September Bonus: Checking in on MAHA, Kratom and Jillian Michaels

21:55 so if you should steer clear since Kratom can be addictive, but the 'mission' of the brand is to help people wean off the substances they are abusing... wtf is the point of this product?? Is it harm reduction or not??

Omg I am not American and all this time I had confused Jillian Michaels with JillyJuice-Jillian 😅😭

Honestly can mean skinny people please stop using diabetes as a stick to beat fat people with? People with diabetes do not deserve blame, especially fat people with diabetes 😞 I don't expect anything better from Gillian f-ing Michaels but god damn it.

I want a notification sound of Aubrey going "oh good, good for you!"

Bedumbening is my new favorite word. Displacing enshitification.

The Law and Order sound is a gavel?!?! I was today-years-old when

Thank you for talking about kratom! I know someone whose life was totally destroyed by kratom and I've been shocked at its presence in my home community.

Returning to this after they turned the food pyramid upside down. ☠️☠️

I just watched the biggest loser doc which was horrifying (although Aubrey was am amazing as always.) one of the many millions of sad things about this documentary was thinking about how it made the contestants and maybe people viewing think of exercise as just torture. I started exercising regularly and I’m a fat person by the way as a part of my depression treatment and I found that it really does make me feel better and the I enjoy moving my body/after such a horrific experience, I can’t imagine anybody ever taking any joy and exercising

The kratom withdrawal is seriously terrible. I work in treatment and numerous patients arrive for help with this substance and many end up needing MAT to manage the withdrawal symptoms. It’s very dangerous!

The "I never said I endorsed it" bs reminds me of working with middle school boys, where one of them would say bofa, and they'd all giggle, and I'd tell them to stop being inappropriate, and they'd do a whole routine about "oh I don't know what you're talking about, I'm just making a noise, how could that possibly be inappropriate" as if I, a grown ass adult with a brain, could possibly believe you're talking about bofa with good intentions. It's such a coy piece of assholery to be like "you can't prove I'm right wing, write a dissertation from right wing statements I've made"

Back in 1984 or so, my little sister and I (we were 10 and 2 at the time) both caught whooping caught and my sister had it so bad, that my decidedly middle-class parents were so desperate sprung for what was called a whooping caugh flight where you would be taken up high in a small Cessna and then just did a dive flight, essentially dropping down a hundred meters or so repeatedly. The idea was that the rapid change in pressure would somehow help getting better. This was really painful, also because my sister was too young to understand ear pressure release and crazy expensive, but luckily we both got better.

Ok, so very late to this party. But listening to Mike’s pronunciation of Whooping cough is hilarious to me. In Australia we pronounce it “hooping” (still spelled the same) It’s super common to be vaccinated for this in Aus because there were some babies who died last time there was an outbreak here. Literally every new parent I know refuses any visitors who haven’t had a booster vaccine within 12 months until after baby can be vaccinated!

Can we get some of Aubrey's favorite bean recipes?

I’ve always wondered what Kratom was and why every gas station in my city was advertising it in the window. I assumed it was something to do with vapes 🤣

Michael - that most definitely WASN'T "American French Fries", as it didn't have cheese on it

I learned about Kratom in like…. 2016 when my local coffee shop started selling it as its own thing. I was trying to wean off adderall and I very, very quickly figured out, “oh no oh dear, this stuff is way, way worse.” It was hard to stop after only getting it like…. A couple times. Yikes.

I’ve been seeing Kratom shops all over, but I thought it was a brand of dispensary! I was like “why do they keep using that weird word for weed.” Well I was wrong lmao

Love the “you beast” reference!

As a doctor who sees a lot of patients who use substances, kratom is particularly alarming because as far as I know, our current drug panels don’t test for it. I’m not sure whether there’s any cross-positivity with other drugs on a standard screen or if there’s specific assays but I haven’t ever seen it done where I work, so I wonder how many patients we may not know to watch for kratom withdrawal

I also like that this is chronicling your descent into madness. Let’s descend together - lead the way!

