CIA Central Casting: The Means Episode

Who are Casey and Calley Means? Genuine medical freedom leaders or carefully curated agents of deep state control?

captiCasey Means, Senator Ron Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Calley Means Photo from 12/6/24 article in The Cut

Casey and Calley Means are a brother-sister duo who emerged from obscurity into the national spotlight almost overnight, with an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s podcast in August 2024 that, according to Apple, was the “Most Shared Podcast Episode” of the year. Less than two months later, in early October 2024, STAT reported that “the pair have gone from relative unknowns to emergent conservative rabble-rousers – now buzzing in the same orbit as Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and even former President Donald Trump.” Just a month later, in November, right after the election, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Means siblings were “poised to shape Trump’s health agenda” and that Casey Means was being considered for the position of surgeon general.

How did these two unknowns rise so high so fast in the American political firmament, as shining stars of the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) organization, with positions of influence over the agendas of former presidential candidate RFK Jr. and President Elect Donald Trump?

The answer that will emerge from this article is not good news for anyone interested in the agenda of medical freedom.

If you believe that MAHA, RFK Jr., Casey and Calley Means, and more generally the incoming Trump administration, are on board with dismantling the legal and regulatory frameworks that allowed the travesties of Covid to happen – this will be particularly hard to hear.

If you’ve been told that “we just have to wait until Bobby is confirmed” to start speaking out about the crimes of Covid and to agitate for change – this article might make you reconsider that strategy.

And if you realized during Covid (as I did), or long before (as many others did) that covert agendas are inexorably dismantling the protections against tyranny that we thought we enjoyed in Western democracies – this article will provide yet another indication that the process continues unabated.

Although I obviously cannot reverse this process, I can at least do as much as possible to expose it.

Here I will explore the part played by Casey and Calley Means in the ongoing subversion of the medical freedom movement – a movement built upon the decades-long work of genuine activists, and that drew a whole new cohort during Covid (including me!).

I will provide detailed analysis regarding:

1. The disconnect between the Means siblings’ backgrounds and careers and their vaunted position as health freedom activists

2. The contradictions, obfuscations and apparent lies in the story about how Calley Means brokered the Trump-Kennedy alliance that ended RFK Jr’s independent bid for the Presidency and possibly won the election for Donald Trump

3. The ways in which the Means message directly subverts the real agendas of medical freedom and civil rights

THE MEANSES’ LACK OF QUALIFICATIONS FOR MAHA LEADERSHIP

Casey Means: 37 years old, Born September 24, 1987 [ref]

Casey Means (the female sibling) got a BA from Stanford and an MD from Stanford Medical School (2014), completed four and a quarter (out of five) years of surgical residency at OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University), and quit in September 2018, before she became a surgeon. She then got a certificate from the Institute for Functional Medicine, co-founded a “metabolic health company” in 2019 called Levels that sells subscriptions for constant glucose monitoring ($184/month) and blood tests ($99 a pop), and co-wrote a self-help book with her brother, published on May 9, 2024, called Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Glucose, Metabolism and Limitless Health that spent several months at the top of the NYT best-seller list in the category “Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous.” She went on many podcasts, TV, and radio shows to talk about the book, which she says on her website “will help you optimize your ability to live well and stay well at every age.”

During Covid lockdowns and vaccine mandates – a time that coincided with her writing the book – Casey did not post, speak or write anything against the pandemic response, except to argue that all our ills are caused by “metabolic dysfunction” and “Joe Biden Should Declare a Food and Nutrition War.” She did not get cancelled or shadow banned, nor did she lose her job or livelihood. In fact, while millions were losing their jobs and businesses, and while medical professionals who spoke out against Hippocratic Oath violations were censored, cancelled and fired, not only did Casey Means remain mum on these topics, she also managed to rake in impressive investments to her company. As STAT News reported in 2024, Levels “has raised nearly $100 million in venture capital funding in three years” (that would be 2021-2024).

That’s Casey’s resume before August 2024. Yet, somehow, she has been presented to the public as a leading medical freedom crusader.

