Stop the insanity 2.0: '90s icon Susan Powter's tech comeback

There was a clip erstwhile you could not crook connected the TV without seeing Susan Powter. Platinum buzz cut. Barefoot. Fierce. Unfiltered. And that conflict outcry that inactive lives successful popular culture: "Stop the Insanity!"

In the 1990s, Powter built a monolithic wellness marque by pushing backmost connected fare civilization and talking astir existent life. Then the spotlight went dark. The portion astir radical missed was brutal: fiscal collapse, isolation and crushing hopelessness.

Powter says the years aft fame were not a speedy fall. They were a agelong grind. She describes driving for Uber Eats for 9 years, moving "eight to 10 hours each day, 7 days a week, trying to marque my $80 to $100 a time truthful I could wage my damn bills." Then comes the twist that makes this communicative consciousness precise 2026. Tech did not interruption her. Tech helped her rebuild.

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Susan Powter attends the "Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter" NYC screening astatine Village East Cinema connected November 21, 2025, successful New York City. (Santiago Felipe/Getty Images)

How Susan Powter built her archetypal wellness empire

When Susan Powter sat down with maine successful my Los Angeles workplace for my Beyond Connected podcast, she began by rewinding the communicative to wherever it each started. Powter's communicative begins acold from Hollywood. She took maine backmost to 1982 successful Garland, Texas. She had 2 babies a twelvemonth apart. After her divorce, she gained much than 130 pounds. She says she didn't admit herself physically. She felt financially doomed and emotionally overwhelmed.

Then she figured thing out. "I would spell to the market store, Piggly Wiggly. This is the truth," she says. Other moms would halt her and archer her she looked great. Powter would answer, "No, no, you don't understand. I figured retired with modification you could beryllium fit," and she says, "a assemblage would stitchery successful the market store."

That infinitesimal was not a selling plan. It was a azygous parent talking to different women who were struggling too. That dependable and that honesty turned into classes, past a studio, past a media machine. Powter ne'er liked the labels radical gave her. "They ever utilized to telephone maine a fittingness guru. I've ne'er utilized that term," she says. Her mentation is simpler and much relatable: "I said, I'm conscionable a housewife who figured it retired and started talking to different housewives."

But the concern broadside got ugly. "It became a monster," she says. "It started generating truthful overmuch money, and past they started producing maine retired of me."

Why Susan Powter mislaid her luck and disappeared

This is wherever her communicative hits a nervus for anyone who has ever felt trapped successful a strategy that profits from them. Powter describes absorption chaos, lawyers and immense ineligible bills. She says, "My past ineligible measure was $6.5 million."

But the existent breaking constituent came the time she decided to locomotion away. She was surviving successful Beverly Hills erstwhile she says she discovered what was happening down the scenes with unscrupulous absorption and bad-faith actors. She says that the precise empire she built nary longer felt similar it belonged to her. As a result, her effect was swift and absolute. "I sent 1 paragraph to everyone; Simon & Schuster, Time Warner, each management, literate agents. And I said, so-and-so nary longer represents Susan Powter. Stop the Insanity. One paragraph." That was it. She fired everyone. Then she left. "I moved to Seattle, and I started teaching classes successful basements," she says. "I near it all."

She besides pushes backmost connected the tidy communicative radical similar astir her downfall. "I did not spell from Hollywood to Harbor Island, which is the payment edifice that I lived successful for acold excessively agelong successful Las Vegas. I didn't spell determination successful 3 years. That's not what happened." 

Instead, she describes years of work, shifting household dynamics and what she calls "quiet poverty." And she names the portion radical thin to skip due to the fact that it makes them uncomfortable: what poorness does to your identity. "It's soul-sucking, dehumanizing," she says.

At 1 point, she recalls walking 8 miles successful brutal Las Vegas heat. "My dollar store flip-flops virtually melted nether my feet. It was 120 degrees." She adds, "That's erstwhile you consciousness dehumanized." 

During that period, she drew spot from the precocious Joan Rivers, who had faced her ain trials. "She said to me, ‘You bent on, kid. This is simply a pugnacious game,’" Powter recalls of gathering her earlier successful her career. Years later, erstwhile her ain satellite unraveled, Susan says she often asked herself, "What would Joan Rivers do?"

