The Emaciated Elephant in the Room: Are GLP-1s causing us to lose our minds as well as weight?

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum

Meghan Daum

Society & Culture

4.7 • 855 Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2026

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hadley Freeman is a U.K.-based journalist, Sunday Times columnist, and the author of Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia. She joins the podcast this week to discuss what she calls the "thinness arms race" in the era of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. She and Meghan talk about why extreme thinness is once again being rewarded—if not demanded—of female celebrities, how the current aesthetic differs from 90s heroin chic, and why the language of body positivity is often used to shut down obvious observations. They also talk about the physical and psychological realities of severe undernourishment, the role of status and self-denial in shaping beauty standards, and the broader "cartoonification" of the human body in a culture increasingly mediated by filters, pornography, and screens.

Before the episode begins, Meghan has a quick but important message about her April Fool's Day episode with "guest" Amanda Gertz-Hurdy.

Guest Bio:

Hadley Freeman is a staff writer at The Sunday Times. Her latest book, Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia, was published in 2023.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, welcome back to the podcast. This is a conversation with journalist and returning guest
0:05.4	Hadley Freeman about the GLP1 craze and the anorexification, if that is a word, of Hollywood
0:13.6	and many other spheres. It was recorded a few weeks ago after the Oscars, but seems to get more
0:18.9	relevant with each passing day, so I am excited to bring it to you.
0:23.3	Before we get to that, though, I want to say something very important, although apparently it is
0:29.4	important that I say this. Many of you were quite affected by my interview a few weeks ago with
0:36.7	Curiosity Coach. She's also a certified journaling coach,
0:40.5	Amanda Hertz Gertie. This was a short episode. It was sponsored by a product called fecalicity.
0:47.7	And despite only being 16 minutes long, it contained every women's wellness mindset podcast cliche.
0:55.2	There is deep dive, dive in, unpack.
0:59.6	I love that.
1:01.0	Badass, kickass, 100%, 1,000%, a million percent.
1:05.0	You get the idea.
1:06.8	That's because it was the April 1st episode.
1:10.5	I don't know if you checked the date, but it was April 1st.
1:13.0	It was a spoof.
1:14.4	It was an April Fool spoof.
1:15.9	I made up the whole thing.
1:17.4	I played both of the parts.
1:19.0	It was not AI.
1:20.8	Some of you clocked it right away.
1:23.2	Some of you were furious or worried, thought I'd lost my mind, some were angry that I didn't
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Meghan Daum, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Meghan Daum and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.