Calley Means: 39 years old, born September 28, 1985

Calley (the male sibling) got a BA from Stanford, during which time he also held positions as a White House Intern, Research Analyst at the Heritage Foundation, “consultant” at Booz Allen Hamilton (a defense and national security consulting company), and contributor to “strategy” for John McCain. [ref] Although he worked at each of these positions for less than a year [ref], getting such jobs while still a college student required a remarkable level of access to national political and business centers of power – most likely provided by his father, Grady Means, a global business and political insider (about whom I will write more in an upcoming article).

After graduating from Stanford in 2008, aged 23, Calley worked for two years as a “Director” (a big title for a junior employee) at the p.r. firm Mercury, and two more years as an Account Supervisor at the global p.r. firm Edelman. He went on to get a Harvard Business degree (2013-2015) and then worked for a year in “Operations Strategy” at Zenefits, a startup that raised half a billion dollars in 2015, the year Calley worked there, and crashed a year later under a cloud of scandal [ref].

After business school and Zenefits, Calley became a successful entrepreneur and investor. From 2017-2022 he was Co-Founder and President of a custom bridal dress company called Anomalie with his wife, Leslie Voorhees Means. Their total funding is reported by crunchbase to be $18.1 million, with the last round on March 1, 2019. In 2022, David’s Bridal acquired Anomalie for an undisclosed amount. This must have provided a nice windfall for Calley and Leslie during Covid, while many people were losing their incomes and businesses. Ironically, a year later, in April 2023, David’s Bridal filed for bankruptcy, citing post-Covid difficulties as a main reason.

In 2022, Calley became the co-founder of TrueMed, described by PitchBook as “a healthcare payment integration system” that funnels money from pre-tax HSA and FSA funds into the exercise equipment, gyms and supplement sellers that partner with the company. As STAT News reported in 2024, TruMed was valued at more than $40 million last year (2023). As of January 2024, it had raised $20.5 million in VC funding.

Calley has also reported investing in business ventures including Atai (“a leading mental health/psychedelic company”), Delix (“a leading psychedelic company”), and Rejuveron/Centera (a longevity/biotech company), as well as “consumer startups” such as RapidSOS (a company that connects data from personal devices to emergency responders), UpSmith (business productivity software), Dynamic.xyz (wallet-based authentication), and Vibe (TV ad platform). [ref]

While doing all this investing, business selling, and VC fund-raising during Covid, Calley did not speak, tweet, publish or participate in any organizations opposing lockdowns, vaccine mandates, or civil rights or Hippocratic Oath violations. Like his sister, when he did mention Covid, it was always in the context of complaining that we should be focusing on obesity and “metabolic dysfunction” rather than anything else. As an example, while medical freedom activists were horrified at the lack of safety and efficacy data for the mRNA shots that were being forced on large swaths of the population, Calley was concerned that the donuts being used as bait were contributing to obesity, as in this tweet from June 14, 2021:

Today, according to his LinkedIn and PragerU bios, Calley is active in groups such as the Council on Foreign Relations - a central hub for business and political elites closely enmeshed with the CIA, military-industrial complex, and global public-private partnerships [ref][ref][ref]; Teneo - a global CEO advisory firm; and Stand Together - A “philanthropic community” founded by Charles Koch.

Twisting Calley and Casey’s backgrounds and qualifications to make them seem like health freedom activists

So far we’ve seen that Casey and Calley Means spent their entire lives before 2024 getting degrees from, or dropping out of, prestigious academic institutions; working for globally influential businesses and organizations; founding, selling, and investing in companies worth tens of millions of dollars; and, during Covid, complaining that we should be focused on obesity rather than the death and destruction wrought by lockdowns and mRNA vaccines.

This, to me, seems sufficient evidence of a lack of connectedness with the medical freedom movement, rebranded as MAHA when RFK Jr. joined the Trump campaign – which is when the Means siblings suddenly emerged as powerful political players.

But there’s so much more to the story. In order to reconcile what we just learned about the incompatibility of the Meanses’ resumes with their abrupt rise to MAHA prominence, Casey and Calley and their media promoters have had to undertake impressive campaigns of contorted messaging, obfuscation and misinformation.

