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Wireless. Hey, everybody. Thanks

0:31

for coming back to Infamous this week.

0:33

Okay, wait. We have

0:36

a little treat for you, which

0:38

is we are about to release

0:40

an amazing podcast series. It's called

0:42

Dr. Miracle, and it's part of

0:45

Campside and Sony Music Entertainment's blockbuster

0:48

franchise, if you haven't heard it, called

0:50

Chameleon. This season,

0:52

Dr. Miracle is

0:54

about the alkaline diet. Now,

0:57

I'm sure a lot of people listening to this

1:00

have heard about alkaline water, but

1:02

there is also something called the alkaline

1:05

diet that has been popular for like

1:07

30 years now. And

1:09

there's a pretty intense true crime

1:11

story that goes along with the

1:13

guy who pioneered that diet. Dr.

1:15

Miracle hosted by Larison Campbell, who

1:18

is here to talk a little

1:20

bit about it. And we will

1:22

then play you the first episode

1:24

so you can check it out. And listen to the

1:26

whole series if you want. Larison,

1:29

so nice to see you. Thanks, Vanessa. Thanks for

1:31

having me on here to chat about it. Yeah.

1:34

Well, we worked very closely on this. I

1:37

think that your first instinct

1:39

when I told you about it was,

1:42

oh my God, I see alkaline water

1:44

everywhere, right? I mean, you cannot turn

1:46

a corner. You can't ride the subway.

1:49

When I'm taking my kids to school

1:51

in the morning, there's this giant billboard

1:53

for alkaline water. And I

1:56

have to say, there's this part of me in

1:58

the back of my brain over the last, you know. know, eight

2:00

months or a year since we've been working on this that

2:02

just kind of wants to scream. It's

2:04

sort of a hoax. It's not really

2:06

real. Just extra money for nothing. Yeah,

2:08

wait, wait, wait. Okay. So I

2:11

remember when water had electrolytes, right? And you

2:13

were like, oh, maybe I'll get that. What

2:15

does that even mean that it's alkaline water?

2:17

So this all goes back to a man

2:20

that when you listen to this series, you're going

2:22

to learn a lot about. Yes, that's for sure.

2:24

Yeah. Named Dr. Robert

2:27

Young. And he wasn't the

2:29

guy who came up with the alkaline

2:31

diet, but he is the guy who

2:33

figured out how to sell it to

2:35

the masses. And he's like, you know,

2:37

a cute looking guy at the time.

2:39

This is around the year 2000. He

2:42

was in his late 40s. He was charismatic.

2:44

He'd go on talk shows and he'd talk

2:46

about this thing. And he wrote this book

2:49

called The pH Miracle. Which was a massive

2:51

bestseller. I think it's only 20 million copies.

2:53

It's so insane. And you have like you

2:56

have Victoria Beckham is into it. Kelly

2:58

Ripa talks about the alkaline diet still, I think.

3:00

Right. People were really

3:02

into it. And it was if I

3:05

recall correctly, it's basically eating like green

3:07

leafy leafy vegetables, right? And

3:09

a lot of avocados. Basically, if you

3:11

eat avocados, you can't go wrong. So

3:15

everything it's but green is kind of

3:17

the thing. And it's sort of like

3:19

a raw food diet. But the point

3:21

is, and sort of his philosophy was,

3:26

people's bodies are supposed to be naturally alkaline. And

3:28

you know, I don't know if we need to

3:30

go back to. Let's go back for a

3:32

second. I don't know if everybody. OK. It's

3:35

not. I barely know. And I worked on this

3:37

with you. So yeah. All right.

3:39

I'm going to take you all back to what

3:41

was for me, I think fifth grade science class.

3:44

There is something called the pH scale. Right.

3:47

And it goes basically one

3:49

to 14, one being

3:52

the most acidic and 14

3:54

being the most alkaline. OK.

3:57

And seven is right in the middle. So

3:59

Young's argument. is that our

4:01

bodies are supposed to be naturally alkaline. We

4:03

all naturally have a pH of like 9.5.

4:06

And if we can get our bodies to

4:09

that naturally alkaline state, we can't-

4:12

Good things will happen? Good things will happen. We

4:15

can't get sick. Period, you

4:17

cannot get sick. You cannot get sick, that is

4:19

his theory. There is one

4:21

sickness, and it's having too much acid in

4:23

your system, and there is

4:25

one cure, and it is eating and

4:28

drinking things that are alkaline. Okay, wait,

4:30

but how would that work, like anatomically?

4:32

Well, it doesn't, that's the problem, Vanessa.

4:35

Oh, okay. So,

4:38

basically, we learned that the body

4:41

has a very important organ,

4:43

and it's called your kidneys. Okay. And

4:46

your kidneys- Yeah. Your kidneys

4:48

basically keep the pH of

4:50

your body steady. So no matter

4:52

what you put in your body, it's gonna

4:55

keep your pH at your body's, you know,

4:57

preset pH, which by the way is not

4:59

9.5 on the alkalinity scale. So when you

5:02

drink alkaline water, you're just asking your kidneys

5:04

to work a little harder. I see, so

5:06

nothing is really happening. So the billboards for

5:08

alkaline water are really just, it's

5:10

all just marketing. When I go to Trader Joe's,

5:13

I'm like, should I buy this alkaline water?

