About this episode

Ragen Chastain discusses the risks and media influence surrounding GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.

Writer, speaker, and weight-inclusive health/fitness professional Ragen Chastain joins us to discuss the potential side effects and other downsides of using GLP-1 drugs (like Ozempic and its ilk) for weight loss, the massive influence the manufacturers of these drugs are having on the public discourse about them, why the media don’t often report on these conflicts of interest, how drugmakers have co-opted talking points about weight stigma and weight cycling, how opposition to these drugs in some integrative- and functional-medicine spaces still perpetuates stigmatizing ideas about body size, and more. The first half of this interview is available to everyone, and you can hear the whole thing by becoming a paid member at rethinkingwellness.substack.com . Ragen Chastain is a speaker, writer, researcher, Board Certified Patient Advocate, multi-certified health and fitness professional, and thought leader in weight science, weight stigma, health, and healthcare. Utilizing her background in research methods and statistics, Ragen has brought her signature mix of humor and hard facts to healthcare, corporate, conference, and college audiences from Kaiser Permanente and the Diabetes…

People in this episode

Host: Christy Harrison

Guest: Ragen Chastain

Topics covered

• weight-loss drugs
• GLP-1
• weight stigma
• healthcare
• media influence
• body size

Keywords

• weight-loss
• GLP-1
• Ozempic
• weight stigma
• healthcare
• media
• body size
• Ragen Chastain

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cal Tech, Kaiser Permanente, Diabetes Education Specialists National Conference, Amazon, Google, Dartmouth, canfitpro

Products: GLP-1 drugs, Ozempic

Books & works: Fat: The Owner's Manual, HAES Health Sheets, The Politics of Size

More episodes of Food Psych Podcast with Christy Harrison

• 2 Weird Food Rules I Don’t Follow Anymore (and 4 Other Principles I Try to Live By) · April 16, 2026 · 15 min
• Parenting for Positive Body Image with Charlotte Markey, PhD · April 2, 2026 · 32 min
• Healing from Dubious Diagnoses, Disordered Eating, and Overwork with Kirsten Powers · March 19, 2026 · 34 min
• “The Trickiest Part Of All Is When I Felt it Actually Worked” — Recovering from Diet and Wellness Culture with Sarah-Jane Garcia · March 5, 2026 · 37 min
• Can a Diet Really Help Solve Your Period Problems? · February 5, 2026 · 18 min
• Anxiety Dieting, Disordered Eating, and the Crunchy-Granola-to-Wellness Pipeline with Leah Kern · January 22, 2026 · 57 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Food Psych Podcast with Christy Harrison podcast page.