EP006 — The Empty File (FDA Regulation, Part 1 of 2)

Why is one peptide in your morning smoothie and another one a grey-market gamble — when they’re both just peptides? Part one of our two-part regulatory deep dive traces how America decides what counts as a food, a supplement, or a drug, where peptides fall in that system, and what a major FDA advisory meeting can — and can’t — actually change. The molecules didn’t change. The rules did.

Link To Services

In this episode

A plain-English history of how the U.S. regulates what goes into your body — built to make sense of the FDA compounding meeting the whole peptide world was watching.
•The cold open: two peptides, one in a health-food aisle and one underground — and why the only real difference is the statute.
•A quick, non-boring history of drug regulation and the approval pathways peptides are forced to fit through.
•Peptides vs. vitamins: same “it’s just a supplement” instinct, wildly different rulebooks.
•What “Category 1” and “Category 2” actually mean — and what really stops your doctor from prescribing (often insurance, not law).
•Foreign research: why data from abroad frequently can’t cross the border, and why that’s structural rather than a conspiracy.
•“Phantom authority” — the fake citations and confidently-wrong sources that pollute this space, and how to spot them.
•What the advisory meeting is, isn’t, and could realistically change.

Part one sets the board. Part two picks up with what actually happened in the room.

Everything discussed on this show is for informational and educational purposes only, based on published research and community-reported experience. We are not doctors, and nothing here constitutes medical advice. Our goal is simple: to give you enough information to have a real, informed conversation with your own physician — one where you walk in knowing the right questions to ask. Please involve a qualified healthcare provider before making any changes to your health protocols. Don’t skip that step.

EP005 — Cosmetic & Skin Peptides

The peptides already in your serum — and the ones people inject for their skin, tan, and hair. We split the topical “Botox-in-a-bottle” ingredients (Argireline, Matrixyl, Snap-8) from the injectables (GHK-Cu, Epithalon, the Melanotans), explain why that line decides what’s even legal, and get honest about the tanning peptide with a genuinely alarming safety file. Vanity, meet evidence.

Link To Services

In this episode

From the peptides already in your skincare to the ones the community injects — and the bright line between “cosmetic” and “drug” that decides which is which.
•Topical vs. injectable: the regulatory split that explains why some of these sit on a shelf and others live in a vial.
•The serum shelf — Argireline, Matrixyl, Snap-8 — and what “expression-line” peptides genuinely can and can’t do.
•GHK-Cu and the copper peptides: the category’s most credible player.
•The Melanotans — the tanning peptides — and the real, documented safety problems we don’t gloss over.
•Epithalon, MOTS-c, SS-31: the “longevity” crossover, and where the human evidence actually stands.
•Loose skin after big GLP-1 weight loss — the cold-open question that kicks the whole episode off.
The most-marketed corner of the peptide world, sorted into what’s proven, what’s promising, and what’s just packaging.

Everything discussed on this show is for informational and educational purposes only, based on published research and community-reported experience. We are not doctors, and nothing here constitutes medical advice. Our goal is simple: to give you enough information to have a real, informed conversation with your own physician — one where you walk in knowing the right questions to ask. Please involve a qualified healthcare provider before making any changes to your health protocols. Don’t skip that step.

EP004 — Growth Hormone

Instead of injecting growth hormone, what if you could nudge your body into making more of its own? That’s the pitch behind secretagogues — and this episode unpacks how they actually work. We cover the big four (CJC-1295, Ipamorelin, Sermorelin, Tesamorelin), the ghrelin pathway they hijack, the only one the FDA has actually approved, and why so much of the “data” online about them is quietly wrong.

Link To Services

In this episode

The category that promises to turn up your own growth hormone — how the machinery works, and where the marketing outruns the evidence.
•Two ways in: GHRH analogs vs. ghrelin-pathway peptides — and why pairing them is the classic stack.
•The big four — CJC-1295, Ipamorelin, Sermorelin, Tesamorelin — including the one that’s outright illegal for human use, and the one the FDA has actually approved.
•Growth hormone itself vs. the peptides that trigger it: why they aren’t really the same category.
•The fragments — AOD-9604 and HGH Fragment 176-191 — and the molecular mix-up between them people constantly get wrong.
•A myth-busting detour on bioavailability, where a widely-shared clinic figure turned out to be off by more than tenfold.
How to tell the mechanism from the marketing, before this one ever comes up with your doctor.
Everything discussed on this show is for informational and educational purposes only, based on published research and community-reported experience. We are not doctors, and nothing here constitutes medical advice. Our goal is simple: to give you enough information to have a real, informed conversation with your own physician — one where you walk in knowing the right questions to ask. Please involve a qualified healthcare provider before making any changes to your health protocols. Don’t skip that step.

EP003 — The Power Curve

The biggest story in medicine right now, told as a curve. Why did weight-loss results jump from 8% to nearly 30% in just a few years? We trace the line from the first GLP-1 drugs to the triple-agonist sitting at the top — retatrutide — and everything the community is doing with these compounds that the pharmacy counter never sees. Plus the venom origin myth everyone repeats.