5:15

And really the answer is no. You do

5:17

not need to buy alkaline water. Unless it's

5:19

on sale. In which case,

5:21

yeah, have at it. Okay. So

5:24

we are going to play for you

5:26

the first episode of a Dr. Miracle.

5:29

I don't want this chat to imply that

5:31

this is a light listen, because it actually

5:34

sort of isn't. It is a very

5:37

fascinating and eerie story.

5:41

And we really would love it if you would

5:43

listen. And if you like it, listen to the

5:45

rest of the series. We'll have a link that

5:48

you'll be able to follow in the description.

5:51

Thanks so much. Many, many happy returns,

5:53

Larison. We'll talk soon. Thanks so much,

5:56

Vanessa. There

5:59

is another way. What is going

6:01

on? You found Chameleon.

6:03

Season 8. And this

6:05

is Dr. Miracle. A production of

6:07

Campside Media. Oh. Heh. The

6:13

bench. When

6:19

you hear the word wellness, maybe

6:21

you picture Gwyneth Paltrow dressed in

6:23

soft neutrals serenely sipping bone broth.

6:27

Or Gwyneth Paltrow doing yoga without

6:29

sweating. Or

6:31

taking a dip in an ice bath. Again.

6:34

Sorenely. But

6:36

I want to take you back 15 or 20 years to the 2000s, when

6:41

the wellness movement looked very different. It

6:46

was a time when drinking juice

6:49

didn't mean cucumbers and aloe and

6:51

kale, but rather, Tropicana, with or

6:53

without the pulp. It

6:55

was a time when people went for wogs,

6:57

something between a walk and jog. Or

7:00

they just did stepperopics at the gym. It

7:02

was a time of boy bands and

7:05

velour track suits of big blondes falling

7:07

out of nightclubs in Tybo on VHS.

7:10

But even if trends felt different back then,

7:13

a lot of the goals were the same as they are today.

7:16

Look hot, lose weight, feel

7:18

energetic, be healthy. Atkins died

7:20

as more popular than ever. Lose

7:22

20 pounds for $20. Low energy,

7:25

brain fog, high blood

7:27

pressure, high triglycerides, high

7:29

cholesterol, heartburn, fatigue. 99%

7:32

of the cases, the prescription that I wrote

7:34

for them, it was food. That's

7:37

right, food. Food

7:43

is the foundation of wellness. What

7:46

you choose to eat and when you choose to

7:48

eat it become rules. They become

7:50

rituals. If

7:53

we can follow certain principles, we get to feel

7:55

good. If we fall short, we

7:58

feel bad. principles,

8:00

these rituals and beliefs. They

8:03

help create order out of the chaos of

8:05

daily life. More

8:07

than just a lifestyle, a wellness trend

8:10

can become like a religion. And

8:13

like with any religion, people

8:15

can get a little fanatical. Things

8:18

can go off the rails. I'm

8:22

going to talk to you about one of the big

8:24

wellness trends of the early aughts. It's

8:26

one you may not have heard of. The

8:29

Alkaline Diet. Back to the

8:31

garden, back to the greens, back to God's

8:33

Butter Avocado. It's all

8:35

about eating lots of leafy green

8:37

vegetables and, yes, God's Butter Avocados.

8:40

There's a lot of juicing involved. And

8:42

there is even a loose one of the paltrow connection.

8:45

She's basically the spokesperson for a particular

8:47

brand of alkaline water. Blow Water are

8:50

great partners. We love Blow. It's an

8:53

incredible water, naturally alkaline.

9:00

In some ways, the Alkaline Diet

9:03

is just another one of these

9:05

little wellness religions that pops up,

9:07

then fizzles out, only to

9:09

be replaced by the next trend. But

9:12

the story of this particular diet is

9:14

much bigger than that. It's

9:18

about how terrifying things can get

9:20

when people take wellness a

9:22

step too far. Some

9:25

people on this diet would end up

9:27

being dumped alone at hospitals. Some

9:29

would die. And others

9:32

would lose their hope completely. The

9:35

situations that would arise from this

9:37

diet are deeply disturbing. But

9:40

they didn't arise just from the diet.

9:44

They were spun into existence by one

9:46

man who claimed he had all the

9:48

wellness answers that some people on the

9:50

Alkaline Diet were seeking. Even

9:53

if they were very sick with terrible

9:55

diseases, including cancer.

10:00

This man gave cancer patients what

10:02

they thought was a cure. He

10:05

seemed to be absolutely sure that

10:07

everything he said about medicine

10:09

and nutrition, and really life in

10:11

general, was true. He

10:15

played God. And he

10:17

seemed so nice at

10:19

first. From

10:25

Sony Music Entertainment, Campside Media,

10:27

and Dorothy Street Pictures, I'm

10:30

Larison Campbell, and this is Dr.

10:32

Miracle, Episode 1. I'm

10:49

in my 40s and from Mississippi, where

10:51

you're far likelier to find racks of

10:53

ribs than bone broth. But

10:56

I also grew up in the 1980s

10:58

and 90s, when following fad diets was

11:00

practically an act of virtue. My

11:03

mom had that little scale from

11:05

Nutrisystem and stacks of Jane Fonda

11:07

videos. And I've always

11:09

kept an eye on health trends,

11:11

even before self-care became a buzzword.

