Embodied

By WUNCHealth & Fitness Sexuality

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Typical duration
50 min
per episode

Based on Podcast App listening data

Embodied episodes

July 30 Matrescence: Motherhood As Metamorphosis
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”
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51 min
July 23 Everyday Spaces Weren’t Built For Fat Bodies. So What’s The Fix?
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
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51 min
July 16 When Long Covid Rewrites Your Love Story
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
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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.
51 min
July 09 Think Picky Eating Is Inevitable? History Begs To Differ
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
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51 min
July 02 A Journalist’s Solution to Emotional Conundrums
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
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Please note: This episode originally published July 31, 2025.
51 min
June 25 Money Trauma … And How To Deal With It
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
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51 min
June 18 Native Fatherhood & Healing With Julian Brave NoiseCat
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"
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51 min
June 11 Building A Queer Life In The Country
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"
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Please note: This episode originally published June 12, 2025.
51 min
June 04 Faceblindness & A Journey To Rediscover Your Brain Midlife
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
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51 min
May 28 Making The Kid Decision ... And Learning To Live With It
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”
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You can learn more about coaching opportunities with Merle Bombardieri here and also sign up for her newsletter here.
51 min

About Embodied

From the publisher's feed

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,…