Intelligent , funny, sometimes sad, always interesting!

It had given up a lot of what I fell in love with.

I am continually impressed at how these two hosts research and speak on topics. Very informative.

Subscriber for years, this show has been instrumental in helping me deconstruct the impact of diet culture and supporting my recovery from a disordered relational with food. Gratitude and appreciation forever!

No joke.

My absolute favorite pod, I can’t remember life before listening to you two! So thoughtful and generous to even the worst people lol. I’m currently listening to all the episodes for a second time. Thank you Aubrey and Michael for all your hard work!

Y’all are so freaking funny! I literally lol more listening to this than any other podcast. It’s like standup but like…also educational or something 😍

This podcast is so nice and lovely. My favorite episode by far is the BMI episode, but all of them are so refreshing. I love the information I can get from Mike and Aubrey because I can tell it to other people and because it is usually a completely different narrative for these kinds of things. I appreciate the commitment to researching this stuff even when it’s depressing, and I hope you keep making new episodes! Thank you!

As a social science researcher and someone who is in recovery from an eating disorder, I cannot say enough good things about this podcast. First of all, they actually read and report science - how refreshing in this day and age! But most importantly, they are hilarious. I love the balance between the seriousness of the topics and the lightheartedness of their banter.

So many recent trolls with phony reviews. Felt like a good time to try to counter some of that. I’ve been a huge fan for years and I love the critical thinking and perspective brought to each episode. Thank you to both hosts for the work you do and the laughs, too.

I love Aubrey & Mike! They do thorough research and keep me laughing as I learn. So grateful for them and this pod!

I love listening to these episodes because they always give me something interesting to talk to my friends about. The hosts are smart and relatable, and they often make me laugh. They do not hesitate to speak the truth though so you will see triggered people in their reviews saying they believe they got something wrong. That’s okay though. It probably just serve as inspo for a future episode. 😉 This podcast has pulled me out of diet and wellness culture, and I’m grateful for that. Thanks, Aubrey and Michael!

I wanted to get into this show and I’ve given episodes over time a full listen, but the hosts’ determination to ‘debunk’ actual science is intolerable. The culture at large needs progressive thinkers to articulate and persuade the masses toward GOOD. This pod is not that.

I just listened to the ultra processed food episode and Aubrey/Michael love to pretend that food quantity (calories) and quality aren’t that important by picking apart the NOVA (and other) classifications of processed foods. Gorls, you know what ultra processed means lol. Being obnoxiously pedantic isn’t helping anyone. And stop bringing lower income ppl into the conversation- I shop at Walmart for my groceries and have a very balanced minimally processed whole food diet. I started listening to this pod because I do believe there’s weight stigma that fat folks experience, but yall are the greatest cringe binge. Congrats! 🤣

butt! hahahaha there is so much negativity in the world these days and my sense is u2 actively opt out of all that like, spiritually and it’s just hard sometimes to make the cast entertaining if there’s nothing to dump on. i really do get it. the one episode that was frequently factually inaccurate tho was halo top, maybe re record or patreon it? excellent show & i tell all my ppls

Sometimes, I do get a good laugh out of this show. But I feel like the hosts are bullies who apply today’s standards to historical figures and make fun of people who were genuinely trying to contribute to a field of knowledge, like the lady who studied protein malnutrition. When talking about more modern topics, I can’t figure out if Mike and Aubrey deliberately misread academic papers in order to pick things apart or if they truly don’t understand the research process, as when they critiqued Kevin Hall’s work in the ultra processed foods episode. Every researcher knows their study isn’t perfectly generalizable or all encompassing - it’s not meant to be. Science is iterative and slow, and always limited by budgets. M&A contradict themselves frequently, and often inadvertently make the very points they are trying to disprove.

Every time a new episode of this pod drops, I get so happy! I love Aubrey and Mike - wish they were my buds. They’re funny and smart and I’ve learned a lot.

Please read the substack spurious semicolon for more information about the dangerous misinformation this podcast spreads.

This is the only podcast where I go back and revisit old episodes repeatedly—Mike and Aubrey have such a fun, funny, comforting aura and manage to make “boring” topics so entertaining. I love my low key parasocial relationship with this podcast and hope they continue it and/or keep working on projects together.

I wanted to like this podcast, but man is it useless. Every episode is just the two of them cherry picking information to fit their own biases. And I am so sick of the defeatist mindset in the fat acceptance / body positivity community. You actually ARE capable of lasting change. Your body is not some static thing that if you are fat, that’s your state forever.

