Bonus Episode: Moon Juice Taste Test

It's fascinating that they would make fake powders that taste bad. This is why doctors made sugar pills they could have just loaded the dust with things that taste good?

AHAHAHAH I am laughing SO MUCH!! It's a good thing I am working from home!

i’m so sorry 🤣😩 i knew exactly what yall were saying when you were describing the smell of the second one and could literally smell it with you

The final taste test reminded me of Chandler and Ross in Friends when they make cappucino at home and go "stir and drink, stir and drink!!"

This one made me snort laugh on a packed train! 😆😆

A

Relistening to this episode after reading this incredible piece by Vice: https://www.vice.com/en/article/4a3yzq/moon-juice-sex-dust-review

Founder syndrome re: NGO 1000% mirrors my experience with founder syndrome tech industry 🤦🏾‍♀️🫠

All the Moon Juice company horror stories reminds me of the small business I worked for that made salads and smoothies (and was just a bad news wellness time) whose entire HR department was the WIFE of the OWNER (who also bankrolled the whole thing for her husband) Big Yikes

have to point out that Judith Light does not use urine facials (as far as we know), she was playing a character on American Horror Story, lol

I was afraid for Mike and Aubrey taste-testing the Moon Juice.

I was re-listening to this episode and it occurred to me that I usually don't visualize things. But those definitions of the smells/tastes really had me feeling the pain.

I love this episode so much! Also--Mike, with the shampoo story: I thought it was just me! My mom's hairdresser gave her a little bar of soap that smelled just like wild strawberries, so of course I had to take a big bite...

Mike's little "Aubrey I'm scared." always just makes me laugh so much lol

This is the very first episode I heard of yours I stumbled upon you randomly. It’s the middle of the night insomnia night 3 and I keep laughing with y’all. My dogs are ultra annoyed because I keep startling them awake. Add it to their trauma bill (worth every penny) Cheers from upstate NY!

Omgggg. Anyone else getting Moon Juice ads on their Facebook? 😂😂 I know it’s probably not from the podcast, but funny coincidence for sure! Gross.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11249173/Pete-Evans-resurfaces-online-wild-Viking-inspired-haircut.html Big news from Australia - Pete Evans has viking inspired haircut. Thankyou Daily Mail for bringing us the news that matters most.

A corollary: There's no evidence for these weird supplements, but there's also no evidence (or even evidence against) vitamin supplements. None. And it's a billion dollar unregulated industry.

I know lots of people make requests and I apologize for stacking on more but this is something I rarely do make requests of podcast hosts and I just have to ask. It's even a bit outside the normal wheelhouse for this show but since this is a topic that Michael is talking about so actively - and is seemingly in the minority of journalists really actively doing so - can you please do an episode about anti-trans panics and misinformation? I am just at the end of my rope with seeing this stuff every day in the news and it's crushing me. NY Times once again published another "just asking questions" article and I just... I keep feeling so alone and ignored by so many people outside my own community. Even if all it is is just Michael re-iterating what he already says on twitter, it would be cathartic to hear. Thank you.

I'd love a Dr. Gundry episode. He is the author of "The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in "Healthy" Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain" and coined the term "holobiotics." He has tons of pseudoscientific claims. I'm interested because my partner was prescribed to follow this diet "for at least 3 months" after talking to a new doctor for 5 minutes (who didn't listen to any of my partner's actual health concerns nor did the doc ask him anything about his current diet or lifestyle). It's the most batshit crazy list of "don't" foods I've ever seen. The "yes" foods are also insane. There are also Dr. Gundry branded foods on this list...hmmm...

A episode on “skinny shaming” please! Love the show.

I’M ALL CAUGHT UP AND SO SAD. This podcast has been my obsession for the last month and now I have to wait for new releases like the rest of y’all

Generally, great show all around - but, this bonus episode was f#ck1ng hilarious. Thank you for continuing to grind these out.

I work as an oncology nurse in Ireland and have been feeling for months mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted..out of isolation today from round 2 of covid and whilst walking my dogs I listened to this episode ( having binged on most of the others this past week)..I laughed out loud so many times. On returning home I felt the most alive in a long time..you guys have amazing charisma and energy. Thanks so much for putting a pep back into my step! Have signed up to patreon to support you on the back of this..keep up the great work!

