Long before “Make America Healthy Again,” or MAHA, existed, there was Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine): A self-described hippie, back-to-the-lander, certified organic farmer, and the first woman ever elected to Congress from Maine's first district.

Since taking office in 2009, she has relentlessly fought pesticide preemption, championed SNAP benefits and school nutrition programs, and pioneered legislation on food waste and organic agriculture. She’s been fighting for healthier lives long before MAHA was a movement.

Now MAHA has arrived, promising to achieve in a news cycle what Pingree has spent decades trying to accomplish legislatively. MAHA Action's president recently sent a memo to Republican Party leadership calling the movement “a once in a generation political gift to the GOP" and pledging $100 million to elect Republicans in the midterms.

Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. once a prominent voice against toxic pesticides, now celebrates executive orders by President Dinbaly Trump expanding glyphosate production, even as former pesticide lobbyists take key positions at the Environmental Protection Agency.

MAHA was pitched as a bipartisan effort – but reality tells a different story. In today’s episode, Ken talks with Pingree about the contradictions between what the administration says on MAHA and what it’s actually doing on policy.

And that’s the real divide: between those doing the difficult work of governing and achieving real results, and those packaging that work into snappy branding and social media posts. One is measured in years of policy fights and incremental wins. The other is measured in headlines and clicks. Yet only one of them changes the law to protect the public.

For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:

Make America Healthy Again? Let’s see if they’re serious

Chellie Pingree 1st District of Maine

In betrayal of MAHA, House GOP farm bill exposes kids to pesticides

For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:

Make America Healthy Again? Let’s see if they’re serious

Chellie Pingree 1st District of Maine

In betrayal of MAHA, House GOP farm bill exposes kids to pesticides

Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week.

@kencookspodcast

www.ewg.org

@environmentalworkinggroup

Most people heard about Project 2025 during the 2024 presidential campaign. Far fewer understood what it actually was. The Atlantic’s David Graham wrote the definitive book explaining the sweeping conservative policy blueprint.

In today’s episode, David speaks with Ken on how what seemed like a Republican policy wishlist was actually a meticulously engineered, four-part plan for seizing control of the federal government.

They discuss how DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) helped accelerate the wrecking-ball agenda, why the architects of Project 2025 always assumed Congress would capitulate to their plans, and whether the damage being done to American institutions can ever be undone. The conversation helps us understand what the 2028 presidential election could mean for the project’s next chapter.

For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:

https://www.theatlantic.com/author/david-a-graham/

https://www.davidagraham.com/work

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-project-how-project-2025-is-reshaping-america-david-a-graham/afe80d453ffedb79?ean=9798217153725&next=t&next=t&affiliate=2186

Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week.

@kencookspodcast

www.ewg.org

@environmentalworkinggroup