Dig into the underdiscussed corners of the human experience. Each week, host Anita Rao leads intimate conversations with people unafraid to question what we think we know about identity, relationships and health. Follow the show on Instagram at @embodiedwunc and on Bluesky at embodiedwunc.bsky.social. You can find Anita on Bluesky at asrao.bsky.social.
What does becoming a mother do to your brain, body and sense of self? Anita — currently in her third trimester — puts that question to science writer Lucy Jones. Lucy spent years studying matrescence, a word for the shift that happens during pregnancy, childbirth and becoming a parent. They talk about Lucy's own path through motherhood and why we need new ways to support mothers through this transformation that never really ends. Meet the guest: - Lucy Jones is the author of “ Matrescence: On Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood ” Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied
Imagine sitting down in a theater only to be distracted from the performance by armrests digging into your sides. Or arriving at the doctor’s office to find the patient gown won’t fit. For tens of millions of Americans in larger bodies, experiences like this are part of everyday life. Anita talks to two people who argue this is a design problem, not a personal one. Artist Suzy Hooker is building a free, searchable directory that rates the accessibility of everyday spaces and designer Margarita Zulueta is reimagining how places like airplanes could be built with fat bodies in mind. Meet the guests: - Suzy Hooker is an artist, fat activist, cohost of the podcast " Thunder Thighs and Bedroom Eyes " and the founder of Fat Fab Free - Margarita Zulueta is a product designer whose thesis is about designing towards fat liberation Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied
When Philip Hoover and his wife Lauren Hill-Hoover tested positive for COVID-19 in 2022, they thought they knew what to expect. But then Philip’s symptoms persisted, morphed and intensified. They talk to Anita about how an illness that’s affected tens of millions of Americans upended their life and forced them to confront big, existential questions, like: What does caring for each other in sickness and in health *really* mean? Meet the guests: - Philip Hoover is a writer who has long COVID - Lauren Hill-Hoover is Philip's wife Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied Dig deeper: Philip's Modern Love essay Please note: This episode originally published August 7, 2025. Updates: Philip and Lauren have now moved into their own place, and Philip is starting graduate school in the fall to pursue his Master’s of Social Work. He still lives with long COVID, and there are still no FDA-approved treatments for the condition.
Somewhere between 20-50% of children are picky eaters at some point in early childhood, and many of us assume that’s just how kids naturally are. But after historian Helen Zoe Veit spent more than a decade reading memoirs, cookbooks and parenting manuals from the past 200 years, she came to a radically different conclusion: picky eating is not inevitable. It is a modern cultural phenomenon. She tells Anita how we got here — to the age of bland kids’ menus and dinner tables ruled by toddlers yelling ‘yucky!’ Plus what lessons history has for modern-day parents. Meet the guest: - Helen Zoe Veit is the author of “ Picky: How American Children Became the Fussiest Eaters in History ” and an associate professor of history at Michigan State University Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied
When Yowei Shaw got laid off two years ago, there was no amount of bad TV, fried food or even therapy that could get her out of a deep emotional rut. So, she turned to the one thing that had worked in the past: reporting on her feelings. That journey led her to starting a new podcast called Proxy and inventing a new journalism beat: emotional investigative journalism. Anita talks to Yowei about why and how she reports on emotions (both hers and other people’s) and the surprising discoveries she’s made along the way. Meet the guest: - Yowei Shaw is the host and creator of Proxy Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied Please note: This episode originally published July 31, 2025.
Money problems are rarely just about money. In fact behavioral economists have shown that many of our financial decisions are driven by emotion, not logic. Anita talks to financial educator Chantel Chapman about her belief that before you can fix your finances, you have to deal with your trauma. Plus, financial therapist LaQueshia Clemons on a trauma-informed approach to helping couples deal with money. Meet the guests: - Chantel Chapman is the founder of the Trauma of Money Institute , a certification program for professionals to learn a trauma-informed approach to money, and the author of “ The Trauma of Money ” - LaQueshia Clemons is a licensed clinical social worker and the founder and CEO of Freedom Life Therapy and Wellness Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied
For most of the first few decades of his life, Indigenous writer and filmmaker Julian Brave NoiseCat didn’t see much of his father, who left the family when Julian was 6. In the handful of times they did see each other over the years, that history of abandonment made it hard to connect. But when Julian was 28, he moved across the country and moved in with his dad to make a documentary and write a book about their family’s history. Julian talks to Anita about how the decision to dig into his family’s past and Indigenous history broke open his relationship with his dad and led to healing. He also shares how his questions about Native fatherhood have become more urgent now that he has his own son. Meet the guest: - Julian Brave NoiseCat is the co-director of the Oscar-nominated documentary Sugarcane and the author of " We Survived the Night " Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied
Rae Garringer grew up on a sheep farm in rural West Virginia, and once they left for college and came out as queer, they weren't sure they could ever move back. They believed the story they’d been told: to thrive as an out, LGBTQ+ person, you have to live in a city. But when Rae did move back in 2011, they realized that story was a lie. Anita talks to Rae about making queer life work in the country — from navigating dating challenges to getting along with neighbors you disagree with. They also talk about Rae’s oral history project, podcast and book “Country Queers,” which documents queer, rural life in 21 states around the country. Meet the guest: - Rae Garringer is the founder and director of Country Queers , an oral history project and podcast, and the author of " Country Queers " Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied Please note: This episode originally published June 12, 2025.