Please do an episode on 200 beauty - koreas answer to shallow hal but it has a weird amount of blood and gore, light hearted full throttle suicide attempts ?!? and plastic surgery and a woman literally strapping herself to a treadmill. It’s so weird

Hello I just learned from the podcast “the weirdest thing I learned today” (episode 2) that the first evidence of a celebrity diet was Lord Byron, who in 1819 was so terrified of getting fat that he went on a diet of saltines and water and potatoes soaked in vinegar and then all the other poets who adored him decided to do the same. Would be a fun (?) episode, or tidbit in a related episode on celebrity diets!

So this is unrelated to Moon Juice but yesterday at work a colleague was going around talking about how "sitting is the new smoking" and I attempted to engage with them and say that those studies probably didn't take any other lifestyle factors into account when they came up with their findings etc etc... But I'm no Aubrey and Michael so how about that as a topic suggestion?

NY times just published an article on the scam of food sensitivity tests … Aubrey and Michael ?!

AUBREY WE THE PEOPLE NEED GAY DUST ASAP

As soon as you said "In response to George Floyd..." I went "OH NO" out loud

What Neela said ^^^

Love this episode! Laughed so much. As an Indian person, my thoughts on using ‘ingredients’/‘adaptogens’ in wellness products like these, claiming they’re ayurvedic — it’s absolute bullshit because Indian people don’t crush up ibuprofen and put it in all our food and go ‘look, isn’t that healthy? Let’s market the shit out of the benefits of ibuprofen and lie to people about it’s powers!’ In my personal experience, ayurveda is a medical discipline and it’s also a far more affordable means of treatment for most in the subcontinent. Herbs like ashwagandha are used for certain diagnoses, and are prescribed after a detailed examination of the patient to treat certain illnesses. The way in which the white world so flippantly uses it does not speak for the effectiveness of the product. Moon Juice displays the extent of medical white washing, but also tells us how sad all of this is, primarily because sick people (in general) and so-called ‘traditional medicine’ (specifically ayurveda) are what suffer in the end. If these herbs don’t work anyway, great. That’s fine, whatever. But if their effectiveness is judged by their presence and usage in wellness products like Moon Juice, that’s just ridiculous lol, cause there is no way that they will work. Laughing at this episode, angry at the very white, very capitalist system of wellness! 🫣

PLEASE say something about The Whale…

my immediate thought was to get a pack of the fun dip candy and try it like that, but no. this sounded painful. thank you.

This episode is pure art

I am such a junky when it comes to this podcast. Seriously ridiculous. I LOVE IT! I have listened to all the episodes more than once. I give you both credit for making me a better person. I have a daughter who had/has anorexia and this is the only wellness podcast she will listen to. We both so appreciate the incredible job that you two do of debunking so much nonsense. You have mentioned intermittent fasting in a few episodes but have not gone deep on this topic. My SIL is convinced that this the key to health and melting scar tissue as well and something she called autophagy. Please, please, please, dig deep and give me the scoop on this.

I loved this episode. I've loved your podcast since ep 1 but this was the one that made me join your patreon. I really enjoyed the balance between investigation and just you guys having fun as friends. I laughed out loud, very loudly several times which was exactly what I needed right now. Thanks!

Can you guys investigate Boombod? I fell for that shit :/ !!

