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Crunchy conservatives want to 'Make America Healthy Again'

By Brittany Luse,
Alexis Williams, Barton Girdwood, Neena Pathak, Veralyn Williams
Published April 7, 2025 at 9:12 AM EDT
Who are the crunchy conservatives?
Getty Images / pixabay
Who are the crunchy conservatives?

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

Side effects may include:
- Being inundated by uncredentialed wellness influencers and crunchy mommy bloggers selling supplements
- Feeling perplexed by how RFK Jr. went from an 'environmental champion' to an anti-vax conspiracy theorist
- Or maybe seeing the names Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz more and more in your feeds?

Then you, my friend, are in dire need of our new series - The ROAD to Making America Healthy Again (MAHA). For the next few of 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.

This week, we take on the crunchy conservative - but not without some help! Brittany sits down with co-host of the Conspirituality podcast, Derek Beres, and biomedical scientist, Dr. Andrea Love, to uncover how crunchy went from more liberal hippie tree huggers to more conservative conspiracy theorists.

Copyright 2025 NPR

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Brittany Luse
Brittany Luse is an award-winning journalist, on-air host, and cultural critic. She is the host of It's Been a Minute and For Colored Nerds. Previously Luse hosted The Nod and Sampler podcasts, and co-hosted and executive produced The Nod with Brittany and Eric, a daily streaming show. She's written for Vulture and Harper's Bazaar, among others, and edited for the podcasts Planet Money and Not Past It. Luse and her work have been profiled by publications like The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vulture, and Teen Vogue.
Alexis Williams
[Copyright 2024 NPR]
Barton Girdwood
[Copyright 2024 NPR]
Neena Pathak
Veralyn Williams
Veralyn Williams (she/her) is a Peabody and Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist who has been asking hard questions about our world since she picked up her first microphone in 2004. Now she brings her skills (and ears) to her role as executive producer of programming at NPR.