-Goop is the lifestyle brand created
by Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow in 2008.
Over the last decade, it's grown into a big business
and has been the subject of scrutiny, ridicule,
and even lawsuits for questionable medical claims,
most famously that placing a jade egg into the vagina
will increase muscle tone and overall feminine power.
Recently the brand hosted a daylong convention
in Richmond, California,
in the historic Craneway Pavilion,
which used to be a Ford assembly plant.
Over 600 people attended.
We decided to check it out.
The conference features many trends
of the multibillion-dollar wellness industry.
For a ticket starting at $1,000, you can take a fitness class,
get gently stretched by a master Pilates instructor.
You can eat a delicate pile of leaves.
And you can get an injection of vitamin B12.
I got one into my arm, but my camera guy got on
where you're apparently supposed to get them --
directly into the behind.
I got a tarot reading from a woman
who told me to stop procrastinating
on a book project.
-You're doing a little bit of wistful procrastination.
-Yep. -Okay.
-I got an energy clearing.
-Negative attachments, releasing them from your body.
-And I had one experience that totally took me by surprise --
a spiritual cleansing.
-And then we cleanse and cut away
any obstacles along your path,
any energy that is no longer serving you.
Here it's done. The circle is closed.
This body and this road forward are blessed and clear.
[speaks foreign language] -Why am I crying?
-That's what you're supposed to do.
-What just happened? -You did it right.
-Is it weird to be doing this practice with this, like,
Native, like, ritual that you have at a place
that's $1,000 to get into,
is a lot of white blond ladies like me?
-I'm constantly serving my, like, indigenous community,
the Latino community, you know, the queer community,
so I feel like I'm always attempting to make my services
as accessible and as universal
and, you know, community-based as possible.
But, you know, like, everyone needs this medicine,
and everyone needs spiritual healing, you know,
and I also need to, like, eat and pay rent, you know.
And so I think that there's ways
that we can all be supporting each other, right?
-This is the fundamental strangeness
of the Goop conference and of the wellness industry.
On the one hand, you can learn a simple,
accessible daily practice that can give you the time
to slow down, reflect, and maybe feel better.
But wellness is also a big business,
with people flogging expensive programs and diets
and books claiming to hold the secret
of how to live to 120 years old or cure cancer.
The last speaker of the day was the real reason we had come --
the author, spiritual leader,
and unconventional presidential candidate Marianne Williamson.
-We're not so divided.
The people who are saying we're so divided
are the ones who divided us.
The enemy is this authoritarian corporatism
which does not care about people,
does not care about the planet,
and will take down this democracy
if we allow it to continue.
-We wanted to know, is the Goop constituency
the same as the Marianne Williamson constituency?
Do the same things that draw people to Goop draw them
to support a candidate like Marianne Williamson?
How, in what way do you think the Goop vote is powerful?
-You know, I don't think of the Goop vote.
I don't think of a rich vote or a poor vote,
black vote, white vote.
Because you're Goop and you're American.
You're black and you're American.
You're Jewish and you're American.
You're a woman and you're American.
-Well, I just saw her speak for the first time,
and just seeing her address a crowd and talk about,
you know, how she's been shut down as a woman
and taken that to heart
and wants to include everyone in the conversation.
-Just I guess that she comes
from a place of love is really moving.
-I almost, like, had tears. -Really?
-Yes.
-Is she why you came today, or did you come for Goop?
-I came for Goop, but I am so glad I got to hear her speak.
She's awesome.
-Why do you think the same people who kind of love
Goop kind of love Marianne Williamson?
-I think that we're looking for something a little different.
I think that we're just looking to expand our horizon.
-What does a revolution led by Goop women look like?
-Marianne called out, like, everybody in the room,
and she was like, "Listen, ladies, I was brought
to the table with this group and kind of made money
and my name off of you all, but, like, you're not gonna win
a revolution over white wine and Brie."
And I was like, "Yes."
That was a really awesome moment of kind of
like a realization of,
like, we're a super-privileged group of people,
and we're able to, like, have these conversations
but also, like, check yourself
and be part of the movement in the right way, I think.
-It was a strange day in a strange setting,
symbolic of the Bay Area's deep inequalities,
with very wealthy people
gathering to experience luxury wellness treatments in a city
and a region beset by food and housing insecurity.
But even those with $1,000 to spend at a Goop conference
are still seeking something more.
So nearing the end of our day here at In Goop Health,
and I've had these moments of, like, I get it.
Like, if I was a rich lady, I'd be right here, too.
And I've had other moments of sort of terror.
I was thinking about how the therapeutic power of just,
like, a little bit of attention and a little bit of human touch
and a little bit of quiet reflection.
Why are we all so afraid of death?
Like, the thing that this -- all of this, wellness industry,
Goop specifically, seems to be --
the heart of it seems to be fear of aging,
fear of weight and body issues, and fear of death specifically.
Perhaps the existence of Goop,
the candidacy of Marianne Williamson,
and the wellness industry itself
signify the unwellness permeating America
and the fact that we're not quite sure what to do
or who to believe in the pursuit
of physical, spiritual, and political healing.