I really love how Maintenance Phase normally stays nuanced and saves being judgemental for larger institutions, people who are exploitative or careless, and really focus on impact. It's one of the things that keeps me coming back, that underpins why this podcast is shared and shared and shared. I was let down by this episode. So, look, I am a White Woman, 3+ generation American Settler Colonialist stock (yes unironically some of my ancestors did come over on the Mayflower, I have feelings about this). I am a Naturopathic Physician with an Oregon License and Licensed Acupuncturist, but I am also someone who has put my ND License into inactive status because of how my profession's extant tenuous split between social justice/reconing vs white male eclectic appropriation became a chasm during the Pandemic with respect to toxic individuality, toxic positivity, colonialism and appropriation, healthism and ableism... as well as for my own health reasons. My personal and medical ethic is that I want nothing more than to complexify everything, and to be humble and curious about where the medicine I practice came from and from which ways of knowing. So it's from this semi-insider –specifically Insider-Cringe– perspective that I bring my disappointment. I am always Here For the dive into shady business practices that cut regulatory corners with disregard for the health of "consumers" (as if that is a separate class of people when they pay their models in gift cards), and from reading between the lines, Moon Juice is not just shady with bad business practices, they have also disregarded any indigenous or traditional folkways/best practices about how to take these medicinal plants and fungi and just arbitrarily decided to grind and swallow "whole" all ingredients, which is both western chauvanist and cultural appropriation. But I had to read between the lines about that, because Aubrey and Mike didn't do a great job presenting this part. I was really disappointed in the taste test. Maybe I developed too much trust from the Snake Oil episode that you two could stay grounded to remember that there is a difference between an indigenous/local herbal or nutritional practice, and the colonialist careless location-less appropriation of that practice. Your taste test is basically a big "ew herbal medicine is disgusting! what are these herbs doing, not dissolving! Gross! Blech! Disgust!" without taking any time to realize that this position is from that Western Chauvanist, industrialized-nation, sanitized, reductionist position of pharmaceutical supremacy. This desire for medicine to be quickly swallowed and have a minimal taste and to be encasulated, gel coated, or pressed into a pill –and that to effect this, it's desirable for pharma companies to globe-trot and do R&D on extracting Active Ingredients they can refine and strip of context, and then shop out to other nations' for factory replication or to hide the plant/animal development that supplies that refined product– contributes to this belief that nothing medicinal should be complex or should have a smell, taste or texture. However, all "herbal" (quotes because East Asian Medicine involves minerals, insects and some animal-derived products in combined medicines) medicine training, formulating, dispensing and then taking, requires the acknowledgement that the medicine IS based on those unrefined ingredients. The formulator/prescriber hopefully has had their mentorship/apprenticeship grounded in "taste tests" (the Western Scientific term is Organoleptics) to verify ingredient identity and quality, to see how the ingredients respond to each other and to their solvent (alcohol? hot water? milk or cooking oil? soups/jook/stew?), and the pharmacokinetics of how the medicines affect the person taking the medicine along time scale and in what body system. Hopefully the guided self-experimentation is done in groups of relatively diverse people, and that the prescriber is tracking how their patients/clients respond as well, so that they can watch how the medicines have "partiality" to individual physiology and to global disease state (if the patient is seeking care...) the patient's system is in and how that "herbal" formula is affecting that. This also means a trained and skilled formulator/prescriber is making sure a formula is as palatable as is possible within the ranges of combinations of the ingredients chosen. The person taking the medicine should be ready to assess whether the palatability is matched with effectiveness. Yes, there are a lot of bitter or salty or foamy or funky plants, a lot of gooey plants and animal derivations (like collagen or gelatin), yes funguses and quite a few herbs have a smell. The medicines are coming from living beings who have co-evolved alongside mammals, insects, bacteria viruses and fungi, and other plants, and are using their chemistry ability to create affects. We are such mammals who have co-evolved to use our chemoreceptors to get an idea with the first taste or smell or touch to see what affect this substance will have on us. But a medicinal product having tastes and smells, a particular solvency in water or oil compared to the other ingredients in the formula, is not intrinsically disgusting or foolish or misguided. So, I really can't tell from your response if you just have a bias against non-pharmaceutical medicine (I have noted Michael's bias against acupuncture), you have some neurodiverse sensory aversions, or if Moon Juice Co. really are terrible/careless at formulating what COULD BE better formulated into an effective intervention that respects someone's locality or ethnic and cultural lineage if done with more learning, respect and constant calibration. So, dang it. This episode gave me a Sad and a Frustrated. I hope future ones can expand a bit more into the respect for human/plant/animal/fungi diversity and complexity of situations that you two are so, so, so good at and is so heartwarming and reassuring in your other episodes. Maybe if you wanted to revisit it, you could consult with an experienced and repeutable (amongst your peer group, not just skilled at gaming the Best Of in Portland Monthly) Western, East Asian, South Asian, South American, Central America, North American or etc. practiced and experienced herbal formulators to look at the "indications" Moon Juice is claiming to treat and then would create something that the herbalist would actually use, and then do a comparative taste test between those, instead of just saying WHY WON'T CINNAMON DISSOLVE IN WATER AND WHY IS IT MAKING A MUCUS THAT SINKS??