Thank you for speaking about Kratom. I know someone who has been addicted for many years. Unable to stop because the withdrawal is so horrendous. Check out the Reddit thread r/quittingkratom to get a sense of it, as people post about their struggles and offer support for others. So many stories of people using it to come off opioids and are just trading one horrible addiction for another. The withdrawal is equally horrible. It truly needs to be placed in a controlled substance category with heroin or amphetamines. The fact that it can be bought by anyone is terrifying. And let us not forget that alcohol - a powerful addictive drug - is also sold at gas stations, so not everything sold at a gas station is safe. This needs to be talked about more because I think so many people are suffering through Kratom addiction in silence.

I have a friend who got hooked on be free while pregnant. It's bad news! But she managed to stop and her baby is healthy.

Go look at r/QuittingFeelFree because it's seriously addictive and people are having their lives ruined. There are more and more kratom/kava drinks popping up and people have no idea how terrible it can be. Also I want to add that I personally know two who had serious symptoms when trying to get off kratom, and one of them had to go to a medical detox center and then rehab for it. It is really really bad and needs to be studied/not sold at gas stations.

The DEB!!! That’s a guest appearance I’d never have guessed.

Anyone else having issues with this episode on the RSS feed?

Can you please please cover the ridiculousness of the peptide bros (and it ties in with RFK Jr's comments on the FDA over restricting them, he probably takes some himself which is why he's that orange color)? There are tons of them in silicon valley and they've started getting VC backing for the wildest things. And there are the Russian bioregulators "developed" by Khavinson who was funded by Putin to stop/reverse aging (Putin's daughter even worked in the lab) have no/terrible science backing them and yet there are thousands of people essentially sneaking them into the country and buying them as "research products" to take. There's even a VC backed silicon valley startup now offering "free testing" of the stuff people are buying. Not to mention anti aging "conferences" where people get random peptide injections, one in Las Vegas earlier this year ended up with 2 women hospitalized for anaphylactic reactions (and the Dr 'wasn't sure' what they were given or where he sourced it from). I am not sure how I fell into this WTF niche rabbit hole, but if you just want to dunk on techbros and the extreme "the FDA is keeping all the magic good stuff from us" nonsense it's darkly fascinating. And yet not as depressing as most other things. It's my escapist research interest at this point.

Not related but big for my friends and I - I found out there’s a way to turn off weight loss ads on Google?? Don’t know if this is common knowledge but I hate seeing them and it decreases my interaction with them massively

Can y'all talk about why I'm seeing creatine everywhere

Kratom is a truly gnarly detox. I know way too many people who switched to Kratom to try to get off of opiates or just to prevent withdrawal from opiates. The capsules that are $9 or $10 each (assuming those are the synthetic ones) are a hard core high that makes people shaky, restless, nauseous, etc. Does not seem like they should be sold at smoke shops and gas stations. Middle school students are getting hooked on it and stand outside stores asking people to buy it for them because they are in withdrawal.

I love Behind the Bastards but Robert talks fairly regularly and irresponsibly about kratom and it stresses me out.

Finding out that Aubrey is a state politics chismosa like me is so delightful and I would absolutely listen to a bonus episode of her just ranting about Oregon (and specifically Portland) politics

Anger weren’t

We're descending with you, good buddies.

Jillian Michaels also has a black daughter!!!

Omg—I accidentally bought a Kratom this summer on a road trip to Florida! I didn’t even know what I bought until the cost was like $8 for what I thought was an energy drink—and I was about to start my driving shift! I realized it wasn’t what I thought by the cost and didn’t drink it, but wtf? How easy it is for someone to consume something like that.

I took a nutrition class last year and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans was one of our main references. I’m worried that boomer professors aren’t going to realize that RFKJ got his tallow-covered, grubby fingers all over it

I have a buddy who's an ex heroin user (over a decade ago) who had a harder time getting off kratom. There were other people in her life who were using it and I don't think she realized how hard it would hit her brain.

