Welcome to Stronger Weekly, brought to you by Purest
Nutrition. I'm your host, Jessie Carajad.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Welcome back if you've been here before and welcome for the first
time. And thank you for tuning in and
recording this the weekend of Memorial Day.
I'm so stoked for the summer. I hope that you're all revving
up for an amazing summer season. I always like to ask to start
the show, if you're not already following the show, hit that
follow button right now, wherever you are getting your
podcasts that could be on Apple podcast, Spotify, YouTube,
wherever you're listening. New episodes drop every single
Wednesday. Be so grateful if you would do
that and maybe share this with a friend or someone that could
benefit from the show. Thanks in advance for that.
So for today's episode, we've got a good one.
I'm just going to warn you, I could get fired up.
We're going to be talking about online fitness, influencer
culture, and boy oh boy. Almost 2 1/2 years here,
actually more than. 2 1/2 years doing the show man, I've, I've
kind of dove head first into online fitness and, and all
these things and I, I may. Be a little outspoken today.
I will try to be kind. But the reason that we're
focusing on this particular topic right now is because it's
timely, because Pew Research just published a landmark study
on who's actually giving health and fitness advice online.
Of course, online can mean anywhere on the Internet,
specifically on social media. And the numbers from this study
are wild and concerning just some of them.
And we're going to go deeper later.
But four in 10 American adults now get their health information
from social media influencers and podcasts.
Nothing wrong with getting health and fitness information
from podcasts. I think it's the social media
side. Unfortunately, sometimes they go
hand in hand. Some of the bigger influencers
are now venturing into podcasts. Here's some more for you.
Half of adults under 50 get their health and fitness
information from online. And here's the kicker guys.
Here's why we're focusing on this. 16% of said influencers
list 0 credentials and have zero actual experience in the health
and fitness. Domain gross.
That is gross. So, in other words, so many of
us are getting information from so many people who know nothing
about those very topics. So we're going to unpack that in
our deep dive. But as we always do, first let's
hit our weekly health brief. Here are the five health and
fitness headlines that you need to know.
This week. All right, your first headline
breaking news this week, the US Department of Health and Human
Services AKAHHS released a 43 page surgeon general's advisory
warning about the harms of excessive screen time for kids
and teenagers. So health Secretary RFK Junior
announced it on Wednesday in Gilbert, IA as part of his quote
take back your health tour. I love all the cute little
phrases they use for these things, but here are the numbers
that should grab your attention. So, by adolescents.
Children in America spend an average of four or more hours
per day on screens. Some kids are spending more time
on screens than they do sleeping or even attending school.
And nearly half of adolescents admit that they lose track of
how much time they spend on their phones.
The advisory directly links screen time to worse sleep,
decreased school functioning, less physical activity, weakened
in person relationships, rising pediatric obesity, and
heightened anxiety and depression.
So terrible outcomes here linked to this increased screen time.
So Secretary Kennedy wrote in the letter accompanying the
advisory quote. While screen use can have some
benefits, the evidence of a range of risks to children's
overall mental and physical health is mounting.
And I'll add an overwhelming. So the new recommendation limits
and here they are, no screen time for children under 18
months. Old.
I would hope that that was obvious.
Less than one hour per day for kids under 6 and no more than
two hours per day for ages 6 to. 18-O if you've been following
these recommendations as a parent like I am, it's going
down more and more and more. In other words, put it less and
less in screen time. Recommended for kids so.
If you're a parent, this one's for you.
The tool kit is available on hhs.gov.
Read it, download it, and freaking.
Use it. Keep your kids off screens.
Next up, major not only national news, but international news
around Ebola. So the CDC mobilized an
international Ebola. Response team last week after
the World Health Organization declared a public Health
emergency of International concern on May May 17, 2026.
This is only the eighth such declaration in WHO history, and
here are the latest numbers. As of this week, over 500
suspected cases and at least 131 deaths have been reported in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The strain is the I'm trying to say this.
Bundaberguio. Virus, a rare form of Ebola,
first identified in 2007 that can cause outbreaks with high
fatality rates. Uganda has confirmed 12 cases
imported from the Democratic Republic of Congo with one
death. An American missionary, Dr.
Peter Stafford, contracted the virus while treating Ebola
patients at another Word Nayokunde Hospital in eastern
DRCDRC, Democratic Republic of Congo.
He was airlifted to Berlin Sharati Hospital for treatment
in a specialized isolation ward. 6 high risk contacts are being
monitored in Germany and the Czech Republic.