I will never doubt Mike’s commitment to Sparklemotion again! I’m a nutrition counselor and so grateful for you two!!

i just read on twitter that you two were spotted in a Mall and how that made you uncomfortable. I dreamt about seeing you in a Mall last night, chased down by crazed fans. That is a weird coincidence.

I loved this episode so much! Just when I think the rapport between Aubrey and Michael can’t get any better or funnier, they outdo themselves, again. But I seem to be in a minority (if not entirely alone) in my feelings about the discussions of non-profits. Having worked at non-profits and served on non-profit boards for almost my whole career, I agree they can have many shortcomings. But the ones I know are doing their best with limited resources to support their employees, do good work, and improve people’s lives. And for-profit businesses — the problematic ones profiled on the show, such as the Moon Juice company, and so many other companies of all sizes, from major corporations to mom-and-pop operations — definitely have their issues with how they treat their employees, address complaints, etc. I worry that the focused non-profit bashing could give listeners not familiar with non-profits the impression that they all simply suck, even if Aubrey’s and Michael’s actual opinions about non-profits are more nuanced.

Hey lurker here. I think you guys are amazing and you make me a much better nurse. Thank you for the sanity you provide, I'm so grateful.

Literally crying laughing.

This episode just popped up in my stitcher feed. I thought that this (Patreon) was the only way to get these episodes?

I appreciate the explainer on the good/bad bacteria as weight loss; I thought folks were just suddenly way more open about discussing vaginal health lmao.

happened to relisten to the first MoonJuice® episode yesterday ! my body is ready !

I would like to request a podcast about the Hulu show, “Fit to Fat to Fit”. I’m hate watching it now and all I can think about is how Mike and Aubrey would shred this bullshit.

I got to the taste test part just as I was eating my lunch- big mistake. 🤢

MJ is also getting into facial products. I’m sure a full cosmetics line won’t be far off 😟

I hadn’t heard of Erewhon before and clearly the $75 pizza peaked my curiosity. After going to their website I now understand. BUT, guess who’s products are being promoted on the front page of the website?? That’s right MJ! I’m guessing those pizzas were free

Hilarious. I can't stop laughing. Thank you!

I also want to second what others are saying about the nonprofit world. After losing my job at a domestic violence shelter for trying to organize for higher wages, I vowed I’d never depend on a nonprofit for my livelihood again…..but somehow got sucked into serving on the board of a small “feminist” nonprofit later in life. Turned out to be a cult of personality for the founder, who was somebody I considered a friend before diving into the toxic no-boundary swamp that was her private fiefdom. What kept me hooked was the illusion that I could fix all this. I spent many, many hours of my life that I won’t get back developing policies and procedures, only to see them ignored, selectively applied (only to women of color) and everybody get gaslit about the whole process. The icing on this shit-cake was one board meeting, at the height of the “Me Too” movement, when I got laughed at and slut-shamed for disclosing I’d been sexually assaulted by a man I was dating. Fuck this shit!

Thank you both for trying this stuff so the rest of us don’t have to! Your description of how gross it all looks/smells/tastes begs the question of why the company doesn’t just put it in a capsule…..??? My theory is this is all part of the placebo effect to convince people that it’s “medicine” and thus must be working.

Hilarious. Adore you two. ❤️

Funniest episode ever! I mad the mistake of listening to this during my morning walk with the dog and I was bent over laughing hysterically. Perfection! Thank you.

I'm just delighted at how prescient Michael was at the start of the Sleep Loss Epidemic episode when he said "We're excited to dive in and give the smelly Moon Juice Crown..." *months* before we have confirmation that some of the dusts are in fact, quite smelly :-D

I want to hang out with you so much!

Quabity Assuance anyone?

but also maybe an accidental ad for moon juice bc now I want to force my boyfriend to do this exact taste test with me 😂

omg this is wonderful

SO FUNNY. I’m totally in love with this parasocial relationship🙃

I laughed harder during this episode than any other. You two are such a delight.

