So, You Are Thinking About Starting a Podcast

The wellness industry is booming—in fact, globally, it is reportedly worth over 4 trillion dollars (Rothstein, 2019). Themes connected to the industry, such as “self-care,” have infiltrated the way that we speak about how we treat ourselves, even if the concept means different things to different people.

And while the notion of wellness itself is a positive thing—of course, it is important to take care of our bodies and our mental health—like virtually everything else in our culture, the idea of wellness has been commodified and packaged to consumers as just another thing to spend money on, making magical promises that oftentimes don’t deliver and can come with a host of their own baggage.

For instance, Rothstein (2019) reflects on how the wellness industry is strongly fused with traditional notions of beauty—which inevitably intersects with unrealistic thinness ideals for women—and targets a particular demographic of women. This marketing furthers the pressure that many of us feel to uphold an unrealistic beauty and body image ideal, while simultaneously marginalizing groups deemed as less lucrative or worthy of targeting.

What does this have to do with podcasts, you may be asking? As I shared in my last post, podcasts remain on-trend. So perhaps it isn’t surprising to discover that within the genre of podcasts, those focusing on wellness have become their own niche. From Goop to Oprah’s Super Soul, the health and wellness and fitness podcasts are booming, as this medium has become another avenue for seekers to learn how to be their best selves.

But what is really going on behind the veil of this mammoth industry? How can one walk a spiritual path or “live their best life” when the very concept has been so heavily commodified, and individual seekers are treated as just another consumer with money to spend? How are notions of wellness intersecting with social media, and where do we draw the line between maturing into our authentic best selves, versus the pressure to package and present ourselves in the best possible way online or in other public spaces?

These are some of the questions that I was asked to explore with Kajuan Douglas, yoga teacher, and founder of the studio Merge New York. Our relationship started as one between a teacher and student years before he opened his own studio, and has matured into one of both friendship and now professional partners.

Douglas offers a fascinating insider’s look at some of the taboo topics many within the wellness industry have been reluctant to acknowledge, from pay disparities to exclusivity to inappropriate touching on the mat (yes, our podcast was designated “explicit” by the platforms that carry it). I encourage those interested in learning more and continuing the dialogue we started to check out this new contribution within the field and to continue the conversation with us.

My role was to try and understand the secrets he revealed from the perspective of social psychology and larger trends within the culture, so even if you are new to the wellness industry—or yoga specifically—you will not be immune to the issues that we delve into during this eight-episode first season.

Copyright 2019 Azadeh Aalai