0:00

Let me take you back to a

0:02

time before Gwyneth Paltrow hawked bone broth

0:05

and jade eggs. Back

0:07

to the mid-2000s, when exercise classes

0:10

were on DVD, when

0:12

people followed the Atkins diet or the

0:14

South Beach diet to lose weight. And

0:17

there was another one that was really big back

0:20

then, a miracle diet that

0:22

would not only slim your

0:24

waist, but make your body

0:26

reject diseases. Back to the

0:28

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

0:30

avocado. It was called

0:32

the alkaline diet, and tons of

0:34

celebrities toyed with it. Kate

0:37

Hudson, Victoria Beckham, Kelly Ripa,

0:40

even the queen of goop, Gwyneth herself.

0:43

It involved drinking lots of green

0:45

juice and not very much else.

0:48

I dropped weight like crazy, but I

0:50

wasn't dropping weight where I looked haggard

0:53

like people do when they're on a

0:55

diet. The

0:57

alkaline lifestyle was pioneered by

0:59

Dr. Robert Young. Breakfast should

1:01

start out with a fresh juice. But

1:04

Robert Young didn't just promise weight

1:07

loss. He promised hope.

1:09

He promised a miracle cure.

1:13

Sick people, especially cancer patients

1:15

desperate for that hope, flocked

1:18

to Dr. Young. He called it

1:20

the new biology. He had

1:22

a way of making you feel special and

1:24

like you were on this great crusade.

1:27

He just convinced

1:29

her, stay the course, follow

1:31

my protocol. It works.

1:33

I've cured cancer. She was

1:36

desperate. She wanted to feel better. Robert

1:39

Young's followers called themselves Alcalarians.

1:41

I just felt like a father

1:43

feeling towards him and

1:45

Jesus Christ. That's pretty powerful.

1:47

They followed his protocol even

1:50

when it made them feel sicker. Her stomach was

1:52

so distended and I begged and pleaded with her

1:54

to stop doing what she was doing. And

1:57

when patients' illnesses got worse, Robert

1:59

Young. young convinced them they

2:01

were actually getting better.

2:04

She had a lump on her chest. It

2:07

was the size of a golf ball, and it was

2:09

coming out, kind of like supporting

2:11

what he was saying, that it

2:13

can't live in her body. Dr.

2:15

Miracle isn't just about a diet.

2:17

It's about what happens when you

2:19

follow the wrong guru. It's

2:23

about how we choose to treat

2:25

our illnesses at a time when health

2:27

care is unaffordable and so many people

2:29

doubt science. And

2:32

it's about the search for truth when

2:34

everything goes horribly awry.

2:39

A good con man is an

2:41

abrasive. He's a likable guy. He's

2:43

telling them what they want to hear, and

2:46

he's saying it with conviction. There are

2:48

losers. There are people that owe us

2:50

money. My mom's sucking on that bottle

2:52

of greens that I took, and I fucking threw

2:55

it at that woman. And

2:57

then I said, here's your check. Give me

2:59

my mother. Everyone's

3:01

dying. Why is

3:03

everyone dying? From

3:07

Campside Media, Dorothy Street Pictures,

3:09

and Sony Music Entertainment, this

3:11

is Dr. Miracle, coming

3:13

July 1st, wherever you get your podcasts.