Have ya'll heard of Plexus? They often advertise their products for weight loss, among other things. I was convinced to buy into their whole program by a friend. The stuff doesn't taste awful, but it's clearly toxic diet culture BS concealed as "wellness." Anyway, Plexus products might be a thing for you two to try in the future. Also thank you for experiencing sex dust so the rest of us don't have to... and condolences to your smell receptors and taste buds.

I laughed so hard I cried, this was amazing lol

I listened to half of this while driving (not recommended, wild driving while scream-laughing) and the rest while exercising (also not recommended, laughing myself into asthma attack). You guys maybe should do more of these taste-testing ones. This was an absolute treasure all the way through!

Ermagawd… I FINALY got round to adding these episodes to my Apple Podcasts app and just saw they are called Maintain in the Membrane which makes me giggle sooo much I LOVE IT 😂😂😂😂

i think its a given that "earthy" means smells/ tastes like poop.

My friend worked at a company that sold makeup. The company gave them the makeup as a Christmas gift. It was expired product.

A frozen pizza? I got a pack of sticky notes (all of our work is electronic).

I would love for you to do an episode on this woman, Maria Kang from New Zealand. She's the one who made a poster in 2015 with her and her 3 young boys and she's wearing a midriff baring sports top and spandex shorts with the caption 'What's Your Excuse?" I'm not fat and not unfit but this poster outraged me (& sparked a big backlash and polarization asking people who supported her as an inspiration and those like me who found it narcissistic and insulting). SO ableist! And she's still doing it! https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2982853/Fit-Mom-Maria-Kang-launches-new-No-Excuses-campaign-celebrating-parents-overcome-hurdle-order-exercise.html

Nooooo I’m a fat activist and super against silliness like moon dust and adaptogens, eating disorder survivor. I LOVE your show. I’m a woman who works full time in Cryptocurrency in Web3 and believe it can fix a lot of the systemic societal problems AMA 😞🥺

So excited to listen to this one!! Not sure if this is the place to post it, but I have an episode request: can you do an episode on “ultra processed” foods? I’m seeing articles all the time about them but really want someone trustworthy to read the original data and interpret. There’s the certainly the usual suspects of fatphobia, classism, early-death-as-near-certainty fear mongering, and possible mixing up of correlation and causation going on. Also selfishly, I’m super interested as a person with energy-limiting chronic illness. I often can’t be upright long enough to make a sandwich, let alone cook a meal, so it’s often very exclusively processed foods. If I die “early,” I assume it’s because of the underlying illness or a complex interplay between that and the foods, but not a straight relationship of “I will die because I eat frozen dinners.” Thoughts?

Obsessed with you two.

Michael's "fuck!" reaction to sex dust just tells me that it works

Ah omg so I applied to work at moon juice back when I was in the wellness cult & the regional manager interviewed me! She made several weird comments about my weight in the interview (I was literally 120 pounds at the time) & I didn't get the position. I also used to work at Erewhon -- probably not surprising to anyone but their management was incredibly racist, always making comments about the staff needing to "speak English" even in the back of the store among other stuff. Incredibly terrible place to work.

Can you please have a spinoff podcast called Nonprofit Nonsense? I feel so seen every time you talk about it!!

Was it "old pee in the summer"? Many laughs, but that one got me good.

I work for a big multi national, in a remote role where I work on site away from home. During COVID we had to quarantine every few weeks before work in our own off time, got stuck at work multiple times, it was all a mess. Some people whose family lived interstate couldn’t go home for a year. To say thanks the company send out a gift box of hand sanitiser and a fabric mask…. And no one got a bonus that year because of the COVID impacts. Did not go down well.

I don’t wanna say that I enjoyed your suffering or anything but this episode made me laugh out loud the whole way home

i’m at home sick with COVID and you two always bring me joy!!! so happy to see this posted

Listening now! I also hope a future episode will be dedicated to the upcoming Brendan Fraser movie "The Whale." It's.... bad. From Vanity Fair: "Working closely with the Obesity Action Coalition, Fraser immersed himself in the disease’s particulars, speaking with many who’ve undergone bariatric surgeries and watching countless dramas, comedies, documentaries, and reality shows to fully grasp past portrayals of people with higher-weight bodies." Later in the article: "This is delicate material, honestly and humanely exploring obesity as a disease, in a way no American film has done on this scale." :/

Did my Patreon pledge pay for sex dust? 🤣

My stomach hurts from laughing so hard! Great episode!

