Ryan Broderick

I'm certainly not here to suggest you ask your dentist for advice about which hard foods to feed your toddler or where to source a head strap with a spike in it. But some fringe ideas take hold because mainstream science refuses to entertain tricky questions that ordinary people really wonder about. And here's a genuinely good question the orthotropists love to ask. It goes like this.

In the past, mankind had straighter teeth and more chiseled chins. Today, we have more crooked teeth and softer chins. Why is that happening? Could we stop it from happening? A mainstream dentist will offer you braces or Invisalign and say, your jaw shape is mostly genetic, there's not much else to be done here, and also, did you remember to floss?

In the past, mankind had straighter teeth and more chiseled chins. Today, we have more crooked teeth and softer chins. Why is that happening? Could we stop it from happening? A mainstream dentist will offer you braces or Invisalign and say, your jaw shape is mostly genetic, there's not much else to be done here, and also, did you remember to floss?

In the past, mankind had straighter teeth and more chiseled chins. Today, we have more crooked teeth and softer chins. Why is that happening? Could we stop it from happening? A mainstream dentist will offer you braces or Invisalign and say, your jaw shape is mostly genetic, there's not much else to be done here, and also, did you remember to floss?

An orthotropist has a much more exciting story to tell. They believe this change to our jaws, which is really observable, they think it's being caused by some change in our environment as recent as the Industrial Revolution. Okay, but here's where the Mews get beyond any good evidence and deeply into their own sales pitch.

An orthotropist has a much more exciting story to tell. They believe this change to our jaws, which is really observable, they think it's being caused by some change in our environment as recent as the Industrial Revolution. Okay, but here's where the Mews get beyond any good evidence and deeply into their own sales pitch.

An orthotropist has a much more exciting story to tell. They believe this change to our jaws, which is really observable, they think it's being caused by some change in our environment as recent as the Industrial Revolution. Okay, but here's where the Mews get beyond any good evidence and deeply into their own sales pitch.

The Mew family says that we can change the shape of our jaws without surgery or braces if our kids just follow the right diet and maintain the right tongue posture. That in effect, we can resist the way society seeks to deform us by following the Mews' teaching. To Ryan, there's something familiar here, something he sees in a lot of esoteric movements.

The Mew family says that we can change the shape of our jaws without surgery or braces if our kids just follow the right diet and maintain the right tongue posture. That in effect, we can resist the way society seeks to deform us by following the Mews' teaching. To Ryan, there's something familiar here, something he sees in a lot of esoteric movements.

The Mew family says that we can change the shape of our jaws without surgery or braces if our kids just follow the right diet and maintain the right tongue posture. That in effect, we can resist the way society seeks to deform us by following the Mews' teaching. To Ryan, there's something familiar here, something he sees in a lot of esoteric movements.

The thing that I find kind of links a lot of these is that it all sort of comes back to the solutions of the angst of modern life are found totally within yourself. And I'm going to sell you how to find it inside of you. And obviously I'm not saying like transcendental meditation is bad or whatever. It's produced a lot of great David Lynch films or like yoga is bad or whatever.

The thing that I find kind of links a lot of these is that it all sort of comes back to the solutions of the angst of modern life are found totally within yourself. And I'm going to sell you how to find it inside of you. And obviously I'm not saying like transcendental meditation is bad or whatever. It's produced a lot of great David Lynch films or like yoga is bad or whatever.

The thing that I find kind of links a lot of these is that it all sort of comes back to the solutions of the angst of modern life are found totally within yourself. And I'm going to sell you how to find it inside of you. And obviously I'm not saying like transcendental meditation is bad or whatever. It's produced a lot of great David Lynch films or like yoga is bad or whatever.

I like yoga myself, but like there is definitely a wave of grifters who sell people this idea that everything that is structurally against you in modern life can be solved by sort of stripping yourself down and finding it within you. And I think that's why a lot of conspiracy theories start there as well.

I like yoga myself, but like there is definitely a wave of grifters who sell people this idea that everything that is structurally against you in modern life can be solved by sort of stripping yourself down and finding it within you. And I think that's why a lot of conspiracy theories start there as well.

I like yoga myself, but like there is definitely a wave of grifters who sell people this idea that everything that is structurally against you in modern life can be solved by sort of stripping yourself down and finding it within you. And I think that's why a lot of conspiracy theories start there as well.

And I think orthotropics is equally solipsistic because it's saying you can literally change the inside of your mouth if you work hard enough.

And I think orthotropics is equally solipsistic because it's saying you can literally change the inside of your mouth if you work hard enough.

And I think orthotropics is equally solipsistic because it's saying you can literally change the inside of your mouth if you work hard enough.

Right. It's like Americans are funny because we're both like, we're a paranoid, conspiracy-loving country, but we're also a country that is very founded on the idea of self-improvement. And so those things kind of twin in a funny way where there's always a new person with a new diagnosis of what's wrong with society, but the promise is always the same.