Tough Cookie Talks

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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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!

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Get Anna's Book

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It's been a few weeks and now I'm back. I've truly felt like I have nothing to say about fitness or the other usual topics due to the continued ridiculous news. I've also felt like I have nothing to add to the conversation about said ridiculous news because every time I form a coherent thought about something, there is a new flavor of fuckery needing commentary.

On this episode we talk about:

• How impossible it feels to talk about fitness OR the news at this time.
• What I've been up to in real life.
• Understanding what we can control and what we can't--in fitness, in our lives, and in the world.
• How to take meaningful action with that knowledge in mind, especially in the aftermath of No Kings a few weeks ago.
• Why we all need to start asking our neighbors to borrow lemons and other such things.
• My new podcasting space (including floral wallpaper)!
• The joys of theatre jazz.
• My newfound love of astrology and witchy shit.
• So many other good things!

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This episode is a replay--in light of upcoming No Kings Rallies on Saturday 3/28, I wanted to bring back a conversation I had with my friend and fellow Indivisible member Ishaan Srivastava. While the dates and details I mention in the intro and outro are correct and current, the ones within the episode are from last fall. Everything else is still very much relevant!

We are here because when I found myself feeling hopeless a few weeks ago, I got involved with my local Indivisible chapter and it gave me a sense of purpose and community in a world that often feels irreparably fucked. I met Ishaan there and immediately knew we needed to come together to spread the word about No Kings and building a peaceful resistance.

Ishaan Srivastava is a GenZ progressive activist, and has been very active in Illinois politics. He has also been the host of The Ishaan S. Show, his political news podcast, since 2021. Ishaan is an advocate for GenZ involvement in politics, and informing people about ways to get involved!

On this episode we talk about:

• How Ishaan got into the work he's doing as a GenZ political activist.
• Why I came out of podcasting hiatus to talk to him about it.
• How so many people (especially GenZ!) got pulled to the right in the last election cycle and what we on the left need to do differently.
• All the different ways to participate in peaceful resistance when things feel hopeless.
• What to do if you want to protest but are concerned about your safety.
• Why we continue to gather to push back against the current administration and how you can build community of your own (or join ours!)
• What No Kings is and why you should come to one of our events on October 18th.

• So many other good things!

**Please know that this conversation represents the views of myself and Ishaan and may or may not reflect the diverse views of Indivisible as an organization or its members.

⁠Ishaan's Website⁠

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⁠No Kings Chicago Suburban Rally 3/28

⁠Find a No Kings event or Indivisible chapter near you⁠

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Today's episode is brought to you by antifa wine moms. LOL. But seriously, today's guest and I met this year thanks to Instragram, but quickly realized that we were both doing a lot of similar work in our local community. When I heard about the work she's done to advocate for better policy around things like mental health, addiction recovery, and even mammogram coverage, I knew I needed to have her on the podcast!

Chelsea Laliberté Barnes is a mom, social worker, psychotherapist, advocate, organizer, and change-maker at the forefront of the movement for compassion, justice, and equity for people and families impacted by substance use, overdose, and mental health. After losing her brother to an accidental polysubstance overdose in 2008, Chelsea channeled her grief into action — co-founding Live4Lali, a suburban Chicago-based organization delivering peer support, harm reduction outreach, advocacy, and education to thousands of people each year. In long-term recovery herself, Chelsea brings both lived experience and professional expertise to every space she enters. She is also the co-founder of the Lake County Opioid Initiative, the Illinois Harm Reduction & Recovery Coalition, and, most recently, Liberal Moms of the Northwest Suburbs, a grassroots community of progressive moms organizing for mutual support and advocacy. Chelsea holds a BA in Integrated Marketing Communications from Roosevelt University and a Master of Science in Social Administration (MSSA) with a Child & Family Mental Health specialization from Case Western Reserve University. She served as a Policy Fellow with the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy, shaping evidence-based approaches to drug policy at the state level. A certified Overdose Education & Naloxone Distribution (OEND) trainer since 2013 and SMART Recovery Facilitator since 2016, she remains deeply committed to meeting people where they are — and helping systems do the same. When she is not caring for her 7-year-old and infant sons, reading, writing, or eating as much pasta as possible, Chelsea supports individuals and communities through her psychotherapy practice and provides nonprofit consulting and lobbying services through CLB Strategies. Follow her journey on Instagram at @mentalhealth.chels.

