LU 038: Ragen Chastain – Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are NOT size-dependent.

Hey there, lovely radicals... Podcast ahead! This week on the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, I get to talk to Ragen Chastain from Los Angeles. Most of you know Ragen as the author of the fantastic blog "Dances With Fat", but she also wrote a book called "Fat: The Owner's Manual" and she is the editor of the multi-volume anthology "The Politics of Size - Perspectives from the Fat Acceptance Movement". Her blog "Dances With Fat" is followed by thousands of people from every continent around the world; men and women who are as fed up with weight-stigma as herself. Ragen describes herself as a professional speaker, writer, and real live fat person. She has spoken everywhere from friend's living rooms to Google Headquarters to Cal Tech and Dartmouth. She will not stop until we live in a world where the full diversity of body sizes is respected, and fat people are able to live in fat bodies without shame, stigma, bullying, and harassment. Today, you’ll hear Ragen talk about: – How she remembers herself as a kid – What protected her of excessive bullying in school – What triggered her to start restricting and overexercising – Where that landed her... – What bias lies underneath the fact that so many eating disorders go undetected and untreated – How she experienced the competing dancing world as a very talented dancer in a bigger body – What made her realize that she needed to become an activist if she were to become a fat dancer – What started her to want to personally look into the science around weight and diets – What she found out, when she applied all of the skills she had acquired when she studied research methods and statistical analysis (scientific literacy) – How doctors often prescribe to fat people what they would diagnose as an eating disorder in a thin person – A few very real examples of terrible advice she got from actual doctors (weight-bias in the medical field) – How she experienced the effect of being stuck in diet-land – How to read science and tell the difference between causation and correlation – The fallacy of the "good fatty/bad fatty"-dichotomy – Why none of your health decision make you more or less worthy or morally valuable – Why size diversity is completely normal, yet our society want us to believe otherwise (and buy into their weight-loss programs and products) – Why "healthy" and "thin" are not synonymous – What her mantra is to survive in this culture that bombards us with weight-loss messages – What she did to stop hating her body – How our childhoods play a role in recovery... ... And so much more! Check out Ragen’s famous blog: https://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/blog/ Here’s the link to her book: https://www.amazon.com/Fat-Owners-Manual-Ragen-Chastain/dp/0985667400 Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation by becoming a "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid; ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We’re right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/