In This Body

Your body is not why you are. Eating disorder recovery expert, Anna Sweeney, shares her personal story to how she came to this belief and will inspire you to reframe your purpose on this earth away from your body. "I am very clear that my function on this planet actually doesn't have anything to do with my body, and I feel very confident in saying that." -Anna Sweeney, RD

What's one way to push against the systems of oppression that prey upon our shame and insecurities? Get angry! In this show, wellness journalist and linguist, Maxine Ali, has constructive conversations about anger, self-care, body neutrality, and the wellness world at large. "The biggest thing you can do is just exist openly and not shrink yourself. Not reduce yourself to a palatable version of what other people want you to be. Not hide yourself or conform yourself to ideals that we've been socialized into pursuing." -Maxine Ali

What is the bigger picture of systemic oppression? Liana Maneese, the Founder of The Good Peoples Group's Center on Interracial Relationships dives deep into the concept of "cultural whiteness" and why you cannot disconnect it from eating disorders. "The body is political. The body is the mark of everything. And so we have to remember that no matter what we're talking about, we have to look at how are these bodies treated." -Liana

Beck uses his voice to bridge the divide between the trans community and the rest of the world. In this episode, he covers common experiences a trans man faces living in his body and offers key educational moments for non-trans people to understand what it is like to live with this identity. "No one can take your identity from you. Whether they misgender you, whether they say something bad about trans people." -Beck Gee Cohen

Kimmie Singh is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who helps people heal their relationships to food and their body through a fat positive perspective built upon an anti-oppressive framework. Intrigued? In this episode of In This Body, Kimmie Singh candidly shares how her early life and identity have impacted her career as a fat body positive provider.

Sit down with body image researcher, Nadia Craddock and learn the latest science on appearance, the comparison process, and moving from body shame to body respect. And in the true spirit of the In This Body podcast, Nadia shares her personal experience of being a biracial women and the additional pressure to not only be exceptional, but also be an example of what that looks like. "Re-shifting some of my focus from achievement to connection has been really important." - Nadia Craddock, PhD

It took SJ Thompson a long time before they ever felt like they could actually be in their body and not hate it and not blame themselves for all the ways society is not made for them. A huge part of their ED recovery has been to figure out how to be angry and learn how to not operate from a place of shame. "Silence adds to shame and silence doesn't help you express your anger." -SJ Thompson

Where are all my people at? According to Annie Segarra, queer disabled latinx (she/they) activist for body positivity, LGBTQ+, disability, chronic illness, mental health, and autism says they are out there waiting for you to find them. In this show, learn about diversifying your social media feed, finding your community - the people who understand your experiences and the activists who are fighting for you. "There's so many people that live in shame about their disabilities and isolate themselves from the community that they could potentially have."

Is the #BoPo movement doing the best it can? Does the hyper focus on positivity drown out the real need to address the negative impacts of body oppression? Learn what author, coach, self-love advocate, and magnificently irreverent force Jes Baker has to say about social media, diet culture, boundaries, and hard conversations that move us forward. "If we wait to be perfect, we won't get anything done." ~Jes Baker

Savala Nolan's social justice work is critical to changing our world. She is the executive Director of the Center for Social Justice at UC Berkeley School of Law and author of the recently published book Don't Let it Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body. In this show, she gets personal about her recovery from extreme dieting, overexercising, and self-loathing and why systems of oppression encourage us to see the "problem" as within ourselves. "As a woman, as a fat person, as a woman of color, who's black, you know, every system I interact with is liable to have biases operating within it that disfavor those parts of who I am." -Savala Nolan

As the Co-Founder of the Institute for Antiracism and Equity in Mental Health and the Deputy Director at Ayana Therapy, Dr. Norman Kim is a leading expert in the ways racism and oppression impact our mental health system. His clear sense of mission for greater diversity, equity, and inclusion comes from his first hand experience of living with a pervasive sense of "otherness" and not wanting his sons to experience the same lack of belonging. "That constant sense of otherness, and that constant idea of, not belonging has made a profound impact. I've tried to take that feeling and sort of do something. I've tried to own it in my own kind of way, with my tattoos and a certain kind of style." ~Dr. Norman Kim