Why is there a supplement craze if they don’t even work?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:15)
This is Planet Money from NPR.

**Jane Black** (0:21)
You may have noticed we are living in the midst of a supplement craze. People are Vitamaxing, biohacking so they can live longer.
Everyone's talking about gut health.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (0:30)
I feel very aware of my gut health right now. It's true. The supplement industry is a $70 billion industry in the United States and growing fast. We are talking protein powders, pre-workouts, probiotics, fat burners.

**Jane Black** (0:45)
There's joint health, gut health, there's glowing skin. I love glowing skin.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (0:49)
Better sleep, stronger nails, all of that.

**Jane Black** (0:51)
Seventy-five percent of Americans take supplements.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (0:53)
A lot of people.

**Jane Black** (0:54)
Yeah, like 100,000 different options you can choose from.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (0:58)
Now, supplements are everything from creatine or bovine colostrum, sometimes put in a martini, to your daily vitamin C gummies or echinacea. Because there are so many supplements out there, we wanted to see how easy it is to get a new supplement pill or gummy on the market.

**Jane Black** (1:16)
Could we make a supplement?

**Sarah Gonzalez** (1:18)
Okay. What if we want to make a supplement?

**Frank Cantone** (1:20)
Okay.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (1:21)
Like a real NPR Planet Money branded supplement.

**Frank Cantone** (1:28)
Awesome.

**Jane Black** (1:28)
This is Frank Cantone, the Chiseled CEO of SMP Nutrious Supplement Manufacturing Partner. They make supplements.

**Frank Cantone** (1:35)
Capsules, tablets, powders, soft gels, gummies.

**Jane Black** (1:39)
Then brands or influencers or podcasts, sell them under their own labels.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (1:45)
I think it would be cool to have a little microphone-shaped gummy, or a little planet, or a little money gummy, a money gummy.

**Frank Cantone** (1:52)
We could do those.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (1:53)
Or maybe we do a powder that you just add water to and down it real quick.

**Jane Black** (1:57)
It's called the Money Shot.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (1:58)
The Money Shot is the perfect name.

**Frank Cantone** (2:01)
First and foremost, I think what's important would be to define the market.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (2:04)
Frank really wanted us to think about our Planet Money audience and what supplement you find people might want, smart, busy, capable people.

**Frank Cantone** (2:15)
So do we want something that helps people focus, right? Do we want to help people have more energy? Is that the type of product that we want to offer?

**Sarah Gonzalez** (2:24)
That sounds great. I'm always tired.

**Jane Black** (2:26)
There are so many supplements already out there that claim to help with brain function or focus. There's ashwagandha or theanine.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (2:34)
But for our potential focus gummy or shot, Frank actually suggests creatine or lion's mane or other mushrooms if we want focus.

**Jane Black** (2:44)
Focus would be awesome.
Also, I would like thicker hair. Okay. Can I do that?

**Frank Cantone** (2:49)
Yeah. I mean, we could add collagen to this cocktail, which would help with hair growth and hair thickness.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (2:56)
Hold on. We're going to have a gummy that's like, it gives you focus and it gives you thicker hair?

**Frank Cantone** (3:01)
It's doable for sure.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (3:02)
Is it smart?

**Frank Cantone** (3:05)
I feel like it hits two needs that everyone really has a problem with, right?

**Jane Black** (3:11)
I love how Frank just wants to make things happen for us.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (3:15)
I know. If there is something that you want your mind or your body to do, Frank will find the ingredient for you.
You want to burn fat, maybe throw some green tea in there.

**Jane Black** (3:26)
Frank says people associate it with weight loss.

**Frank Cantone** (3:29)
It's typically found in weight management products, so they can put it in that boat if they want to, but the green tea is really there for some energy benefits.

**Jane Black** (3:40)
We walked through all the things, ingredients, shapes, flavors.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (3:44)
Kiwi.

**Frank Cantone** (3:45)
For sure.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (3:45)
Honeydew. Honeydew is a super good flavor.

**Frank Cantone** (3:48)
No one does just kiwi. Oh, it's my favorite. They do strawberry kiwi.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (3:52)
We talked colors. Ours would be green, of course. And right there on the spot, we got an estimate for the smallest possible order of our fully customized, I would argue very tasty, supplement.

**Frank Cantone** (4:07)
It's going to be around 8,333 bottles. Based upon the ingredients we're talking about, it's going to range from like $4.50 to $7.