Now here's what you need to know.
Ebola is not airborne. Thank God.
The CDC explicitly states the virus quote does not spread
through casual contact or air. It spreads to direct contact
with bodily fluids of infected people.
The risk to the American public remains low.
And that said, the CDC has issued a Level 3 travel health
notice for DRC and level 1 for Uganda.
If you are planning to travel to Central or East Africa, check
those advisories before you go this next one.
We always like to pull kind of an interesting or surprising
headline for the show, and this one surprised even the experts.
A new study from University College.
London, published in the journal Innovation in Aging, found that
engaging with arts and culture can slow biological.
Aging at the same rate as regular exercise.
So here's what I mean. Researchers analyzed survey data
and blood samples from 3556 UK adults.
The finding? People who engaged in arts and
cultural activities at least once a week aged approximately
4% slower than those who rarely engaged.
That's the equivalent of being about a year younger
biologically. Doctor Steven Horvath at UCLA,
the geneticist who developed the original epigenetic aging clock,
was surprised, saying quote. Honestly, it really surprised
me. What is particularly new to me
is that arts engagement may have comarable effects to hysical
activity. O here's the take away.
Health isn't just about gym time and daily movement and meal re
and nutrition. Get out, go to a concert, visit
a museum, read a book, lay an instrument, listen to music,
because clearly those things are helping you age slower as well.
So super fascinating stuff. All right, look, as a busy
parent and professional, the hardest part about staying
healthy is eating well, not training.
It's all the meetings. It's picking up kids, running
left and right, jumping around and just trying to have good
nutrition around the clock. And that's why I am so happy to
have found purest Nutritions high protein bars.
Look, for years I would just grab whatever protein bars,
whatever. Supplements and I did not really
have an appreciation. For the quality of the
ingredients and that's why Purest Nutrition is such an
important partner to this show. These protein bars are not only
absolutely delicious, they have totally natural ingredients, no
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Love them, I bring them with me everywhere I go, whether.
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Bag when I'm traveling for work so they are absolutely amazing
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Again, that's Purest. nutrition.com to check out all
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Clean fuel Real ingredients 0 Compromise.
Next up, some good news about drug overdoses in the United
States. So for the third consecutive
year, new CDC. That's the Centers for Disease
Control provisional data released on May 13th showed that
drug overdose deaths in United States continued to decline and
the numbers are remarkable. So the CDC predicts 69,973 drug
overdose deaths for the 12 month period ending December 2025.
In case you're wondering, that is a 13.9% decline from the
previous year in 2024 and the lowest reported number of
overdose deaths since October 2019.
Which is pre COVID-19 pandemic. And to put that into context, in
2023 the US lost approximately 110 thousand Americans to drug
overdoses. By the end of 2025, that number
dropped to roughly 70,000. That's 40,000 lives saved in two
years and the biggest state by state declines.
In case you're wondering, Oregon down 35%, N Carolina down 34%,
New York down 32% and Alabama down 28%.
So the CDC attributes the decline to expanded naloxone
access, increased medication assisted treatment with drugs
like bupreniferine and methadone, and harm reduction
program. So as Allison Awadi, director of
CD CS National Center for Injury Prevention and Control said and
announcing the date of quote, more than 70 lives saved every
single day in America. And when you put these figures
into context folks, 110,000 American lives lost in the year
2023 alone. And compare that to some of our
the Wars. That we've been facing.
I mean so many more people die from drug.
Overdoses still, and it's great to see this decline year over
year, and I hope it continues. But man, it really just puts it
into context. I mean, how many people's lives
are lost every single year and could be saved?
So if you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, the
Samsung National Helpline is 1-800-662-4357.
Again, that's 1-800-662-4357 for free, confidential, 24/7
support. Great news here and your last
health and fitness headline of the week.
This is about resistance training guidelines being
changed for the first time in 17 years.
So the American College of Sports Medicine, also known as
the ACSM, just released an updated resistance training
guidelines and it is worth paying attention to.
It's the most authoritative body in exercise science worldwide,
in case you're wondering. So the headline finding from
their position Stan published in Medicine and Science in Sports
and Exercise is that resistance training is simpler than you
think Think any amount of strength training improves
muscle strength and overall fitness.
Consistency matters far more than finding the perfect
program. And here's what's changed.
So the 2026 guidelines confirm that for the average healthy
adult, these following things are not required.