I will include the most blatant example of the rebranding of Casey and Calley Means from globalist-oriented entrepreneurs to health freedom champions here. In a forthcoming article, I will provide many more.

RFK Jr.’s blatantly false portrayal of Casey and Calley in the most important speech of his life

In the historic speech by RFK Jr. on August 23, 2024, in which he announced that he would suspend his run for President and throw his support behind Donald Trump, several strange moments occurred, all involving the Means siblings.

Right in the middle of the speech, Kennedy said:

I would urge you to view Tucker Carlson’s recent interview with Calley Means and his sister, Dr. Casey Means, who was the top graduate of her class at Stanford Medical School.” [min. 29][full transcript]

And moments later he announced:

Calley [Means] is arguably the leading advocate for food safety, for soil regeneration, and for ending the chronic disease epidemic that is destroying America’s health and ruining our economy. Calley has exposed the insidious corruption at the FDA, the NIH, the HHS, and the USDA that has caused the epidemic.

Why did RFK Jr., in perhaps the most consequential speech of his life, find it important not only to recommend a very specific podcast, but also to provide the academic qualifications of someone with as little known national political importance as Casey Means? And not only provide her qualifications, but actually misstate them! I can find no evidence that Casey was the top graduate of her Stanford Med School class, nor does she ever claim this in any print pieces, online resumes, or appearances. Her Linkedin page includes no mention of any honors or awards at all associated with her medical degree from Stanford. (I reached out to Stanford Medical School to fact check this statement, but have received no response as of the publication of this article.)

Similarly, given Calley’s professional background as detailed above, I would argue it is impossible to support the idea that he is not just a leading advocate, but THE leading advocate for all the things Kennedy mentions. Most ludicrous is “soil regeneration” which I’ve heard Calley Means spend perhaps a total of one and a half minutes mentioning in all of his major podcast appearances in 2024. Before 2021 he exhibited absolutely no interest in these issues.

When I listened to Kennedy’s entire speech while researching this article, I was startled. Having considered him a genuine medical freedom fighter and straight talker, I could not understand why he would make such obviously false statements about people nobody cared about at the time – not to mention endorsing a random podcast in such a personally and politically consequential speech.

As I researched the Means siblings, it became clear that there were power plays involving them behind the scenes, in which Kennedy was either willingly or reluctantly (I still don’t know which) participating.

CALLEY MEANS’ ROLE IN FORGING THE TRUMP-KENNEDY ALLIANCE

I believe events that occurred on July 13, 2024 – in the hours right after Donald Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Butler, PA – hold the key to understanding the role the Means siblings are actually playing on the national stage and the reason why narratives have been created to distract us from that role.

Here’s how The New York Times reported on the July 13th events in a September 2, 2024 article, which The Times says is based on interviews with more than 20 people:

About three hours after former President Donald J. Trump was nearly assassinated, on a Saturday evening in mid-July, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got a phone call: Would he consider joining forces with Mr. Trump? What about serving as his running mate?

The caller was Calley Means, a health care entrepreneur who had advised Mr. Kennedy on chronic disease policy.

This is an astonishing piece of news, which implies that Calley Means, the person RFK Jr. called “the leading advocate for food safety and soil regeneration,” was actually working as a backroom political power broker at a moment of extreme political and historical significance.

And he apparently had the authority to suggest to RFK Jr., who was running independently for President, that Donald Trump – who had narrowly escaped death just a few hours before – might consider him as his running mate.

This story corroborates a very strange moment in RFK Jr’s momentous August 23, 2024 speech (mentioned above). Right at the midpoint, after decrying the erosion of free speech and democracy in the country, invoking the legacy of his beloved father and uncle, and emphasizing the urgency of ending the Ukraine War, Kennedy abruptly changed the subject and told a very detailed story about how Calley Means brokered the alliance between him and Trump.

Here’s what Kennedy said [starting about min. 25 of 8/23/24 speech]:

Less than 2 hours after Trump narrowly escaped assassination, Calley Means called me on my cellphone. I was in Las Vegas. Calley is arguably the leading advocate for food safety, for soil regeneration, and for ending the chronic disease epidemic that is destroying America’s health and ruining our economy. Calley has exposed the insidious corruption at the FDA, the NIH, the HHS and the USDA that has caused the epidemic. Calley has been working on and off for my campaign advising me on those subjects since the beginning.