11:14

I tried The Zone in the 1990s, Atkins in the

11:16

early 2000s. I

11:19

ate ostrich jerky and fistfuls

11:22

of soy nuts, which are

11:24

objectively terrible. I

11:26

even used to have a job writing

11:28

about public health and saw firsthand the

11:31

absolute mess that is the US health

11:33

care system. I understand

11:35

why many people are desperate for an alternative.

11:39

But there are so many alternatives out there. Should

11:41

you go Paleo or Keto, or maybe try the

11:44

Whole30? Should you be

11:46

intermittent fasting or eating three square meals a day?

11:48

Or is it six small ones? A new

11:51

study says a little bit of cheese is

11:53

good for you. There are about a million

11:55

diets to choose from. But

11:57

some diets are more intense than others.

12:00

The alkaline diet is one of them. Let's

12:02

talk about alkalinity right now, because one

12:05

of the greatest changes I experienced in

12:07

my life was by alkalizing and energizing.

12:09

Tony Robbins was very into alkalinity. Kelly

12:12

Ripa, Kate Hudson, Gwyneth, name

12:15

a celebrity, chances are they've tried

12:17

it. Victoria Beckham,

12:20

known at one point as Posh

12:22

Spice, and for singing about

12:24

desire, even alkalize. The

12:37

alkaline diet was a cultural signifier of

12:39

its time, like red

12:41

Kabbalah bracelets. The diet

12:44

became a brand, a religion even.

12:46

Its adherents called themselves Alcalarians, which

12:49

does sound a little kooky. And

12:52

it all kind of was, at least

12:54

at first. There was one

12:56

man who was leading this charge, Dr.

12:59

Robert Young. My background

13:01

is in microbiology, nutrition, and

13:03

biochemistry. Dr. Young

13:05

is the face of the alkaline

13:07

diet, a friendly face. He's published

13:10

many books, including his blockbuster, The

13:12

pH Miracle, Balance Your

13:14

Diet, Reclaim Your Health. We take

13:16

better care of managing the pH

13:18

of our swimming pools, and we

13:20

do our own internal fluids. Managing

13:23

that through an alkaline diet and

13:25

lifestyle is the healthiest advice, and

13:27

it's inexpensive. You see, it's easy.

13:30

Dr. Young wants to make people's bodies

13:33

more alkaline and less acidic. That

13:35

means avoiding the stuff we all know is

13:37

bad for you, alcohol, sugar, those

13:40

little apple pies from McDonald's, because

13:42

those are acidifying. There's some confusion here.

13:44

It's not that we're overweight. It's that

13:46

we're over acid. Let me

13:48

take you back for a moment to middle school

13:51

science class. Acidity

13:53

and alkalinity are measured on the pH

13:55

scale. Pure water is neutral

13:57

with a pH of 7. acids

14:00

like vinegar have a pH lower than 7, and

14:03

alkaline substances like dish detergent have

14:05

a pH above 7. Fresh

14:09

leafy greens and vegetables, tofu,

14:12

yang says that stuff makes you

14:14

more alkaline. But

14:17

to really alkalize, you need to

14:20

help your body eliminate acids. And

14:23

one way to do that, according to Yang,

14:26

was through colonics. You

14:29

lay down on the

14:31

table and they

14:33

put this tube

14:35

up your butt, and they put

14:37

all this water in, and then

14:41

everything comes out. As

14:44

gross as it sounds, Yang maintained

14:46

that this was a key method

14:48

for eliminating acids from your body.

14:52

Four channels of elimination, urination,

14:54

perspiration, respiration, or defecation. For

14:57

respiration and perspiration, there were

14:59

exercise classes. Dr. Young

15:01

was a former tennis player, a

15:03

college tennis star, and he loved

15:05

movement. Hi, I'm Dr. Rob Young,

15:07

and I'd love to introduce you

15:09

to a new form of exercise

15:11

that I created called Yunga Yoga.

15:14

This type of exercise

15:16

incorporates cardio, stretching, breathing

15:19

exercises, and core exercises that

15:21

will make you sweat till

15:24

you're wet. Dr. Young

15:26

wasn't from California, but you can tell

15:28

he fit right in. So laid back,

15:31

happy. He was the type

15:33

of guy who got really into things like decorating

15:35

for Christmas. Here's another employee.

15:37

At Christmas time, he had one,

15:39

two, three, four, five, six, seven,

15:41

eight trees, I think. He

15:44

loves singing Christmas carols.

15:46

We found this recording

15:48

of him performing one.

15:50

When it seems the

15:52

magic slips away, we

15:54

find it all again

15:57

on Christmas day. Believe

15:59

in the world. People

16:02

really loved Robert Young. His

16:05

passion, it was infectious. He

16:07

was easy to trust, to believe in.

16:10

Now, if you only wanted to lose a little weight

16:12

or have more energy, maybe like those

16:15

celebrities who did the diet for a time,

16:17

you were sort of on the outer rung

16:19

of the Alcalarian lifestyle. And you probably didn't

16:21

even know Dr. Young. But if

16:23

you wanted to address something more

16:26

serious, like immune diseases, diabetes, HIV,

16:29

cancer, you might go see Dr.