Kratom's regulatory history is hilarious. Back in 2016 when it was sort of obscure the DEA realized it existed and made a quiet hey-so-you-know announcement that they were about to schedule it into the "only good for getting high and no studying it to find out if that's true" schedule 1. Then they learned that the people taking it were mainly people using it for harm reduction in opiate addiction, and veterans with PTSD. And those people blew up and the DEA ran away with its tail between its legs. Then someone realized they weren't interested in touching the stove anymore, and now it's exactly what they thought it was the first time and it needs some kind of regulation (though not by the DEA). I've tried it and as far as I can tell it's basically just an opiate that's harder to overdose on (though not impossible now), which is not a bad thing to have! But it is a bad thing to have entirely unrestricted and being sold as if it was chamomile tea or something.

your gavel is valid Aubrey!!

Can we start getting Bean Bake recipes as part of our patreon subscription?

I work with people with schizophrenia and kratom has such a profoundly negative impact on symptoms.

as someone who messed around with Kratom in college years ago (did not experience the habit-forming part), the recent mainstream blowup is wild to me, and I had felt like many people who use it actually know that it's a drug. It's really interesting to hear your tone talking about it because I actually wouldn't want the government involved in this. I wonder if you have interest in an episode on drug research & legalization in general? maybe diving into the history with cannabis legalization, or ketamine / psychadelic-assisted therapy for mental health. I want to know more of where your personal politics are on drugs in general now! but maybe its not really MP content hahaha

Whatever Michael! The Law and Order sound was really bad, but I knew exactly what it was the first time she pressed it! Get with it! 😂😂

I love how Michael pronounces whooping cough ❤️ in Australia, we kinda ignore the w and its pronounced ‘hooping cough’ so it always makes me giggle.

Thank you for confirming, Jillian Michaels is a twit and we’re all less smart when we listen to her speak. Also we need more sound effects and more laughter right now! 🫶🏻

i need everyone to listen to the Jillian Michaels episode of the podcast Hot Takes & Deep Dives!!! they talk to her former partner about their age gap, both of them being LA club promoters ???, getting into fitness, the Biggest Loser, going back in the closet in the public eye & the downfall of their relationship. the whole thing is crazy but the short of it is that yes, she’s always been that crazy & mean 🫠

There is a great Search Engine episode about Kratom! A lot of the nuance has more to do with how unregulated it is, but I recommend the episode for a more indepth view;

DEBBBB!!!!!!!

It's funny finally hearing about Kratom on MP, I've been taking it for a few years! It helped me quit drinking, it helped me with pain, and it helped my adhd/depression, but I'm also not like "it's only good for me!" it's a drug and it's probably having negative effects on my kidney/liver function, it's definitely addictive, but I found these downsides to be worth the benefits it gives me personally.

When you all cover the autism thing, I'd love to here yall cook on how the ADA and IDEA have impacted early diagnosis, prevention and treatment efforts by pediatricians and schools that have led to more ASD dx and more importantly (often half ass, difficult to obtain bit its what we got) SUPPORTS. We need to remember that disability justice activists pushed the government and policy can actually do something and here is an example.

is it really supposed to be a gavel sound? I never knew that either 😆

tbh when you said RFK only wants synthetic kratom regulated I was immediately expecting, "and here are his public business ties to a natural kratom supplier" lol

I wish y'all had watched that one tiktok Jillian Michaels posted where she stands up and audibly farts mid-sentence and then just continues like nothing happened. I still laugh just thinking about it

a "beanacdote," if you will

The Kansas City Star just did a three-part longread piece on kratom-derived opioids and it’s WILD

♥️ “Chronicling our descent into madness.” 🤣

About the Kratom part: If anyone sees this, I know it has the markings of a moral panic… but it’s not. My best friend was hospitalized yesterday for a seizure from Kratom withdrawal. They had been drinking “feel free”— the first time was from a promotional event in Austin. It’s really serious and extremely scary.

I knew it was the law and order sound the second i heard it

It feels like the Hunger Games are coming. Washinton DC will be the Capitole and the States will be districts. Then the president's fitness test will be the Hunger Games...everyone is going to be (more) miserable. All the funding cuts is supposed to be putting the peasants in their place and weak.

