July Bonus: Mike Huckabee's Diet Book
You may know Mike Huckabee as the former Governor of Arkansas, the current US Ambassador to Israel, or as a sick bassist, but did you also know he wrote a diet book? On this month's bonus episode, we're diving into "Quit Digging Your Grave With a Knife and Fork" and the conflicted world of a former fat guy who's also a high-profile conservative.
Links!:
Mike Huckabee Has Resumed Digging His Grave with a Knife and Fork - The Stranger
Arkansas led the nation in measuring obesity in kids. Did it help? - NPR
You can play the episode directly through Patreon or use our RSS feed to add it to your podcast app. Here are the instructions from Patreon. And if you've got bonus episode requests, as ever, drop them in the comments!
See you next month!
M&A
Comments (107)
So, I met him when I was in 5th grade for some school thing before his weight loss. I have a picture somewhere. I was a teen during most of his governor time and now I am ready to yeet his daughter into the sun for ending maternal care and shutting down rural hospitals by cutting off funding. Together, they have quite literally ruined our state.
I mean, being a fat T2 diabetic is a cursed existence in the fatphobic and ableist society we live in (speaking from experience). So I can understand why he decided to lose weight being in the public eye but leave other people alone dude 🙄 (I'm British so don't really understand but from what I understand leaving people alone is not the done thing for republicans 🤣)
OmGGGG Michael going to high school with Macklemore is making me sooo happy, two of my favorite comrades ❤️🍉❤️🍉❤️🍉
Listening to this after watching The Chair Company and is that a documentary
Ready
I am very late listening to this episode but I had to chime in with the fact that I went to college with Macklemore, was apparently in a cohort of like 20 people with him, and have absolutely no memory of him at all either. No one ever believes me that I wouldn’t remember him but apparently I’m not alone! 🤣
For what it’s worth, both of Aubrey’s books are over 200 pages. First book 208; second book 224 or 228 (paperback vs. hardcover).
I had no idea Aubrey was on the Biggest Loser Netflix doc and it was such a joyful surprise! I am sending this message after only seeing her first two comments and they were so on point and sad "nothing will be as celebrated by others as much as becoming thin". It was awesome to see the beautiful face that goes with the voice I love listening to!
We need a Big Victories episode for 2025
Hi! Can you mention in a show on the main feed that Aubrey was in Fit For TV? I had no idea until I saw a comment here 🙂
David’s Family Kitchen was the best! Ms. Pearl’s fried chicken brought tears to my eyes because it tasted so much like my long-gone grandmother’s. If only we could say Huckabee and his nepo baby were long gone. Trust me, most Arkansans would feel much happier!
I hope you guys talk about the biggest loser doc bc I was so excited to see Aubrey on it!! I thought everything she said was great of course! The longer I watched it thought though the worse it got and now my gf and I are convinced this doc is going to be used to usher in a reboot of the biggest loser
It seemed like none of the people responsible for the show reflected on any of the many, many ways that the show sucked, from unhealthy practices to absolutely zero reflection on why someone would feel like they needed to be on the show. Given the huge swing back to “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” that we’ve been seeing in the past year, I am absolutely in agreement that we’re up for a reboot in the next year.
Watched the Fit for TV trailer and yelled to my wife “omg it’s Aubrey!!! I know her!” Before realizing that no, I don’t know her, and Mike and Aubrey are just my two most important parasocial relationships.
John Oliver is ripping apart the stars of MAHA the Means siblings in his most recent episode- and I’d love to hear you guys go through their stupid book “good energy”
Just saw “fit for tv” so proud of our fave, Aubrey! ⭐️
Aubrey, it was wonderful seeing you on “Fit for TV”! We need merch for “unguarded daises of food” please! 🙏🏻🙌🏻♥️
i can’t wait to listen to this can i humbly request bethenny frankel’s “Naturally Thin” please 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🫣
Anyone else lose their mind when they say Aubrey on the biggest loser doc today?!? I got so excited to see her 😊♥️
LOL this just happened to me now, I was more listening than watching it & suddenly I was like “hey I know that voice!”
