The hottest book to read right now in body liberation spaces is Fearing the Black Body by Sabrina Strings.  There is a reason for that.  This book is brilliant.  This is the answer if anyone asks for an in-depth discussion of the connection between racism and fat phobia.  Strings goes century-by-century explaining how slowly the ideas of race and the thin ideal became one connected idea about what it means to be black.  I chatted with Natasha Ngindi about this book and as intense as this book is, our conversation highlighted some of the main ideas.  We talked about:

• Natasha’s body acceptance and food freedom journey
• Who is scared of the black body?
• The fallacies of racial science
• The connection between racism and fat phobia
• The role of the protestant church in fat phobia and racism
• The difference in ideas between popular culture and medicine
• Our desire to be loved and how that perpetuates the objectification of women
• The role of magazines and social media in creating a thin ideal

This discussion is so important and I hope our chat helps you to think about how fat phobia is racist.  Keep reading everyone!

Links:

Natasha’s website

Natasha’s Instagram

Natasha’s Anti-Diet Merchandise Page

Fearing the Black Body

I Wish I Were Me Website

If you already have a copy of the Your Better Body Image Checklist, I am going to do a series of episodes which takes the concepts of the checklist to a deeper level.  If you don't already have it, this will give you a taste of what kinds of things are on it.

This first episode is about how destructive negative body talk and diet talk is to how we think about our own bodies.  I focus on TV, social media and real life relationships.  

Next episode will be an interview episode!  This episode though is just me.

Grab your copy of the checklist here

While this book was super intense, Michelle and I had a really great chat and we covered a lot of ground.  An overarching theme was loving your ageing body but some of the other topics included:

• Michelle’s body acceptance journey
• Body acceptance in an ageing body
• Why Michelle picked this book
• The Beauty Myth in a corporate environment
• What The Beauty Myth is
• Beauty, ageing and invisibility
• The Iron Maiden as a metaphor for The Beauty Myth
• Diet culture and The Beauty Myth
• The use of language in The Beauty Myth
• How The Beauty Myth affects men
• The discomfort of challenging mainstream beliefs
• What things have changed since this book was written
• The role of social media in our beauty obsessed world
• The importance of women supporting women
• Thinking about the intention behind your beauty routine

Please join me in just listening to Michelle's infectious laugh throughout this discussion!  I loved it so much.  

LINKS

Michelle's website

Michelle's FB Group: The No Diet Sisterhood

Michelle's Instagram

Joyful Movement at Last Program

Your Better Body Image Checklist

Food Psych Podcast

Boom

Welcome back Kayleigh Hyland!  I am so excited about having Kayleigh back to talk about another wonderful book.  The tone of this book is very different but the information is spectacular. 

Topics covered include:

• The difference between Body Positive Power and Fat! So?
• How this book came into Kayleigh's life
• Talking to people about body positivity
• The comparison trap
• The controversy around before and after photos
• The biggest lie of diet culture
• Dieting as a religion
• Why are we scared of our appetite?
• Why you can wear a bikini if you want to...or not!
• The line between eating disorders and disordered eating
• Boundaries

Honestly you can be fat and happy!  

Links

My Website

Body Positive Power

Kayleigh's last episode

Dietitian's Unplugged cult episode

Eating Disorder Help:

National Eating Disorder Information Center

National Eating Disorders Association

Kayleigh's Instagram

Kayleigh and her Friends Instagram

Self Love and Sertraline Blog
 

A shorter episode!  Some people might be happy about that.  Others may wonder why no guest?  You'll have to listen to find out!

This is about something that happened to me.  Maybe it has happened to you too?  I am standing in front of my closet, pulling out clothes that should fit but don't.  How do I stop myself going into diet mode?  I will take you through an exercise to help connect with your own diet story and I will talk about tools that if done regularly can help you to avoid regular spiralling.  