‘STOP THE INSANITY’ SUSAN POWTER EXPOSES TRUTH BEHIND FITNESS EMPIRE’S COLLAPSE AND LIFE DRIVING FOR UBER EATS

When 1990s fittingness icon Susan Powter sat down successful Kurt’s Los Angeles workplace for getbeyondconnected.com, she opened up astir the illness fewer radical saw coming. (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson )

The infinitesimal tech went from a distraction to Susan Powter's lifeline

Powter does not speech astir exertion similar a cute productivity hack. She talks astir it similar survival. She utilized a phone, an app, integer platforms and a determination to usage the aforesaid tools galore of america blasted for distraction arsenic a mode to ascent back. Powter says the net helped her spot a way forward. "I'm net obsessed, and I'm arrogant to accidental it," she says. She besides shows self-awareness astir the darker side. "I cognize the acheronian of it. I get it, I get it, but it is specified a power."

Then she says the enactment that sums up her full strategy, "I'm going to digitalize everything. I'm going to merchantability it myself. I'm going to ain everything." That is her caller concern plan. And it is the portion a batch of creators, freelancers and founders volition admit close away: erstwhile you halt waiting for permission, you commencement gathering assets you control.

How Susan Powter is taking backmost power with the assistance of tech

Powter talks astir ownership similar idiosyncratic who has learned the outgo of not having it. This time, she wants to spot everything. "I'll beryllium checking the slope equilibrium each 12 seconds," she says. "I'll beryllium checking the analytics each second." There is nary disorder successful her voice. She is not handing power to anyone other again.

For 9 years, she drove for Uber Eats, 8 to 10 hours a day, chasing $80 to $100 conscionable to screen bills. There was nary cushion and nary enigma revenue. Everything depended connected what she could spot and control. After that, information feels similar protection.

She calls gig enactment and the net "literally life-saving," and says, "access to what is happening present matters, particularly for 68-year-olds." For anyone who thinks exertion belongs to the young, her communicative argues the opposite. A telephone and apps tin drain your time. They tin besides rebuild your life.

Now, Powter is rebuilding connected her ain terms, utilizing exertion to reclaim her voice, her marque and her future. (Obscured Pictures)

How Susan Powter uses Instagram and TikTok today

Powter is not tiptoeing backmost into the nationalist eye. She is going afloat speed. She says she is "obsessed with TikTok, Insta," and she is experimenting with TikTok Shop. Powter besides draws a agleam enactment astir however she wants to amusement up.

"I'll urge amusement and tell, not merchantability what I privation to be," she says. Her benignant is classical Susan. Big energy. Big honesty. Zero patience for fake polish. At 1 point, she laughs and describes her attack similar this: "It's benignant of similar affiliate selling connected acid."

And she is reasoning bigger than societal media posts. She talks astir doing "vertical existent world TV," showing radical the marque rebuild successful existent time, filming gatherings and owning the content. "I'll movie it, I'll ain the content, I'll enactment it up live. We're done," she says.

The book, the movie and the portion that matters most

Powter's memoir is titled "And Then EM Died: Stop the Insanity, A Memoir," disposable connected Amazon. She calls it "a missive to my dormant dog," and says, "This is the archetypal merchandise I person owned retired of each the products, each the years, each the work, and I get to spot each sale."

The documentary, "Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter," executive-produced by Jamie Lee Curtis and directed by Zeb Newman, is disposable connected Amazon and Apple TV. But if you instrumentality 1 happening from this conversation, marque it this: Powter refuses the tidy inspirational communicative arc. "The lone crushed I survived anything... No, I died a cardinal deaths," she says. Then she says what really fueled her: "A batch of it was rage. I wasn't going down similar that."

And yet she does not extremity there. "It doesn't substance what happened. To hellhole with that. My being survived." That honesty lands due to the fact that it sounds similar existent life, not a poster. And possibly that is the existent connection now. Survival is not ever pretty. Sometimes it is loud, messy and powered by the elemental refusal to disappear.

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Kurt's cardinal takeaways

Susan Powter's communicative resonates due to the fact that it feels familiar, adjacent now. First, a nationalist individuality collapses. Then backstage beingness grows heavier than anyone sees. Yet that is not wherever her communicative ends. Instead, she finds leverage wherever fewer radical deliberation to look: successful a phone, successful an app, successful a level and successful the powerfulness to people without gatekeepers. Of course, she is not pretending exertion fixes everything. She sees the darkness. At the aforesaid time, she sees the power. Now, she is utilizing that powerfulness the mode she ever has: loudly, honestly and connected her ain terms.

So here's the question to beryllium with: If your beingness fell isolated tomorrow, would your tech habits assistance you rebuild, oregon would they propulsion you deeper?  Let america cognize by penning to america astatine Cyberguy.com.

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