Episodes

What did humans actually evolve to eat? With paleo, keto, vegan, Mediterranean, and a thousand other diets all claiming to be "the one," it's no wonder people feel whiplashed every time they walk into a grocery store. But what if the answer isn't found in the latest diet book, but in millions of years of human evolution? Join Holly and Jim as they welcome back Harvard evolutionary biologist Dan Lieberman for a second appearance on the show. This time, Dan isn't talking exercise. He's talking fo...

Most people trying to lose weight obsess over the what: what diet, what medication, what workout plan. But according to Holly and Jim, the real key to long-term success isn't found in any of those choices. It's found in a set of decisions most people never even realize they're making. In this episode, Holly and Jim count down the 10 decisions that determine whether a weight loss journey actually sticks. Some are questions you'd expect. Others might catch you completely off guard, including the ...

For years, the ceiling on medical weight loss was 15%, maybe 20% if you were lucky. Now a new triple-target medication is posting average results that flirt with 30% body weight loss in clinical trials, numbers once reserved for the operating room. Holly and Jim sat down to unpack what's driving these results, and found themselves asking a question neither expected to ask in their careers: how much weight loss is actually too much? Retatrutide, the drug at the center of this episode, adds a thi...

Can simply paying attention to your first bite of food change how much you eat? It sounds too simple to matter, but Holly and Jim are digging into a topic that might seem completely outside their lane: mindfulness and meditation. For years, mindfulness has been filed under "stress management," not "weight management." But a growing body of research is asking a bigger question: can training the mind actually change the way we eat, not by altering our biology, but by changing how we respond to it...

A few clicks online. No exam, no phone call, no video visit. Minutes later, a GLP-1 prescription is headed to your door. It sounds like the future of healthcare: fast, easy, convenient. But is convenience the same thing as care? A Yale research team wanted to find out, so they built a fake patient, sent her to 49 different online GLP-1 providers, and tracked exactly what happened. What they found may change the way you think about getting these medications online and raise questions you didn't ...

For years, patients kept telling Holly the same strange thing: it wasn't the number on the scale that changed their life, it was something quieter, something they'd never had words for. They just didn't think about food anymore. Now that experience has a name, and for the first time, a way to measure it. Food noise has gone from an offhand comment on social media to one of the most talked-about concepts in obesity science, and Holly and Jim are back to unpack how far the research has come since...

GLP-1 medications are the single most requested topic on the show, no contest. But with so much noise on social media, in doctors' offices, and everywhere in between, sorting fact from fiction has never been trickier. Some of what's out there is spot-on. Some of it is dangerously wrong. So this week, Holly and Jim are flipping the format. Instead of another lecture, they're putting GLP-1 knowledge to the test with a 20-question quiz covering everything from the basic biology of these medication...

We've all felt it: you decide to eat healthier, open social media, and within minutes, you're drowning in contradictory advice. Eggs are back. Butter's healthy. Seed oils are toxic. Never eat after 7pm. Wait, only eat between noon and 6pm? By the end, you're left wondering if anyone can just tell you what to eat. Join Holly and Jim as they sit down with award-winning food journalist and registered dietitian Carolyn O'Neil to unpack why nutrition advice feels so exhausting and contradictory. Wit...

Cancer is the disease most people fear. But heart disease is the one that actually kills the most Americans, and most people never connect it to their weight. For decades, obesity was treated as a bystander to heart disease, a risk factor at best. That thinking has changed dramatically, and the data behind that shift is stunning: we now have a medication proven to cut major cardiovascular events by 20% in people with obesity. Join Holly and Jim as they sit down with an old friend and true legen...

For decades, one number has ruled the world of fitness: 10,000 steps. It's on your watch, your phone, maybe even tattooed into your daily to-do list. But what if that number was never based on science at all? Join Holly and Jim as they sit down with Dr. Amanda Paluch, Associate Professor of Kinesiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and leader of the Steps for Health Collaborative, an international research consortium pooling data from over 125,000 adults to answer one deceptively s...

For 40 years, every time nutrition has found a new villain, the food industry has handed us a new label to go with it: non-fat, no GMOs, gluten-free, no seed oils, and now, non-ultra-processed. We have more experts, more studies, and more food rules than ever before, so why does standing in the grocery aisle still feel like such a guessing game? Join Holly and Jim as they sit down with Tamar Haspel, the James Beard Award-winning Washington Post columnist behind Unearthed and author of To Boldly...

Losing weight on a GLP-1 medication can feel like magic until the scale stops moving. For almost everyone on these drugs, there comes a moment when the rapid progress slows, then stalls completely. Is the medication failing? Has your metabolism adapted? Did you do something wrong? For most people, that moment feels like a problem. It isn't. Join Holly and Jim as they unpack one of the most misunderstood parts of the GLP-1 journey: the shift from losing weight to keeping it off. You'll discover ...