One training to failure or momentary muscle failure #2
using free weights, specifically over machines or vice versa #3
complex periodizations. Schemes.
And #4 multiple sets, even single set training produces
results. So lead author Kayla McAvoy, who
is a PhD and an ACSM certified exercise physiologist,
summarized it this way, saying quote load and volume should be
tailored to individual goals. While many styles of resistance
training generate results, outcomes can be optimized by
adjusting the approach. So translation, right, Just lift
two to three times per week, get progressively stronger over
time. You do not need a PhD in
exercise science to build muscle.
And as we're about to talk about, you do not have to follow
some fitness influencer and do what they do to get results.
Just get out there, get move in strength train, make it hard
over time and you will be good to.
Go. And that is it for your weekly
health brief. All right folks, welcome back to
the show. And let's talk about online
fitness influencer culture and the Pew Research study that
dropped this May 2026, which I referenced in the the intro.
And this is. This is honestly one of the.
The most important pieces of research on health and fitness
media that I've seen in years. So here's here's the scoop.
To set it up and This is why we're we're covering this.
So let's go. Deeper on the actual study and
what came of it. So Pew analyzed 6828 health and
Wellness influencers with at least 100,000 followers on
YouTube, Instagram or Tiktok. And can I just say that again,
6800 plus health and Wellness influencers, as if that's not
enough, the caveat of having 100,000 followers, that is a lot
of people with a lot of followers.
Do we really freaking need? 6800 health and Wellness
influences. I mean, I can just press stop
right there and be like, guys, we got a problem here.
Too much, just too much. And what they looked at is who
these people are, how these influencers describe themselves,
and what credentials, if any, they claim to have.
Another caveat. Anybody can claim to have a
credential and actually not have it.
I mean I I. Was I had.
A certified, I don't remember the letters anymore, but I was a
personal trainer, so I think it was ACPT certified personal
trainer and I was also a certified health coach through
ACE. Now I know, I know that those
certifications have expired now. Could I put those letters after
my name just to give myself some more, like street cred or some
authority? I absolutely could do I no, do a
lot of people probably so on credentials, even as I go deeper
into this and by the way, I'm three sentences in, I can't even
stop commenting on this, but. We have to be very skeptical of
the people that claim to be influencers and the credentials
that they have. Now back to the study.
So what they looked at was all of these 6828 and basically it's
like who? Who are these people really?
What is their credibility? To be able to.
Giving this information to people and then they surveyed
over 10,000 American adults to understand how people are
actually actually using the information from these
influencers and whether or not they're applying it and how they
feel about it too. And here are the findings.
SO4 in 10 American adults. So 40% and half of adults under
50 now get their health and Wellness information from social
media influencers and podcast. Not from doctors, not from
registered dietitians and the like, From influencers.
I hate that word. And who are these influencers?
Let's get into what they found. So 41% describe themselves as
some sort of healthcare professional, which includes
doctors, nurses, physical therapists, nutritionists,
chiropractors, naturopaths. I don't even know what that is
honestly, but the whole spectrum, right?
So 41%, four in 10 say yes, I am a healthcare professional.
And again, take that with a grain of salt.
You got to verify credentials, especially if you're going to
follow them, right? 31% call themselves coaches.
Look, diet coaches, fitness coaches, life coaches.
Many of them offer one-on-one services or sell guides.
Of course they do, coaches. There are great coaches, but
what is that word like? What qualifies someone to say
I'm a coach? Be very careful if someone just
says I'm a coach 28%. Are entrepreneurs.
They own things like Wellness studios, medical practices, or
sell licensed products and treatments.
And here's the stat really that that should alarm you. 16%.
Don't mention any background or expertise in their BIOS.
Nothing. No credentials.
No training, no certifications, just their content.
And let's face it, a lot of these people have built really,
really impressive physiques. And that alone is their
credential. In other words, they put the
work in, they put the time in, sometimes probably use
supplements we don't know about or don't have access to.
And that is their calling card itself.
It's their body. And there's some, I, I mean, I,
I totally get that, but at the same time, it's a problem,
right? So those are some statistics and
and just put that in a little bit more perspective.
If 6200, excuse me, 6828 influencers were studied, that
means 1100 of them are giving health advice to hundreds of
thousands, sometimes millions of followers and they have zero
listed qualifications and people are listening.
Obviously the algorithm rewards engagement, not expertise,
meaning you could have all the credibility.
And knowledge in the. World.
But if you're not putting out this.