The descriptions are so good I feel like I have smell o vision!

A frozen pizza sounds better than the Hershey's chocolate bar the mayor of the city I work for gave to all of us.

The "future dust" comment made me think of the old Little Britain sketch about weight watchers. If you're hungry, eat dust!

I'm already listening to this again - as always you're informative and hilarious and it is a JOY to listen to you two <3

I used to tell coworkers when anyone says ‘no one will lose their jobs’ get ready!

This episode gave me a good laugh! I thought I escaped Moon Juice when I moved to Australia but our Sephora-equivalent skincare retailer here started carrying the Moon Juice skincare line… It’s AUD$50 for a cleanser & AUD$90 for a moisturiser. Oof…

Love Mike’s Donnie Darko reference 😎🐰

When are we getting the patreon episode that's just Mike explaining all of his random jobs

This was fantastic!

Moon Juice was my favourite episode so I'm so happy to find this today! Also, taste tests are my absolute favourite and I die laughing every time!

Ok I need to defend celery juice. I actually love plain celery juice. The problem is when people put lemon in it, that’s awful. Although I haven’t received any magical powers from it so maybe it doesn’t work without the lemon juice. 😂

This episode is amazing! Thank you for not cutting out any of the dust prep audio. The best!

this episode came out on a bad day and made me laugh for an hour. thank you <3

Thank you so much. I really needed a good laugh today.

"Smells like a fraternity" and I can feel that and want to shower for a week.

I freaking love it when Aubrey laughs so hard she can't breathe. Definitely not-brearhing-laughing right along with this outrageous nonsense.

Loved the episode! I’m a teacher and I got a PLASTIC CUP for teaching hybrid in a pandemic. The pizza hit home!

Michael going “… ohh FUUUUUUCK!” I am deceased.

Michael did not disappoint at the taste test portion 😂💯

I was equally enraged by this stupid company and in hysterics over the taste test. You both really delivered with this! Also, I own a micro business and still pay models their asking hourly rate in actual currency. What a garbage brand and CEO!

OMG, the frozen pizza thing. Dying. I had to go back and listen again just to hear Aubrey laughing so hard. So good!!!

Trying to listen to this while in the office, working, and trying not to snort loudly while laughing has been very difficult. My assistant fully thinks I'm losing my mind.

Now do Mud Water. I hate hearing companies demonize coffee and I can't watch a YouTube video without getting Mud Water commercials. Ugh. I also get YT ads for "The Daily Wire"?! Who does YT think I am?

Got the notification just before leaving for work, and i seriously considered calling in sick just to listen to this

I'm sure you get lots of votes for this topic, but I'm adding one: intermittent fasting.

Were these supposed to be treated like loose leaf tea? That's the only thing that makes sense

This is just the best. Thanks for letting us listen to the suffering 🥰

This episode was utterly hilarious. I am so glad I joined Patreon!

This episode has it all. Intrigue. Deception. Sex(dust). Coffee. 23 minutes of breath work.

I’m crying laughing listening to the taste test! Thank you for doing the hard work so we don’t have to!

I was gifted a sachet of Moon Dust for Christmas by my wealthy boss’s wife (they’re those people who fully buy into anything that looks expensive and they believe every claim - and my boss was obsessed with all those toxic male fitness gurus on Instagram). My packet was for energy I think. It took me months to work up the courage to actually consume it because it sounded gross 😂 of course it ended up just having no effect and making my coffee taste a little more earthy. Also, I loved hearing about the wacky non-profit shenanigans - I recently left a very small climate change non-profit (I was one of 2 employees as an organizer who was meant to work with volunteers in 4 cities across my state…) and we had literally all of the situations discussed - before I started there, the founder had moved to SWEDEN and was “running operations” from there (of course he was completely out of touch with anything that was going on) and the 6-person board of directors collectively had no idea how to run a non-profit. 😬 I didn’t know it was such a trend!

I'm dying 😭😂 the smecks dust reactions had me thinking of Labyrinth's Bog of Eternal Stench

This was gold. I just wish it was video recorded. 🤣

If there was ever an episode to have a YouTube companion...

