Something Phoney This Way Comes: Diana Nyad Takes Wondrium

Diana brought her Marathon Swimming Medicine Show to the online learning company Wondrium. It promised a fact-checked, vetted program. Did it deliver?

Last month, an ad for Wondrium began appearing in my Facebook feed. “Stop wasting your time fact-checking,” it admonished. Sit back, listen to “over 8,000 hours of carefully vetted content,” and learn, learn, learn.

Wondrium began life as The Great Courses in 1990. A year ago, it renamed itself to reflect its move beyond academic presentations and into other areas like self-improvement. On June 2, its 5-part “Achieve Your Potential”  series debuted. Scientist and educator Crystal Dilworth hosts all five, including Diana’s installment, “Never Give Up.”

I should have ignored Nyad’s advice and given up before it was too late. But Wondrium’s ad gave me hope. Maybe Wondrium would do what Nyad’s publisher didn’t; what the producers of the Nyad biopic didn’t; and what everyone else who has ever presented a Nyad program didn’t.

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