On with Kara Swisher Inside the Wellness Boom: Separating Scams From Science
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Apr 13, 2026 
Katie Couric, veteran TV journalist and cancer screening advocate, Amy Larocca, wellness-industry reporter and author, and Dr. Jeffrey Swisher, San Francisco anesthesiology chair, dive into health misinformation, celebrity-fueled junk science, menopause marketing, luxury longevity trends, and why anti-aging hype keeps beating boring basics. They also explore AI imaging, GLP-1s, mRNA cancer vaccines, and digital twins.
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Wellness Filled The Void Left By Real Doctors
- Distrust also comes from healthcare becoming a branded luxury experience instead of a relationship with a clinician.
- Amy LaRocca says beauty, spa, and medicine blurred together, while many patients lost access to a trusted GP and turned to influencers instead.
Bad Medical Communication Helps Scams Spread
- Bad health communication helped create the wellness vacuum as much as bad actors did.
- Katie Couric argues doctors often get only minutes with patients and explain complex science poorly, making slick TV and internet personalities easier to follow.
Complex Medicine Creates Easy Targets For Myths
- Medical misinformation sticks because technical fields are hard to translate and the internet rewards confident simplifications.
- Jeffrey Swisher points to myths about epidurals and spinal anesthesia, where frightening online claims overwhelm basic clinical reality.