Sadie Dingfelder spent decades not recognizing people who knew her and not knowing why. At 39, she found an explanation: she is faceblind. She talks with Anita about how that discovery sent her down a journalistic rabbit hole that led her to rewrite a lot of her past and come to a fundamentally new understanding of her brain. Plus, her husband Steve joins the conversation to talk about how Sadie’s new diagnoses — including having a severely deficient autobiographical memory — shape their life together. Meet the guests: - Sadie Dingfelder , science journalist and author of " Do I Know You? A Faceblind Reporter’s Journey into the Science of Sight, Memory and Imagination " - Steven Hay , engineer and Sadie's husband Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied
For years, audio creator Helena de Groot felt almost certain that she did not want kids. Then, she got unexpectedly pregnant. That pregnancy was the first in a series of curveballs that set her on a path of questioning everything she thought she knew — not just about whether or not to have children, but about how to live with the doubt and uncertainty that comes with any big adult decision. Helena talks to Anita about this journey, captured in her new memoir podcast “Creation Myth.” Plus, Anita hears from a psychotherapist who has devoted her career to helping people find clarity in the choice about whether to become parents. Meet the guest: - Helena de Groot , creator of the audio memoir “ Creation Myth ” - Merle Bombardieri , parenting decision coach, psychotherapist and author of “ The Baby Decision: How to Make the Most Important Choice of Your Life ” Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied You can learn more about coaching opportunities with Merle Bombardieri here and also sign up for her newsletter here .
When Mary Cain stepped onto the track as a high schooler, it was clear that she was a once-in-a-generation kind of talent. Her rise was quick and spectacular, which made it all the more stunning that just a few years after going pro with Nike, she stepped back from competitive running. She joins Anita to talk about the physical and emotional abuse she says she experienced behind the scenes and the systemic change she is calling for in sports culture. Meet the guest: - Mary Cain , author of “ This is Not About Running: A Memoir ” and the founder of the nonprofit Atalanta NYC Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied NOTE: We reached out to Nike, Alberto Salazar and Darren Treasure for comment. You can find statements from Nike and Salazar here . We did not hear back from Darren Treasure.
Stuttering occurs in every culture with a spoken language. So why do many communities treat it as a source of shame? Two speech-language pathologists and a comedian help Anita question cultural assumptions about stuttering and explore the growing movement to embrace speech diversity. Meet the guests: - Dr. Derek Daniels , licensed and certified speech-language pathologist and associate professor in the department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Wayne State University, shares his own experience of stuttering and what we know about what causes stuttering - Jia Bin , doctoral student at Michigan State University, talks about growing up in rural China with a stutter and what she's hoping to bring back to the stuttering community there - Nina G , comedian and author of " Stutterer, Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn’t Happen ," explains why she decided to embrace her dream of doing stand-up and shares how her stuttering has impacted romantic and platonic relationships Dig Deeper: Follow Nina G's comedy on Instagram Jia on stuttering as a superpower Stuttering content on YouTube by Courtland Crain and Matice Ahnjamine National Stuttering Association website Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied Please note: This episode originally published March 31, 2023. Updates: You can learn more about Jia’s work at the Spartan Stuttering Lab here . You can learn more about National Stuttering Awareness Week here . Nina G is in the midst of the making the comedy docu-special: Comedians with Disabilities Act: Going Beyond The Punchlines .
