcome to the American Southeast!

I'm sorry she got gastric bypass at 13?! god that poor kid

My mom legitimately called me begging me to watch this. She couldn't stop telling me how amazing it was. She is a thin boomer that has been dieting my entire 40 years on earth. She has also taken ozempic to lose "the last 5 lbs". I still can't bring myself to watch it and now I definitely don't think I will.

THE THIRD HEAT. MICHAEL. This is the content I pay for!

Woohoo! New episode! Ima watch the oprah trash first, to enhance my joke understanding.

"Dr. Butch and the Lady Doctor" coming soon to Netflix!

Yay! For the content. Not ozempic dramas. Can anyone help me find the Huel taste test ep? I'm failing at search.

My mom texted the group chat with her, me, and my sister saying she was going to watch this special. My sister and I rolled our eyes but were like “okay fine but be wary if she tries to sell you anything.” And wouldn’t you know that’s what happened. My mom texted us after the special aired saying “I think Oprah’s become a shill for the pharmaceutical industry.” I was proud of her for finally realizing this and especially for coming to that conclusion on her own. My mom and Oprah are the same age actually and my mom also looks way younger than almost 70-years-old.

I love how it starts with “oowoah! maintenance phase after dark!” and it was uploaded at 2a, me listening now and giggling when Mike calls himself a pussy. Gonna enjoy this drive home lol

Oh snap, Oprah Ozempic crossover episode??

Couldnt be better timing with Johan Hari's book promotions being everywhere!!