I was delighted when Calley told me that day that he had also been advising President Trump. He told me President Trump was anxious to talk to me about chronic disease and other subjects and to explore avenues of cooperation. He asked if I would take a call from the President. President Trump telephoned me a few minutes later and I met with him the following day.

In addition to the surprising role of Calley Means in this story, a few other noteworthy points stand out:

-Kennedy says that Calley was working on and off for his campaign and advising him on food safety, soil regeneration and the chronic disease epidemic “since the beginning.”

-Kennedy also says Calley told him he had been advising President Trump and that Trump told Calley he was anxious to talk to Kennedy “about chronic disease and other subjects.”

Another interesting point in the NYT story is who else was involved in brokering the Trump-Kennedy alliance:

When Mr. Means got off the phone with Mr. Kennedy on July 13, he reached out to Mr. [Tucker] Carlson.

That evening, just hours after Mr. Trump was shot, Mr. Carlson connected Mr. Kennedy to the former president on a three-way text message, and the two candidates agreed to talk.

So not only did Calley Means have the authority to call RFK Jr. and dangle the Vice Presidency as bait for joining the Trump campaign, he was also able to get through immediately to Tucker Carlson, who then set up a Kennedy-Trump call.

All of this suggests an entirely different source of authority for Calley’s meteoric rise to the top of the RFK Jr. and MAHA transition effort than the advocacy work he supposedly engaged in (but that his resume shows he never actually did). Who exactly gave him this authority? I do not know. But it looks like RFK Jr., among others, is not eager for us to find out.

Neither is Calley himself.

When challenged about his role in brokering the Trump-Kennedy alliance in a Danny Jones podcast on December 28, 2024, Calley said he barely had any ties with Kennedy or Trump:

I got to know Bobby, I met him a couple of times… I’ve talked to Trump folks a couple of times. [min. 1:18:15]

My sister and I have been very loose, like, with Kennedy. Like, we’re, I think, really aligned on this message of the childhood chronic disease crisis. And have shared some ideas with him, have gone on some podcasts with him, have spoken at some of his events. And haven’t talked to him that much at all during the campaign. [min. 2:20:23]

I haven’t talked to Trump a lot. [min. 1:49:42]

These statements appear to contradict the assertions in Kennedy’s speech that Calley “worked on and off for my campaign from the beginning” and that “he was also advising Trump.”

When asked to clarify why he was the person identified as having initiated and helped to broker the Trump-Kennedy deal, Calley was not forthcoming, to say the least:

So so so so… and I’ve talked about this…Things like the Tucker podcast… and you people have probably seen this… people reach out. I’ve made some good alliances with other… I’m just saying… The energy that you put out brings interesting people to you. We have been… I’ve been connected to Trump advisors in the past year who I think really care about the chronic disease issue. And Trump talked about it very eloquently before the Bobby endorsement. And got to know Bobby. Not that particularly well. But there’s, you know, a vibe here. [min 1:50:00]

Here Calley appears to be claiming that it was “the Tucker podcast” and the “energy” that he “put out” that made people “reach out” and make alliances with him (presumably Kennedy and Trump). But the Tucker podcast happened on August 16, 2024, over a month after his post-assasination machinations.

Later on the same podcast, Calley ties himself into even bigger knots:

I just felt…from DC… I think we all… and maybe you honestly attribute more strategy and thought to what people do than actually I see happening…

I had a real strong sense from my experience that maybe there was a different road to go after the shooting…

I was nervous but I decided to just call him for 20 seconds and mention that. Um, and then, um, he thought about it and ended up starting that conversation. That was a 20 second conversation. You know, that was Kennedy, you know, um, just thinking about it…

[min. 2:20:44]

Let’s compare that account of events to what Calley said just two months earlier, in an October 8, 2024 episode of the Joe Rogan Experience. Rogan asked Calley to talk about his role in forging the RFK/Trump alliance. Calley began his answer with:

