The Oprah to "Make America Healthy Again" Pipeline

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

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Summary

Have you or someone you love been confused by the push to 'Make America Healthy Again'?

Then you, my friend, are in dire need of our series: The Road to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA). For the next few weeks, we're delving into some of the origins, conspiracy theories, and power grabs that have led us to this moment, and what it could mean for our health.

For the final episode in the series, Brittany puts the spotlight on the Queen of Talk: Oprah Winfrey. The Oprah Winfrey Show made Oprah one of the most influential voices in media. Her recommendations have become best sellers, sold out stores, and even launched the careers of two very well known Make America Healthy Again icons - Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz.

Historian and host of You Get a Podcast!, Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson, and professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Marcia Chatelain, join the show to walk through how the Queen of Talk's influence took us from daytime television to the White House.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Johnny O'Hanson, Jr. join me each week on In Black America as we profile current
0:06.3	and historically significant figures whose stories help illuminate life in Black America. You don't
0:11.8	want to miss the conversation. KUT Radio in Black America are members of the NPR Network.
0:17.6	Thanks for listening to In Black America.
0:22.4	Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR,
0:27.6	a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.
0:46.9	Have you or someone you love been confused by the push to make America healthy again?
0:53.0	If that's the case, then you, my friend, are in dire need of our new series.
0:57.6	The Road to Make America Healthy Again.
1:02.2	Don't you want a president that's going to make America healthy again?
1:11.9	For the next few weeks, we're delving into some of the origins, conspiracy theories, and power grabs that have led us to this moment,
1:14.6	and what that could mean for our health.
1:26.3	For the final episode in our Road to Maha series, we are talking about the one, the only Oprah Winfrey.
1:30.9	She is the ultimate self-made woman story.
1:35.6	That is Dr. Kelly Carter Jackson, historian and co-host of You Get a Podcast, a show about the Queen of Talk.
1:43.1	And I think people look to her as someone who was
1:47.2	highly relatable, as someone also saw as highly aspirational as well. The impact of the Oprah Winfrey
1:54.1	show cannot be overstated. It was the place to go to talk about any and every hot topic.
2:01.4	Celebrity interviews, relationship woes, family trauma.
2:04.7	She had it all.
2:06.8	Starting from its debut in 1986, the Oprah Winfrey Show was the number one talk show in the country for 24 consecutive seasons.
2:16.7	By the time you get to the late 90s and certainly the 2000s, I mean,
	...

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