This week’s guest is Safiya Osei ’21, a fat, Black, queer woman, and a writer featured on the Bowdoin Orient & PopSugar.com. Esther and Safiya discuss fatphobia and its ties to capitalism, controversies surrounding Lizzo and Chloe Bailey, and the power of radical self-love.

This week, Stripped Bear kicks off its celebration of Black History Month early by sitting down with Jayna Robotham & Jaida Hodge-Adams ‘23, authors of the According to J column on the Bowdoin Orient. Jayna and Jaida discuss friendships after the murder of George Floyd, the political dilemmas that Black women face, the small moments they find joy in and more.

In this week's episode we are joined by our first guest, Dani Quezada! Dani shares her tales of online dating at Bowdoin and beyond. Dani, Esther and Maya empathize over stories of fetishization and stereotyping of Latina and Asian women.

On this week's episode, Maya tells her adoption story and delves into abandonment trauma, the white savior complex and shares therapy insights.

This week, Esther recounts her life in Korea, Singapore and Dubai, and introduces the concept of an “American-passing” international student. With stories about the COVID vaccine, slang, cookies, and more, Esther unpacks her thoughts on belonging.

In this first episode of Stripped Bear, Maya and Esther give recaps on their fall semesters, learn about each others' preferences in chip flavors and music & introduce the overall vision for the podcast.