Polished. Click baity Content, people
aren't engaging with you. Well, these social media
latforms are not going to serve your credible content to people.
They're going to take the ones that people are actually looking
at and send that. Out to the world, which kind of
feeds into this, this cycle, this snowball effect of these.
No nothings getting out there and getting their information in
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At the cost of your health. And just to pull up.
For a second. And just kind of share a little
bit about my journey here. Because I haven't always been a
podcaster. I mean, I started Veteran's Day
2023 and I, as a matter of fact, I used to, I used to never be on
social media. Some of my friends used to, you
know, make comments to me like, dude, you never post and you
never react to my post. And I was never in that place.
And in the last 2 1/2 years by starting this podcast and you
would call it a business, right? Because I have sponsors.
Because if you're listening, you've heard the sponsors, man.
I got, I got sucked into social media and early on when I
started back in 2023, I wanted to grow.
I had no idea what I was doing starting this podcast.
I'd literally never done it before.
Just kind of making it up as I go.
But of course, like I wanted people to listen.
I wanted to reach people with my message.
So I did what a lot of people do, and I did.
A. Little bit of research to try to
figure out how to get my message out there and of.
Course. Social media popped up as a cost
effective Ave. to put content out there.
But the other thing I did, I don't, I don't remember if they
got in touch with me or vice versa, but I wound up partnering
with what I'll call a consultant.
They were an agency of some kind.
I don't even know how they categorize themselves.
But they specialized. In helping people, particularly
in the fitness industry, develop a social media strategy to reach
people. So here's a guy, me who to this
day, and I've always loathe social media.
I'm on it simply because it is one such way to get people to
listen to the show. But if you listen to the show,
most times I'm advocating for you not to be on social media.
But I get that I have to be there.
So it's this kind of paradoxical relationship I have with social
media. But the advice that I got from
this consulting firm, and there's so many other ones like
it, I don't know how else to put it and excuse my French, but was
fucking gross. Gross.
Like it was all of the shit that I hated about social media that
this agency was telling me that I now need to do.
And here's some of the stuff, right?
And this is this. These aren't quotes from this
agency. This is me summarizing.
But take your shirt off whenever you can, right?
You got to capture people's attention.
So do things that capture attention, right?
You know, find some great lighting and get all ripped up
and take my shirt off and, and snap a picture, whether it's a
selfie in a mirror or even like the humblebrag shit where like
I'm pretending to do something outdoorsy, but I really just
want to create this opportunity for you to see me with my shirt
off. But it was all about like
capture. Attention and I told them from
the start. I was like, no, I'll pass, you
know, I'll pass. And to be honestly, I've done it
like a couple times. If I'm, if I'm trying to, you
know, if I'm putting out like a free program that says, Hey, you
know, here's a great like training split.
I realize that people aren't like, well, who are you Jesse?
Like, have you done it? Can you can you actually like
show us that this works? Like I kind of get that.
But every time that maybe two or three times in 2 1/2 years, I've
actually had something out there with you, my shirt off, like I
regret it instantly, But that was something that we were huge
with. It was all like attention
seeking behavior. Another one was follow the viral
trends right? See what?
Other people are doing whatever's working.
And then you do that too, right? Like dance in the freaking
kitchen and do the talking head and write, have the right
captions in there. And they actually gave me this
PowerPoint presentation, which was really well done.
But it was like, you know, 100 different examples of other
content creators. I hate that term content
creators and just do what they're doing, right, like mimic
what they're doing, which is just so disingenuous, right?
But that was another. And that's why when you go on
social media, you'll notice there's these trends of like,
well, one person's doing it, it's working, everybody does it.
And then that gets old. And then there's another thing
and everybody does it, right? Just not something I was willing
to do. The next one, just frequency
fire out as much content as possible.
It was a quantity over quality game.
Post three times a day. If you can take your post, flip
them in the stories, jump over to TikTok and go to YouTube
shorts. The more you post, the more you
grow is kind of like the initial advice that I got.
And man, that's just so much pressure.
And and that's why you see these people, some of these
influencers who are honestly successful.
You just picture their lives. It's like, dude, like every
single instant like you take now you're, I see people snagging
videos of their kids all the time.
It's like, when can you actually just live life instead of going
out and thinking like, oh, is this a content opportunity?
The next one, seek out guests. And this is for for podcasts
particular. Just advice that I got was like,
don't worry about like the quality of the human being.
If they have a big platform, get them on your show as best you
can and then leverage their platform to grow your own show.