Also https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZaV7Dvv4ic&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5tD
Jeeeesus christ, I’m at 0:18, paused to google this guy after seeing that he’s the us ambassador to israel, and the most cursed headline comes up: “Israel ambassador Mike Huckabee says Hamas 'could use some Ozempic' -"Instead of food, they could use some Ozempic," the U.S. ambassador to Israel said of Hamas during an interview with Piers Morgan.” Congrats on being a CompleteAndTotalShittyPerson™️
Thank you! Love the show! This is my formal bonus episode request for Gerson Therapy!
I’ve just seen a TikTok of someone who found a vinyl of Miss Piggy’s Aerobique. They showed the inlay with diagrams of the exercises which includes Sitting Down and Exercising Your Rights. Just if your looking for a really fun one to do
Any chance you guys could share all episodes on Patreon (including the mainfeed episodes)? I'm leaving spotify and I don't want to miss episodes
I was also confused why some release on Spotify but not on patreon🤔
Sharing an unrelated Easter egg - I was watching a stream of the new Tiny Bookshop game, and saw that Aubrey's first book is featured! It's a cozy game where the player is a mobile bookstore owner who recommends real books to residents of the coastal town.
Okay not related to this episode but I need you both to know about this because of the Myers Briggs episode: Smartypants show on Dropout in their latest episode someone does a comedy PowerPoint presentation about how much Myers Briggs sucks, and I think you would enjoy it! 😅
Small and inconsequential fact check: Pharrell and Timbaland did not go to the same high school but were from the same region. Timbaland went to Salem high school and Pharrell went to Princess Anne - both in Virginia Beach
So good! All I'm seeing on my TikTok lately are calorie deficit videos. Would you ever consider doing an episode on that? :)
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Baby's First Years study, currently making the media rounds as "disproving" the effectiveness of cash assistance for poor families.
Please do the “Jane Austen diet” so I don’t have to read it and I can listen to you yell about it ❤️
What the hell is that: eat for the social class you want to be in and not the one you are?!
I would love an episode on the benefits of flossing. I swear I heard reports of meta-analyses showing that there were no long term benefits to flossing. A quick google search shows me this article from NPR: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/08/02/488378699/does-flossing-help-or-not-the-evidence-is-mixed-at-best. I think this would be a great chill episode.
this anecdotally feels like such a wild thing to doubt, right? Like the difference in the food trapped in my teeth with just brushing and brush+floss feels very large to me! It just feels like your toothbrush cannot get the tiny gaps between your teeth like floss can- it feels like common sense. (I say this while doing a self imposed "Floss every day of August before the dentist lambasts you in September like she always does" challenge).
I went to high school with most of the members of Pentatonix. Also, Maren Morris is from my hometown, but I believe she went to a different high school.
Y’all not knowing about Explo 72 and all the cults that came from it kind of blows my mind. (Btw the Jesus Movement is a real thing.)
I'd love to hear Mike and Aubrey's take on the documentary Fed up. I loved it when I saw it but now looking at it through maintenance phase eyes I can see some problems
Ha! I just watched that!
Part of growing up in the 90s and 2000s is learning to give my parents Grace for not having the information/ the culture pressure of just telling me to eat less and move more while telling me to not take an extra scoop of rice or to eat more salad or to watch my snacks or buy a bigger size of clothes, we'll also realizing how toxic and embedded that is in me 20 years later
Fuckabees!
Michael did you meet trixie and/or katya????
My spidey senses tell me Mike was talking to Mark Ruffalo
Arkansan here. This morning is the only time in my life I've seen the Huckabee name and been excited to hear more!
