Today I'm celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the day I moved to Chicago solo, as a newly single, 22 year old aspiring dancer with a lot of audacity. I was casually talking about this on Instagram the other day and many of you said you were interested in hearing the lore. So here we go!

On this episode we talk about:

• The tale of how I dumped my college boyfriend and moved to Chicago alone to chase my dream of becoming a professional dancer.
• Alll the different lives I've lived and versions of myself I've become along the way.
• The life lessons I learned in the process and how they might apply to you too.
• So many other good things!

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Remember that time when a bunch of body positivity activists debated Jillian Michaels on Surrounded? Today we are talking to one who lived to tell the tale.

Paula D. Atkinson is a queer, woo-woo desert witch and a liberation-focused psychotherapist. She has been working for almost two decades with those who suffer from disordered eating, food obsession, exercise addiction, and body hatred. Clients of all sizes and identities are treated with a weight neutral, anti-diet, body liberation approach. For many years she taught courses on the history of fat phobia, eating disorders and body fascism as a professor of Weight & Society at George Washington University.

Paula also trains other professionals, clinics, and organizations in doing less harm in a thin-obsessed world. She has been interviewed for various articles and broadcasts, including NPR, podcasts, an episode of Jubilee’s Surrounded with Jillian Michaels (!!), and she co-hosts her own podcast that explores how psychotherapy can at times conspire with the systems that cause the majority of mental suffering.

Paula is a second-generation yoga teacher, a psychic healer, an artist, an aspiring DJ, and a pretty constant writer.

On this episode we talk about:

• How Paula found herself sitting across a table from Jillian Michaels.
• What it was really like to be a part of the infamous Jubilee/Surrounded debate.
• What she wishes she would have been able to say in the moment.
• What we get wrong when we talk about body positivity.

• Why we don't think anyone actually won that debate.
• Why applying nuance in all directions is so important.
• The flaws of MAHA.
• The intersections of thin worship & white supremacy/misogyny/colonialism/classism/fascism, etc.

• So many other good things!

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Surrounded Episode

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Today I am sharing some much needed life & career updates!

On this episode we talk about:

• The journey I've been on as an online business owner for the past (10!) years.
• What I thought I wanted vs. what I got--and how it actually felt to accomplish many of my goals.
• How the online fitness business space has changed over the years and why I low key hate social media and selling fitness online right now.
• Why I recently made the decision to close Kettlebell Social--my online program that I worked so hard on.
• What I'm doing instead (DIY! Custom programming, 1:1 training, dance stuff!)
• Why this decision feels like growth and evolution vs. failure.
• Why I no longer believe that online fitness/being an entrepreneur is inherently better than in person fitness or working for someone else.
• The truth about selling fitness online.
• Why I'm glad I never became a true influencer.
• Giving yourself permission to follow ease/flow vs. struggle.
• The year of the fire horse.
• So many other good things!

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Dr. Jen Hosler is back today, because after regularly recording me mini podcast episodes in Voxer when we were working together, I knew there was even more good stuff she needed to share with you all.

She has graciously listened to me whine for months about why my body needs special exercises, special shoes, special sleep, and special vitamins to get through my days without pain while other people seem to just get along fine without any of it. Today she is gracing us with her presence again!

Dr. Jen is a physical therapist and strength coach dedicated to bridging the gap between fitness and rehab. With degrees in exercise science and physical therapy, combined with her own experience of chronic pain and injuries, Jen’s mission is to help people move better, build resilience, and achieve their goals without pain or limitations. She works with active people to overcome nagging injuries and movement restrictions and she mentors fitness & movement professionals to do the same for their clients.

On this episode we talk about:

• Why your body feels so high maintenance.
• Why typical treatments don't seem to work for you.
• How hypermobility exists on a spectrum and how to know if you might be on it.
• The connections between hypermobility, neurodivergence, chronic pain, and living in a sensitive body.
• Interoception--and the wild reasons you might have a hard time decoding what your body is telling you.
• Allll the things that affect our experience of pain.
• Changing your relationship with pain by understanding your unique body better.
• What we wish more physical therapists (and other providers) did to help us manage injuries.
• Why living in a sensitive body might actually save you from unnecessary pain and mobility issues as you age.
• So many other good things!

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Today I'm back with short solo episode about how incredibly bored I am with my workouts lately. You too? Let's talk about it.

On this episode we talk about:

• How strength training is sometimes just boring and repetitive.
• Asking why you "don't wanna" and working around the arbitrary rules keeping you stuck.
• Classes--they can be both awesome and annoying all at once.
• Trying new things, mixing up your routine, and learning new skills to spice things up.
• How YOU are the common denominator in every kind of workout you do--AKA program hopping isn't always the answer.
• Why I love doing short kettlebell complexes outside in the summer.
• Adding in movement snacks to your day while you're doing other things.
• Why seasonal activities absolutely "count" as a workout. (Yes, especially yard work.)
• Why it's ok to split up a longer workout into smaller chunks, even if you're following a program.
• Normalizing doing it anyway, even when you don't feel like it--in the same way we do all sorts of other boring shit in our lives every day.
• All-or-nothing mindset and the fact that sometimes it's ok to do nothing.
• What your lack of interest in working out could be telling you.
• So many other good things!

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Fan favorite guest Ashantis Jones is back today with the most random episode ever! Give it a listen if you wanna feel like you're out for coffee with your besties laughing your ass off so you don't cry.