16:31

Young at his Wellness Center, which was called

16:33

the P.H. Miracle Center. Though

16:35

everyone called it Miracle Ranch. I

16:42

was actually at the ranch not that long ago. It's

16:45

up in the hills of North San Diego County. Everywhere

16:49

you look, there is abundance and beauty.

16:52

Groves of citrus trees drop ripe

16:54

fruit right onto the street. The

16:57

lush green hills are dotted with

17:00

these vibrant wildflowers. A

17:03

winding road curves uphill. And if you follow

17:05

it, you'll come upon an iron gate and

17:07

then a house, white

17:09

and California modern, with a koi

17:11

pond and big stepping stones leading to

17:13

the front door. Follow

17:16

the path behind the house and suddenly you're

17:18

looking out over a vast 48-acre property, a

17:22

bounty of cactus and trees heavy with

17:24

fruit. Pomegranates, grapefruit,

17:26

guava, so many

17:29

avocados. Framing the

17:31

image are distant snow-capped mountains.

17:34

It's all inspiring. Like

17:36

you're both small and part of

17:38

something majestic. Everything

17:42

for me was just so powerful. That's

17:45

Don Calley. Don is one

17:47

of Dr. Young's followers, and you'll be

17:49

hearing a lot from her. She meant

17:51

so much. The grounds

17:54

were beautiful with bougainvillea

17:56

everywhere. The avocado farm

17:58

and The Grapefruit

18:00

Ranch and all these

18:03

little dwellings, the tennis courts, it

18:05

was just gorgeous. I'm

18:08

here at the PH Miracle Center where

18:11

so many people would just die to

18:13

be in my position. Mary,

18:17

a cook at the ranch, thought it was beautiful

18:19

too. You walk down like a

18:21

big, a long path and you go into this

18:24

entryway and there's a big glass wall that looks

18:26

out on the pool and looks at Palomar Mountain.

18:29

You'd have people up to the kitchen and they'd set up

18:31

a table and people would sit around

18:33

and he would talk. The

18:35

people at Miracle Ranch really loved listening

18:37

to Dr. Young spin his theories, Donnegan.

18:41

When he walked in the room, there was

18:43

definitely that celebrity feeling. Ah!

18:46

And he was extremely trim and

18:49

very fit. And I

18:51

remember Zachary was wearing a blue V-neck, like,

18:54

cashmere sweater. And he

18:57

just kinda came in nonchalantly

18:59

and like, you almost could have missed it, you know?

19:02

And he just came in and just introduced

19:04

himself and started talking. And I

19:07

felt this really sentimental

19:09

attachment because my father had

19:12

recently passed away and I

19:15

had been kind of following all

19:17

his teachings. I just

19:19

felt almost like a father feeling towards

19:21

him and Jesus Christ.

19:24

Because I'm very, I'm

19:26

not religious, but I'm very spiritual. And

19:31

Jesus is a friend of mine. And

19:34

so I saw him as both those two things. So

19:36

that's pretty powerful, you know? And I

19:38

cried. I cried when he came in. Meeting

19:44

Dr. Young and being on his ranch

19:46

stirred up a lot of feelings in Donne. But

19:50

she didn't know and no one else

19:52

around the ranch knew at this time was

19:54

that Dr. Young had been arrested years

19:57

earlier. He told two

19:59

women he could- cure their diseases

20:01

with herbal products, made

20:03

all sorts of claims about how he was

20:05

a doctor who could heal them. He

20:08

was charged with two third-degree

20:10

felonies, but the case

20:13

was ultimately settled as a misdemeanor. And

20:16

yet, now, Dr.

20:18

Young was, to dawn and so many

20:20

others, a famous savior,

20:22

a best-selling author and healer, a

20:25

pop-culture diet Jesus. But

20:29

could he be trusted? Where

21:00

did the word mullet, you know,

21:02

to describe a hairstyle come from?

21:05

That's Decodering, named one of the best podcasts of 2023

21:07

by The New York Times. Listen

21:10

to new episodes every two weeks and make

21:12

sure to follow us so you never miss one.

21:16

I'm Christina Kottarucci, and this season on

21:18

Slow Burn... It's called Proposition 6.

21:21

The Briggs Initiative. John Briggs is

21:23

gonna fire every gay and lesbian

21:25

school teacher in California. With

21:27

so much at stake, young people

21:30

became activists. We can't let this

21:32

happen in California. And activists became

21:34

leaders. My name is Harvey Milk,

21:36

and I'm here to recruit you. Slow

21:39

Burn, season 9, Gays Against

21:41

Briggs. Out now, wherever you

21:43

listen. So,

21:50

as I said, you're gonna be hearing a

21:52

lot from Don Calley. The

21:56

reason is that Don is one of

21:58

Dr. Robert Young's adherents, who... had a very

22:01

particular relationship with him,

22:04

one that became quasi-familiar and

22:06

very much about life and death. It

22:10

started many years ago, and things got

22:12

quite dark, because Dr. Robert

22:14

Young didn't only believe that his diet

22:16

could help people lose weight. He

22:19

believed it could help people with the most

22:21

serious diseases out there, including

22:23

cancer. Dawn

22:26

Calley has short gray hair and a beatific

22:28

smile. She's only just turned 50. Her

22:31

parents gave her the middle name Calley after

22:34

the Hindu goddess of time and death, and

22:37

she took it as her last name when she got divorced.