Tools I talk about include:

• Prioritizing Rest with a discussion of Caroline Dooner's The Fuck It Diet
• Mantra Mediation with a discussion of Sonya Renee Taylor's The Body is Not an Apology
• Media Literacy with a discussion of Renee Engeln's Beauty Sick
• Compassion and Honoring your Feelings with a discussion of Sofie Hagen's Happy Fat

My website for the Your Better Body Image Checklist, to book your free coaching call and to give feedback about the book club

I am an avid podcast listener and when I found Fat. So? the podcast, I was in love.  I have binge listened to the first season of Fat. So? twice!  You will realize why I am in love, by listening to my interview with Ameya and Pallavi, the hosts of Fat. So?.  We have a long discussion using Happy Fat by Sofie Hagen as the springboard.  No topics are off the table in this discussion as we touch on:

• Their different fat liberation journeys
• How books have impacted their journeys
• What it means to grow and have break throughs in fat liberation
• Fat in three different languages
• Slurs and the word "Fat"
• Disagreement about the words overweight and morbidly obese
• Micro-aggressions toward fat people and why these are just so wrong
• Self-care and self-preservation as a fat woman
• A discussion about how there are more raped and murdered women on TV than there are fat women.  Representation!!!!
• Why thin allies need to open their mouths when people make fun of fat people
• How they learned to love and appreciate their bodies
• Sex. Guys, we talk a lot about sex!
• Being fat in India

I learned a lot from these two amazing ladies.  Their vulnerability and laughter just made my day.  I hope you enjoy this conversation.

Links

Happy Fat by Sofie Hagen

Fat. So? Podcast

Fat. So? Instagram

Fat. So? Blog

Ameya's Instagram

Pallavi's Instagram

Check off another first for the pod!  Amanda Martinez Beck is my first return guest and I am delighted to chat to her again.  She brought Fat Shame by Amy Erdman Farrell to me and I loved this academic read.  We get into the weeds of what fat stigma is and how it connects to racism and feminism.  Hold onto your hats ladies and gentlemen, this is a deep dive into some big concepts.  Here is a brief list of what we discuss:

• How Amanda found this book
• The importance of the footnote
• Why do we as a culture have such a problem with bodies that are larger?
• The intersection of fat acceptance and racial discrimination
• The use of privilege
• What is fat stigma and how does if affect our everyday lives
• Historical hierarchies of people and what this means in terms of power dynamics
• Weight loss surgery studies as junk science
• Feminism and fat acceptance
• Why cancel culture is destructive
• The pressure on Oprah and the Obamas to be concerned with weight
• The future of fat acceptance
• The four levels of fat liberation

LINKS:

Amanda's website

Amanda's Instagram

Amanda's podcast

Amanda's Etsy Shop

Amanda's book

My last episode with Amanda

Fat Shame by Amy Erdman Farrell

My Website

This is the second part of my interview with Vania Phitidis about Beauty Sick. This book was so good and so eye-opening that I could not cut any of it. In this episode we continue our discussion and cover:

Vania's website https://peacefuleating.co.uk

Vania's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/peacefuleatinguk/

Vania's Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PeacefulEating/

Renee Engeln's Ted Talk https://youtu.be/63XsokRPV_Y

Jenn's Website www.iwishiwereme.com

My discussion with Vania Phitidis about this amazing book went long. I didn't want to cut it so in another first for this podcast, I am releasing this conversation in two parts. In this part of the conversation we:

I love this conversation and I know you will too. Make sure to subscribe to this podcast to get the second part the minute it is released.

Links:

Vania's website

Vania's Instagram

Vania's Facebook

Renee Engeln's Ted Talk

Jenn's Website

Nicola Haggett and I jumped into this Roxane Gay memoir and all its messiness. I loved this discussion because it really emphasizes how we can all become more empathetic to everyone who has a body, whether they are on a journey of body liberation or not.

Some of the things we talk about included:

Links:

Nicola's website

Nicola's Instagram

Hunger by Roxane Gay

Be Nourished

I Wish I Were Me Website