Okay I know we might have to wait until the next mailbag but PLEASE cover Pete Hegseth and his address to generals omg https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-preside-over-unusual-military-gathering-virginia-2025-09-30/

Sharing because hi Portland!!! 😂 https://bsky.app/profile/niedermeyer.online/post/3m25ywvae4k2c

I cancelled my whooping cough vaccination (I'm pregnant) last week because I had a nasty cold and wanted the time to rest. After you both talking about it, I paused the podcast, called my doctors office, and rebooked it for Monday 😅

Has anyone else just heard Pete Hegseth’s “airborne or chairborne” comments …. Idk if I want the MP commentary or if that whole situation is too bleak….

Has anyone else suggested beef tallow as an episode topic? Not sure if there’s enough there for a full ep

I LIVE for an Aubrey as a Christian Bale moment

I just love all your episodes. They make me feel less alone in this horrid political landscape. Speaking of which, did anyone see the horribly fatphobic comments from Hegseth? And unfortunately, the backlash is also really fatphobic. Ugh.

I love so much how every episode this pod becomes slightly more like dynamic banter

Can you do a gift check on Andrew Huberman and Dr. Gundry? Both very influential wellness Podcasters, both sell stuff. But I'm not sure where on the nonsense spectrum they are

I use K daily for my debilitating ptsd. I fully believe it’s horrible for me, but in my 38 years I haven’t found something that makes me as functional and able to participate in life. I don’t have the answers. Maybe it should be made illegal. But that would be absolutely devastating for me.

“Yelling about beans” is gonna be my next custom user flare on Reddit

Great episode, as always (with both slide whistle AND gavel side effects—wahoo!). I have to say that the banter between M&A is my very favorite part, even when they just say each other’s names. Michael half-whispering “Aubrey” especially makes me laugh for some reason. Love this show so much!!💗

THANK YOUUUU for talking about how stupid that Jillian Michaels clip about the Smithsonian was… like girl…you are a “fitness” influencer. You are not qualified enough to be critiquing the Smithsonian’s exhibits lmao

Give us the bean recipes Aubrey!!!

Listening right now and wanted to share this story about a local Kansas City business that is marketing kratom - https://www.kcur.org/podcast/up-to-date/2025-09-18/how-a-kansas-city-business-is-contributing-to-the-rise-of-the-highly-addictive-drug-7-oh

Jillian Michaels gives me an instant headache.

Is this a safe space to admit that for years I thought Kratom was a fancy type of tomato? I think this stems from the local gas station that has big "Kratom sold here" signs also having a vegetable stand next to it in the summer.

This guy reminds me of my dad

I used to work at a smoke shop that sold Kratom and the only 2 kinds of people who bought it were like lululemon gym girlies who take it before working out and old dudes who are addicted to painkillers and suffer from chronic pain. It was kinda crazy seeing 2 groups of people who could not be more different swearing by this miracle supplement for completely different reasons.

The Law and Order gavel is my new favorite!

Life has been so busy I forgot it was bonus episode time, y’all I woke up in the middle of the night like a kid on Christmas to check the stream this morning

This happened recently and it might have been after the recording of this MP ep, but Jillian completely crashed out on the show she’s been hosting (Her Take on the Valuetainment network), walked off set, and quit! Something for y’all to check out if you need more Jillian tea haha. I’ve been following a couple of twitch streamers/podcasters who have been doing commentary on all of the Her Take episodes so I’m deep in the lore. 🫣

"Aubrey, do you have your slide whistle?" "OH, I DO!!!!"

you gotta get the kratom online from those og websites not gas stations 💯

I've been using kratom to help with my chronic pain for about 9 years now. I started taking it on the recommendation of one of my first "chronic illness mentors" a wonderful person who helped me learn to cope with having a chronic illness. I take it may 3x a week as a way to keep my Percocet use low enough not to freak out my doctors. And I've never had negative side effects. Or gotten high! Until i listen to this episode today I'd never heard of Feel Free and although I had heard of the synthesized version of kratom, I didn't know what it was for. I assumed it was a pharma company trying to take a natural product and make money by forcing everyone to buy the highly processed version. I didnt realize it was a super intense version. All this is to say that I recognize that some people have gotten addicted and/or died, and that some regulation is proably necessary. But I think the regulation should be to keep these super potent version away from gas stations! Let those of us with chronic pain buy the ground leaf from reputable sellers and figure out how to mix it into a drink that isn't horribly bitter!