Which I mean, I get the strategy, but how about like
focus on like the quality of the person and their credentials
instead of like how big is their platform?
But that was some advice that I got another one go around and
guest on other people's shows and I, I did that.
I'd probably been on like 2, maybe 2 shows early on and I
just cut it. I just cut it because I don't
want to go around and sell myself and package the thing.
I just want to make good content here on the show and not buy
into allthesestrategiesandguysifyoucouldlookihaveanemailemailaddressfortheshowitscontact@strongerweekly.com.
If you could read the guest request to come on this show
that I get this spray and pray mentality or strategy.
We're like, clearly it's like an agency or something that's just
like throwing out and it reads the same every time.
Your your recent episode of stronger weekly really impressed
me with your focus on this. Allow me to introduce.
And then it's like Mary's, I'm making up a name here.
Mary Martin came up with a new way to breastfeed at 2:00 AM
without stress. And I'm like, did you even do
your homework before you reached out to me?
But it's just this like garbage, like, hey, let's just send it
out to 1000 people and then hope for the best.
Again, indicative of this like social media kind of phenomenon
and like where people are at right now, which is getting
content out in the world. And then here's the last.
One, and this is this is the one that just drives me absolutely
crazy. Build a funnel and sell
something right. I when I started this podcast
like no, and we used to talk a lot more about like alcohol
abuse and mental health and the through lines of fitness, but I
just wanted to create like a weekly show and just be
vulnerable and be real. And the advice I was getting was
Jesse, don't just don't just grow your audience.
Have AO this, this phrase, this phrase high ticket coaching
package that you can then sell to these people.
And basically it was all about like build a funnel, convert
them and then find ways to like use AI and efficiency so you can
remove yourself from the actual service that these people are
offering guys and folks. I can't tell you this enough.
Like that is the game out there for a majority of these 6000
freaking influencers, right? They're either trying to get you
into some coaching program where they promise you all this
individualized, personalized attention only to farm you out
to like automation or throw you in these big like hundred person
weekly calls and then just kick you over some program that's
cookie cutter, that's not even customized to you.
They're either doing that or they're trying to sell you
something. They're trying to sell you a
product, a service, they have affiliate links and all those,
those things and they're not there for you.
And, and, and what I'm so grateful and I, I praise God for
this, whatever you put it in me, but I just couldn't do it and I
wouldn't do it. And instead of doing all these
kind of viral cheat codes and doing these things, I stuck to
my guns. I tried to be as authentic as I
possibly could the whole time and and has the shown grown?
Absolutely. I mean, 100% and, and I'm so
grateful, but it took a while, like it took a long time, but I
chose the slow Rd. with integrity instead of the
shortcut bullshit fitness influencer Rd. that you see out
there. And guys, like I told you, I was
going to try to be kind, but I mean, I just have to be honest.
I mean, I, when I go on social media, which I try to do at
least once a week to just post a couple good pieces of content
out there. And I'm, I'm just seeing like,
you know, are you a busy dad, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Do you want, you know, I saw one the other day.
I was like, it was an ad. Someone was actually paying an
ad to search me. Is like, are you a busy
Christian professional dad like these people that just try to
like niche and niche and niche and niche to find you?
And it's just it's it's too much.
And again, the reality is these people right fitness.
Let me say this fitness information if you look for it
reliable fitness information is free.
It should be free and there are viable, really good, talented,
well intended, I'll call them influencers out there that you
can find that do give a lot of free information away.
But so many of the people are not that of these 6500 whatever
influencers. I mean they claimed things like
well fix your hormones in 30 days with no medical degree, no
endocrinology training. They hook you with content,
maybe they look good and then you get into their pipeline and
boom, here's a $500 one time purchase for some plan, right?
Or, you know, adrenal health or they'll help you quote reverse
metabolic damage with absolutely no scientific foundation or
concept of what metabolic adaptation actually is.
Just a meal plan that they'll sell you.
They just want to hook you and sell you.
Another thing to be mindful of bots, fake followers.
I mean, I, you know, many solicitations that I've gotten
when I started to say, hey, would you like 10,000 Instagram
followers for 200 bucks? Would you like, you know, blah,
blah. Like look at some of these
people. I've seen people that have like
250,000 followers and then you click on, well, First off,
sometimes they hide their actual, you know, engagement and
stuff. But then you like look at a
piece of content and it has like no, no actual engagement, no
real comments. You know, sometimes you can
click on an influencer and I've done this and you can see their
followers and you can see that they're straight up bots or paid
followers. You'll see a tell tale example
is that like if you see a follower of a person and they
are following 4900 people, but they themselves have 20
followers, that's a bot. So some of these people are just
paying for the optics of looking credible with no credible
training. And then you just go, oh, they
have a lot of followers. They must have good information.
