Don't get got by big MILK
It's Been a Minute
NPR
4.7 • 9.2K Ratings
🗓️ 23 March 2026
⏱️ 20 minutes
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Summary
In January, the USDA account on X posted a picture, possibly AI generated, of President Trump with a milk mustache. The caption was, “Drink up America. #DrinkWholeMilk.” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted what seems to be an AI video that shows him being transported to a nightclub when he drinks milk. The caption is, “when you take that first sip of whole milk.” Whole milk is also at the top of the new food pyramid. But what’s all this for? How do we make sense of this push for whole milk, especially when milk has some unsavory ideological associations?
Brittany gets into it with Yasmin Tayag, staff writer for The Atlantic who covers science and the future of food, and Andrea Freeman, Second Century Chair Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School and author of the book Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch.
Want more about modern health? Check out these episodes:
Were Americans actually healthier in the past?
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Is tech making us too obsessed with our bodies?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What is your milk allegiance are you 1% 2% oat milk, soy milk people? What's the vibe? What's going on? |
| 0:10.0 | Okay, well, I'm team soy milk. Love it. But I am flexible. I like coconut milk for ice cream. |
| 0:18.0 | I think of myself as milk agnostic, but because I have a two and a half year old at home, |
| 0:24.6 | I only drink whole milk. |
| 0:26.7 | Wow. |
| 0:27.1 | Okay, so I actually grew up drinking skim milk, which tastes like water. |
| 0:33.0 | And then I realized I was lactose intolerant in college. |
| 0:35.4 | So I started drinking soy milk then. |
| 0:37.2 | I'll just drink it on its own. |
| 0:38.3 | I just love it. |
| 0:39.3 | I think it tastes great. |
| 0:41.3 | Well, I'll tell you what, even though I have a strong love for alternative nut and grain milks, |
| 0:47.3 | it feels like our government is trying to convince me to switch. |
| 0:52.3 | The Trump administration is really pushing milk right now, |
| 0:56.8 | whole milk in particular. |
| 0:58.6 | For example, in January, the USDA account on X posted a picture, |
| 1:03.1 | possibly AI generated, a president Trump with a milk mustache. |
| 1:07.1 | The caption was, drink up America. |
| 1:16.5 | Hashtag drink whole milk. Or health and human services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted what seems to be an AI video where when he drinks milk, it |
| 1:23.7 | transports him to a nightclub. The caption is, when you take that verse sip of whole milk. |
| 1:30.3 | In another video he did with Kid Rock, like in real life, |
| 1:34.3 | they're drinking whole milk in a hot tub together after working out. |
... |
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