On this episode, we talk with journalist Annette McGivney about her book "Plastic Shaman."
In October 2009, more than fifty people attended a $10,000-per-person wellness retreat led by a celebrity self-help guru. For these enlightenment seekers, their time in Sedona, Arizona, culminated in a fake Native American sweat lodge ceremony. Three of them would not make it out alive.
Annette McGivney says this tragedy exposes the dangerous truth about the booming $2 trillion wellness industry where promises of spiritual awakening and financial success often mask dangerous practices underpinned by cultural appropriation and commodification of nature.
Annette McGivney is an award-winning author of five nonfiction books, including "Pure Land," winner of the National Outdoor Book Award. She taught journalism at Northern Arizona University and is a longtime reporter for Outside, Backpacker, The Guardian, Runners World, and Arizona Highways. She lives in Cortez, Colorado.