And then boom, you're in, you're captured.
And if you if you click through, they're they're going to be
selling something thing. I absolutely promise you.
Why does this matter? Why am I talking about it?
Because there's consequences to this.
As I mentioned earlier, so many people get their information
from these people, often times instead of licensed medical
professionals. And there's another data point
in this research from Pew that says that a majority of these
people are people that don't have health insurance.
And a lot of people don't have health insurance.
Not all, but a lot are the ones that sometimes have health
issues. Maybe they're lower income and
they don't have good diet or nutrition.
And that's why they're looking for advice.
And the consequences, number one, is people are getting bad
advice. They're just getting incorrect
advice or they're paying far too much for it when it's free
somewhere else, right? A second consequence is people
just get overwhelmed by the information.
And they get overwhelmed because they hear one thing from, let's
just say a doctor. They hear another thing from
random influencer B and another thing from another influencer,
so on so forth. And that information contradicts
each other. And then people get overwhelmed.
And then they just have decision fatigue and they do nothing,
right? So people get overwhelmed and
then I think 1/3 consequence of this whole social media culture,
fitness culture is you start to just mistrust.
You just don't trust anything. You know, back in the day, you
go on Instagram and you want to see what your friends are doing,
You want to laugh at a real and you're just getting bombarded
with ads from these types of people.
Everyone just selling something, selling something.
You know, I started referring to social media once I jumped into
this podcast as basically like the Yellow Pages.
It's like the, it's like the freaking Yellow Pages.
You open it up and it's just ad, ad, ad selling, selling,
selling, ad, ad. And that was not the original
intent of social media. And I realized this, this
conversation is morphing into just a critique of social media.
O here's where I land on all of this.
As much as possible, I am going to try to give away fitness and
nutrition information for free, because fitness can and should
be free coaching itself, right? Real coaches who are going to
invest time in you, we're going to give you individualized,
personalized plans. There is so much value in that.
But the information itself, the vast strength training
protocols, that's nutritional protocols, you know how to run
farther, how to improve your cardiovascular health, how to
reduce inflammation, on and on and on.
That information, folks, is out there and it's accessible to
you. Go to trusted sources to get
that information. And if, if you feel like you
could benefit from coaching, do your homework, verify the
credentials of these people, ask around, get some referrals.
Don't just trust someone who looks good on Instagram and is
playing the game because the statistics show you, like I said
in the the intro to this feature, that they don't know
what they're talking about and they're going to oversell you
and overprice what they're giving you.
Now again there are. I have to say there are.
Really, really good folks out there in social media that
technically would fall under the influencer umbrella.
You've got people like Cameron Martin, AKA the The Martin
Method, Busy dad out there just putting out all sorts of great
content that I know for a fact invest into the clients that he
finds. Ben Barker, the Ben Barker
Fitness, another guy Christian dad just out there trying to
motivate people not only to be fit, but to show up as spouses
and parents and to get in the Bible and work out more.
And then there's bigger platforms you have like, you
know, Doctor Andy Galpin is one of my favorites.
I mean, he's one of the best thinkers and minds in the
fitness space and his podcast is amazing.
He knows his stuff. He's someone that I go to.
So there are good, credible people out there, but
unfortunately they are in the minority folks.
And then you think about like my show, right?
Like is this a business? Yes, this is, this is a
business. I, I mean, you've, if you're
listening to this episode, you've heard sponsors here.
But, but here's the the catch for me, right?
Like my show is the product like this, this is it.
I'm just giving you information. And as time goes on, you can go
to my website, strongerwiki.com. I'm going to take a whole bunch
of training splits, like three days a week, four days, five
days, nutrition guys, alcohol reduction guys, and just give
that shit away. Just give it to you.
But the sponsors that I work with are are brands are people
behind those brands with products that I actually use and
benefit from. And I know I know that my name,
right? Like so Rep fitness and purist,
right? You got Connor and Sydney and
the other folks and they're just awesome, awesome people that I
get to know over time and I use their products like or health is
another one you probably heard the ad already about or health
with alcohol is naltrexone medication.
You know, Neil and Jonathan, the founder from or health.