I haven’t even listened yet but so excited to see the bonus ep drop today. It’s my personal hellscape at work this week (annual event) and I’m holding on by a thread. Mike and Aubrey will give me the energy to get through this shit.

Take a fistful of gas station pills and mail-order supplements, wash it down with some raw milk, and drive around looking for roadkill. Like Mother Nature intended.

I doubled over laughing at the end of the show with the sound effects. Love you guys so much. Keep it up!

If RFK Jr. is “updating” the nutrition guidelines, how likely is it he’ll just flip back to one of the old food pyramids?

Ok I love y’all more than anything, I truly do, and I love this bleak episode. You both are hope, always. But just a note, testing on animals is barbaric and also absolutely debatable as far as efficacy. I’d appreciate people not dismissing the eradication of animal testing entirely, simply because an extremely broken clock wants to deregulate pharmaceuticals. We can hold two thoughts at once. RFK Jr. is undoubtedly wrong about every single thing that exits his stupid mouth AND animal testing needs to be questioned and pushed back against way more than it currently is.

How are you both so funny and quick? It makes listening to such terrible topics so entertaining. When Aubrey said: 'yeh, that's me, you're probably wondering how I got here' it was honestly so impressive and perfect. And it was just a throw away line! You guys!

Ah, the triumphant return of the slide whistle.

Already on my first re-listen and truly savouring Aubrey’s “get fucked asshole”! moment ❤️😂

Almost fell over when Michael quoted my queen Kim Richards

Emergency Bigfoot sounds like a fantastic indie band from Olympia ❤️

I am so beyond furious at the spraytan who eats roadkill making dumb ass policy decisions about vaccines. I had to fight to get my daughter who is 7 and has asthma a damn covid vaccine. Her doctor would not prescribe her a prescription for the vaccine (I am in a red state). In my state you are required to get a Rx for a covid vaccine. Even my mother who is 76 had to get a Rx! In the end I found a doctor who prescribed her the vaccine, and upon arriving at the health department to get said vaccine they told me: "you're lucky there's only 8 pediatric doses left, all of the adult vaccines are out and we don't know when we are getting more." I. Just. Cannot. With.This.Hellscape.

Kratom leaf has been around forever and when I learned about it over a decade ago I learned about it as a harm reduction tool. Ive known several people including my wife who've used it for chronic pain management or to manage withdraws or other things. There are serious side effects and risks but it was around before this recent wave of problems, it just wasnt very popular. Its very bitter and kind of hard to imbibe, its recreational uses were limited. But now with the much more strong products and the fact that folks are learning about this from marketing and not from people with experience have really shown how dangerous it can be.

Thank you for covering kratom. My partner, who is an alcoholic trying to get sober, started taking it earlier this year thinking it would help with his alcohol cravings. He quickly progressed to taking 7OH and now has a full blown opioid addiction. He went on methadone for a few months, managed to get off that, then relapsed with the 7OH and is now taking suboxone. Summary: he went from having an alcohol problem to having an alcohol problem PLUS an opioid addiction — something i feel 100% confident he would never have been exposed to otherwise. I hate the people manufacturing and selling 7OH SO MUCH. I understand and respect that kratom does help some people, for example folks with chronic pain or pre-existing opioid addiction— but marketing kratom as a safe alternative to alcohol or other addictive drugs is pure fucking evil. They are intentionally hooking people who are vulnerable to addiction by deliberately lying to them about their product being *helpful* for addiction. They know exactly what they are doing and these assholes can, indeed, get fucked.

