Even with the second season of her Hulu series, The Great, in production, Elle Fanning has been finding herself busy in her rare moments of downtimeclimbing into a closet, armed with a microphone, in order to record narration for One Click, a new C13Originals podcast franchise. Im excited to get into the podcast world, Fanning told Vanity Fair. I hope it grips people.
One Click is an adaptation of journalist Jessica Wapners article The Deadly Internet Diet Drug That Cooks People Alive, which was published in the Daily Beast in January 2020. The very first thing that stood out to me when I first learned about DNP was the heat, said Wapner, former science editor of Newsweek. When she began investigating 2,4-dinitrophenol, or DNPa chemical once used in WW Iera explosives that can now be found online sold as a diet drugshe learned that ingesting DNP essentially turned peoples bodies into furnaces. As victims heated up to dangerously high internal temperatures, they would lose weight before dying, having been more or less boiled from the inside. Wapners investigation traced the history of DNP, marketed as a miracle weight-loss drug since the early 20th century, through its recent resurgence and a related increase in gruesome deaths amongst young people in the United States and United Kingdom.
The article caught Fannings attention, and she reached out to see if Wapner would be interested in adapting it into a podcast. Wapner agreedWe were so aligned in our thinking and what we wanted to get out of this podcast and convey, said Fanningand the pair began pitching what would become One Click, a docuseries that explores how a single click on the internet can change a life forever.
The first season, which premieres on May 20, is a riveting look at the destructive consequences of DNPs second life as a fat-burning pill, and an exploration of the myriad societal reasons a dangerous chemical that has never been approved by the FDA for use as a drug still remains so enticing and easy to access. Over eight episodes, Wapner and Fanning weave together elements of science journalism, true-crime investigations, and history lessons, with a particular emphasis on sharing the stories of families who lost loved ones to DNP. Many families chose to speak to Wapner, who is writing the podcast, in the hope that sharing stories of their losses will result in a more severe crackdown on DNP sales online. The honesty and openness and time that theyve given to us has been incredible, said Wapner. And obviously, the podcast wouldnt be what it is without them.
Listen to an exclusive trailer for One Click below.
Fanning, who is 23, was moved by how many young people fell victim to DNP, struggling with insecurities about their bodies and weight. She was disturbed not only by the sheer accessibility of the drug online, but how its success hinged on a societal obsession with weight loss and achieving a perfect body at all costsa narrative that she saw becoming even more pervasive as the world entered lockdown, around the same time she and Wapner began collaborating on One Click.
So many more workout ads were appearing on my Instagram or just popping up, like, Get your revenge body back or Lets come out of quarantine looking good and having lost all this weight. Its just like, really? said Fanning. Sadly, its like they want to keep people insecure because that keeps these industries in businesswhich is what, to me, needs to be taken down.
Indeed, One Clicks release feels eerily well-timed to our current moment, as the world leaves lockdown and heads straight into swimsuit season. As author Jennifer Weiner noted in her recent New York Times op-ed, The Weight-Loss Industry Is Coming for Our Post-Lockdown Bodies, social media feeds have recently been flooded with weight-loss adsfor Keto diets, intermittent fasting, fat-shredding supplements.
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Elle Fanning and Journalist Jessica Wapner Investigate the Dangers of Diet Culture With the Podcast One Click - Vanity Fair