22:39

She surrounds herself with beautiful

22:42

things, colorful jewelry, vibrant houseplants,

22:44

big crystals. The

22:46

crystals, actually, are sort of

22:48

a relic of her unusual

22:50

upbringing. My dad was a

22:52

dreamer. He was

22:55

an artist, a guitar player. I

22:58

was going to kind of a rough junior high, and

23:01

I was having some troubles with some of

23:03

the girls there. I was getting bullied, and

23:06

he sent me to school with a crystal. Did

23:11

it work? Hold this. If

23:14

I used it as a weapon, maybe. So

23:19

that was like my father's way of dealing with

23:21

my emotional problems. It

23:23

wasn't just crystals. They were

23:26

also into alternative medicine. When she

23:28

was sick, it was primarily tinctures

23:30

and home remedies. She

23:35

was born on a commune in Humboldt, California.

23:38

Her parents were hippies, and their drug

23:40

use got harder and harder. So

23:43

to get away from this scene, they moved

23:45

to San Francisco, where she felt like an

23:47

outcast, until she started

23:49

a friendship with a kid next door

23:52

whose family was also vegetarian. And

23:54

then Dawn's father left Dawn's mother for that

23:57

kid's mom, but even that didn't

23:59

really break up the fight. family. We all

24:01

became like kind of one big happy family. So with

24:04

the exes and everybody, you know, we did birthdays

24:07

and even eventually vacations.

24:11

Then as a teenager something weird

24:14

happened. That kid's aunt,

24:16

who was now her aunt, was

24:18

a spiritual teacher. She was intuitive and

24:20

even told Don that she was the

24:23

chosen one, going to have a

24:25

special role in the world. No

24:27

one had ever given this kind of attention

24:29

to Don or told her she was special.

24:32

And the two grew very close. But

24:35

her practice evolved to include ecstasy and

24:37

sessions where 30 people would sit in

24:39

a circle and read spiritual tomes, then

24:41

go off into corners once the drugs

24:43

kicked in. One night

24:45

Don met a handsome man there. He was 22 and she

24:47

was just 16. But

24:51

they fell in love and she got pregnant for the

24:53

first time at 17, then again

24:55

at 18. Her family

24:58

was by now so anti-hospital that she

25:00

had home births. Her

25:02

father had even told Don that she was

25:04

a nervous person because her mom had delivered

25:06

her in a hospital. We went to like

25:08

homeopathic doctors. My family didn't

25:11

like antibiotics, didn't like anything

25:14

like medicinal unless

25:16

it really was necessary. But of

25:18

course sometimes medical things really

25:21

are necessary. Let me take you

25:23

back to 2007. By now Don's

25:26

in her 30s. It's afternoon and

25:28

she's sitting

25:31

on the couch talking on the phone

25:33

to a friend when something strange happens.

25:35

I had breast implants at the time

25:37

so I was always feeling my breast

25:39

implants. And so I

25:42

was touching the side of my breast implant and

25:45

I felt the slump and

25:47

it was hard and I was like,

25:49

oh what's that? Don

25:52

didn't have health insurance. She

25:54

didn't go straight to a primary care

25:56

doctor or an oncologist. She

25:59

went to the plastic surgery. who did her

26:01

breast implants. And she said, I don't

26:04

like it. You were never here. Go

26:07

get yourself some insurance. And

26:10

I was like, oh, OK. And a week

26:12

later, I was in surgery. The doctors

26:14

were concerned enough that they wanted to

26:16

remove the lump immediately. I remember coming

26:18

out of the anesthesia and seeing the

26:21

doctor leaning over me. And

26:23

I said, was it cancer? And she said,

26:25

yes. And we always knew it was. Now,

26:34

the tumor her doctor had found was tiny, only

26:36

about the size of a pea. She

26:39

had stage 1 breast cancer. Dawn's

26:42

chances of surviving, of even being

26:44

cured completely, were extremely good, the

26:46

doctor said. But she had

26:48

to get it treated. She just laid

26:51

it on thick about how

26:53

serious this was, how dangerous

26:56

this particular type was, how

26:59

aggressive it was. With

27:01

some cancers, you could get away with just

27:03

radiation and maybe a lumpectomy.

27:05

But she said, with yours, you need everything.

27:07

You need the chemo. You need the radiation. Dawn

27:12

was out on the street in her car.

27:14

And all this information is swirling around in

27:16

her head. She's

27:19

only in her 30s, the single

27:21

mother of three kids. Her

27:25

own mother was on the fence about what Dawn

27:27

should do. She was terrified

27:29

of Dawn getting chemotherapy and radiation

27:31

and, at the exact

27:34

same time, was terrified of her not

27:36

getting those things. And

27:39

Dawn is also torn. She

27:43

wants to get better. But the prospect

27:45

of more surgery and being injected with

27:47

toxic chemicals that would make her sick,

27:50

really sick, it goes

27:52

against everything she was raised to believe.

