For the Wellness Briefing, Glossy sat down with Samhita Mukhopadhyay, head of content and impact at Weight Watchers, and Mark Mullett, president of global entertainment and business development at Dear Media, to learn about WW’s new podcast “The Weigh In.”
Additionally, Ultrahuman takes on $70 million in funding to compete with Oura, L Catterton is rumored to soon acquire fitness competition darling Hyrox, and Equinox Hotels opens a wellness-focused second location.
Weight Watchers launches ‘The Weigh In’ podcast with Dear Media to tackle tough questions about GLPs
Weight Watchers, the 63-year-old legacy weight loss company, is hoping to crush stigma around GLP-1 use through a new long-form podcast made with Dear Media and hosted by former Teen Vogue editor Samhita Mukhopadhyay.
Called “The Weigh in,” the new podcast will launch on September 16 with topic-driven episodes and experts like fashion stylist Erin Walsh, nutrition expert Dr. Amy Shah, M.D., The Cut editor-in-chief Lindsay Peoples and Julie Rice, the founder of SoulCycle-turned-Weight Watchers executive.
Mukhopadhyay joined Weight Watchers in March of 2025 after nearly two decades in media, including editorial director of Mic, executive editor of Teen Vogue and editorial director of The Meteor. She is also the author of the 2024 novel “The Myth of Making It” and has written about her own experience with GLPs for The Cut.
“When I got to Weight Watchers, it was very much at this moment where a lot of [media] outlets were not really sure how to cover the GLP-1 moment,” Mukhopadhyay told Glossy. “A big motivation for doing this is to insert ourselves in the broader thought leadership conversation around GLP-1s.”
The episodes are between 45 minutes and one hour, with eight planned for the first season. Mukhopadhyay plans to tackle difficult questions about starting and maintaining a GLP-1 journey, plus big-picture topics about what it means for one’s identity and relationships, and the impact on overall culture.
“There are a lot of assumptions about what it means to take these medications, and there’s been a lot of focus on celebrities taking them,” Mukhopadhyay said. “One of the things that’s missing is a lot of the very concrete and real reasons people have found a lot of success with these medications.”
The new pod is part of Weight Watchers’ larger strategy shift toward more holistic weight management services. As previously reported by Glossy, this includes telehealth services with GLP prescriptions and care; in-app and in-person health coaching from real people, not chatbots; AI-powered full-body scans, which measure muscle, fat and bone density instead of just weight; and the addition of a “weight health score,” which syncs with a user’s wearable to track things like sleep and activity.
In many ways, the podcast will operate as a top-of-funnel marketing endeavor, since Weight Watchers already provides many of the comprehensive care channels mentioned above, from prescriptions to telehealth care.
“Most people don’t even know that we sell [GLP-1s], [which is] a more recent part of our marketing, and also a recognition that the field has changed profoundly with the introduction of these medications,” Mukhopadhyay said.
On the podcast, she hopes to acknowledge that Ozempic and its competitors are not magic bullets, but rather one piece in a comprehensive medical intervention that must be paired with a full scope of care.
The podcast is part of Dear Media’s ongoing expansion into wellness shows and topics. “A lot of our wellness content does really, really well,” Mark Mullett, president of global entertainment and business development at Dear Media, told Glossy. “Our audience is leaning in. Maybe they’re learning, experimenting or already on a journey, but they’re intentional and smart and curious [about wellness].”
Dear Media’s shows include Well with Arielle Lorre, The Wellness Process with Elizabeth Endres, and and The Wellness Digest with Hannah and Lena Kleinfeld.
“[Our guests include] people that are either on the forefront of medicine or culture or even journalism on this topic, to really get at ‘What are the conversations that are happening on the front lines?’” Mukhopadhyay said. “The way we talk about these decisions is really broken, and so we wanted to really make an intervention to that.”