I listened to the Calories in Calories Out episode and, while the podcast is entertaining, I checked the research articles they cited and they do not say what the hosts report that they say. The hosts claimed that Calories in Calories Out has been “debunked”, yet the “Calories in, Calories out and macronutrient intake” article they cite says the exact opposite. It says in plain English: “risk for obesity is primarily determined by total calorie intake.” Further, in the “Energy balance model of obesity: beyond calories in, calories out” article that they cite to, they seem to have conflated Calories in Calories Out with the “carbohydrate-insulin model”. The article emphatically states that the Energy Balance Model (I.e, Calories in Calories out) is a “robust theory” and that it is a “law of physics that is agnostic as to obesity mechanisms”. The authors of the article very clearly state that Calories in Calories out, contrary to being debunked, is the mechanism by which any human being gains, maintains, or loses weight. I’m pretty disappointed in their reading of the research on this one because I enjoy Michael’s If Book Could Kill podcast, but this episode could not be more wrong on the facts. Their argument seems to boil down to “there are many factors that affect the calories out equation, so calories in calories out isn’t real.” Yes, there are many factors that affect the Calories out part of the equation. But while it may be extremely difficult to continue to drop one’s calories, and the hosts are correct to point out that it isn’t simply a matter of will power, that does not negate the fact that if you continue to reduce your caloric intake, you will in fact lose weight. And vice versa for gaining weight. There are fair arguments to be made about nutrition labels, calorie counters, daily caloric recommendations, but one thing that is indisputable, and that all the research the hosts cited to, is that if you are in a caloric deficit, you will absolutely lose weight, and if you are in a caloric surplus, you will undoubtedly gain weight. Claiming otherwise is factually incorrect and dangerous as it causes people who are morbidly obese—who could improve their lifespan and quality of life by reducing calories and increasing energy expenditure, thereby reducing their weight to a healthy level—to believe that there is no solution to weight loss. Incredibly disappointing misrepresentation of the research. Michael and Gordon, please do a follow up episode to correct the inaccuracies as I want to like the podcast otherwise.

I wanted to love this show. I loved You’re Wrong About but the lack of actual research and information is astounding. Not sure who is still listening to this but time to move on.

I love this podcast and especially enjoy that it challenges some of my preconceived notions and culturally/socially derived beliefs about health and nutrition. I don’t always agree with the takeaways, but I think listening to the whole catalog of episodes (not quite finished but working on it) has helped me to better understand some of their conclusions. I was a little disappointed that the May bonus episode about water myths did not mention the public water crisis in Flint, Michigan. While I think by and large public water in the US is safe to drink, there are some stunningly horrific examples from recent history about how it can also not be. I think Flint could have been addressed without detracting from the overall point that public water is generally safer or at least tested more consistently than bottled water.

I had never binge-listened to a podcast until I discovered Maintenance Phase. The hosts have the best chemistry and keep me laughing and thinking, and every topic they present is extremely well-researched and thoughtfully discussed. Thank you for exploring such important issues so critically and intelligently but also with so much heart. Editing a year later to say: Still my favorite podcast! I’ve listened to almost every episode at this point and am now starting to go back to give them a second listen while on my evening walks. Aubrey and Michael keep me laughing and the humor and bond between the two of them just warms my soul. Thank you both for putting so much good into this world.

Mike and Aubrey have really helped me move to a healthier brainspace with food, but also they're just hilarious and fun and I love this podcast so darn much

This is a great podcast. Full of critical thinking and fun and witty banter. Listening feels like talking to two good friends. I really wish that all the moral-less grifters they’ve exposed over the years weren’t running our government (looking at you, RFK Jr., Dr. Phil …🤮)

While I've certainly enjoyed listening to some of these episodes, the most recent release on Ultra Processed foods had me reconsidering their takes on other topics. I noticed how the hosts cherry-pick points to arrange their argument and don't seem to holistically engage with an argument. How can the admittedly slippery definition of what constitutes an ultra-processed food mean that the entire concept needs to be de-bunked? I sensed more prejudice in their arrangement of their argument then I ever have before. Listeners ought to beware that active listening is a must with these kinds of shows geared toward "de-bunking."

I think important attributes of food and context would be availability, intent, and satisfaction. Is a Costco cake any less healthy intrinsically than homemade cake or only because it’s typically offered in settings like a gimmicky office party where abundance makes you eat it even if treat was no truly wanted or intended. And let’s face it, it’s just not that good really, so you still have an “itch” for a really good treat. Also consider the alternative situation by situation. Are “grilled and ready chicken strips” as good as pasture raised home roasted? Does the answer change if the alternative is a girl dinner of ice cream?

I really so badly wanted to like this podcast and hear a hot take on ultraprocessed foods but I found the hosts from the beginning were not open to having a scientific, intellectual conversation. They seemed to be overly defensive so I looked up the hosts and lo and behold one seems to be morbidly obese. Maybe an interesting conversation would be: why does this topic make you so triggered?

…but content is released so infrequently. Love the show anyway. Five stars

Aubrey and Michael deliver insightful, engaging commentary grounded in thorough research across a wide range of topics. While the content itself is consistently relevant and thought-provoking, what truly sets the podcast apart is the chemistry between the cohosts. Their banter is sharp, entertaining, and refreshingly authentic—it feels less like listening to a podcast and more like chatting with friends, all while learning something new in each episode. 10/10 recommend.

Good at debunking nutrition myths and pointing out hypocrisy but doesn’t spend a lot of time advocating for good nutrition or that being overweight can be detrimental to your health (not always but ignoring the sometimes is ignoring a lot).

One of my favorite pods. Michael and Aubrey do a deep dive into research that cuts through misinformation we’ve been fed. Meanwhile, they don’t take themselves too seriously, and move the show along at a good pace to make it entertaining and informational.

Both Aubrey and Michael are a joy and really smart and insightful and fun. Top favorite podcast

This show makes me so happy. Aubrey and Michael are the funniest people together. I laugh harder during the shows than just about anything and they bring me joy. They are also well researched. So refreshing. I finally upgraded from the free version and got the extra episodes. Well worth it.

The hosts somehow provide insightful cultural critique while making it super entertaining and fun to listen to. They inspire me to fight the good fight, and show me that doing so doesn’t have to be a constant bummer. Thank you!!!

A friend shared this podcast and typically they have good shares but I couldn’t see it for this one. The host come off as arrogant and seem to cherry pick studies or outrageous antidotal stories to confirm their own biases. There are some tidbits of useful information but then they ruin it by adding sensationalized commentary or gross generalizations. I think they would benefit from bringing in a guest or 2 that write the studies they reference to add credibility in between the banter of the host.

Good on ridiculing dumb food advice but ignores some kinds of eating disorders that need recognition, especially binge eating. Just eating healthy food but still too much is not good. Some fatness should be reversed, not just accepted as healthy. Some is really pathological and some therapies are valid. Which are they? Not answered.

Forever grateful to this podcast for making me face my own internalized fat phobia and reassess the countless health myths I was fed as facts. Truly, this podcast changed my life

This podcast cuts through all of the promises of the wellness and diet industry and it’s so satisfying and refreshing to hear a different narrative for once. Thank you, Aubrey and Michael!

listened to every episode in a few months and each one is amazing and i love Aubrey and Michael <3

Thank goodness someone is saying, sensible things!

Aubrey sounds just wonderful I’m so glad she has this show. The debunkings are fun to listen to and I find the hosts generally sympathetic - but then the hosts will suddenly throw out some comment that is not factually based!! On the MAHA episode Michael says something about a student’s comment that Israel is bombing hospitals being factual while the case this student was referring to (Al Shifa) was actually proven to not have been the IDF. (And so - Michael concludes - this isn’t antisemitism just facts…) I’m ok with him claiming Trump’s meddling with campuses and funding is not actually about antisemitism and I’m also ok with him claiming that students should be allowed to express themselves even if they are wrong. But I am not ok with him casually confirming lies especially seeing that the show and hosts present themselves as debunkers who get into the details and the facts. This is how the kind of thinking they criticize works: who cares if this particular fact is not true, it confirms a generalization I have and also allows me to say hateful things so I’ll just accept the untrue statement (or just neglect to verify it). Not ok.

Listeners beware: I just listened to the 36 episodes bonus episode, and now I’m in love with both Aubrey and Michael.

This duo 💛 The research, perspective, heart and humor are unmatched. I’ll listen to anything Mike produces - he makes me laugh at even the most bleak news and that’s important. Aubrey is a national treasure and she’s taught me a lot about myself in teaching me about diet culture. Can’t go wrong here. Thank you, Maintenance Phase!

I generally enjoy the way they rib idiots and conspiracy theorists, but was disappointed to hear them make light of antisemitism, particularly Michael. Total bummer.

This is my emotional support podcast! It has been so important in speaking back to my invasive thoughts around needing to lose weight and begin a new diet. I have a deep appreciation for this podcast. I’d love to hear an episode of the OmniDiet. This is the 500 calorie diet that I was on in college to lose one pound a day.

To all the middle aged gays and gay adjacents who can’t remember their second talking point, I see you. Something something something, clink glasses.

It’s just leftists selectively choosing ideas and studies that fit their narrative. If you want your worst biases confirmed, you could hardly do better than to listen to this. Fortunately for the hosts, many leftists are seeking for just this sort of thing: permission to live unhealthy, instant gratification-seeking lives with no regard for truth or the effect one’s choices have on their community.

I laugh SO much listening to this show. I feel like Michael and Aubrey are my friends. Their reporting is well researched and a learn so much!