Oprah’s Little Red Wagon

In Retrospect with Susie Banikarim and Jessica Bennett

10/06/23 • 43 min

In 1988, Oprah Winfrey revealed on her hugely popular talk show that she’d shed 67 pounds, which she illustrated to her audience by wheeling out a little red wagon full of exactly that much animal fat. That show, the highest-rated of her 25-year run, would kickstart a cycle of speculation about this wildly successful woman’s body that would endure for decades. In this episode, Susie and Jess explore why Oprah’s weight struggles have been the subject of so much fascination, her recent special that touches on that scrutiny, the rise of Ozempic and the pressure women feel to be perfect.

FOR MORE:

Oprah Daily’s The State of Weight Special (Oprah Daily)
Making Oprah podcast (WBEZ)
From the Archives: Oprah Winfrey Cover Story (Vogue)
Losing It in the Anti-Dieting Age (New York Times Magazine)

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Explicit content warning

10/06/23 • 43 min

In Retrospect with Susie Banikarim and Jessica Bennett - Oprah’s Little Red Wagon

Transcript

Speaker 100:00:01.800

There's an episode of Oprah Winfrey's talk show from nineteen eighty eight that I always think about because it touches on so many things I've also struggled with. It's her highest rated episode of all time, and in it, a svelt Oprah in tight Calvin Klein Genes dramatically reveals to her audience that she has just lost sixty seven pounds and tells them how she did it. What I did was I fasted without cheating for solid six weeks. And to demonstrat

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