News to know:
- Fitness competitions are having a big moment as consumers look to quantify their gym gains. According to several industry reports, L Catterton, the private equity heavyweight behind Equinox, Peloton, ClassPass, CorePower Yoga and many more, is set to acquire a controlling stake in fitness competition darling Hyrox. According to Bloomberg, the deal could be worth upward of $700 million. Hyrox is an indoor fitness competition that stacks eight kilometers of running with eight intermittent strength challenges. The company started in Germany in 2017 and has quickly become a standout in the burgeoning fitness competition space once dominated by CrossFit Games and Tough Mudder outdoor races.
- Competition in the health ring market is heating up. Ultrahuman — the Indian tracker ring company that briefly excited the USA from October 2025 to March 2026, tied to a legal IP battle with Oura ring — has taken on $70 million in funding. Led by Qualcomm Ventures, the investment round will help UltraHuman scale its offering and provide competition to the broader market.
- Speaking of Oura ring, the Finnish health tracker ring leader is making headlines this week for filing for an initial public offering on Thursday. The company hopes to list on the Nasdaq. Oura unveiled its plan to go public this spring and, as of last week, the company was valued at $16 billion.
- Marketing a boutique fitness concept to new customers just got easier. Last week, Playlist — parent company to fitness booking platforms like Classpass, Mindbody, Booker, EGYM and Kite — debuted a new website-building tool available for free for all fitness partners. The new feature uses AI to let fitness studio operators build a free website with integrated scheduling, pricing and booking tools. “Our new Customized Websites service gives operators a beautiful, modern site that clients can find, whether they’re searching the web or asking an AI assistant,” Fritz Lanman, CEO and co-founder of Playlist, said in a statement. “Once they’re there, booking takes seconds, with Playlist’s latest web booking widgets and AI Concierge built in. It’s the Playlist platform coming to life: growth tools shared across our software brands, so operators can spend less time managing technology and more time creating the real-life experiences their clients love.”
Stat of the week:
Equinox Hotels is making a $1.5 billion bet on the future of wellness tourism. As previously reported by Glossy, wellness has infiltrated just about every corner of hospitality and travel, from specialty cruises to in-flight and airport lounge amenities to hotel and in-room recovery modalities. On Thursday, Equinox Hotels opened Amaala, a $1.5 billion hotel project on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Coast that features 128 guest rooms plus 21 residences, all developed around wellness principles including rooms designed for deep sleep, nutrition-first dining, a recovery-focused spa, a 20,000-square-foot gym and a magnesium pool. This marks Equinox’s second hotel behind its NYC location.
In the headlines:
How clinical research is being used as a growth engine [Modern Retail]. Is mouthwash bad for your oral health? [NYT]. Researchers decode the muscle-brain axis [Fitt Insider]. Wellness real estate is booming — it’s also evolving [ATN]. Which sleep data to trust from Oura and other wearables [WSJ]. I dunked my face in ice water every morning for 2 weeks—here’s how it shifted my nervous system [Vogue]. A primer on color trademarks: When can a brand own a color? [TFL]. What’s in and out for creators heading into Q4 [Digiday].
Listen in:
What does it take to disrupt a dusty CPG category? Lorne Lucree, a beauty exec-turned-wellness disruptor, took on legacy incumbents in the allergy space in January with the launch of Wizard Wellness, a line of drug-free, microbiome-focused allergy care. Nine months later, the line has entered Walmart, CVS and Target. Glossy Beauty Podcast host Lexy Lebsack sat down with Lucree to learn how he used a beauty playbook to get there.
Need a Glossy recap?
Beauty Briefing: Why the Estée Lauder Companies is moving some of its biggest brands to Shopify. Luxury Briefing: How John Galliano’s 15-year rehabilitation reached its limit at the Met. At its 10th anniversary, Rothy’s is launching its biggest campaign yet. How Aviator Nation is preparing for AI-led shopping. At Malin + Goetz, tomato girl summer is still going strong. Pop Newsletter: Set did $3.5 million in 24 hours leveraging customers as the new influencers.
