logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2023
38m 13s

Encore: Diet Wars | Scaling Up | 1

Wondery
About this episode
It's 1961 and in a supermarket, housewife Jean Nidetch is about to get a shock that will send her on desperate quest to get thin. But when her new diet gets tough, she turns to friends for help and inadvertently starts what will become Weight Watchers. And as Weight Watchers rakes in big bucks from weight-loss, a street-tough Philadelphia businessman grabs ... Show More
Up next
Mar 2023
Encore: Diet Wars | Up From Down Under | 2
<p>It's 1983 and civil war's broken out within Nutri/System. But while CEO Harold Katz fights his franchisees, his former colleague Jenny Craig has grand designs on Australia.</p><p>Craig wants to use Australia as a staging post on the way to becoming a U.S. heavyweight, but firs ... Show More
38m 32s
Apr 2023
Encore: Diet Wars | Reaching for the Stars | 3
<p>It's the early 1990s and the diet boom is over. Weight Watchers is now a millstone around Heinz's neck, Jenny Craig's advance has stalled, and Nutri/System's bankrupt and broken.</p><p>Faced with tanking sales, the diet giants home need new tricks to get people back on their w ... Show More
36m 37s
Apr 2023
Encore: Diet Wars | Losing Streak | 4
<p>It's the 2010s and the weight-loss industry's battling intensifying headwinds. Calorie-counting smartphone apps are attracting millions of users and the diet backlash is getting louder by the day.</p><p>As the pressure mounts, Weight Watchers realizes it needs to move with the ... Show More
35m 29s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2022
Encore: Kidnapped in the Desert | Big Money | 2
<p>As days and then weeks go by, Jessica tries to adjust to life as a hostage in the Somali desert, but she’s sick and her body is failing. Back in Nairobi, her husband works with her NGO on a plan to get Jessica medicine she needs, but her kidnappers trust no one, not even the n ... Show More
45m 44s
Apr 2023
Amelia Earhart: Across the Atlantic | 100th Episode, Amelia’s Final Flight | 3
<p>It’s officially Against the Odds’ 100th episode! To celebrate the milestone, hosts Cassie De Pecol and Mike Corey sit down to reminisce about their favorite seasons, swap stories of their own adventures, and discuss the pioneers who inspire them. Later, author and podcaster Ch ... Show More
39m 6s
Mar 2022
Encore: Kidnapped in the Desert | Beyond the Green Line | 1
<p>In the fall of 2011, humanitarian aid worker Jessica Buchanan is traveling through the Somali desert when she and a colleague are kidnapped by land pirates. Her organization quickly springs into action and brings in negotiators who wait for a ransom call. Meanwhile, three hund ... Show More
45m 59s
Aug 2021
Back To Bennifer | “How Do You Like Them Apples?” | 75
<p>Before Gigli, Jersey Girl or Jenny From The Block, there was just Ben Affleck — a young masshole with a difficult home life who just wants to be loved. But when he finally meets the girl of his dreams, their supernova stardom threatens the very thing he’s been searching for al ... Show More
42m 11s
Mar 2022
Encore: Kidnapped in the Desert | Zero Hour | 3
<p>After months in captivity, Jessica Buchanan is battling a kidney infection, and her body’s on the verge of collapse. The negotiations for her release aren’t going anywhere and the Crisis Management Team overseeing Jessica’s case has run out of options. It’s time for Seal Team ... Show More
43m 46s
Jul 2023
The Disappearance of General Magic | The Pocket Crystal | 1
<p>Almost two decades before the launch of the iPhone, Apple Executive Marc Porat launches a project to develop the world’s first smartphone. But to fulfill his ambitions, he will have to launch his own company: General Magic. There, he will assemble a team of brilliant engineers ... Show More
34m 33s
May 2021
Encore: Beyoncé and Jay-Z | Run the World | 60
<p>When Jay-Z and Beyoncé finally get together, it’s not just one of the great love stories of all time: it’s also one of the greatest mergers in American history. So when a sketchy publicist starts spreading rumors with the power to break them up, all hell breaks loose.</p><p><e ... Show More
37m 57s
Aug 2023
Building Lego | Out of the Ashes | 1
<p>A small Danish toy company survives World War Two thanks to its quality craftsmanship, but behind the scenes all is not well. Despite its good reputation, Lego teeters on the edge of bankruptcy, and a choice to change production methods threatens to tear the family-owned compa ... Show More
35m 40s
Nov 2020
Classic Tides | Peasants' Rebellions and Resistance
<p>Peasants and common folk were oppressed by their social superiors, but they didn't accept that as a natural state of affairs: They resisted in small, everyday ways, and they rebelled, sometimes spectacularly.</p><p><em>This episode originally aired on September 20, 2018.</em>< ... Show More
51m 53s