27:55

I was driving down California Street. And

27:58

I just remember, like, the other day,

28:00

buildings were so tall and everything. I

28:02

felt so surreal. I

28:05

called my aunt. Dawn's aunt, remember,

28:07

the spiritual leader. I just started

28:09

freaking out. And she,

28:11

in her very stern voice that

28:13

she wished, Mama,

28:16

stop! And now her

28:18

aunt was confessing something to Dawn, something

28:20

she'd never told Dawn before. She'd

28:23

been diagnosed with cancer, too. She

28:26

didn't tell anybody. And she

28:28

just went on this natural journey. Her

28:32

aunt encouraged Dawn to do the same thing

28:34

that she had, to go on

28:37

her own natural healing journey. There

28:45

are herbal remedies, detoxification

28:47

therapies, all these alternative

28:49

diagnostic tools. But

28:51

they're no match for cancer. Like,

28:54

for example, there's microscopy, or

28:56

blood analysis. When you

28:58

get your blood drawn at a doctor's office,

29:00

they can tell you if you're a pre-diabetic or

29:02

at a higher risk for a heart attack.

29:06

Microscopists say they can tell you

29:08

even more. But they can't.

29:11

Microscopy is like reading tea

29:14

leaves. It's a parlor

29:16

trick. It's not science. Still,

29:19

Dawn's aunt takes her to see a

29:21

microscopist. He looks a

29:23

lot like the people Dawn grew up with. He

29:25

has a sort of hippie vibe. But

29:28

at the same time, his

29:31

setup feels very sciency. He

29:33

pricks her finger, puts the blood under

29:35

a microscope. And when the images

29:38

appear on the screen, he starts interpreting

29:40

what he sees. This one sees this, the fungus,

29:42

oh, this is mold. This looks bad. It looks

29:44

like you have cancer. And like, here,

29:46

this guy didn't even know. And he was able

29:49

to say, because it showed

29:51

up in this certain area, that

29:53

it was in my breast region. And I was

29:55

just like, wow. As far

29:57

as Dawn can tell, this guy knew she

29:59

had breast cancer just from

30:02

eyeballing a drop of her blood.

30:05

It seemed like proof that microscopy was

30:07

the real deal. So

30:09

whatever advice this guy gave, she

30:11

was ready to follow it. And

30:15

what he recommended was that Dawn follow

30:17

an alkaline diet to heal herself. Because

30:20

as it happens, the microscopist who

30:22

trained this guy, that

30:24

was Dr. Robert Young, the guru of

30:27

the Miracle Ranch. Just like in a

30:29

swimming pool or in an aquarium, that

30:31

delicate pH balance, if the pH goes

30:34

off a little bit, the fish gets

30:36

sick. And of course, it's a metaphor

30:38

that I use. What would you do?

30:41

Would you treat the water or treat the

30:44

fish or change the water? The

30:46

water in the fish tank is our

30:48

environment, specifically the food we eat. And

30:51

our bodies are the fish. So

30:54

if you're eating toxic or acidic

30:56

foods, well, it's going to

30:58

make every cell in your body

31:00

acidic. And like that fish,

31:03

you're gonna get sick. But

31:05

take an alkaline foods, and

31:07

Young says the body becomes

31:09

alkaline. And he

31:12

says an alkaline body cannot

31:14

get sick. This

31:20

makes sense to Dawn and a lot

31:22

of other people, people who wanted to

31:24

heal themselves, except it

31:27

is complete garbage. It is

31:29

not true. It may

31:31

be great to eat green foods. It

31:33

definitely is great to eat green foods,

31:36

but it does not change the pH of

31:38

your blood, period. Dr.

31:41

Robert Young's bigger point was that you

31:43

are in charge of making your body

31:46

alkaline. By following his

31:48

diet, you are able to make

31:50

yourself healthy. This was

31:52

really the central tenet of the wellness movement

31:54

that was ramping up around this time in

31:56

the 2000s. And

31:58

it was all very, very, very important. tied

32:01

in with one of the biggest cultural touchstones

32:03

of that moment, a movie

32:05

and book called The

32:08

Secret. The

32:12

Secret is the law of attraction. Everything

32:18

that's coming into your life, you are attracting

32:20

into your life. The

32:23

Secret was all about positive thinking and

32:25

manifesting your desires, even in the realm

32:27

of health and wellness. Well, we come

32:29

with a basic program. It's

32:32

called self-healing. You get a

32:34

wound, it grows back

32:36

together. The immune system is made to

32:38

heal itself. In terms of

32:41

Dr. Robert Young, The Secret became

32:43

very important to his popularity in

32:45

sort of a roundabout way. It

32:47

became important through one of his

32:50

adherents, a 50-year-old woman named Kim

32:52

Tinkham. Here's Kim. Shortly

32:55

after The Secret aired, I was diagnosed

32:57

with breast cancer. I was

32:59

shocked, but most of all, I became mad.

33:01

Not because I had cancer, but because

33:04

most of the doctors that I've spoken

33:06

to have all said surgery was absolutely

33:08

necessary within the next month. After

33:10

much thought, I have decided to heal

33:13

myself. Heal herself.