“I’m questioning my commitment to sparkle motion” 🤣 i almost spit out my drink that really got me 😂😂😂 this episode was so good and also the taste test was so cringe! Thanks for doing this important experiential investigative journalism so I don’t have to. Sparkle motion’s strongest warriors! 😂😂😂🌈✨✨✨✨

Yes to the probiotic mention! I do love kombucha just for the flavor but the gut health stuff is everywhere in the wellness influencer world right now

I was working late on college stuff and I had switched to music after running out of podcasts to listen to. Getting the email that you guys posted truly brightened up my morning/night! Thanks for the episode! I can’t wait to see what you talk about next!

The ASMR in this ep is top notch

I'm like fifteen minutes in, at the compost bins, and I live in the Vancouver BC area--most restaurants have compost bins available because that's something basically all the cities here do. There are compost bins on the street next to the recycling and garbage bins. So it's just funny to me that they're like "oh, look how cool we are" with a compost bin.

There's definitely a virtuousness attached to things that are good for you but taste awful or are in other ways difficult or horrible. From 'take your medicine' to pushing through The Wall during a grueling exercise routine and basking in that glow of health after. I do believe some component of people being convinced it's working is that virtuousness kicking in, and the dust folk take advantage of that, from marketing to not having to bother gussying the mixes up to be more palatable.

OK WAIT!!! I used to work at a crunchy "healthy" anti-vax restaurant (oh the trauma) and the thing in the sex dust that smells like pee is probably maca!!! it smells like straight up piss and it's supposed to boost your libido or whatever but every time i had to put it in some rich lady's smoothie i recoiled

Are you guys going to report if you woke up all Cinderella after that much “beauty dust”? Aubrey made me laugh out loud at 4 am at “I’m dressed totally in white linen” comment.

Speaking of contaminated ingredients...I am dying to see you guys do an episode on Daily Harvest (and possibly other meal delivery kits???)!

Warning: episode may cause distracted driving due to fits of laughter over moon juice taste descriptions 😂

Request for a spin-off podcast or series of bonus episodes just about non-profits! Please, I have spent my entire career in social services non profits (refugee resettlement and 'victim services' nonprofits) and every time Aubrey and Mike just ever so slightly open the door on toxic nonprofit stuff I am just *cheering* for them to GO. IN. Definitely there is lots of trauma there for me (unhinged and unqualified supervisors? check. supervisors who used their supervisees for free personal therapy? check. a firing that was based on completely fantastical made-up nonsense after i got super involved organizing a union? check. being paid $10 an hour with no benefits and told not to work overtime but also complete 2 people's jobs in the same number of hours? check. having no cap on caseload and being told that i just needed better 'time management'? check. sitting through a kajillion trainings where we were asked to 'be vulnerable' with our supervisors, and 'share with the group one way you personally will combat white supremacy' while all our senior management were white ladies and all our lowest paid staff were black and Latinx? check check check). Please please please make my dreams come true!

I just want to make sure I acknowledge the excellent Donnie Darko reference in this episode. Well done!

Caveat emptor applies to anything marketed as a supplement. If you call it a food, or a drug, you have to jump through regulatory hoops, but, since the 1994 DSHEA law, the FDA has had its hands tied. The cynically named Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act means you can put anything in the package, and, as long as you add that statement (which skeptics have called the “Quack Miranda Statement” that this product makes no claims to treat or cure any disease or condition) then the product is exempt from FDA oversight. The law was heavily lobbied for and written by folks like Orville Hatch, Senator of Utah, the state which had the largest share of vitamin and supplement manufacturing, and the state which is the home of so much MLM. Example: the FDA knew ephedra was unsafe for years, but the FDA could not crack down on it until dozens of people died. Of course, fat people like me are endlessly marketed to with these products. Some of us have died, and uncounted numbers of us have been maimed, by the supplement industry. (I am a super fat, middle aged woman, so in the logic of our irrational culture, I am expendable, but the quacks would like to squeeze what they can out of me. Fuque them. I stopped playing the diet game decades ago and they can kiss my queer fat azz.)

The faces people see me making as I’m driving and listening lol

I laughed so hard thank y’all so much for another great episode!

Looving this episode, you are hilarious!! What is it even supposed to do??! I would looove listening to you two try more stuff, maybe an episode on beachbody (gut health diet, lots of diet culture + a horrible mlm) 🥴

bahahaha. I wish we could see pictures of all of this.

