The Sporkful Presents: How Did ‘Super Size Me’ End Up In Schools?

Revisionist History

Pushkin Industries

Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 61.5K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We're sharing an episode from the Sporkful podcast. In 2004, Morgan Spurlock released his low-budget documentary Super Size Me, and achieved success that most documentary filmmakers can only dream about. The film made millions at the box office, it was nominated for an Academy Award, and it turned Morgan into a star. To this day, the film is still shown in middle school and high school health classes across the country. But in 2017, Morgan made a shocking confession that derailed his career and called into question Super Size Me’s original claims. Last year, weeks after the film’s twentieth anniversary, Morgan died of cancer. The Sporkful looked into the legacy of Super Size Me. Sporkul senior producer Andres O’Hara talks with some of the people closest to Morgan to figure out: Who really was Morgan Spurlock? How did Super Size Me become such a huge hit? And after all these years, should we still be showing it to kids? Listen and Follow The Sporkful wherever you get your podcasts.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Pushkin.
0:10.8	Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle
0:15.2	Schofield in Bone Valley season one.
0:18.2	Every time I hear about my dad is, oh, he's a killer.
0:21.1	He's just straight evil.
0:22.8	I was becoming the bridge between Jeremy Scott and the son he'd never known.
0:27.6	At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.
0:30.3	Listen to new episodes of Bone Valley Season 2 starting April 9th on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:40.3	Hello, hello. Malcolm Glapal here. It's been a busy season at Revisionist History.
0:45.4	Coming up next week, we're bringing you an argument on the American Siren. Do they even save time
0:50.3	when it comes to reaching emergencies? And what if we didn't have them at all?
0:59.8	That's next week. Today, we're excited to share an episode from the podcast, The Sporkful,
1:06.6	hosted by Dan Pashman. The Sporkful is not for foodies, it's for eaters. And every week,
1:12.1	they obsess about food to learn more about people, which is actually something we'll be exploring in a few weeks on revisionist history with a special episode on the beloved nooks and crannies
1:16.9	of Thomas's English muffins. Stay tuned for that. But this episode of The Sporkful looks at
1:24.3	the legacy of the documentary Super Size Me.
1:28.9	The film started as a stunt.
1:33.3	What would happen if Morgan Spurlock ate only McDonald's for 30 days?
1:36.9	But this low-budget film became a nationwide hit and turned Morgan into a household name.
1:39.7	Years later, at the peak of his career,
1:42.1	Morgan published a confession that tanked his career
1:44.9	and called into question the results of the film. So what was really going on in Supersize Me?
	...

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