{"id":586410,"date":"2026-08-07T22:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/586410\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:14:13","slug":"miranda-kerrs-bison-diet-is-everything-wrong-with-podcasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/586410\/","title":{"rendered":"Miranda Kerr\u2019s bison diet is everything wrong with podcasting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Given that she is a model, a multi-millionaire, the ex-wife of Orlando Bloom and starts her day at 5am with sun salutations, dry brushing and celery juice, I have not spent much of my life comparing myself with Miranda Kerr. <\/p>\n

Now 43 and a skincare mogul, Kerr has been at the vanguard of the toxic wellness<\/a> culture of the last decade, famous for her absurd morning routines and \u201c360-degree holistic\u201d approach to health, which is laughably unrealistic and whose benefits are spurious. So I am perplexed to have found myself for the past two hours reading about \u201coxalates\u201d \u2013 a term I had never heard until this week \u2013 and spinach and kale, leaves I hitherto believed healthy and I now understand are to be avoided if I want to commit to the glowing, parasite-free purity of Kerr.<\/p>\n

This week, Kerr (13.8m Instagram followers) appeared on the podcast<\/a> of former reality star Kristin Cavallari (4.9m Instagram followers) to promote her brand, Kora Organics. Chief among the mind-numbing conversation topics was her diet: she doesn\u2019t eat eggs: \u201cI do protein\u2026 bison, venison, lamb\u2026\u201d No sushi, because of \u201cparasites\u201d, no wheat, no dairy. But caviar is fine, and when asked if she eats carbs, the reply was: \u201cI really eat a lot of squash, carrots, parsnips\u201d, but \u201cI don\u2019t eat kale\u201d. Or spinach. My patience and IQ atrophied just watching it.<\/p>\n

The world \u2013 or at least millennial women like me who like to believe ourselves capable of at least some critical thinking \u2013 is used to Kerr\u2019s pseudo-scientific bullshit by now, so her diet, which sounds alarmingly restrictive, is of little surprise. The really outrageous part is the response of the host. Marvelling at Kerr, and I suppose her venerable commitment to all this, Cavallari said: \u201cSo you really are, like, super healthy\u201d, as Kerr, with her doe eyes, smooth forehead and self-seriousness, nodded magnanimously. The acceptance, endorsement and promotion of harmful claims made on Cavallari\u2019s show are everything that\u2019s wrong with podcasting.<\/p>\n

Podcasting, unlike more traditional forms of media, is unregulated. Aside from adhering to the defamation, hate speech or copyright laws of the country in which it is made, and the guidelines on the platform (Apple, Spotify, Audible) that hosts it, a podcaster bears no responsibility for what they say or broadcast and will suffer no consequences if what they say or broadcast is untrue or reckless.<\/p>\n

Indeed, broadcasting that which is untrue and reckless can be to a podcaster\u2019s benefit: maximising reach, drawing in listeners, developing communities and tribes \u2013 it is exactly how podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience<\/a> have helped to spread so much misinformation and allowed conspiracy theories to proliferate.<\/p>\n

Ridiculous claims like Kerr\u2019s, and those made recently by Steven Bartlett on his Diary of a CEO<\/a> \u2013 about how drinking wine ruined his life for a few days \u2013 are extreme, mockable, and usually go viral, but that doesn\u2019t cauterise the risk that some people will absorb them as truth.<\/p>\n

The dangers of podcasting aren\u2019t all about what is loudly promoted, but what is quietly accepted. Unlike, say, a reputable journalist, Cavallari has no duty to fact-check or question what someone says on her programme. She may not have the knowledge to. She, and other podcast presenters like her whose shows are an extension of a multi-hyphenate career from a media personality, have platforms as big as some traditional broadcasters, but do not have the same accountability for what they put out.<\/p>\n

\"DohaSteven Bartlett\u2019s The Diary of a CEO benefits from the attention of extreme, viral claims (Photo: Sam Barnes\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Podcasting has become an industry that is fuelled by big personalities going unquestioned. For every well-researched news show committed to honesty and reasonable inquiry, there are about 300 more hosted by clueless celebrities without the expertise nor the courage to do anything but pacify their guests and nod along.<\/p>\n

Much of the time, it benefits them to. Interview shows, especially, are only sustained by the willingness of guests to appear, which they will be reluctant to do if they expect the conversation to be difficult, inquisitive or in any way obstructive to their own self-promotion. A little inconvenience like \u201cthe truth\u201d can get in the way of that.<\/p>\n

Some programmes, from Alexandra Cooper\u2019s Call Her Daddy, which featured Kamala Harris in the run up to the 2024 US general election, to How to Fail with Elizabeth Day, which this week featured an interview with Andy Burnham, do recognise their influence and take it seriously. <\/p>\n

However, a far greater number serve as an extension of a personal brand for celebrities who themselves may stand to gain from their guests in future. They want to be liked, to appear on their guest\u2019s own podcast one day, to profit from cross-promotion. It\u2019s a PR exercise that goes round and round \u2013 at best sycophantic and at worst dangerous.<\/p>\n

Now that podcasting has undergone a video revolution, it\u2019s getting worse. Every show is filmed to allow conversations to be clipped into digestible, context-free, short-form video content, to be distributed on social media and algorithmically parachuted into the feeds of people outside of its active audience \u2013 like me, who had never before listened to Cavallari\u2019s show, which ironically enough is titled Let\u2019s Be Honest. Podcasts \u2013 and the content and claims within \u2013 are now designed to seep into our passive consciousness, where they are normalised without us even realising. That is far more insidious than traditional media. Especially since so many podcasts are hosted by influencers \u2013 people whose very job title denotes the impact they have on others.<\/p>\n

A BBC newsreader would be held to account for revelling in the return of smoking (as I heard recently on the American podcast It\u2019s Me Tinx), or for promoting spurious health claims like Kerr\u2019s \u2013 but their career doesn\u2019t rely on a legion of impressionable people emulating their lifestyle. Anyone, no matter their qualifications, can start a podcast and disseminate whatever ideas they want to on multiple mediums and devices. Surely they require regulation more than anyone, and yet there is no Ofcom to complain to when things are wrong, irresponsible, in poor taste, or dangerous. It is a Wild West.<\/p>\n

Podcasting gave everyone a voice. It democratised broadcasting. It changed the meaning of free speech. They are intimate, freeform, unfiltered \u2013 it\u2019s what makes them so easy to listen to and what distinguishes them from other media. But as Kerr\u2019s fear of kale and spinach threatens to brainwash me, I\u2019m starting to wonder if a filter is overdue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Given that she is a model, a multi-millionaire, the ex-wife of Orlando Bloom and starts her day at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[103,61,60,446,2159],"class_list":["post-586410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nutrition","tag-podcasts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}