The not-for-profit bullshit is so real. I had poor mental health in lockdown (hadn't seen my family for over a year, got evicted because my landlord wanted to move back into the house, witnessed a super violent s*****de. And when I asked the not for profit I worked for for some mental health support they sacked me and said "we've given you loads of support". The support they gave me was posting me a £5 scented candle and a tote bag with "don't worry be happy" on it.

Anyone else getting the sense that the *purpose* of the dust has less to do with what's in it and more to do with how bad it is? I.e. "this one is the foulest, so let's say it helps with sex or beauty since that's what people will be most likely to buy"?

Every time you guys talk about non nonprofit work and how shitty it is, i love it because it makes me feel less alone as someone who’s worked at a really shitty nonprofit for the last 3 years😂

Aubrey’s “Oh….OH” while Mike was getting hot water really took me out 😂

Me listening to this when I do HR and ops in nonprofit orgs. 👀👀👀

Laughing with literal tears the moment Aubrey says, “Let me just sweeten the pot for you, don’t forget, there might also be eColi in it!”

Next taste test y’all need a cheap frother to mix that shit. Won’t make it taste less like cleaner smells but at least you won’t have clumpy sludge! Love you all the way ❤️

Every time I get a Patreon alert from you guys I literally exclaim “oh fuck yeah!” 💕

The whiff test of sex dust had me rolling. Looking forward to follow ups on how this impacted their bamu.

I have a vague memory from a long time ago that this show covered a thing called "gillli juice" or something like that it had a super high salt content and cause health problems for people but I can't find that episode anywhere does anyone know what happened to it

This taste test only makes Amanda Chantal Bacon's choice of a sex dust infused icing on her wedding cake all the better. https://www.bonappetit.com/story/amanda-chantal-bacon

I am so excited to listen to this while I work on art today. Aside, could ya'll do an episode on the Minnesota Starvation Experiment? I learned about it from a person on TikTok and only got the briefest outline. I think it would make a great episode!

Haha sex dust ! Could there be a less sexy word than dust?!?

You two stalling before finally tasting is like me tiptoeing into the pool and shivering and whining before diving in all the way. Only the pool feels better when you finally dive in 😝

How about athletic greens? Does it have any nutritional value? I don’t understand what it is but it sponsors a lot of podcasts!

This was great, fingers crossed for no e. coli!

The descriptions! Are you coming up with these on the spot? The accuracy! The escalation! It's genius imrov comedy! It's like Steve Carell generating alternate lines in a The Office deleted scene.

This episode had me in stitches !

Hearing you read out that sex dust has "cocoa flavour" after you two described how it actually tasted is amazing

Companies paying in gift cards to their own stores is just Company Scrip: 2022 edition, especially when (as Mike pointed out) there's not much useful stuff to buy there.

This episode was absolute perfection!

Possibly my most favorite thing you’ve ever recorded was slightly muffled Aubrey’s reaction in the background getting an initial smell of sex dust. I laughed so hard.

i had the Worlds Worst Shroom edibles a few weeks ago and found my self having flashbacks to the taste and gagging while y’all were describing the sex dust flavor

I really really want a probiotic episode now! I feel like gut health is such a thing in the wellness world

A FROZEN PIZZA as a reward for working in the pandemic?! Holy shit. And I thought the pizza party my nurse friend got was bad!

I cherish this episode so much

OMG, could not stop laughing about the frozen pizza for Moon Juice employees. Of course they were tears of shared pain as a health care worker where pizza=clueless management.

This is incredible 😂 Your Sex Dust similes…oh man…

The descriptions during the taste testing was perfect 😂 I felt like I could taste them too (not sure that’s a good thing though…)

I am laughing/cringing so hard

Are you ok?

Love! Please do an episode on the totally bonkers F Factor diet drama.

When Mike doubted his commitment to sparklemotion I was violently thrown back to a very different time!

Products you should try: spirulina, maca powder, apple cider vinegar drinks, Magic Spoon

You guys are awesome!

This taste test is worth the price of admission, 100%

I just listened to the moon juice episode again, perfect timing! Thanks for all you guys do!

Maintenance Phase: fully pre-oxidized for your convenience

😍😍😍😍