The MAGA Health Movement
What A Day
What A Day
4.6 • 12.6K Ratings
🗓️ 17 February 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's been about a year since President Donald Trump signed an executive order, "Establishing the President's Make America Healthy Again Commission." Since then, MAHA has brought together a lot of strange bedfellows, ranging from people who want Americans to eat less sugar to others who want to ban the polio vaccine. Which begs the question — what, exactly, is the Make America Healthy Again movement… and is any of it actually making America healthier? To find out, we spoke to Rina Raphael. She's a journalist focused on wellness culture and the author of The Gospel of Wellness: Gyms, Gurus, Goop, and the False Promise of Self-Care.
And in headlines, U.S. and Iranian representatives are set to meet today in Switzerland, funding for the Department of Homeland Security expired over the weekend, and former President Barack Obama feeds our inner conspiracy theorist by talking about aliens on a podcast.
Show Notes:
- Check out Rina's work – https://www.rinaraphael.com/
- Call Congress – 202-224-3121
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- What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast
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- For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Tuesday, February 17th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is what a day. |
| 0:08.0 | The show that celebrated President's Day by thinking about all the presidents we never think about. |
| 0:12.8 | James K. Polk. James Buchanan. James Garfield. We really have had a lot of Jameses in the White House. |
| 0:30.0 | Thank you. we really have had a lot of Jameses in the White House. On today's show, will congressional lawmakers do their jobs and negotiate an agreement to reopen the Department of Homeland Security? |
| 0:36.5 | Looks like not anytime soon. |
| 0:38.9 | And former President Barack Obama feeds our inner conspiracy theorist by talking about aliens on a podcast. |
| 0:44.5 | But let's start with Maha, the Trump administration's promise to make America healthy again. |
| 0:49.8 | It's been about a year since President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing |
| 0:54.4 | the presidents Make America Healthy Again Commission. |
| 0:57.5 | And we've seen it show up in a lot of different ways. |
| 1:00.0 | Some of them evil, like reducing the number of vaccines babies that are expected to receive. |
| 1:04.3 | And some of them kind of banal, like banning certain food dies. |
| 1:08.0 | It was also at the Super Bowl last week, In between a bad bunny half-time show for |
| 1:11.7 | the ages and a defensive standoff by the Seattle Seahawks, you probably already forgot about, |
| 1:16.4 | Maha stole the spotlight for about 30 seconds. It was via this advertisement from Maha Center, |
| 1:21.6 | a new nonprofit launched by a close ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, |
| 1:26.5 | Jr. My sister named was Denise. She died of obesity at 25. She had a heart attack. |
| 1:33.4 | I was so sad, nasty. I would eat anything. I was like 345 pounds. A quarter of ice cream every |
| 1:40.0 | hour. I had so much self-hate when I was like that. I wanted to kill myself. |
| 1:46.0 | We're the most powerful country in the world, and we have the most obese, fudgy people. |
| 1:51.2 | Something has to be done by processed food in this country. |
| 1:55.0 | Yes, that was former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson saying that before he lost weight, he was |
... |
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