Once upon a time,
Gwyneth Paltrow was just a widely beloved, award-winning actress.
But she finally caught a break in 2008,
when she launched her nutritional newsletter, Goop,
which gave birth to a lifestyle empire.
Today, she’s the high priestess of a many-tentacled, monetized belief system
that just sold out its first Wellness Summit…
and Mary H.K. Choi got a ticket.
— The Goop Wellness Summit is really for anybody
who’s looking to have insight, some autonomy around health.
— So it's not just, like, 600 of your besties or anything like that.
— I really don't know very many people in the audience,
and it’s been really, really nice and very profound for me
to interact with some of these women.
— The summit feels like you’re living out the latest Goop newsletter.
There are thoughtfully curated gluten-free vegan dishes, blowouts, wellness panels
and, of course, Goop devotees.
— Has Goop changed your life?
— Well, we’re having collagen martinis later…
— Right. — ...as one does.
— Elise Loehnen is Goop’s Chief Content Officer.
— I might have some bone broth later.
The goal of the day is ambitious,
it’s to really help people transform, or shift paradigm,
for people to walk out of that room and feel like they’ve been shifted.
— The hall is a veritable “what’s that?” of the multi-trillion dollar wellness industry.
Access isn’t cheap.
Tickets range from $500, to $1,500—
if you want to have lunch with Paltrow.
There are also workout classes, crystal therapy, sound healing, aura readings,
and antioxidant I.V. drips with vitamin boosters.
— So how much is everything I’m getting right now?
— It would probably be around… $500?
— Wow.
— Sleek, expensive, experimental—
and, for the most part, white.
Paltrow’s not unlike other lifestyle gurus,
but her advice on putting jade eggs into your vagina inspires a special breed of cynicism.
— Do you think any one is hate-attending this conference?
— That’s funny.
I’m sure.
Maybe.
I mean, it’s a big investment of time and money, so…
it’s possible.
I mean, I think there are probably some skeptics here.
— There are, however, medical doctors on the roster—
like Dr. Alejandro Junger, a kind-of gut health rockstar.
— The gut is like the root of a plant.
It’s where we absorb our nutrients
and we send them through the trunks
to our leaves, flowers and fruit,
which are our hair, skin, and organs.
— And TED Talk types like Esther Perel—
a therapist who specializes in sex as a modern-day Dr. Ruth.
— So do you actually believe in some of the other treatments and protocols here,
like bee sting therapy or crystals and things like that?
— What does it mean when we say “believe?”
Do I have faith in it?
It means, do I have a leap that allows me to engage with the unknown?
Yes.
Why not?
— It's not that we're opposed to conventional medicine.
We just also are very interested in alternative medicine, having autonomy.
I’ve always been that person who has sort-of introduced the culture or the media
to things that people think are weird.
It's really important, I think, to ask the questions.
— Is the ire and flack worth it to you?
— Oh yeah, of course.