I agree that some regulation is probably necessary but going overboard and banding every form won't do any good either.

Humbly requesting a bean cookbook from Aubrey. I need the recipes!

the way jillian just keeps repeating “white people bad” plssssss omg

Fellow Portlander here! The corner store by my house also has a big Feel Free sign outside.

Aubrey I literally had to remove my headphones when you played that gavel sound because I just started running my dishwasher and I thought it was breaking. I couldn’t figure out what was going wrong so I put the audio back on and wow there it is again!! And then… there’s Aubrey… with her gavel. I love your collection of strange sound making toys

I am once again requesting a fluoride episode

Make Our Children Healthy Again = Mocha Does anyone else find that funny? ☕

“She’s like SKKKKRRRRRT” killed me 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Sarah Marshall listening to this will be HORRIFIED Mike doesn't recognize the L&O gavel sound! LOL

My question after listening to this is: if gas station heroin is as effective as heroin, or at least effective enough to get classified as an opioid, do gas station dick pills actually work?

Ha - Aubrey said Americans have never declared en masse that fruits and vegetables are bad for you… but! I just listened to the 2021 Grifties episode and the nominees literally include carnivore diet people saying just that. There’s also a fun quote about the people whose food comes from slaughterhouses saying vegetables “do not want to be eaten.”

I love love LOVE waking up to new episodes 🥲

So glad you’re doing Kratom cause they’ve started selling it at all the WV gas stations and I too went down a rabbit hole when I went home last and googled it

I remember having kratom suggested to me to help control anxiety, took it once, and was so high i just lay there laughing for hours. After that I realized this is probably not something I should ever take again if I didn't want it to be a huge issue for me.

So just to recap... Aubrey's 2 settings: 1. Yelling about beans 2. Christian Bale monologue Michael's 2 settings: 1. Sleepy and grumpy 2. 7 POTS OF COFFEE LET'S GO 🫶🏻🫶🏻

No joke, I rewound and listened to Aubrey’s “what a prince” at least five times. Thank you for keeping us laughing!!!!!!!

Anecdotally most of the really problemic stuff with kratom happens with the more refined/synthetic products. It's an issue of dosage and the dry leaf is so much less concentrated it's hard to get into the really dangerous dosages.

So pleased Christian Bale came up again so I could send a link to a jingle from another fave podcast, Adam Buxton, it’s a banger https://soundcloud.com/user-329324871/adam-buxton-bale-jingle

I have never wanted to scream at someone SO badly than with the Jillian clip. I had to pause for a few deep breaths. whewwww

The law & order DUN DUN is sending me lmaooo

Bedumbening is going into my regular vocab 😂

The comment around minute 15 a la “Americans have never said that eating vegetables is bad” in the framework of public awareness campaigns made me giggle because I had this exact conversation with a coworker the other day. I want to preface all of this my saying I really really like “Carol.” She’s funny, she’s thoughtful, she’s a great coworker, she adores her kids and grandkids and they love her. I really like her, and she says wild shit sometimes. She is the kind of Gen X gal who is obsessed with sugar and “carbs,” always talking about her weight, etc etc. the other day, kind of out of the blue, she said that “they are saying that eating plants is actually bad for you because the only natural defense plants have is poison, so when you eat plants, you’re eating poison.” Fully straight faced. I usually don’t push back or engage in some of the weirder food/weight stuff because, frankly, I am naturally thin/always verging on the line of clinically underweight and it all makes me uncomfortable. But this one stopped me in my tracks and I simply had to say something. Turns out, “they” is one whackadoo doctor/“health expert” on an Instagram channel. I still have to laugh because it was soso wild.

You both are my favorite data-divers. I walk into conversations informed and grounded and everyone around me is the better for it. Thanks so much💕💕

Thanks for doing an episode on kratom. A friend of mine lost her son to kratom.