"Shut up, Mike!" -slidewhistle-
I can't believe you didn't just have a list of unhinged/a-hole people in a small bag that you would draw from and add "Diet Book" to. Like "in bed". Mike Huckabee… diet book JK Rowling… diet book Eric Adams… diet book
As a Seattlite, I would love to hear Mike’s take on the comprehensive plan on a local news podcast. Just putting that out there
I'm pretty sure I've suggested MP cover this book, because it's been completely memory-holed after he gained the weight back. The thing I find so fascinating isn't that he got big again, but that he wrote a whole book about how all you need to do is make these LIFESTYLE CHANGES, follow these STOPS [sic], it's just common sense, and then he promptly proved what B.S. it was.
I used to live in Little Rock and David Family Kitchen was one of my favorite spots to eat! I believe it has since closed 🙁
HELLO! 🌟⭐️🌟 yall were named checked in jeff hiller's new book! 📚 It is fun and good (I recommend the audiobook) he was talking about his body and trying to love his in the chapter
I ALSO went to school with Macklemore - but it was college. I was apparently his RA and had to be reminded of his presence on my hall - he even got kicked out for dealing pot lol - this was a liberal arts school so you had to be dealing an enormous amount of weed to be kicked out. 😆 i think everyone around him was so high we forgot he was a real person.
Entirely beside the point but… hell yeah lake city value village
Side note (and I don’t know if anyone else has posted about it) BUT Jeff Hiller mentioned in his memoir that he listens to MP and now I’m wondering if he’s HERE AMONGST US.
Mike we are behind the paywall, tell us the celebrities!
I started imagining an Eric Adams video in which he searches for hidden snacks around someone's house and the multiple locations in their car.
OMFG. I’m laughing.
Related to the dissonance of a terrible politician having one good idea, as a Kansan I will always remember Sam Brownback’s vigorous and highly visible advocacy for PEPFAR. Those were the days, man.
I recently had dissonance when the terrible Eric Adams “pardoned” a beloved pet pig who was going to be forcibly removed from her family despite being loved and cared for (I hope that’s true; the pictures looked like she was well-loved).
Great timing! I needed a shot of Maintenance Phase in my life. Now waiting for the bonus episode of IBCK…
Just want to say that one of the things I appreciate most about both this show and IBCK is that you share the bits that are actually good.
Me: Ugh, 2005 sucked, and it was so recent... Me: ... Me: goddammit, that was 20 years ago
a) this made my day! and b) please please please don't take my MP card away from me for this comment but ..... inexplicably, Sarah Huckabee Sanders is now gov of Arkansas (sigh). And the one good thing she has done (I can't figure out why? But yay for healthier kids?) is strongly push through free school breakfasts for all public school students, regardless of income. I am shocked. https://www.aradvocates.org/lets-rejoice-in-a-big-win-for-kids/
you know what? I'm glad the ppl of Arkansas are getting at least 1 good thing from her.
Sometimes I think I'm the only person who remembers Naomi Watts, in a bonnet, saying "Fuckabees," but I think about it a lot.
"She said fuckabees"
Now I’m excited for the next IBCK
Hearing Mike say ESH make me ugly laugh
I don't need an excuse to be fat or thin any more than I need to justify being born with green eyes or brown hair--or even for dying my hair blue and deciding against restrictive or bulking diets. None of these are crimes or moral failings or make me a burden on society. I refuse to take responsibility for the time others may decide to waste in judging me for any of this.
Hell yeah
The only thing nice I can say about former Gov. Huckabee is that while he was in office he hired my friend Kirk as the official photographer for the governor’s office. And Christian Woodstock is Cornerstone Fest not whatever explo thing Huckabee attended…
my whole family is overweight, and I have spent my life being given weight loss tips by people who are easily 100 lbs overweight - eat pretzels, drink water, nothing tastes as good as thin feels, seasoning is tricky because you might eat too much. I'm so tired of being told how to be skinny (I am not - I am morbidly obese, but as a teenager I was teensy) by overweight people. Mike Huckabee CERTAINLY counts. Fuck off Suckabee.
