Season 2 disappointing compared to Season 1
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“I am rating this with three stars because season one was good. On its own, I would give season 2 one star, so far.
While season 1 provided a fascinating look into MLMs, and contained an engaging combination of research and personal anecdotes, season 2 is so riddled with the host’s confirmation bias and lack of scientific knowledge, that it becomes tedious to the point of exhaustion.
A basic example: her aside that HIV and AIDS are the same thing is a bit of a shock, given that the difference between the diagnoses is not some obscure or arcane knowledge that only a virologist would know. This reflects a smug and lazy assumption about her own expertise. Bleccchhh...
It is possible that some of what follows will be addressed in later episodes, but the first episode doesn’t give any indications that this is so...
How about some of the most ridiculous Young Living claims. For example, their claim about purity/ingestion. Guess what? Every essential oil company I have ever looked into produces food grade oils. This is not a market separator. For all I know, they are required to do so by existing industry norms or actual legislation. I haven’t researched this. It seems to me that given the season topic, the host might consider doing so.
Re: Young Living, there have also been critics who challenge their claims that their oils are pesticide-free. That seems important and worth looking into.
Her across the board dismissal of plant medicine is silly. Consider modern uses of ginger, peppermint, chamomile, gentian violet, valerian, fox glove, yew, and lavender.
Or how about rocks? Arcane knowledge is not required to understand that many rocks have have unusual properties that can affect human physiology. How about magnetite, bismuth, silver, radium, iron, sulfur, and cobalt? This is junior high school earth science information.
Overall, the host’s appalling lack of a basic science education—and seeming ignorance of said lack—seems as though it will be the fatal flaw for the entire season. How can she be wholly ignorant of the concept of frequency in physics? I am not saying it would validate the claims of a predatory MLM, but does she understand that light and sound are perceived on a frequency spectrum? Does she know that atoms have specific vibratory/electric profiles? Does she know that solids comprise densely packed molecules (which, perhaps it needs to be said, comprise groups of atoms?).
The topic of this season COULD be fascinating. So far, though, no.
A bright spot is her friend, whose episode 1 description of his relationship with the placebo effect is quite interesting. Unfortunately, any further discussion is shut down by the host’s derisive dismissal that his approach appears objectively less sane than her to do lists. With a single snark, she derailed what could have been a terrific segue into the scientifically validated positive role of the placebo effect.
Unless this season takes a drastic turn in another direction, I fear it will remain an under-informed, superficial, arrogant expose of the host’s belief set. For me, that won’t be worth listening to.
A tip: if you want to claim science, be bothered to employ it. As a bonus, you can look into how research is funded, and what informs a given eras popular topics.
I am rarely as irritated by sloppiness in a podcaster’s research as I am by this host’s. I suppose it is her condescending attitude that pushes my buttons, **especially** because a scientifically grounded, well researched, thoughtful consideration the the topic is possible. And especially because her intellectual laziness adds to misinformation (e.g., HIV and AIDS).
This season looks to be a swing and a miss.”
AliceR via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
07/05/20
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“I listened to the first two episodes today and I am completely hooked. The production quality of this show is great, and I appreciate that it is coming from all angles to explain how these came about and why people join them. I can’t wait to hear more!”
Rachel.Culbertson via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
09/27/18
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“Finally someone made a podcast about these multilevel marketing schemes that seem to have taken over almost everyone I went to high school with. I’ve been fascinated with them for some time now, the way I’m also fascinated by cults (because MLMs are weirdly cult-like). I’ve really enjoyed this...”Read full review »
Mad1993763 via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
09/28/18
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“I’m a huge fan of Jane Marie’s storytelling, and as a human with a Facebook account, I’m more familiar than I care to be with MLM and the friends who make it their livelihood. I loved the first episode, and immediately hit play on the second. It’s 1:16 am, bedtime be damned. This is going to be...”Read full review »
foggy_clear via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
09/25/18
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