Fat is seen by so many people as a kind of moral issue. They think you’re fat because you’re weak and can’t get control of your own life. One subset of that is the Christian weight loss movement. Reporter Daniel Engber tells the history of a particularly extreme moment in that movement. (13 minutes)
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Part One
Boen visits Norman, Oklahoma, where he was born, to meet the man he thinks changed his parents’ lives—and his life, too. (31 minutes)
Act Two: Wedding Crasher
Abby Stein’s youngest sister got married last month, the last of 13 kids in their family.
Act Three: Seance Fiction
In the 1920s, at the height of the Spiritualism movement, a friendship blossomed between two men with opposing views on the topic: Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
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