I mean, I have personally relationships with these with
these products and Ioffer them up to you and I'm partnering
with them because then I can authentically said that they
work and I do you have to use them?
No, but if you are looking for a supplement or at home gym
equipment or you know, something to help you with drinking, like
please go ahead. But at the end of the day, I'm
just putting content out there that hopefully betters your
life, and I hope that it does. All right, let's be honest,
you're probably. Not a professional athlete with
a personal chef and unlimited recovery time.
If you're like me, you're hitting the gym at 5:00 AM
before work or squeezing in training between meetings, just
trying to stay consistent while life keeps throwing you
curveballs. That's exactly who Purest
Nutrition was made for. Purist keeps it simple.
NSF certified supplements with minimal clean ingredients that
actually taste good, no artificial ingredients and no
proprietary blends where you're guessing what you're taking.
Just premium actives like Crea Pure, the purest creatine on the
planet, whey isolate protein that is US sourced and easy on
the stomach, and hydration that keeps you going without all the
extra sugar or sodium. Whether you're a parent juggling
kids and training or just someone who refuses to
compromise on quality, Purest Nutrition fits your.
Routine. Built for tomorrow, science
backed, tested and trusted by athletes, and most importantly,
effective. Visit purestnutrition.com to see
the full lineup of quality supplements.
That's Purest nutrition.com because your nutrition should
work as hard. As you do.
But my point in saying all that is, and this is just a PSA to
anybody listening, if you are going to engage and actually
take advice from these people, don't take my word for it.
Take this research for it. Verify their credentials of the
person that you're following. And please proceed with caution
because it matters so much where you get your information.
And if you're going to get your information, get it from a
credible source. And please don't overpay for it.
Come to a show like mine or someone else who's just giving
it away for free. All right, folks, that's it for
our little expose. I think that's what they call
it. Little feature on the state of
online fitness influencer culture.
Now we have a 2 new segments here to wrap up the show.
We're going to do it every single week.
This one is called Apocalypse Now.
For anyone that read Sports Illustrated back in the day,
they used to have this amazing feature in every single
magazine, what would be called episode, issue, whatever it's
called this week's sign that the apocalypse is upon us.
But essentially, man, there's so many things happened out there
in the world that are just frustrating or just indicative
of a, a, a rot in our culture. And this is one of them.
And then we're going to move towards more of like the good
stuff. But here's this week's
Apocalypse Now segment. If you don't know, now you know,
the US was just about to put timely, timely story here, was
just about to put a Wellness influencer in charge of
America's public health. Her name was or is Doctor.
Casey means she was the latest nominee for US surgeon general,
the role that is colloquially. Known as America's Doctor and
she would replace the previous nominee, Dr. Janet Nushawat, who
was withdrawn after the merch she had misrepresented her
medical credentials. Now here's why.
This is the Apocalypse Now of the Week's KC Means resume.
She graduated from Stanford Medical School.
Impressive. She started a.
Residency in head and neck surgery also impressive.
And then she dropped. Out she never completed her
residency. She does not have an active
medical license in any state. What she does have is a Wellness
empire. She Co founded a company called
Levels. A continuous glucose monitor
subscription service. For people with diabetes, she
wrote a best selling book, of course she did, called Quote
Good Energy. She has hundreds of thousands of
followers on Instagram. Of course she does.
She sells supplements. Why not?
She makes podcast appearances. Who doesn't?
And of course, she is a Wellness influencer.
And here's why this is a problem.
The surgeon general overseas, the US Public Health Servant
Commission Corp. That's 6000 active duty officers
responding to disease outbreaks, natural disasters and public
health emergencies. This role is important and
requires a candidate to be a Vice Admiral.
The job is to advise the president and Congress on the
health of the nation. Does this sound like something
that is appropriate for a content creator, someone without
an active medical license, who is not practicing medicine, who
does play into the whole social media influencer game?
No, it does not. And look, I'm not saying Casey
Mains is a bad person. I'm not saying she doesn't care
about health. I'm sure she does.
But there is a massive, massive fundamental difference between
selling supplements to your Instagram followers and leading
the public health response for 340 million Americans.
Look, doctor means she probably could have been an amazing
physician somewhere based on how she started, but where does she
land? She pivoted and she leaned into
the social media shit. If this job requires an
important person with great credentials and a great
background with great experience, let's hire someone
who has just that. Because 340 million American
lives are important. Listen folks, let's talk about
alcohol. Are you drinking too much?
And if you are, you know you are.
