RFK Jr is America's Huberman Husband
Will intermittent fasting, soda sobriety, and shirtless workouts Make America Healthy Again?
Sometime in the next week, the Senate will vote on whether to confirm Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as our next Secretary of Health and Human Services, overseeing all government health agencies, including the FDA and the CDC. So for the past two days, I’ve been glued to Kennedy’s confirmation hearings, watching him evolve (sometimes within the span of the same sentence!) from infamous anti-vaxxer to “just pro-safety,” from pro-choice to “abortion is a tragedy,” from militant ultra processed foods critic to “if you want to eat Hostess Twinkies, you should be able to do that.”
It’s exhausting and he hasn’t even started the job yet. I’m working right now on a bigger story tracing the underlying anti-fatness and ableism of “Make America Healthy Again,” and what we might expect an RFK-led HHS to mean for fat, disabled, and otherwise marginalized folks. There is a lot to say about why, for example, it matters to have someone running HHS who knows the difference between Medicare and Medicaid! So I should have ready for you in the next week (assuming he gets the gig — the vote is close!).
But in the course of researching that piece, I checked in on the #MAHA social media discourse and saw this:
