Hello and happy holidays! As we wind down for the year, I want to let you know what’s coming up for Rethinking Wellness in 2026.
I’m getting ready to sign off for maternity leave any day now, and we’ll be posting a mix of new content and favorites from the archives during that time. I’ve been working hard behind the scenes to bank as many new interviews and Q&As as possible, and I think you’ll love what we have in store.
You’ll hear from experts on misinformation, thoughtful critics of wellness culture with their own stories of falling prey to it, people with unique perspectives on disordered eating and recovery, and more. I’ll be answering your questions about viral diet fads, popular supplements, and lots of other ways wellness culture shows up in your life. We’ll also have fan-favorite content that many people have found helpful and meaningful, including some interviews and Q&As from our early days that feel more relevant than ever right now, when unevidenced wellness claims are at a fever pitch. I’m pausing the biweekly link roundups for now, since those are impossible to schedule ahead of time—but please keep asking me your questions, and I’ll do my best to respond about anything that still feels pressing when I return. I also won’t be posting on Substack Notes, but my social-media manager will keep an eye on the comments and reply as needed.
Things will be quiet over here for the final weeks of the year, but I’ll be back in your inbox on January 5 with a brand-new interview to kick off this series.
Meanwhile, if all goes well, I should be at home bonding with my new baby by then! I’m planning to take about a 6-month leave this time around, so I’ll be back to work in early July 2026.
I’m so grateful that I now live and work in a state with paid parental leave, which is helping to make this all possible. My leave with my first daughter was entirely self-financed and much shorter, and the transition back to work was incredibly difficult, for both me and her. Many people in the U.S. don’t get to take parental leave at all, since we’re the only wealthy country that has no mandatory paid leave at the federal level. By some estimates, more than 40 percent of new moms aren’t eligible for even the 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected leave required by the Family and Medical Leave Act, and 46 percent of those who do qualify struggle to afford time off. The fact that the majority of my upcoming leave will be paid for by my state (partly via contributions I made with every paycheck, but still) feels like an incredible stroke of good fortune. But luck really shouldn’t have anything to do with it—all birthing parents should have access to this level of paid leave or more. It’s important for well-being and may even have very far-reaching effects on mental health throughout our lifespan. I’m grateful to organizations like Moms First that are fighting for paid family leave for all.
Most of all, I want to thank everyone here, especially the paid subscribers, for supporting my maternity leave. Your subscription dollars will allow me to pay my podcast editor, administrative assistant, and social-media manager to keep things running in my absence. Paid subscriptions have also enabled me to turn down other work and focus on Rethinking Wellness in preparation for this time off. By continuing your subscription during my leave, you’ll give me the gift of time to recover and bond with my new baby, and you’ll allow me to come back stronger and more ready to continue this work of critically unpacking wellness claims—which feels increasingly essential as our public-health institutions become ever more entangled with wellness culture.
If you haven’t become a paid subscriber yet, now is a great time to do it: right now I’m running a special on new annual subscriptions, where you can get 30% off for the year if you sign up before the end of today (with the option to keep renewing forever at that rate). Most of my new content during leave will be primarily for paid subscribers, so upgrading to paid is the best way to keep up with Rethinking Wellness while I’m gone. I’m also hoping to do something cool for paid subscribers, like a live video where you can ask me all your burning questions, when I return.
To all of you, thanks for being a part of this community, and I’m wishing you a wonderful holiday season and a joyful New Year. I’ll look forward to connecting again (asynchronously) in January—and in real time in July!
xo,
Christy
