The Bulwark Daily
The Bulwark Daily

Ruby Cramer: The Power of MAHA

September 1, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

The MAHA Custody Battle: When Wellness Beliefs Tear a Family Apart

Ruby Cramer, a staff writer at The New Yorker, spent four months immersed in the parenting Facebook groups and online communities where the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movement thrives. What she found was a political and cultural phenomenon that defies easy categorization—and a family in West Virginia whose story illustrates how deeply these beliefs can fracture lives.

The movement's appeal, as one Democratic strategist told Cramer, rests on "two truths and a lie." The truths: chronic disease is genuinely on the rise, and ultra-processed foods make up more than half of our daily caloric intake. The lie snuck in alongside them: that standard childhood vaccines are dangerous or linked to autism, a claim disproven repeatedly. This mixture makes MAHA difficult to combat because so much of it feels reasonable.

The Rabbit Hole Opens

Michael and Leah met young, married, and started a family in West Virginia. Leah wanted nothing more than to be a stay-at-home mom—a dream she felt was looked down upon during the "lean in" era. Neither had given much thought to vaccines before the pandemic. Their first son received all standard vaccinations.

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (01:14) **Introduction & The Two Truths and a Lie Framework** - Host Tim Miller introduces guest Ruby Cramer, a New Yorker staff writer, to discuss her new article on the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movement.
  • 2 (05:39) **RFK Jr. as a Catalyst for a Pre-Existing Distrust** - The conversation explores how RFK Jr. unified disparate wellness and anti-vaccine sentiments into a political movement.
  • 3 (10:15) **Portrait of a Family: Michael and Leah** - Introduction of the West Virginia couple at the center of the article, whose custody battle is rooted in a conflict over their children's medical treatment.
  • 4 (12:34) **The Descent into the MAHA Rabbit Hole** - The story of how Leah, during the pandemic, became a "crunchy mama" after encountering a vaccine injury story and her grandmother's death after a COVID shot.
  • 5 (18:10) **The Tipping Point: A Phone, a Spiritual Healer, and a Sick Child** - The marriage breaks down when Michael, suspecting infidelity, finds Leah is sending Bitcoin to a holistic spiritual guide instead of a lover.
  • 6 (24:50) **The Unlearning Problem** - Analysis of why Leah and others remain in the MAHA mindset even after their children get severely ill.
  • 7 (28:01) **The Pendulum Swings: Fear as a Motivation to Unlearn** - Cramer discusses the primary driver for parents leaving the MAHA movement: the overwhelming anxiety of living with an unvaccinated child during a resurgence of preventable diseases.

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Show Notes

Vaccine skepticism and distrust of pharmaceutical companies long predated RFK, Jr.'s 2024 presidential campaign. But the distrust of mainstream medical authority has now grown so deep that the United States can no longer contain the spread of measles. The country’s measles-vaccination rates have dropped below the threshold for herd immunity. Obviously, Trump’s misleading vax ruminations from the Oval Office have not helped the matter. The New Yorker’s Ruby Cramer discusses her reporting on one family’s frightening medical experience after one parent fell down the MAHA rabbit hole. Plus: The administration has given Big Ag a pass, Democrats should try recapturing health-conscious voters, the overlooked case of an American shot by immigration thugs, and the surprising backstory of Kari Lake becoming ambassador to Jamaica.

Ruby Cramer joins Tim Miller.

show notes:

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