I'm In New Hulu/New York Times Doc on GLP-1s, Out Friday

"The Weight of the World" will be streaming on Hulu this Friday. Here's what preparing for filming feels like.

Hulu just announced that a new documentary addressing GLP-1s produced by The New York Times Presents will be airing on November 22. Titled “Weight of the World,” it is the fourth installment of their docuseries addressing urgent social issues. I’d been asked to be part of the documentary, and felt eager to join this important conversation.

Back in June, as I prepared for filming, it occurred to me that I should probably wear a black or navy suit, but I don’t own suits in those colors. And, honestly, I’m just not a black suit kinda gal. I figured I may as well show up as my loudest, most unapologetic self. So, I decided that a linen lilac suit with neon flats was the perfect thing to wear for the interview. With wardrobe decisions made, I moved onto the next phase: emotional preparation.

I flew the 40ish minutes from San Francisco into Orange County and headed to a home that doubled as a studio for the day.

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Click this Instagram post to see video of the studio space:

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A post shared by @virgietovar

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Whenever I say yes to a recorded interview, I know I’m walking into a vulnerable situation.

Even though I can usually share my evidence-based, social-justice-driven stances with conviction and lucidity, I never know how things will be edited. An editor can tell any story they want using my voice or likeness. An interview that lasts 2 hours can be cut down to merely 5 seconds of footage (ouch). Furthermore, with the same image or sound byte, I can go from being a passionate advocate to looking like an unhinged heretic (zing).

A perfect example of this was a recent interview I did with Dr. Phil. The producers chose several joyful images of me from my Instagram to tell a story that insinuated I was an out-of-control woman with a nefarious agenda. One of the photos they’d chosen was of me holding an apple loaf I’d made from scratch for an afternoon gathering of 12-15 people at my coworking space.

Like, what’s more innocent than making cake for your friends? Yet, with a little narration, a little scary violin music — boom — the story becomes: fat lady threatens Western civilization by eating entire cake alone.

Nevertheless, I persisted.

with the director of ‘Weight of the World’

For a few hours, I sat in front of the camera (sweatily) for this doc and shared all my (very strong) thoughts about diet culture, fatphobia, and the rise of the current rash of weight-loss injectables.

Then I flew home, and I really hoped that my interview would (a) make it to the final version of the doc at all, and (b) become part of a project that was balanced (at the very least) and maybe even critical of the irresponsible feeding frenzy being orchestrated by the companies that are selling GLP-1s with little regard for their potential harm to humans. I have yet to see the completed doc (so, any of the aforementioned things are possible), but the trailer left me feeling hopeful about the doc’s stance.

If you’re feeling emotionally up to it (and I know many of us aren’t!), make sure to stream the new doc, Weight of the World, on Hulu November 22, and consider the comments section of this post a place where you can share your thoughts today or after WOTW comes out.

xo,