33:16

That's what Kim was going to do

33:18

via alternative treatments. Making

33:20

this choice was surprising from someone like Kim

33:22

in a way that it wasn't from dawn.

33:25

See, Kim's a type A entrepreneur.

33:28

What Kim was seeking was a sense of

33:30

control. I'm very practical. I have a lot

33:33

of common sense. I do a lot with

33:35

my intuition. But

33:37

I felt really stupid when

33:39

I was talking to the doctors, and

33:42

I didn't like that feeling. And I

33:44

didn't like being rushed because I'm

33:46

a researcher. So

33:49

she searched for another path to healing and

33:51

wrote a letter about it to Oprah. And

33:54

Oprah invited her on the show. The

34:00

next thing she knew, Kim was on

34:02

her way to Chicago. She was entering

34:04

the green room, an Oprah soundstage. And

34:07

then she was sitting next to Oprah on

34:09

a cream-colored sectional, so close

34:11

their knees are almost touching. The

34:14

medical community, as we know, have

34:16

been able to perform what some

34:18

people call miracles. I think it's

34:21

irresponsible not to take advantage of

34:23

that. Oprah is

34:25

saying when chemo, radiation, and other

34:27

interventions have been proven to help

34:29

people survive cancer, why would

34:31

you say no? But

34:34

Kim stuck to her guns. Is

34:36

this about holding onto the breast?

34:38

It's about holding onto my right

34:40

for choice. Okay. That

34:42

I respect. Okay. Are

34:45

you sure you're back? And what

34:47

choice did Kim Tinkham make? She

34:50

chose to follow Dr. Robert Young in his

34:52

Ph. Miracle program. My joints, within a week,

34:54

my joints were... I woke

34:56

up and I thought, oh, my gosh. I slept

34:58

through the night. Even

35:04

though Don and Kim were complete opposites, when

35:07

they got their breast cancer diagnoses, they both

35:09

ended up in the same place, under

35:12

the care of Dr. Robert Young at

35:14

Miracle Ranch, hoping,

35:16

believing that he would help

35:18

them heal themselves. Just

35:21

like in The Secret. Three

35:24

simple words. Thoughts

35:29

become things.

35:35

What most people don't understand is that thought has a

35:37

frequency. Thoughts are sending

35:39

out that magnetic signal that is

35:41

drawing the parallel back to you.

35:45

Now Robert Young didn't exactly say that

35:47

your thoughts could cure you. He

35:50

believed that his program could cure you.

35:53

And his program appealed to both

35:55

hippie, idealistic Don, and nose to

35:57

the grindstone Kim. He

36:00

combined what he said was rigorous

36:02

research and science with nature, with

36:05

tapping into the healing powers of Mother

36:07

Earth. But was

36:10

it all it was cracked up to be? Hi,

36:25

I'm Willa Paskin, the host of

36:27

Decoderang, Slate's podcast about cracking cultural

36:29

mysteries. On Decoderang, we dive

36:31

down rabbit holes and obsessively explore

36:33

questions hiding in plain sight. Like,

36:35

why has slow dancing got out

36:37

of style? And when did we

36:39

all become obsessed with hydration? And

36:41

where did the word mullet, you

36:43

know, to describe a hairstyle, come

36:45

from? That's Decoderang, named one

36:47

of the best podcasts of 2023 by

36:50

The New York Times. Listen to new

36:52

episodes every two weeks and make sure to follow

36:54

us so you never miss one. Ryan

36:58

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37:27

Wireless. In

37:29

2009, Dawn Cali finds another lump in her breast, but

37:34

instead of calling her doctor, she

37:36

calls Robert Young. And

37:39

he tells her, this time she

37:42

needs to stay away from surgery.

37:44

This is Dawn's chance to go

37:47

all in on the alkaline diet.

37:50

Now Young has designed liquid cleanses that

37:52

are supposed to alkalize your body in

37:54

a more intense way than just the

37:56

regular alkaline diet. You lived on the

37:58

toilet on his planet. Like

38:01

I said, Dr. Young's diet

38:03

was intense. Like if

38:05

you had 20 times, you know, and

38:09

you were, your bowel movement was

38:11

all liquid, he would celebrate it. He would,

38:14

just because it was acids. This

38:16

regimen was tough. I

38:18

was like, oh my God, I can't eat anything.

38:20

Like you can't eat a thing. Like you can't,

38:22

it's like mushrooms, no. You

38:25

know, no starches, no breads, no, not even

38:28

quinoa. I mean, nothing

38:30

in, for 12 weeks, you

38:32

have to do this liquefied diet.

38:36

And I'd always fail and eat

38:38

a burrito or something. She

38:40

feels like if she can't stick to the

38:43

diet, then she can't beat her cancer. As

38:48

the months pass, Dawn falls into a cycle.

38:51

Commit to cutting out all acidic foods. Cave

38:53

and eat something acidic. Vomit.

38:56

Get back on the wagon, repeat. And

38:59

in the middle of Dawn's spiral, as

39:02

if she doesn't have enough on her mind. I

39:05

also found out in February of 2010

39:07

that I was pregnant. Now

39:09

this was totally unexpected. It

39:11

had been a few years since she split up with her

39:13

husband, who was the father of her first three children.

