Book Therapy Project - How to Be Well
This September marks two years of Book Therapy Project! 🎉 Two years of great books, great conversations, and probably too much pizza (if that’s even a thing).
Raise your hand if you’ve ever tried a juice cleanse. Got hooked on SoulCycle? Bought into something – anything – from the Goop empire? Or (guilty as charged) … Pilates?
The pressure to pursue ever-more-extreme ways to be “healthy” (read: young, thin, optimized) is relentless. Cold plunges, saunas, ayahuasca, meditation, yoga – the message is clear: if only we did them more, we’d finally become the best versions of ourselves.
And it’s not just in health and beauty. Many of you know I’m training to become a personal financial coach, but technically, the program is called personal financial wellness consulting. Which, I mean … really? Wellness is everywhere.
So for our two-year anniversary pick, we’re digging into How To Be Well: Navigating Our Self-Care Epidemic, One Dubious Cure At a Time by Amy Larocca.
About the Book:
“Peloton. Pilates. Biohacking. Colonics. Ashwagandha. Today, the wellness industry is a $3.7 trillion behemoth that touches us all. In this timely and clear-eyed book, journalist Amy Larocca peels back the layers behind the wellness movement and reckons with its promises and profits. How did we get here and how did the idea of wellness become integrated with women’s lives? And how did we end up spending so much money on products that may not work at all?”
We’ll get into questions like:
How did good health become a luxury commodity in America?
To what extent is the wellness movement connected to politics?
How do we push back against language that tells us our natural states are wrong, unclean or broken?
Event Details:
📚 How To Be Well by Amy Larocca
📅 Thursday, Sept 25
🕕 6-9 PM (conversation starts at 7:30 sharp & we wrap at 9)
🍕 Pizza provided, BYOB
📍 Hell’s Kitchen (address upon approved RSVP)
Extra reading, reviews & media
*NYT: How to Be Well by Amy Larocca 💰
Medium: How To Be Well in the Self-Care Industry 💰
*New Yorker: How to Live Forever and Get Rich Doing It 💰
NPR's Fresh Air - Navigating the 'Wellness' Epidemic
Books Are Magic author talk with Ana Gasteyer
Netflix: Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever 💰
*I subscribe to these so can send you PDFs; just shoot me an email to request.
Come for the conversation, stay for the pizza (no green juice required!) – and raise a glass to two years of Book Therapy Project!