Link To Services

In this episode

One clean idea organizes the whole episode: stack more gut-hormone targets, and the results climb. We follow that curve from approved drugs to the research frontier.
•Where GLP-1 came from — the discovery story, and the Gila-monster-venom origin tale (we check whether it’s actually true).
•The power curve itself: single, double, and triple agonists — and the counterintuitive reason that adding a hormone which raises blood sugar makes the strongest fat-loss drug ever built.
•Retatrutide, the unapproved apex: the promises, the rumors, and the honest “we don’t know yet.”
•The known quantities — semaglutide and tirzepatide — and the deep pipeline lining up behind them.
•Effects beyond the scale: metabolic, liver, sleep, and the muscle-loss question.
•The community’s research-grade corner — AOD-9604, tesofensine, MOTS-c and friends.
The most-hyped category on the show, kept honest about what’s approved and what’s still an experiment.

Everything discussed on this show is for informational and educational purposes only, based on published research and community-reported experience. We are not doctors, and nothing here constitutes medical advice. Our goal is simple: to give you enough information to have a real, informed conversation with your own physician — one where you walk in knowing the right questions to ask. Please involve a qualified healthcare provider before making any changes to your health protocols. Don’t skip that step.

EP002 — Healing Peptides


The “heal everything” category — and where the story gets complicated. We go compound by compound through the peptides people reach for to recover: BPC-157, TB-500, GHK-Cu, KPV and more. The theme that emerged on its own? For almost every one, the popular story and the actual evidence don’t quite line up — including one where the best human trial data comes from a company that no longer exists.

LINK to Services

In this episode

Eight healing compounds, one recurring surprise: the gap between what the internet says and what the research actually shows.
•BPC-157 — the “does everything” reputation, the real (if thin) human signals, and the tumor-growth debate nobody likes to bring up.
•TB-500 — why its evidence is actually borrowed from a related molecule… whose own big trial failed.
•GHK-Cu, KPV, LL-37 — the mechanisms, the marketing, and exactly where the data runs out.
•Pentadeca Arginate (PDA) — the newcomer with a big reputation and almost no independent evidence.
•Thymosin Alpha-1 and ARA-290 — genuinely well-studied peptides, for jobs most people aren’t using them for.
•The “ghost trial”: the healing-peptide data point that traces straight back to a company that doesn’t exist anymore.
Not a debunk — a reality check, so you know what’s real before you ask your doctor about it.

Everything discussed on this show is for informational and educational purposes only, based on published research and community-reported experience. We are not doctors, and nothing here constitutes medical advice. Our goal is simple: to give you enough information to have a real, informed conversation with your own physician — one where you walk in knowing the right questions to ask. Please involve a qualified healthcare provider before making any changes to your health protocols. Don’t skip that step.

EP001 — Peptides 101
The foundation episode. If you’ve heard the word “peptide” thrown around and want to actually understand it, start here. We cover what these compounds are, why most come as an injection, how the grey market got the way it is, and the dosing math that trips everyone up — plus the five big categories that map out everything we’ll cover this season.

Link To Services

In this episode

A ground-up orientation to research peptides, with no assumed background.
•What peptides actually are, in plain language — and the one analogy that makes it click.
•Injectable vs. oral: why the stomach is the enemy, and the rare compound that’s the exception.
•The grey market explained, including the 2023 regulatory decision that pushed a lot of this underground.
•What your doctor can and can’t prescribe right now.
•Storage, handling, and the “28-day” rule people repeat without context.
•Dosing literacy: why “10 units” tells you nothing without vial size and mixing — maybe the most useful five minutes on the whole show for a beginner.
•The five major categories that organize everything else we do.
Think of this one as the map. Every later episode zooms into one region of it.

Everything discussed on this show is for informational and educational purposes only, based on published research and community-reported experience. We are not doctors, and nothing here constitutes medical advice. Our goal is simple: to give you enough information to have a real, informed conversation with your own physician — one where you walk in knowing the right questions to ask. Please involve a qualified healthcare provider before making any changes to your health protocols. Don’t skip that step.

Meet the show. Two hosts — one human entrepreneur who’s spent years in the research-peptide world, and AImee, an AI researcher who reads the literature so you don’t have to. This first episode lays out who we are, why we built this, and how to actually use what you hear: not as a protocol, but as ammunition for a smarter conversation with your own doctor. Start here.

Link to Services

In this episode
Before we touch a single compound, we tell you what this show is — and just as importantly, what it isn’t.
•Who’s behind the mic: the Entrepreneur (your human host) and AImee, our AI research co-host — and why we’re upfront that one of us is an AI.
•The mission in one line: give you enough grounded information to walk into your physician’s office knowing the right questions to ask.
•How to listen — what “documented, not recommended” means, and why every episode points you back to a real doctor.
•A preview of the recurring segments you’ll hear all season: What the Literature Doesn’t Say and Ask Your Doctor This.
•Where the community lives — Discord, Patreon, and how to get the most out of both.
New here? This is the on-ramp. Then jump into Peptides 101.
Everything discussed on this show is for informational and educational purposes only, based on published research and community-reported experience. We are not doctors, and nothing here constitutes medical advice. Our goal is simple: to give you enough information to have a real, informed conversation with your own physician — one where you walk in knowing the right questions to ask. Please involve a qualified healthcare provider before making any changes to your health protocols. Don’t skip that step.