39:16

And that had been a

39:18

dysfunctional relationship, tumultuous. Now

39:21

she had a new boyfriend and things were much

39:23

more stable, but they weren't even thinking

39:25

about having a baby. It

39:29

was all so intense, but birth,

39:31

death, the cycle of life, this

39:34

sort of intensity was normal for the

39:36

people connected to Miracle Ranch. Because

39:39

even as Dawn was dealing with

39:41

being pregnant, Kim Tinkham, Dr. Robert

39:44

Young's most famous patient, was

39:46

still battling her cancer. I

39:49

was amazed because I said what causes

39:51

cancer. This is Kim in a

39:53

video with Dr. Young. And you

39:55

said there is no such thing as cancer. The cancer,

39:57

or cancers can be.

40:00

as a result of metabolic or

40:02

dietary acids that are being eliminated

40:05

into the fatty tissue. Kim's

40:08

husband, Scott Tinkham, says it seemed like

40:10

the alkaline diet was helping Kim. She

40:13

wasn't tired. She was in the same health.

40:15

You know, she kept

40:17

good care of herself, exercised every day. She'd

40:20

spend time on the ranch, and then she'd

40:22

come home to Texas, and their life was

40:25

normal. Scott

40:27

said sometimes he even forgot she'd

40:29

been diagnosed at all. Except

40:32

for one thing. She

40:34

had a lump on her chest. It

40:37

was almost, it

40:39

was the size of a golf ball, and

40:41

it was coming out. She

40:44

was really weird, kind of like supporting

40:46

what he was saying, that

40:48

it can't live in her body. When

40:51

Kim's tumor stuck out more, Young

40:54

supposedly said it wasn't growing bigger.

40:57

It was just working its way out, trying

40:59

to escape her alkaline body. This

41:02

was a good sign, according to

41:04

Dr. Young. And Kim's

41:06

husband, Scott, believed him that she was

41:09

getting better. Even

41:11

though to the naked eye, the

41:13

mass was growing steadily, alarmingly

41:16

bigger. It would be

41:18

a matter of months until Kim and her husband

41:20

had to face the truth. The truth being

41:22

that Dr. Young is a fraud, who

41:28

seems willing to play with people's

41:30

lives. And listen to

41:32

this. As much as Dr. Young espoused green and

41:35

clean living, employees say

41:37

he didn't follow the diet himself. He

41:41

had a sweet tooth. I remember on his birthday,

41:43

Rosie playing in the box to be clear. So

41:45

he was a sweet tooth. Another

41:49

employee said she also

41:52

saw Young sneaking junk food. I'd go up there

41:54

a couple of times and they were eating sandwiches.

42:00

from whole foods and

42:02

chips from whole foods. What

42:06

does it mean that Dr. Young didn't stick

42:08

with his own diet? Even

42:10

as he's telling very sick people

42:12

that this diet can cure them,

42:15

save their lives. Maybe

42:17

it means he doesn't appreciate right from

42:19

wrong, doesn't care about

42:21

others. He's reckless. And

42:25

eventually, that recklessness would capture

42:27

the attention of law enforcement

42:29

in California. After

42:31

a meticulous investigation, they would learn

42:34

that the basis of Dr. Young's

42:36

business, that he was a

42:38

good doctor who, like all doctors,

42:40

was upholding an oath to heal and

42:42

not harm, was

42:45

based on a lie. Dr.

42:47

Young didn't have a medical degree to

42:50

be advising any patients at all.

42:53

Robert Young is not a doctor. He's not

42:55

only portrayed himself to you as, he

42:58

got all of his degrees from

43:00

a diploma mill that was

43:03

shut down in the state of Alabama. He

43:05

obtained a bachelor's, a master's, and

43:08

a PhD, I think all

43:10

in the span of 18 months. The

43:14

thing is, nobody

43:16

who was at Miracle Ranch would

43:18

know any of this for a

43:21

long time. Not

43:23

until way after his patients started

43:26

dying. This

43:39

season on Dr. Miracle. There

43:41

are losers. There are people that owe us money.

43:44

They're going to have to tell the truth instead

43:46

of something post-shit right. When we found

43:48

that out, we were like, oh,

43:50

this changes the game a little bit. We

43:53

might have a homicide charge. just

44:00

be careful. Dr.

44:07

Miracle is a production of Campside

44:09

Media, Sony Music Entertainment and Dorothy

44:11

Street Pictures. The show

44:13

was hosted by me, Larison Campbell. I

44:16

reported it with Lilly Houston Smith, our

44:18

producer, and also our field recordist. Shoshi

44:21

Smolovitz is our managing producer and editor.

44:25

Our executive producers are Vanessa Gorgoriotis

44:28

and me, Larison Campbell.

44:31

From Sony Music Entertainment, our executive

44:33

producer is Catherine St. Louis. Our

44:36

sound designer and mix engineer is

44:38

Michelle Macklem. Studio

44:40

recording by Ewan Lai Tramuen.

44:43

Story editing by Amy Padula. Fact

44:47

checking by Julia Kays Levine. Additional

44:50

help from Rachel Yang and Rajiv

44:52

Ghola. If you're enjoying

44:54

the show, please tell a friend. It really does

44:56

help spread the word.