Tylenol Autism Claims are Harming Women While Wellness Grifters Profit

There Are No Girls on the Internet

iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture, Technology

4.4 • 820 Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Wellness influencers are perfecting the art of turning pseudoscience into profit. Whether they're selling supplements, offering classes, or just chasing engagement, an army of wellness grifters has weaponized mistrust of institutions and Big Pharma, peddling false health claims that trick people into treatments and practices that are ineffective at best, and in some cases outright dangerous.

Last week the Trump administration claimed without evidence that Tylenol during pregnancy causes autism. The science is clear that it isn't true, but that didn’t matter. Doctors pushed back, but the damage was already done—because wellness influencers pounced. They didn’t just spread the fear, they profited off it. And suddenly, one of the only safe pain relievers for pregnant women became the latest weapon in a war over women’s health. Once again, Trump and RFK Jr are playing disingenuous, dangerous political games with women's health and wellbeing.

This isn’t just about Tylenol. It’s about how wellness influencers turn misinformation into a business model—and how their influence helped shape a dangerous narrative straight out of the White House.

Mallory DeMille, content creator and correspondent on the podcast Conspirituality, has been pushing back against these dangerous grifters with hilarious videos and posts that make fun of their most ridiculous claims. Do yourself a favor and follow her on Reels, Threads, and TikTok at @this.is.mallory and on YouTube at @MalloryDeMille.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an IHeart podcast.
0:08.2	There are no girls on the internet as a production of IHeart Radio and Unbossed Creative.
0:16.4	I'm Bridget Todd, and this is there are no girls on the internet.
0:22.1	When the Trump administration claimed that Tylenol during pregnancy could cause autism,
0:27.4	the science really didn't matter.
0:29.5	Doctors pushed back, but the damage was already done.
0:32.6	And wellness influencers had already pounced.
0:35.8	They didn't just spread fear, they profited off of it. And suddenly,
0:40.1	one of the only safe pain relievers to take during pregnancy became just the latest weapon in a war
0:45.6	over reproductive health. Now, this is not just about Tylenol. It's about how wellness influencers
0:51.2	turn misinformation into an online business model and how their influence
0:56.4	help shape a dangerous narrative coming right out of the White House. It's something Mallory
1:01.1	DeMille has seen a lot of. Mallory makes content about the health and wellness industry. She's a
1:06.5	correspondent on one of my favorite podcasts, Conspiruality. I'm Mallory DeMille, and I guess the title I would use is content creator.
1:15.6	Create content on Instagram and TikTok that talks about influencer culture, specifically in the wellness space.
1:23.3	Nobody skewers the wellness influencer grift quite like you. You're such a good social media follow.
1:31.6	Thank you so much for saying that. So how did this come to be something that you pay attention to?
1:37.3	Why are our kind of wellness influencers on social media? Why is that your beat?
1:42.3	Yeah, I think the short answer probably is that I used to
1:45.1	follow wellness influencers. And granted, this was, you know, almost a decade ago. I was in my
1:50.1	mid to later 20s. And I was following a number of wellness influencers. After I completed
1:57.0	business school, I went to college for fitness and health promotion. Thought it one day I
	...

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