What if the biggest obstacle to your health isn't your willpower, it's your zip code? Most of us have been raised to believe that weight and health come down to personal choices: what you eat, how much you move, how disciplined you are. But what if the deck has been stacked against millions of Americans before they ever make a single decision? This week, Holly and Jim sit down with Dr. Christina Economos, Dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Sciences and Policy at Tufts University, to explo...

If you've spent years hopping from one diet to the next: low fat, then low carb, then keto, then intermittent fasting, you're not alone, and you're not failing. The truth is, the diet world has been cycling through the same promises, the same villains, and the same disappointments for nearly a hundred years. And most of us never stop to ask why. Join Holly and Jim as they do something they've never done before on the show: step back and take a decade-by-decade look at almost 100 years of dietin...

Millions of people are now taking GLP-1 medications and losing weight, but is eating less the same as eating better? The answer, according to today's guest, is a resounding no. And almost nobody in medicine, food, or public health is talking seriously about what happens when appetite disappears, but nutritional needs don't. Join Holly and Jim as they sit down with Dr. Maha Tahiri, a nutrition scientist, food industry strategist, and founder of Nutrition Sustainability Strategies, for one of the...

What if the medications changing everything about obesity treatment are also creating problems nobody saw coming? We’re living through a genuine before-and-after moment in obesity medicine. Drugs that once seemed like science fiction are now producing 20, even 25% weight loss in real patients. But the questions piling up are just as staggering as the results: What happens to your muscle? Your bone? Your sense of self? And what happens when the medication stops? Holly and Jim sit down with Dr. K...

Everyone has been burned by nutrition advice that completely reversed itself a few years later. Eggs were dangerous, then essential. Butter was poison, then practically a health food. Fat was the enemy until we realized what replaced it might have been even worse. If you've ever thrown up your hands and wondered whether nutrition scientists agree on anything, you're not alone. What if the confusion isn't just about changing science but about how nutrition guidelines are made, who influences the...

You've heard it before. A friend, a coworker, or your own mother swears by something, and the proof is standing right in front of you. She lost 30 pounds. You've seen it. You know it's real. So why aren't you doing it too? Here's the thing: personal success stories are powerful precisely because they're real. But real doesn't mean the whole picture. And in the world of weight loss, acting on the wrong part of a true story can quietly pull you off track, not because you were fooled, but because ...

Exercise is good for you. But good for your mood? Your brain? Science has now weighed in, and the answer might surprise you more than you'd expect. Join Holly and Jim as they dig into the most comprehensive review ever conducted on exercise and depression, a sweeping 2026 Cochrane analysis of 73 randomized controlled trials and nearly 5,000 people. This isn't feel-good advice; it's hard data. Discover why taking action through movement can benefit your mental health, no matter your role or expe...

Have you ever wondered why the same advice that worked perfectly for your friend did absolutely nothing for you? What if the problem isn't your effort, your commitment, or even the advice itself, but rather the body you're living in? Holly and Jim tackle one of the most misunderstood topics in weight management: the gap between what feels obviously true and what's actually universal. If you've never struggled with your weight, some things just seem like common sense. However, for millions of pe...

For decades, the message has been simple: if you want to lose weight, you need to exercise more. But what happens when a medication can do the heavy lifting for you? GLP-1 drugs are reshaping everything we thought we knew about weight loss, and that means the role of exercise is changing, too. Not disappearing. Changing. Join Holly and Jim as they sit down with Dr. Renee Rogers, senior scientist at the University of Kansas Medical Center and expert in biobehavioral lifestyle interventions, to e...

You hit your goal weight. Then, hunger crept back in, your energy dropped, and the scale rose. Sound familiar? You're not broken, your body is built for this. In this episode, Holly and Jim sit down with Dr. Rudy Leibel, one of the most influential obesity researchers in history, a Columbia University scientist whose team cloned the leptin gene and fundamentally changed the world's understanding of obesity. What was once dismissed as a willpower problem, Dr. Leibel helped prove is a deeply biol...

You've probably told yourself the story before: "I'm just lazy. I should want to exercise. Something must be wrong with me." But what if science says you're not lazy at all? What if avoiding the treadmill is one of the most deeply human things you can do? This week, Holly and Jim are joined by Dr. Daniel Lieberman, professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and author of The Story of the Human Body and Exercised. Dan has spent his career studying why humans move the way we do...

Every five years, the U.S. government releases dietary guidelines that shape what gets served in school cafeterias, what doctors recommend to patients, and what ends up on your plate. But what actually happens behind the scenes, and who really gets the final say? If you've ever felt confused about protein, carbs, red meat, or dairy, you're not alone. The latest 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans arrived with controversy baked in, with final recommendations that diverged from what the sc...