On this episode we talk about:

• What led her to start a nonprofit and get involved with advocacy at such a young age.
• How "getting political" might actually help us solve some of our biggest health problems.
• Small ways we can advocate for ourselves, our neighbors, and a better world overall.
• Why we feel imposter syndrome as women and what to do about it.
• Why so many people (moms especially) had many of the same concerns as us around health and landed on MAHA as a solution instead.
• How to build a village.
• So many other good things!

Follow Chelsea on Instagram

Liberal Moms of the Northwest Suburbs

Check out Chelsea's voter guide

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Today's episode almost didn't happen. Then I remembered that much like a workout, a 15 minute podcast episode still counts and is better than nothing. And also sometimes I have good ideas that don't get shared often enough. So here we are!

On this episode we talk about:

• How I almost didn't record it, but then I remembered my own advice.
• Why "no excuses" is lazy coaching, IMO.
• Why I actually want to hear my client's excuses.
• Turning phrases like "excuses only satisfy those who give them" into something that can be helpful for YOU.
• The fact that some excuses are actually bullshit and how to tell if that's what yours are.
• How shame thrives in the dark and how putting things out there in the open take a lot of pressure off.
• The difference between a legit excuse and a barrier (that can be moved).
• What your excuses can tell you about what you about what you actually value and what's not working for you right now.
• So many other good things!

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Dr. Mel is back and this time we're not talking about our usual fitness and physical therapy stuff. We're talking shit about the Epstein files. Or more specifically, how we're coming to terms with the fact that the beauty standards pushed on us as teenagers were created by literal pedophiles.

Dr. Melissa Cioffi is a physical therapist, women’s fitness coach, and owner of New Quest Physical Therapy. As a pelvic floor PT, Melissa is passionate about helping vagina owners discover the power they hold within their bodies that they never realized existed. Using a mix of movement and no-nonsense education, she helps folks learn how to finally use their body in ways they’ve never dreamed they could, instead of being afraid of it.

On this episode we talk about:

• How we're feeling in the aftermath of the Epstein files.
• Les Wexner--the man behind the brands that shaped our millennial youth.
• The messages we received from the clothes, body splashes, and images we were sold and how that shaped our body image and self worth in our teens.
• The ways we normalized the horrible behavior in men and tried to impress them. Even the ones with dumpster mattresses and dirty sheets.
• Whether all of our youth obsessed beauty standards are actually rooted in pedophilia.
• The cringe things we did and said for the male gaze when we were younger.
• How these revelations are shaping the way we think about beauty standards now.
• How we distinguish whether or not we're doing things like shaving our legs or painting our nails for ourselves or for the male gaze.
• How we're reclaiming our style for our younger selves by dressing like unhinged My Little Pony and Demented Tinkerbell.
• The ways that all of this is related to many of our pelvic floor issues.
• The things that are bringing us joy and keeping us sane in these times.
• So many other important and hilarious things!

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Get Dr. Mel's Core & Pelvic Floor Jumpstart Freebie

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Today's episode is inspired by a post I saw on Instagram last weekend where someone was asking if having a weight loss goal made them fatphobic. The comments section was interesting because a lot of people seemed very confused about what that word even means. I was tempted to write a novel in response, but them I remembered that I have a podcast. So I decided to turn my comment into content.

In a world where every other person you know is taking a GLP-1 and being super skinny is cool again, we need to talk about the very real pull you might be feeling to lose weight.

On this episode we talk about:

• What fatphobia even is (and why we shouldn't take the word literally).
• The difference between systemic fatphobia and internalized fatphobia.
• Why you might feel shame around having a weight loss goal even if nobody is actually shaming you.
• Why we need to stop considering being called "fatphobic" an insult and instead look at it for what it actually is.
• How our individual lived experiences about our weight and its correlation with our health and happiness affects our perception of weight loss.
• Why it's so important to not conflate health, fitness, and weight/body size.
• Better questions to ask yourself besides when part of you does want to lose weight.
• 3 books I recommend to help you unpack all of this for yourself.
• So many other important things!

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