Statistically speaking, it's very likely one in 10.
Americans are. Currently.
Dealing with alcohol use disorder and if you're one of
them like I was, you want to drink less or not at all, I've
got a solution for you. There is a safe FDA approved
medication called Naltrexone and it is changing lives all over
the world and I was one of them. You can take this medication
once daily or even before you drink and it works by actually
blocking the reward signal that leads you to binge drinking.
No more white knuckling, no more.
Or willpower this is a solution and it is incredible and my
partner or health that's OAR health makes it incredibly.
Easy to get started on. Nope, Trexone.
You take a quick online assessment, totally private and
a licensed medical provider reviews your case and if it's
right for you if you get a prescription delivered
discreetly right to your door. They also offer coaching and
online support catered to you and your goals.
So if you want to take back control of your drinking, click
the link in this episode description.
Or. Go to orehealth.com that's oar
health.com to get started. You got this.
All right, so that's the apocalypse now.
Let's try to land this plane and wrap this episode with what I'm
calling the good stuff. Something from the world,
particularly online, that gives us hope, hope and humanity.
Hope in the future of our country in general.
And this one is amazing and it comes from social media.
Look, I just bash the shit out of social media for whatever 1/2
hour, but look like there's some good stuff on there, there's
some inspirational stuff, there's some humour if you want
to laugh. And a lot of times children are
what brings or who brings that joy to us.
And that is exactly what I plucked out from the social
media world this week. This one comes from the elitist.
I hope I'm saying that right? Elitist bakery.
Look, this is a guy who seemed he's a Baker.
He seems to be really hard working and sweet and sincere
and humble and he just loves putting out content teaching
people how to bake. And I don't know who came up
with this idea. I didn't do enough research on
it, but somehow he involved his kids to do the voice over
narration of him baking. And I'm you can hear my voice if
you're listening by these kids trying to explain what their dad
is doing as he's baking. Pay attention particularly, not
only is kids hilarious, but pay attention that I'm trying to say
the word pistachio because it cracks me up.
The day of the life of our daddy, married by his kids.
Frankly, it's very nice and I love his pigment and he make the
cream. I use like 3 different teams.
My favorite is the pistachio. It's pistachio.
That's what I said. My favorite cream is the
chocolate. Everyone else loves your
pistachio. This pistachio is where we go
but the chocolate dinner and make the croissants in the queen
that he's a 2 PPS and I really love his croissants and do
everything he does. Now he's putting on the
declaration. All right, folks, I hope that
landed with you as a landed me, especially if you were watching
you can actually see it. But like I said, there are some
good things that happen on social media.
Unfortunately, probably 1% of the stuff is actually good for
us. All right folks, let's wrap up
this episode. So here's my top three takeaways
from today. So number 14 in 10 American
adults get health information from influencers and 16% of
those influencers have 0 credentials and don't know what
the hell they're talking about. Ask questions, verify
credentials, and do not trust ABS over expertise #2 fitness
information can and should be free.
Coaching does have value if you need it, but the fundamentals,
the science, the evidence, the advice that should be accessible
to everyone whether you get it from Stronger, leaky.com or
anyone else. Please don't overpay for
information that should be free and #3 there is still good in
this world. There's some good in this world,
Mr. and it's worth fighting for. There are good people doing good
things. So don't get jaded and don't get
cynical. And if you find yourself
feeling. Either of those two things pop
off social media, do a reset, do a cleanse, whatever.
Buy yourself a brick, something that restricts access to your
phone and take a break because if you live too much in that
place, you are going to change and it won't happen in a good
way one more time. I always like to ask in the
front and the end. If you haven't yet followed the
show, we would love it if you would give us a follow wherever
you find this podcast. Or, of course, share it with a
friend or family member so they can grow stronger Weekly.
If you'd like to leave a comment anywhere, we love to hear from
our fans. You can shoot us an e-mail at
contact@strongerweekly.com. Again, that's contact Stronger
weekly.com to leave you with a encouraging quote for the week.
Here's one from Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor and Stoic
philosopher who said quote, you have power over your mind, not
outside events. Realize this and you will find
strength. Look guys, you cannot control
the algorithm rhythm. You cannot control the
influencer economy. You cannot control who gets a
platform. But what you can't control is
what you consume. And that means what you eat and
what you watch with your eyes and.
Where you get your information, who you can trust, and what
actions you do take. So choose wisely.
Thank you so much for joining the show this week.
Be strong. This week and we will see you
next time.