How to Be Well

Navigating Our Self-Care Epidemic, One Dubious Cure at a Time

By: Amy Larocca

Narrated by: Amy Larocca

A Kirkus Best Book of 2025

A deeply researched, lively, and personal exploration of the multibillion-dollar wellness industry -- about why women are feeling so un-well and how this trend has shaped our thinking about health and self-care

Peloton. Pilates. Biohacking. Colonics. Ashwagandha. Today, the wellness industry is a $3.7 trillion behemoth that touches us all. In this timely and clear-eyed book, journalist Amy Larocca peels back the layers behind the wellness movement and reckons with its promises and profits. How did we get here and how did the idea of wellness become integrated with women's lives? And how did we end up spending so much money on products that may not work at all?

Amy Larocca takes readers into the communities that swear by their activated charcoal toothpaste and green juice enemas, explaining what each of these practices really is—and what the science says. Larocca holds a magnifying glass to alternative medicine and nouveau lifestyle prescriptions -- and tries a lot herself along the way -- ultimately delivering an assessment of how the wellness industry embodies our (gendered, class-based, racialized) perceptions of care and self-improvement, and how it preys on our unshakable fear of the unknown. She traces the history of how the beauty and fashion industries have peddled snake oil to women for decades—and why we keep coming back for more.

A clear-eyed and honest portrait of the weird world of wellness, How to Be Well lays bare the ways in which the simple notion of caring for oneself has become a seriously big business.

Well researched, but no clear focus

It was a nice hear, but the author dabbles too much in too many, with no conclusive findings that make sense sometimes.

this book is infuriating (because it’s utterly true!)

finally someone said it! i’ve watched my women friends wrestle with every new wellness fad frustratedly. i wish someone would write the equivalent book about men’s wellness.

Couldn’t finish it

Author is hard to understand. It just goes on and on without making a point.

Pass on this

Author's tone was so condescending- especially when discussing menopause. Couldn't figure out where she was going with all the information.

Honestly 👎🏻

Although I am one of those women who
also knows about the Wellness epidemic, telling woman that the real answer is to be lucky and rich…well, I then lost trust in most of what was said.