Ragen Chastain (she/her) is back for another conversation, and this time we’re exploring weight loss surgeries and weight loss medications. As always, Ragen brings the research as we track the money to who profits most from putting bodies into a disease state with bariatric surgery and weight-loss medication. Spoiler: it’s not the patient.

Ragen Chastain is a speaker, writer, researcher, Board Certified Patient Advocate, multi-certified health and fitness professional, and thought leader in weight science, weight stigma, health, and healthcare. Utilizing her background in research methods and statistics, Ragen has brought her signature mix of humor and hard facts to healthcare, corporate, conference, and college audiences from Kaiser Permanente and the Diabetes Education Specialists National Conference, to Amazon and Google, to Dartmouth, Cal Tech and canfitpro. Author of the Weight and Healthcare newsletter, the book Fat: The Owner's Manual, co-author of HAES Health Sheets, and editor of the anthology The Politics of Size, Ragen is frequently featured as an expert in print, radio, television, and documentary film. In her free time, Ragen is a national dance champion, triathlete, and marathoner who holds the Guinness World Record for Heaviest Woman to Complete a Marathon, and co-founded the Fit Fatties Facebook group which has over 11,000 members. Ragen lives in LA with her fiancée Julianne and their adorable dog.

Connect with Ragen:

Newsletter: www.WeightandHealthcare.com

Website: www.SizedForSuccess.com

Health Sheets: https://haeshealthsheets.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ragenchastain/

This episode’s poem is “The Way In” by Linda Hogan: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55761/the-way-in

All things Fat Joy can be found on the website: http://www.fatjoy.life

If you’re a Fat Joy Patreon supporter, be sure to go watch Some Extra Fat Joy: 10 Q’s with Ragen Chastain.

Deep thanks for their hard work go to Hi Bird Designs and AR Media for keeping this podcast looking and sounding joyful.