Ashantis Jones (she/they) is a weight-inclusive Licensed Therapist, Mental Health Coach, NASM Certified Personal Trainer, Group Fitness Instructor, and Educator. She supports individuals seeking mental health + fitness support and businesses seeking to create more efficient and equitable practices. Specialties include Body Image/Eating Disorder Recovery, Executive Functioning, and Navigating Systems of Oppression.The Wellness Financial Fund provides full or partial financial assistance for individuals seeking personal training and/or wellness consultations (coffee chats) from Ashantis. The fund prioritizes financial support for Black women, but anyone is eligible to request sponsorship.

On this episode we talk about:

• Our matching manicures and the joys of a good press on.
• Hand modeling and whether or not my husband should start an "Only Hands" account where he empties the dishwasher for likes.
• Voter suppression & what we're gonna do about it.
• Mutual aid and doing what you can to help where you can.
• AI and having nightmares about data centers and plastic grass.
• How to support your mental and physical health with different types of movement.
• How to breathe through it all.
• Doing your part of the "group project".
• So many other good and random things!

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Work with Ashantis

Donate to the Wellness Financial Fund

Follow Ashantis on Instagram

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Follow Ashantis on Patreon

Body Kind Nutrition on Patreon

Help Fight Voter Suppression

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Today I'm back with an unhinged pep talk/rant about the onslaught of skinny everywhere. Listen up if you're feeling this too.

On this episode we talk about:

• How we are being gaslit into believing that Demi Moore's arms are "toned" and Hillary Duff is the new face of "body positivity".
• How "strong not skinny" still isn't it--and why our "body positivity should have been intersectional all along.
• Skinny influencers & how mean they are.
• Why I don't blame anyone trying to lose weight or taking GLP-1's right now, but I DO blame the system.
• The connections between the body trend du jour and the way women's rights are under attack.
• How body types as trends is ridiculous, and also how body acceptance was easier when then trend was curvier.
• Coming back to your "why" when it comes to the desire for weight loss.
• Why I'm still not making assumptions about anyone's health based on their weight and size, even if they're freakishly skinny.
• How we did this shit already (especially as elder millennials) and how we can feel the pressure to conform and still choose not to go back.
• How chasing thinness at all costs robs us of our strength and power.
• The difference between taking care of ourselves and forcing our bodies into submission.
• Other podcast episodes and books you might wanna listen to as a reminder.
• So many other good things!

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My good friend Christina Montalvo is back and today we're talking all about the absolute fuckery of motherhood.

On this episode we talk about:

• My floral wallpaper (again) and our obsession with color.
• How we love our children but often hate the role of "mom".
• How you can be with a "good man" and they can still be woefully inadequate in terms of parenting support because the bar is so low.
• The ridiculous exceptions put on women vs. men when it comes to parenting.
• How we feel about mom guilt and the possibility of fucking up our kids.
• The ways we wish the world (especially America) was more supportive of moms.
• The brutal reality of being the default parent.
• Parenting without losing your whole personality.
• The ways we're bringing our whole selves to motherhood and repairing our mistakes along the way.
• So many other good things!

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Today I'm back and I'm talking about something that doesn't usually get a lot of air time on my podcast: dance! I hope you'll stick around even if you think it doesn't apply to you (it's all just different flavors of the same shit sandwich, really).

On this episode we talk about:

• Why I'm excited to talk about dance right now and how it might apply to you even if you're not a dancer.
• Why I think I (and many other dancers I know) retired from performing too early.
• What I wish I had known about strength and mobility training and sports nutrition when I was dancing professionally.
• Ageism and sizeism in the dance world and how the body standards are different when you're an athlete/performer.
• Why we're not going back to the destructive shit we used to do to our bodies in the 90's and 2000's.
• How we, as the adults in the room can change the narrative around bodies for the future generation (in spite of skinnytok bullshit).
• How much joy dance is bringing me as I come back to it at this stage of life and how I want that for you too (in whatever you do).
• So many other good things!

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Register for my Adult Tap class in Lake Forest

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My favorite podcast episodes are the ones where I read a really great book and then get to pick the brain of the person who wrote it. Today I am talking to Anna Rollins--the author of Famished: On Food, Sex, and Growing Up as a Good Girl (out December 9, 2025 from Eerdmans).

Her groundbreaking debut memoir examines therhyming scripts of diet culture and evangelical purity culture, both of which direct women to fear their own bodies and appetites. Her writing has appeared in outlets like The NewYork Times, Slate, Electric Literature, Salon, Joyland, and more. She’s also written scholarly articles about composition and writing center studies. She’s an award-winning instructor who taught English in higher education for nearly 15 years. She is a 2025 Tamarack Foundation for the Arts Literary Arts Fellow. A lifelong Appalachian, she lives with her husband inWest Virginia where they’re raising their three small children.

On this episode we talk about:

• The protestant work ethic and how it plays into exercise.
• The problem with fundamentalist thinking and we often unknowingly apply it to food and bodies.
• The different ways we both bought into different aspects of diet culture and purity culture as kids and teenagers.
• How purity culture and hookup culture are two sides of the same coin.
• How we see fundamentalism playing out in America today and how we can try to stop it.
• How to navigate being a part of a religion without getting sucked into the worst parts of it.
• What Anna wishes someone would have told her when you were younger and struggling with an eating disorder.
• The ways her religious upbringing contributed to her eating disorder.
• So many other good things!

⁠Follow Anna On Substack

Get Anna's Book

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