When someone says “nothing tastes as good as thin feels,” I want to say “being thin will never feel as good as delicious food tastes,” because it’s always idiots whose idea of a treat is an Oreo or some highly processed crap. I know, I know, “processed,” but like, a homemade cobbler is objectively better than a Twinkie.
Side note- I stopped by Whole Foods on Friday, and to my dismay, saw an entire shelf display of MALK. My dismay was because all I could think of was Aubrey voice saying “MALK” over and over, and I COULD NOT STOP LAUGHING. Thanks, Maintenance Phase!
OMFG, every time I see MALK, I hear Aubrey’s voice in my head too.
reviewing these ridiculous and *TRASH* diet books is my favorite sub-genre of MP! Perfect summer listening :-)
One of my favorite MP episode types too! Have you heard their review of Angela Lansbury’s book? It’s such a relatively cute and cozy episode! “Lovely in a not-as-upsetting way!”
Oh no this guy. That's a cursed title. I'm mostly aware of him as an anti-gay marriage goon.
Also, a good friend and supporter of Josh Duggar. That shit is DARK.
Mike I remember no one and nothing from high school. It's called "a coping mechanism."
I’d love to see an episode about TLC and the “fat people shows” - My 600 lb life, 1000 lb sisters, My Big Fat Fabulous Life, etc.
My first awareness of Mike Huckabee was his appearance on Discovery Health's "The Body Challenge." I'm ashamed to say that I took my family to the local mall and signed us up.
Having bought and read both of Aubrey’s books, I agree with Mike; they are well written and I’m glad I bought them 🥰
Oh it's this guy Of course he has a diet book
Could you do a diet book deep dive on the hyper metabolism diet? I have the book if you want it
Oh the context vs. Excuses conversation- its the same for autistics and ND people...no its context! 🙄
I was in middle school when Mike Huckabee lost a bunch of weight and made it his crusade to make sure the kids were "healthy" and he took all the treats out of our school lunches and replaced all sodas in the vending machines with diet. Lunch got so much worse. All the kids were pissed 🤣
I was in high school during this era and they took away all of the soda machines and replaced them with juice...
Me normally: "Ugh, I have to cook dinner after working all day, BORING." Me today: "Oh sweet, a new MP episode to listen to while I cook dinner!"
The spoiler that Michael is reading He’s Just Not That Into You for IBCK!! Ahh!!
i'm already itching to listen!
Is My Cuck-abee a decent drag king name?
yes
Idk why ANY politician would think we care about their diets. Who buys these?!
There is no demographic more profitable than the USAmerican right
Just had to pause the ep to say yay, Michael and Peter are finally doing He's Just Not That Into You!!!!!!!! Okay, now back to not hearting Huckabee.
Lake city value village !! 🤣
RIP 👼
Ah yes, I have been dying to know how to have the powerful physique of MIKE HUCKABEE. Thank you for this Monday morning gift!
Hi! Could you please do an episode on AG1? I feel like I'm getting bombarded by influencer ads for AG1 & other health "supplements." Id love a deep give on this topic
They did a taste test of it not long ago!
I looked down at the notification on my phone, saw the title and said out loud "Oh *no*"
By which you meant, “Oh YES!!!”
Aahhhhhh!! I'm from the Governor Mike Huck era of Arkansas! I'm so excited to listen to people talk trash about this useless sac of blood!!!
Only time you’ll hear me say “hell yeah” in reference to Mike Huckabee is when he is the subject of a Maintenance Phase episode
Yayy, new episode!
I haven't even started the episode yet and the headline made me physically ill. My mom listened to Huckabee's radio segment every morning for YEARS. Will report back on the unhinged nature of this book.
Honestly not as unhinged as I thought it would be. But honestly, my levels for trash diet stuff have been severely altered after Pete Evans.