When I think about that story I literally think about 2021. Our mom abruptly dying of pancreatic cancer. [min. 1:17:50]

This huge non sequitur led into a minute and a half of unrelated ramblings before Calley finally tried to actually answer Rogan’s question:

Sitting watching the first assassination attempt I had like a spiritual, what I can call, like an out of body experience. And I felt the need to call Robert. …And I had this vision for a year, actually, it sounds very woo woo, but I was in a sweat tent with him in Austin at a campaign event six months before, and I just had this strong vision of.. um… of him standing with Trump. [min. 1:19:11]

Calley, who later said he was not on close terms at all with Kennedy and didn’t talk to him a lot during the campaign, was clearly implying here that he’s on a first name basis with Kennedy: When he “feels the need to call Robert” he picks up the phone and Robert presumably answers.

Calley concluded with what he himself described as a “woo woo” answer:

So that was all the context, picked up the phone, called him, and just urged him as a supporter, as a lowly supporter to consider maybe this is the time, as President Trump put his fist up, you know, with all this momentum. …

So we went back and forth and he asked, you know, he’s like, let me talk to him. [min. 1:19:45]

Does this sound like a “20-second” phone call? And does it sound like a call a “lowly supporter” would make?

All of that is perplexing enough. But Calley did not stop his story there. He described the weeks of conversations leading up to Kennedy’s eventually suspending his campaign and supporting Trump (in that momentous speech in which he names Casey and Calley and misrepresents their credentials and says they were advising him from the beginning).

Thus we learn that Calley was not only the instigator of the Trump-RFK alliance, but was around for subsequent negotiations, which he described in this truly bizarre story:

And here’s the key point I want to make from my small vantage point here: They had weeks of conversations. And there was not a discussion of polling. There was not a discussion of the horserace and how this would impact the race. These were tear-filled conversations about why kids are getting so diabetic. About why we have such obese children in the United States. About why we have a fertility crisis. [min. 1:20:46]

The unlikeliness of all of the above is self-evident. Trying to imagine Trump and RFK Jr. having “tear-filled conversations” about anything, let alone “why kids are getting so diabetic” or crying about “why we have such obese children in the United States” is patently absurd.

What all of this reveals is that Calley Means somehow had the power and authority to play a major role in brokering a historical alliance with the potential to determine the outcome of a Presidential election. But, for some reason, he and other powerful people, including RFK Jr., do not want us to know the real reason.

That’s why RFK Jr. grossly exaggerated Calley’s credentials as a health freedom activist by calling him “the leading advocate” for things like “soil regeneration,” while Calley himself claims he’s just a “lowly supporter” with a “small vantage point” on politically momentous events.

But why is it so important to cover up the real role of Casey and Calley Means in the MAHA movement and Trump/RFK transition into government? I would contend it’s because their job is to dilute and dissipate the Covid-focused medical freedom movement’s momentum.

Again, I used to believe that RFK Jr. shared a genuine passion for this agenda. Now I’m not so sure.

HOW THE MEANSES’ MESSAGING SUBVERTS THE MEDICAL FREEDOM AGENDA

Unlike the stories about their backgrounds and ability to broker one of the most consequential political alliances in recent American history, the Means siblings’ claims about the ills of the American medical system, the harms of ultra-processed foods, and the pervasiveness of chronic disease are generally true.

As they endlessly and loudly proclaim:

-Enormous amounts of unregulated chemicals in food and in the environment are doubtless causing morbidity and mortality in the U.S. population, and have been for decades, as we all know.

-Corrupt corporate influence has created perverse incentives so that pharmaceutical companies and the entire medical system profit from people being sick, not from making them healthy. Again, not news.

-Huge swaths of the population are being medicated for chronic diseases, like diabetes, that could be mitigated through lifestyle changes. Indeed, countless lucrative careers in diet and lifestyle coaching have been built around this premise.

-Prescribing Ozempic to every overweight child and adult on Medicare will bankrupt the country. Of course.

And so on.