How do you care for someone you struggle to communicate with ... and can never fully understand? That's the question anthropologist Danilyn Rutherford has been wrestling with for decades — ever since it became clear that her daughter Millie would never speak, sign or use symbols to express herself. Danilyn talks with Anita about how mothering a multiply-disabled child challenged her beliefs about the importance of language for human connection. Meet the guest: - Danilyn Rutherford is the author of “ Beautiful Mystery: Living in a Wordless World ” Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied
Comedian Chris Duffy believes everyone has a sense of humor. And if you think you don’t? That’s just years of adult socialization talking! He shares his roadmap for building a more humor-filled life, from learning to be present and notice the absurdities of the world to taking social risks. Plus, he and Anita workshop some comedy exercises that will not just get you laughing more — but also help you kickstart your creative juices and feel more connected to those around you. Meet the guest: - Chris Duffy is the host of the TED podcast “ How To Be a Better Human ” and the author of “ Humor Me: How Laughing More Can Make You Present, Creative, Connected, and Happy ” Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied
When the #MeToo movement exploded in 2017, journalist Ruth Whippman — nearly nine months pregnant with her third son — experienced a profound conflict. As a feminist, she celebrated the movement; as a mother, she worried: "How am I gonna raise these boys to be good?" This tension launched Ruth on a quest to understand modern American boyhood and what's not working. Ruth and her husband Neil Levine tell Anita about their journey of putting Ruth’s research into practice, working to give their sons the emotional tools to thrive in a changing world — and what’s at stake if we don’t shift our approach to raising boys. Meet the guests: - Ruth Whippman is the author of " BoyMom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity " - Neil Levine is Ruth's husband Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied Please note: This episode originally published May 8, 2025.
Kaila Yu spent years as an Asian American pinup model, singer and actress, leaning into a hypersexualized image of Asian femininity and burying her doubts about it. But after the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings, she started reckoning with how fetishization can lead to violence — and interrogating her own role in perpetuating harmful stereotypes. She talks with Anita about her new memoir. Plus, a sociologist breaks down how history and Hollywood built the stereotypes in the first place and what we can do to break free. Meet the guests: - Kaila Yu is a culture writer and the author of " Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism and Beauty " - Nancy Wang Yuen is a sociologist and a professor in the department of ethnic studies at Crafton Hills College and the author of “ Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism ” Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied
Gen Z is anxious about climate change, and it’s impacting their family planning. Anita talks to researcher Jade Sasser, who's been studying young people’s attitudes about climate change and reproductive choices while unpacking her own experiences with climate anxiety. They’ll talk about how to manage climate emotions while making big life decisions, and how “the kid question” isn’t just about babies — it’s about what bringing new life into an uncertain world represents. Meet the guest: - Jade Sasser is the author of “ Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question: Deciding Whether to Have Children in an Uncertain Future ” and an associate professor at the University of California, Riverside Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied Please note: This episode originally published May 15, 2025. Update: Jade Sasser is working on a third book, tentatively titled “Climate Change Hates Mothers.”
When you board a plane, flight attendants greet you with practiced smiles and seamless service. But there’s a lot of mental and emotional labor that passengers don’t see. Missy, a Hawaii-based flight attendant, takes Anita inside her world and shares stories from her close to five years on the job — from managing unruly passengers to dealing with medical emergencies. Travel journalist Natalie Compton also shares her reporting on the financial precarity some flight attendants face and how understanding more about their reality has changed the way she approaches air travel. Meet the guests: - Missy is a Hawaii-based flight attendant who is using only her first name since she's not authorized to speak on behalf of her airline - Natalie Compton is a travel reporter for The Washington Post Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied Dig deeper: Natalie's reporting on the financial precarity of early-career flight attendants Natalie's reporting on flight attendant training Please note: This episode originally published on June 19, 2025.
When Chris Mosier became the first openly trans athlete to qualify for Team USA in 2015, he catalyzed policy change for trans people in sports. Now, more than a decade later, his legacy is beginning to unravel. Chris talks to Anita about how sports have affirmed him as a trans person and why they’ve become a battleground for trans rights. They also discuss the assumptions that underpin many of the bans on trans athletes in the U.S. and solutions that Chris says could make sports better for all athletes. Meet the guest: - Chris Mosier is an eight-time Team USA athlete who wrote the forward to and conducted interviews for the recent book “ Fair Game: Trans Athletes and the Future of Sports ” Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied You can read the new International Olympic Committee's policy on gender here .
American men are in a friendship recession. Compared to a few decades ago, five times as many men have no close friends. So what’s going on? Anita talks with Mark Pagán, creator and host of the podcast “Other Men Need Help,” about what makes close friendships among men so fraught — and what we can do about it. They talk about everything from why Mark loves secret handshakes to his ongoing journey of making himself say the hard stuff out loud. Meet the guest: - Mark Pagán is the creator and host of the podcast " Other Men Need Help " and writes the substack " Other Men " Read the transcript | Review the podcast on your preferred platform Follow Embodied on Instagram Leave a message for Embodied Please note: This episode originally published April 17, 2025.