This is totally speculation, but to me it seems like anyone with a decent level of 'fame' gets there with a side of lots of people telling them how wonderful they are at all times & in every way. Then, if they mis-step, they get this push back from people on the Internet & they just can't process it. Plus they a) despise those people perhaps, if they’re that sort of celeb, and b) their assistants &c are *still* telling them they were in the right. Then the nasty people stretch out a hand and boom, they're travelling in a whole new circle.

I nearly died from whooping cough as a toddler. My mom found me turning blue in my crib and saved my life. We had a very small outbreak in our city. It was so contained because everyone was vaccinated and so no one in my family got sick despite the fact that we were quarantined to our home until I was well again. It also meant that the hospital had all the resources it needed available to treat this handful of kids. Whooping cough is so incredibly dangerous as are so many of these other diseases that are coming back, like measles. As a child, who nearly died, it fills me with so much rage that people are so callously disregarding the life-saving science of vaccines.

The first time i heard about Kratom was in or just before 2020. An acquaintance of mine, who I no longer speak with, said that her brother in law, with no history of suicidal tendencies, committed suicide while on Kratom after reportedly acting unlike him self. She was antivax and I have very different views than her, but she was pro marijuana and Kratom. This turned her completely against them.

I have mixed feelings about Kratom. My town banned it from being sold after a guy's widow went to a city council meeting and swore that her husband died from taking it. My husband has been taking kratom as pain management for around 15 years now after a friend said he used it instead of Vicodin. He has needed pain management for a chronic condition that he has had to manage since he was a teenager. He used to have a team of doctors who managed his situation, but he stopped seeing them after deciding that the regular testing for his condition status, as well as the monitoring for his pain meds, weren't actually helping him. He sees using kratom as a way to take control over his med management, for better or for worse. He now has to go to a nearby town to get his regular supply. While he doesn't "get high," I would consider it a dependence on the substance. Its analgesic effects allow him to function and he doesn't act "stoned" like he did when he was regularly prescribed Vicodin. I know that it should be restricted due to the number of people who abuse it, but I dread when my husband will have to figure out a different way to manage his ongoing issues.

Does anyone else want them to do a cross over episode with Robert Evans of Behind the Bastards about gas station pills? That would make me so happy.

I would LOVE to see the conspiracy-theory-red-string board of recurring characters and institutions.

they sell Feel Free at the latest super trendy hot yoga spot in downtown austin 😭

I’m currently pregnant and that was a stressful week when they were debating taking away certain vaccines from babies. My husband contacted our representatives and luckily they mostly backed off, but I was really upset at people telling me not to worry because clearly they weren’t going to go through with it. They’ve done enough bad things for me to worry they’ll follow through

*beep- beep* “what’s that sound?” “That’s the sound of the fax coming through. Look it’s from Mike and Aubrey!” Aubrey love all your sound boarding and charm. Thank you guys so much for being validating voices we so desperately need. ❤️👏📠

I’ve only got one experience of Kratom myself. I was 22 and a friend introduced me to it because a friend said it might help with her tics (she has Tourette’s), but 1) it just made her not have any tics and then have a tic attack and 2) I woke up at 4am after taking it with what felt like some of the worst withdrawal symptoms I’ve ever had. Needless to say, we didn’t do it again.

Oh also, I'm so glad you dug into kratom a little bit. My father was taking it at some point, to try to get off a prescription opioid he was addicted to. I've always wondered if it had a lasting negative effect on his health. Is there anything known about the longterm effects of using it?

1) I love The Emergency Bigfoot sound! 2) Rob Riggle is maga? I mean the last time I saw him was on The Daily Show 20 years ago but still!

I’m so embarrassed to admit this but I was today years old when I learned that the Law & Order sound is a gavel. 🤣🤣🤣

After the evils of Tylenol were revealed, MAHA = Make America’s Head Ache.

