Perfectionism and control are often the primary drivers of eating disorder. In addition to that comes shame. 

In this episode, listen to the unedited and unscripted interview between Kait and Boston College researcher - Courtney Stoltzfus-Zvaro. The original purpose of this interview was for eating disorder research but Kait and Courtney decided it can serve a dual purpose, so it was brought to this platform. Courtney’s thoughtful, challenging questions invite Kait to reflect on how perfectionism, control, and shame didn’t just influence her eating disorder - they ran the show.

Episode Topics 

• Courtney describes her research on shame’s role in eating disorders (3:55)
• Kait shares how control and perfectionism fueled her eating disorder (7:50)
• Kait explores her early anxieties and people-pleasing tendencies (14:44)
• How Kait navigated isolation and intense emotions in eating disorder recovery (22:03)
• Kait describes shame’s cycle in her eating disorder (32:30)
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Content Warning: This episode contains brief mentions of eating disorder behaviors that Kait has previously engaged in. Please listen in a way that feels safe for you and your recovery. 

Episode guest: Courtney is a sociologist with a philosophical bent. She studied sociology and peace & conflict studies at Gordon (MA), political theory and ethics at the University of Oxford (UK), and completed her postgraduate work in philosophy at University College Dublin (IE). A full-fledged academia-phile, she has conducted research at Oxford, for the European Center for the Study of War and Peace, and for human rights initiatives in Rwanda, Cambodia, and Honduras. She has taught subjects in philosophy and sociology at Trinity College Dublin, Boston University, and Boston College. These days, she is based at Boston College and specializes in the relationship between the body and the social world. Her guiding vocational question is: How does the embodied self experience violence--and what may be done for its flourishing? Currently, she is exploring the role of shame--understood as the internalization of an abstract negative judgement--in the development of eating disorders. 

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