Today, Explained: What Wellness Costs Us – Episode Summary
Release Date: August 10, 2025 | Host: Vox’s Sean Rameswaram and Noel King
Introduction
In the episode titled "What Wellness Costs Us," Vox delves deep into the multifaceted wellness industry, unraveling its historical roots, contemporary practices, and the societal implications of its widespread adoption. Hosts Jhon Gwynn Hill, Hadi Mwagdi, Jonathan Stia, and Amy La Rocca guide listeners through the complexities of wellness, questioning its true value and the price it exacts on individuals and society.
Defining Wellness: Beyond the Hashtag
The conversation kicks off with a critical examination of the term "wellness." Amy La Rocca, journalist and author of "How to Be Navigating Our Self Care Epidemic: One Dubious Cure at a Time," offers her perspective:
Amy La Rocca (04:03): "My working definition is wellness is a luxury good and it's the packaging of our health and our beauty into a consumable for sale product."
This definition underscores the commodification of health, where wellness becomes a purchasable lifestyle rather than an intrinsic state of well-being.
Historical Foundations of the Wellness Industry
Hadi Mwagdi traces the origins of modern wellness to the late 19th century, highlighting key figures who shaped its trajectory:
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John Harvey Kellogg: A physician and bestselling author, Kellogg co-founded the Battle Creek Sanitarium, a renowned medical center blending health practices with religious beliefs. His ideology promoted "biologic living," emphasizing good sleep, exercise, and specific diets as cure-alls for various ailments. However, his methods often veered into pseudoscience, advocating for extreme measures like circumcision to prevent masturbation, which he falsely linked to mental illness and cancer.
Hadi Mwagdi (16:34): "The problem is that from there the term wellness quickly took a life of its own... if we ask one wellness guru to define wellness, we'll hear a different answer from another one."
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Bernard McFadden: Considered the 20th century's first celebrity health influencer, McFadden promoted eccentric health practices like barefoot walking to absorb Earth's energy and sleeping on floors to align with natural rhythms. His anti-vaccine stance further exemplifies the blend of wellness with pseudoscientific beliefs.
These historical insights reveal that the wellness industry's roots are intertwined with both genuine health pursuits and unfounded, often harmful practices.
Contemporary Wellness Practices and Their Costs
The episode shifts focus to present-day wellness establishments, using Kuya Wellness in Austin, Texas, as a case study. Hosted by Megan Butler, Kuya offers a range of high-end wellness services, including infrared saunas, cold plunges, IV vitamin therapies, and sensory deprivation tanks. Memberships can cost up to $1,000 per month in major cities like New York and LA.
Jonathan Stia shares his firsthand experience:
Jonathan Stia (07:26): "I don't know these are really pretty young people... they're looking for a way to relax. These are people who have high powered jobs, they have busy schedules and wellness is something that they find as a key or important factor in their life."
Stia's exploration highlights both the allure and the exorbitant costs of such wellness practices. While he acknowledges the temporary boost in energy and hydration from treatments like cold plunges and IV therapies, he remains skeptical about their long-term efficacy and sustainability.
The Pseudoscience Behind Wellness
Delving deeper, Hadi Mwagdi discusses the prevalence of pseudoscience within the wellness industry:
Hadi Mwagdi (13:28): "When you do a deeper dive into that research, what people will often find is that you can find a study, say, to promote or to support any kind of treatment or claim."
This rampant misinformation allows wellness promoters to market unverified treatments as scientifically backed solutions, misleading consumers and perpetuating myths under the guise of health benefits.
Accessibility and Societal Impact
The episode critically examines who benefits from the wellness industry's boom. Amy La Rocca points out the exclusivity of wellness:
Amy La Rocca (25:28): "It's really marketed at kind of white women with disposable income because there's money to be spent and there's a lot of historical precedent for sewing insecurities and getting money out of that population."
This targeting exacerbates health inequalities, making advanced wellness treatments accessible primarily to affluent demographics, while marginalized communities remain underserved by traditional healthcare systems.
Revisiting Basic Health Needs
Amidst the high-tech and often unnecessary wellness treatments, both Stia and La Rocca emphasize the importance of fundamental health practices:
Amy La Rocca (25:53): "My takeaway is, like, really basic. You need the meat. Like, you need to sleep. You need to move your body around. You need to eat food that's as close to its original form as possible. You need to drink some water. You need to manage your stress levels."
This perspective advocates returning to essential health behaviors rather than investing heavily in expensive and unproven wellness trends.
The Future of Wellness and Traditional Medicine
The episode also touches on the deteriorating trust in traditional medicine, partly due to systemic failures and the allure of wellness alternatives:
Amy La Rocca (24:30): "Steward executives had slowly taken money out of the system and that patient care had suffered."
As traditional healthcare systems falter, the wellness industry positions itself as a viable alternative, further blurring the lines between evidence-based medicine and pseudoscientific practices.
Conclusion: The Double-Edged Sword of Wellness
"What Wellness Costs Us" presents a comprehensive critique of the modern wellness industry, highlighting its historical baggage, current practices, and the societal costs of pursuing an often unattainable ideal of health. While wellness can offer genuine benefits like relaxation and temporary boosts in well-being, its commercialization and reliance on pseudoscience pose significant challenges. The episode ultimately calls for a balanced approach, advocating for fundamental health practices over costly and unverified wellness trends.
Notable Quotes:
- Amy La Rocca (04:03): "Wellness is the packaging of our health and our beauty into a consumable for sale product."
- Hadi Mwagdi (13:28): "Pseudoscience is a hijacked or fake attempt at science."
- Jonathan Stia (07:26): "These are people who have high powered jobs... they find wellness as a key factor in their life."
- Amy La Rocca (25:53): "You need to eat food that's as close to its original form as possible."
This episode serves as a critical lens on the wellness industry's evolution, urging listeners to discern between genuine health benefits and commercially driven pseudoscience.