Take care with kratom, y’all. A friend of mine accidentally overdosed a few years back. I’m glad we’re talking about the negative effects now

I work for FDA...its rough out here yall

It drives me a little crazy that Jillian Michaels et al don’t specify *which* Smithsonian they’re complaining about. There are like 10 different museums! Some of them have content that would be triggering for conservatives, but some are just the history of postal service or a collection of historical aircraft

Loved the “you beast” reference 😊 also wanted to say - thank you Aubrey for your participation in that documentary on the Biggest Loser! I was listening to a review and agreed when Da’Shaun Harrison said that they wished you had been included more. I felt the same way and that your commentary was essential. 💜

Wow absolutely gonna make that goddamn fucking bean bake. We talking white beans?

Did anyone else have a flashback about Deb? 🤣

We did a mile run in middle school for a fitness test, I walked the whole way and was almost dead last. Fast forward to high school, I won the district mile run in track and field.

I love you two so much and your episodes are usually the highlight of my day (I have re listened to the Skinny Bitch one and the Myers Briggs test one several times because they're so funny) but anything having to do with RFK Jr. makes me want to vomit. As the mother of a child who is AuDHD with a PDA profile (which is even less understood and supported than non-PDA autism in the US) I was already furious at the lack of supports and safety nets in our society. Now I'm just fucking terrified and not a day goes by that I don't wonder if I'm going to have to take her and flee the country to keep her safe from these monsters. Even in the PDA groups there have been parents going "At least someone is talking about it". The wrong people with the wrong motivations and the wrong "solutions"!!!!!! My child doesn't need fixed, she needs the support she deserves to live a fulfilling life (whatever that means TO HER)! I'm looking forward to the day when the title of your episodes doesn't fill me with existential dread again. (Obviously none of this is your fault and thank you for the work you do pushing back on all of this.) Fun fact: during the first trimester that I was pregnant I would get debilitating headaches that progressively got worse throughout the morning and I would finally throw up around noon and be okay until the next day when it started all over again. I didn't bother taking anything because Tylenol did fuck all and I just immediately threw it back up anyway. So to have this fucking guy (who has used hard drugs to numb *his* pain, whether mental or physical) say that I caused anything by taking Tylenol makes me incandescent with rage.

I have family members who got the measles and mumps in the early 50s (before the vaccine). One lost eyesight in one eye, one lost nearly all hearing in one ear! For measles alone, the odds are 1.5/1000 of serious side effects, including death, and lifelong disease-caused disability that are entirely prevented by a couple of shots. HOW has it come to this?! Thank you for the ongoing reviewing of this. I'm so concerned about all the young kids in my life whose parents have started "questioning" vaccines because of this malarky. And I don't even live in the US!

I need Aubrey to know that her Cristian Bale impression has made its way into my everyday vocabulary

"Get fucked asshole!" Offical response is gold.

I need to do a "Michael Meh" supercut

My Tuesday morning just got better.

I need a roundup of Aubrey's favourite bean recipes so badly

For what it's worth, kratom is very physically addictive. I know multiple people who had to go to a methodone clinic to get off kratom

I hope michael is having a nice time in croatia and doesn't get ripped off. The tourist season is crazy. I also recently ate "homemade" potatoes in a restaurant in croatia. It was potato slices with melted american cheese and bacon bits on top... (it was awful, the cheese was cold after like 3 mins) And yes croatia is secretly america and vice versa. Everything that happens in america, happens in croatia a few years later, but in a very...balkan way. Many greetings from a croatian local.

There was a whooping cough outbreak where I lived in the late 90s. Everyone I know got it. The cough lasted about 6 months. We had meetings meetings where everyone was coughing and people would occasionally have to run outside and vomit from coughing so hard.

My grandfather, born in 1919, didn't walk until he was 3 from aftereffects of pertussis. His brother, 10 months younger, died.

The: Law & Order gavel sound effect was Top Notch 🤌

Everyone I know from the USA who interacts regularly with people outside the USA constantly hears "...so... America huh?..." I'm so sorry you guys lol. But cheers for the new episode 😊✨

The one guy (Kevin Hall) who was famously doing UPF work had to quit the NIPH because of MAHA!! but they want to DEFINE UPF!? They make me so angry!!

AMAZING timing, I have a deadline and this is SPEEDING me along. Lifesavers!

Woohoo! New episode!