New year, new you! At least, that’s what all the weight-loss ads we’ve been bombarded with this January are telling us. But what if we told you there’s life outside of dieting and body shame?

For today’s show, Tuesday host Ali Muldrow spends a joyful and informative hour with author and activist Virgie Tovar, one of the nation’s leading experts on weight-based discrimination and body image.

She talks about what it looks like to reject institutional fatphobia and the glorification of the thin body, how diet culture is entwined with colonialism and racism, practical advice about receiving medical care as a higher-weight person, and why “this is a human rights issue, not a health issue.”

Virgie Tovar is an author, activist, and one of the nation’s leading experts on weight-based discrimination and body image. Her books include You Have the Right to Remain Fat (Feminist Press, 2018) and The Self-Love Revolution: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color (New Harbinger, 2020). She is a contributor for Forbes and hosts a podcast called Rebel Eaters Club.

Cover photo of Virgie Tovar courtesy of Bustle

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