Anita is no stranger to anxiety, but her spirals are mostly short lived. In this episode she meets folks who often get caught in loops of extreme worry and compulsions with little relief. A married couple shares how OCD put them in survival mode and a woman whose OCD symptoms began in kindergarten talks about learning how to open up about her experience in friendships and dating.

Meet the guests:

- Mike and Nicole Comforto, writers who published a Modern Love essay about how Mike's OCD impacted their marriage, share their story and talk about what led to Mike's diagnosis, what the experience was like for both of them and how Mike's OCD impacts other relationships in his life

- H.T., a writer who wants to remain anonymous for personal and medical privacy, explains how her OCD symptoms first showed up as a young girl, how she navigated getting an OCD diagnosis and how she discloses her OCD to those she is close to

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Here’s a link to the International OCD Foundation, where you can find an OCD specialist near you.

It's a small procedure, but a big question. Anita talks with a urologist about what medical advice to consider while making the circumcision decision (and where medicine doesn't have the answers). She also meets a rabbi and mother who offers alternatives to centuries-old circumcision rituals and hears from a circumcised father raising an uncircumcised son.

Meet the guests:

- Dr. Emilie K. Johnson, a pediatric urologist and associate professor of urology at Northwestern University, answers Anita's questions about the procedure and shares her research on disparities in access to circumcision

- Rabbi Elyssa Cherney, founder of Tackling Torah, talks about the role of circumcision in the Jewish faith tradition, how she works with interfaith couples on what parts of that tradition to follow or preserve — and she explains how she handled the circumcision decision with her son

- Chris Silva, a father, talks about how his thinking on circumcision evolved after his son was born prematurely, from assuming they would have the procedure for his son to ultimately decided not to circumcise

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Anita has interrogated so many aspects of parenthood. But how about the decision to become a parent at all? She talks with three women about making their child-free decisions and meets a psychotherapist who's devoted her career to helping people find clarity in that choice.

Meet the guests:

- Sarah Deavitt, certified holistic nutritionist, talks about her decision to live a child-free life and how taking over care for her grandfather with Alzheimer's solidified that decision

- Samhita Mukhopadhyay, writer and former executive editor of Teen Vogue, shares how watching her friends with kids struggle during the pandemic reinforced her decision to be child-free

- Uriah Rex, a quality assurance representative, explains how her childhood influenced her choice of a child-free life

- Merle Bombardieri, parenting decision coach and author of “The Baby Decision: How to Make the Most Important Choice of Your Life,” shares strategies for those struggling to decide whether or not they'd like to become parents

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Dig deeper:

Merle’s blog

Fencesitter subreddit

Child-free subreddit

Rich Auntie Supreme

Anita sniffs out what's so fascinating about the science of smell — and gets her mind blown. A psychologist shares why smell is our most emotional sense, plus stories about the mental health consequences of anosmia (losing your sense of smell) and a scent designer describes how to re-create memories through candles.

Meet the guests:

- Bonnie Blodgett, author of “Remembering Smell.”

- Rachel Herz, neuroscientist and author of “The Scent of Desire.”

- Christina Degreaffenreidt, founder and creator behind Multifaceted, a candle-making company based in Greensboro.

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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

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Dig deeper:

Matice Morris on YouTube

Courtland Crain on YouTube

Info about Nina’s upcoming comedy special

National Stuttering Association

Anita learns about non-sexual, social nudity and why opting to live life mostly in the nude could actually make her think about her body LESS. [This episode originally aired in September 2021.]

Meet the guests:

- Naomi Brown, a reporter and host at WUNC, talks about her personal journey to becoming a practicing naturist

- Jay Shapiro, lead coordinator and president of Triangle Area Naturists LLC, shares how to separate sex from nudity

- Sam and Aleah, creators of Our Natural Blog, share how they're working to bring more young folks into the naturist movement in Florida

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True or false? Victorian doctors invented the vibrator to cure women's "hysteria" by bringing them to sexual climax. The answer may surprise you...as it did Anita! She gets the truth about vibrator history from journalist Hallie Lieberman and meets Anna Lee, the engineer behind the first-ever “smart” vibrator that can help you better understand your arousal patterns.

Meet the guests:

- Hallie Lieberman, author of "Buzz: The Stimulating History of the Sex Toy," shares the history of the vibrator and debunks myths and misconceptions around how this sex toy evolved

- Anna Lee, co-founder and head of engineering at Lioness, talks about how her company designed their smart vibrator, how they collect data and what they've learned from their users so far

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Dive deeper:

Read more about Von’s music

See some vibrator ads throughout history

Hallie debunking the vibrator myth

Anita has many close friends who defy all stereotypes about only children. But when it comes to thinking about having her own kids, she still can't shake some of those ingrained ideas. She hears three perspectives on single-kid families (including that of former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins) and learns why the debunked mythology around only children still lingers today.

Meet the guests:

- Lauren Sandler, journalist and author of "One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child, and the Joy of Being One,” shares her personal experience and ways to reframe the negative stereotypes about being and having only children

- Corinne Lyons, a middle school teacher in Detroit, talks about how her childhood being the only child of only children has shaped how she thinks about family

- Billy Collins, former U.S. poet laureate, reads his poem "Only Child" and shares the joy of being an only child

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The name Embodied came to Anita in a dream, and she's on a quest to figure out how that happened. She talks to a dreamworker about strengthening the bridge between dreaming and creativity, unpacks weird COVID-19 dreams and learns about nightmare therapy. [This episode originally aired in March 2022]

Meet the guests:

- Angel Morgan, an artist, filmmaker and the founder of Dreambridge, gives Anita a Dream Science 101 lesson and shares how folks can better connect their dreams to their creativity

- Chris Ufere, the founder and CEO of uDreamed, a free online service for dream logging, talks about analyzing 3,000 COVID19 dreams and what patterns emerged

- Michael Nadorff, an associate professor of psychology at Mississippi State University, shares his research on the link between nightmares and suicide

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Anita has fallen down her fair share of wellness rabbit holes [including a certain alliterative family's beauty and shapewear brands...]. Wellness industry insider and journalist Rina Raphael shares how this $4 trillion industry misleads all of us, and 'Dope Black Social Worker' Kim Young gives us the wellness reframes we all need.

Meet the guests:

- Rina Raphael, author of "The Gospel of Wellness: Gyms, Gurus, Goop and the False Promise of Self-Care,” shares how insidious wellness industry marketing can be

- Kim Young, licensed clinical social worker known as the Dope Black Social Worker, explains how we can take charge of our own wellness ... without buying anything

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