Podcast Themes: Body Positivity and Fat Activism
Podcast 152: Changing the Value Systems in Yoga with Janessa Mondestin, Yoga Therapist and Director of Culture, Yoga International
Janessa Mondestin wants to see radical change in the way yoga and wellness spaces operate. She wants people to talk about White Supremacy within the systems and she wants people at all levels to do the work.
In Part 2 of White Supremacy in Yoga series, we discuss the harms and the fixes, including what you can do as a yoga teacher, teacher trainer, student, or person who cares about anti-racism work. This includes reading books, having conversations, and taking meaningful actions.
Air Date: July 2020
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Podcast 131: Actress Lisa Linke on Diet Culture, Fatphobia in Entertainment and Healing Her Body Relationship
Actress and comedian Lisa Linke (Bless the Mess on ABC) joins me to talk about the intersections of diet culture and entertainment.
We discuss how social media continues to help her on her relationship with her body. Plus she dishes on her podcast Go Help Yourself and a free way you can coax her into doing (legit) silly stuff on Instagram.
Air Date: October 2019
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Podcast 130: Empowering teens to find validation within themselves with Angie Manfredi, author of The (Other) F Word
As a mom I wonder daily how I’m doing at helping my kids make sense of the world and that includes their bodies, other people’s bodies, and how we all treat each other. Angie Manfredi has collected a powerful book of essays, art, and poems from adults speaking directly to teens who may feel like they don’t belong because they believe “my body is a problem”. The (Other) F Word: A Celebration of the Fat and Fierce reads like empowering “love letters” from the contributors to their younger life versions…. the book they wish they had when they needed it.
In this interview we discuss reasons why many fat activists want to liberate the word fat as a descriptor and why that is hard for many people to do. (Hint: cultural rules and norms!)
Air Date: October 2019
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[Repost] Episode 53: Why We All Need Fat Activism with Marilyn Wann, Author of Fat!So? and Creator of the YAY! Scale
I’m replaying a fan favorite (and one of my favorite episodes) of Body Kindness from one of my favorite teachers.
What if we all were fat activists? It’s an interesting thought for people who are finally at the place of rejecting diets and a singular (thin) standard for beauty and health.
Tune in to hear my conversation with long-time Fat Activist and author of Fat!So? Marilyn Wann joins me to discuss why it’s wrong when people say “you should lose weight for health reasons”. She shares ideas for fat activism that go beyond getting angry and protesting in the streets to include meaningful choices anyone can make to reject body oppression and instead, practice self-care.
Air Date: July 2019
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Podcast 124: Eliminating weight stigma from medical care with Jennifer Gaudiani MD, author of Sick Enough
Weight stigma is harmful to human health at all sizes. The medical community upholds weight stigma and harms the very people they should be helping by weighing patients without informed consent, blaming weight on non weight related concerns like earaches and wrist pain, and recommending weight loss based on the unscientific BMI measurement. Medicine must work from the inside out to eradicate the problems they have perpetuated. Dr. Jennifer Gaudiani author of the book Sick Enough has made weight inclusive medical care a priority at her Denver based telemedicine clinic and she shares her ideas for why doctors must act to eradicate weight stigma on this episode.
Air Date: July 2019
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Episode 90: You Have the Right to Remain Fat (and be a fat ally) with Virgie Tovar
I talk to author and fat activist Virgie Tovar about her new book You Have the Right to Remain Fat.
Tune in as Virgie shares her manifesto for standing up to diet culture.
Air Date: August 2018
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Episode 79: Diets Can Kiss My A** with Jes Baker author of Landwhale and Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls
In her latest book, a memoir aptly titled Landwhale (you’ll find out why in the show), Jes Baker, covers important topics in the body positivity and fat liberation space that need to be discussed in the mainstream culture and she does it all through beautiful writing from her personal experience with a liberal dose of blunt honesty and humor.
Jes and I discuss her evolving relationship with her body and how to deal with HAES “trolls”. Plus we discuss why dieting is the greatest scam of them all from her chapter on “Have you ever thought of dieting?”.
Air Date: May 2018
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Episode 75: Your Body Is Not an Apology, with Author, Poet, and Activist Sonya Renee Taylor
Are you in need of some radical self-love? This is your Body Kindness episode.
Sonya Renee Taylor is the Founder and Radical Executive Officer of The Body is Not An Apology, a digital media and education company promoting radical self-love and body empowerment as the foundational tool for social justice and global transformation.
Air Date: April 2018
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Episode 71: Athletes at Every Size and The Plight of the “Fit Fatty” with Ragen Chastain, Guinness World Record Holder, Speaker, and Fat Activist
Get the inside details of what it takes to certify a Guinness World Record from Ragen Chastain, a speaker, writer, and Certified Health Coach.
Ragen is the heaviest female to complete a marathon. She is healthy. She is fit. She is fat. In this podcast Ragen will help inspire you to reframe exercise in your life away from body shame and weight loss goals — at any size! Tune in to learn some of the unspoken ways we are excluding higher weight people from movement as a society and how we can change.
Air Date: February 2018
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Episode 66: How to Do “Body Positivity” with Megan Crabbe (aka BodyPosiPanda), author of Body Positive Power
Megan Crabbe, author of Body Positive Power joins me. In our conversation, we address how difficult real body positivity work can be — issues of privilege, intersectionality, diversity, and the idea that barely sitting outside “the norm” of weight and beauty is not enough to create necessary change in our culture.
Megan says we must watch out for the “trolls,” give compassion to people still entrenched in diet culture, and keep doing this work because it’s helping people.
Air Date: January 2018
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Podcast 27: Culture Jamming and Mindful Healing with Jes Baker
Jes Baker gives two proud middle fingers to our culture that dictates what is valuable and beautiful. Through her blog, The Militant Baker, her book, Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls, speaking engagements, and social media spaces, Jes has disrupted the “thin ideal” by challenging marketing of clothes, perfume, and more showing that fat bodies get to enjoy all the things thin bodies can enjoy.
Jes calls in (not calls out) the fat phobic nature of the current body positivity movement and challenges all of us to become aware of intersectionality issues around body positivity, as well as how to be an inclusive ally to the fat acceptance movement. Her 3 (not at all) easy steps: 1. Use your voice. 2. Listen 3. Improve.
Air Date: April 2017