The problem with this messaging is not whether it’s true. The problem is that it distracts from and dissipates the urgency of the post-Covid medical freedom agenda: exposing the atrocities of the lockdown-until-vaccine response, repealing all the laws and regulations that made it possible, and preventing further injury and death from mRNA vaccine products.

Another huge problem with the Meanses’ message – an intentional one, I would contend – is that it obscures the acute recent rises in death and illness since the introduction of the mRNA shots, by claiming that “metabolic dysfunction” caused by poisons in our food and environment is the underlying cause of everything.

Consider this question: If there was an unregulated, globally mandated intervention that caused millions of injuries and deaths over the last four years, what better way to hide the specific cause of those injuries and deaths than by claiming that poisonous chemicals have actually been causing a rapid rise in those exact types of injuries and deaths for decades?

Here’s just one sequence of quotes that exemplifies how the Casey and Calley accomplish this sleight of messaging:

We all want kids to be healthy. We all want people to be healthy, but it’s all interconnected with all the systems. With all the issues. [Joe Rogan 10/8/24 podcast, min. 11:52]

We live in a toxic stew. [Joe Rogan 10/8/24 podcast, min. 56:20]

This year, in 2024, is the highest rates in American history of Alzheimer’s, cancer, autoimmune conditions, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, kidney disease, autism. Every single chronic disease you could think of is at an all-time high. [Joe Rogan 10/8/24 podcast, min. 59:38]

Bobby is going to instruct the NIH with President Trump to do unbiased research on every single area that impacts American public health. That’s what they’re going to do. [Epoch TV interview, posted January 7, 2025]

See how it works? Talk about health in general and how our toxic environment is causing chronic illness, then specify all the conditions that are supposedly being caused by the “toxic stew,” and finally propose a ridiculously general and ineffectual solution.

Covid lockdowns resulting in poverty, loss of education, depression and suicide? Nothing to see here folks. mRNA shots causing millions of injuries and deaths in just a few years, including autoimmune conditions, heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer? No way to confirm, so let’s just move on.

That’s the play.

And for those who have been fighting to expose the evils of the Covid era and make sure they never happen again – it’s devastating.

CONCLUSION

Transition times are, by definition, unstable and chaotic. People and groups that want to maintain control need to exert extra energy during such times to ensure that rogue individuals or groups do not destabilize the system or seize too much power.

During the transition from Covid to post-Covid, and from Biden to his successor, it became necessary for powerful people and groups to manage a populist uprising, enraged at the abuses of the Covid lockdowns and the harms of the mRNA products, and make it less volatile and more controllable.

I believe two agents of this effort are Calley and Casey Means. And I believe RFK Jr. is cooperating with them, either because he believes he can actually make substantive changes within the government bureaucracy and he thinks he needs their help to get there, or because pressure is being exerted from unacknowledged entities.

If RFK Jr. was the genuine disruptor many believe him to be, he would take advantage of the transition period that frightens established centers of power and that is the best time to cause major upheaval. He would not care about a bureaucratic position more than he would care about saving lives by warning people about, for example, the dangers of the mRNA injections. He would take advantage of the fact that he has more media attention and a bigger microphone than ever before to cause major agitation in the system, even if it means that he does not get a government job in one public health agency or another.

Imagine if RFK Jr. had announced on August 23, 2024, instead of suspending his run for President, which gave him a bigger platform and brighter spotlight than he ever had, that he was organizing a march on D.C. for anyone harmed by the Covid shots, anyone who knew someone who was harmed, and anyone who knew someone who died. And that simultaneous marches would occur in capitals all over the world.

That’s what I would expect from someone who genuinely wants to impact public opinion and lead a resistance movement.

As Brownstone and Substack writer Josh Stylman recently wrote:

Real change won't come from movements that protect institutional interests while posing as opposition. It demands fearlessly confronting uncomfortable truths—no matter how threatening to the system they may be. The question isn’t just whether we’ll demand accountability, but whether we’ll recognize and resist the subtle ways our demands are redirected and defused. Our response to this medical catastrophe will reveal if we’ve truly learned to see through these patterns of control.

I hope this article will help more people see what’s happening and try to resist.