The Wellness Phenomenon
Seriously...
BBC
4.1 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2020
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today there's a booming wellness industry, including luxury spas and hotels as well as personal trainers and supplements, claimed to be worth over $4 trillion a year. Online at least, self-care seems to revolve around buying stuff – luxury oils, face creams, scented candles, face rollers, bath bombs, silk pillows, cleansing soaps and stress-relieving teas. Or we can cherish ourselves by paying someone else for a service, from a yoga session to a delivery of artisan chocolates.
With the help of the archives Claudia Hammond explores where the idea of wellness came from. She discovers its roots in the WHO's definition of health and in the counter culture of California in the 1960s, when the residents of Marin County took to hot tubs and peacock feathers. Claudia looks at the thorny relationship between wellness and medicine and those who look after or study our health. There's a Wellness Newsletter that has been produced in Berkeley since 1984 that weighs up the scientific evidence for and against new treatments, and many doctors offer complementary therapies alongside conventional medicine. Yet there is no published research to support the benefits associated with some wellness products.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.5 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path |
| 0:19.5 | through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:39.0 | Hi, I'm Riana Dylan. |
| 0:41.0 | Welcome to Seriously. Now I'm justiana Dillon. Welcome to Seriously. |
| 0:44.0 | Now I'm just scrolling through my work emails and during the time of COVID-19, |
| 0:50.0 | I have to say there are even more than usual featuring the whole idea of wellness. |
| 0:56.4 | We've got put lockdown life behind you. |
| 0:59.3 | That seems to be for coconut oil. What else do we have? Sleep is good for immune function. True. |
| 1:08.0 | Tmerick helps the immune system. Oh a meditation app for that special session for quarantine. |
| 1:17.0 | There are certainly plenty of them and in a way the whole idea of self-care and wellness has taken on a new resonance at the moment with claims that are of course not always backed by science because there simply hasn't been time for that for a start. |
| 1:32.0 | But there is a hope that if we do the right thing |
| 1:34.3 | and embrace wellness we can somehow ward off this terrible disease and remain |
| 1:38.6 | healthy and of course we do know that we need to look after ourselves to cope with these tricky times so in one way |
| 1:45.9 | wellness is something we'd all like to have and lots of these emails come from |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.