The name Embodied came to Anita in a dream, and she's on a quest to figure out how that happened. She talks to a dreamworker about strengthening the bridge between dreaming and creativity, unpacks weird COVID-19 dreams and learns about nightmare therapy. [This episode originally aired in March 2022] Meet the guests: - Angel Morgan , an artist, filmmaker and the founder of Dreambridge , gives Anita a Dream Science 101 lesson and shares how folks can better connect their dreams to their creativity...
Mar 03, 2023•30 min
Anita has fallen down her fair share of wellness rabbit holes [including a certain alliterative family's beauty and shapewear brands...]. Wellness industry insider and journalist Rina Raphael shares how this $4 trillion industry misleads all of us, and 'Dope Black Social Worker' Kim Young gives us the wellness reframes we all need. Meet the guests: - Rina Raphael , author of " The Gospel of Wellness: Gyms, Gurus, Goop and the False Promise of Self-Care ,” shares how insidious wellness industry m...
Feb 24, 2023•29 min
After not seeing a drag show for the first 30 years of her life, Anita now dives in. She explores the history and evolution of the artform with a drag scholar-turned-performer; meets a non-binary drag 'thing' pushing boundaries through performance; and talks with a Durham-based drag artist who speaks out against anti-drag violence. Meet the guests: - Rose Butch , Vancouver's premiere Drag Thing, explains the origins of the term "Drag Thing" and talks about how their gender transition out of drag...
Feb 17, 2023•33 min
Anita reconnects with the woman who changed her thinking on incarceration: her beloved college thesis adviser Ashley Lucas. Ashley reflects on her father's 20-year prison sentence and the untold stories of families navigating incarceration from the outside. Journalist Sylvia A. Harvey also shares how losing her mother to asthma and her father to a life sentence in prison before she was 6 years old led her to investigate the carceral system as a whole. Meet the guests: - Ashley Lucas , professor ...
Feb 10, 2023•31 min
Anita and her partner John have started talking more openly about how his hearing loss informs their relationship and how they'll continue to navigate that as they age. She meets another interabled couple (Anna and Vika) who share the sometimes humorous, sometimes challenging moments that accompany sex and dating with hearing loss. Plus, former guest Yat Li returns to talk about deafness, disclosure, and disabled identity. Meet the guests: - Anna Pulley , author and columnist, talks about her jo...
Feb 03, 2023•40 min
Last October Anita got an e-mail that piqued her curiosity: a story pitch about how anti-fat bias affects people seeking gender-affirming surgery. She hands the mic over to audio journalist H Conley, who follows a 26-year-old Black nonbinary food writer as they overcome repeated barriers to getting top surgery due to body size. Meet the guests: - Chala June , an associate editor at "Bon Appétit" magazine, shares their experience of being told to lose weight before getting top surgery - Dr. Alexe...
Jan 27, 2023•42 min
Anita learned in the early days of this show that there's no such thing as "normal" sexual behavior. But what *is* worth considering: how your relationship with sex affects your life. She meets two women whose compulsive sexual behaviors led them to seek support, and a sex-positive psychologist shares how she helps folks with sex addiction in their recovery. Meet the guests: - Krista Nabar, the executive director and founder of the Carolina Sexual Wellness Center , explains her sex-positive appr...
Jan 20, 2023•30 min
Anita has not participated in a Dry January, but there are times when she's motivated to pay extra-close attention to her relationship with alcohol. Most recently: during the pandemic. While some of us started drinking more, another group of folks committed to sober curiosity: a movement encouraging introspection about your relationship with alcohol. She meets two people who are years into building sober lives and asks them to reflect on how their sobriety journeys have shaped everything from re...
Jan 13, 2023•35 min
Anita has been unpacking intergenerational trauma ... thanks, in part, to Hollywood. Seeing herself in movies like "Turning Red" and "Everything Everywhere All At Once" has helped her make sense of her own family's challenges. She talks with three women who've investigated how events in their own family histories have rippled through the generations to influence their bodies, parenting and culture. Meet the guests: - Dr. Ramona Beltrán , multiracial Chicana, mother, scholar and dancer, shares ho...
Jan 06, 2023•32 min
Anita is a sucker for live storytelling, so when she and the Embodied team planned their first in-person event, they knew the vibe they were going for. They invited five people to stand on stage in front of a live audience and explore how purity culture has shaped their faith, relationships and sexuality. In part two, you'll meet a poet and a producer who're questioning what purity culture taught them about sexual identity and masculinity. Meet the guests: - Ashley Lumpkin , a poet and educator,...
Dec 23, 2022•33 min
Anita met Embodied listeners IRL for the first time earlier this year at the show's first in-person event "Purified." The evening was part late night talk show and part live storytelling. With music DJ-ed by Quilla to set the tone, five people shared their unique experiences with purity culture on stage in front of a live audience. In part one, you'll meet a social worker, preacher and faith leader who take you from church camp to the pews. Meet the guests: - I ndhira Udofia , a student in the j...
Dec 16, 2022•47 min
Anita has a lot of practice talking about taboo topics with strangers. But when it comes to having these conversations in her own family, especially around the holidays, she gets squirmy like the rest of us. She invites her older sister Priyanka onto the podcast to reflect on tricky — but often inevitable — conversations with family members. Priyanka, a mom and pediatrician, talks about her ongoing journey to broach difficult subjects that come up a lot this time of year: loss, family dynamics a...
Dec 09, 2022•23 min
Anita wouldn't have made it through her 20s without her work friends. But now that she's a manager and working in a hybrid office, she's noticed that work friendships don't come as easily as they used to. A psychologist answers her burning workplace relationship questions and dives into the surprising amount of data about work besties. Plus, a Gen Z writer urges her to re-think the importance of work as a primary social hub. Meet the guests: - Dr. Marisa G. Franco , a psychologist and author of ...
Dec 02, 2022•33 min
Anita has not lived with her parents since leaving for college. But during the pandemic, many Millennials and Gen Zers returned home. For some of them, especially those with unpartnered parents, this meant new and unexpected insights into their parents’ love lives. Anita shares an episode of the podcast “Dating While Gray” that features conversations between parents and their adult kids about the ongoing search for a happily ever after. Adult children of single parents … are they a source of emo...
Nov 25, 2022•32 min
Anita hasn't always loved getting her photo taken, but seeing herself through the artistic eye of a close friend and photographer has changed her perspective. She meets two intimate photographers who take her behind the scenes of their shoots and share their philosophies on capturing the erotic in an image. Plus, she talks with a model about her intimate work that explores disability and sexuality. Meet the guests: - LaQuann Dawson , an artist and community organizer, shares his passion for docu...
Nov 18, 2022•31 min
Anita agrees to a suggestion posed by a listener: Explore why the hair-pulling disorder trichotillomania is so taboo. She talks with an artist who started pulling their hair more than two decades ago but only recently told her parents…after publishing part of their story in a national news outlet. A psychologist on the front-lines of studying trich treatment talks about the importance of acceptance; and a hairstylist with trich takes us into why her salon is a safe haven for other folks with hai...
Nov 11, 2022•33 min
Anita is getting married next year, which means she's been thinking a lot about money and what kind of spending aligns with her values. Turns out that her money behaviors (and yours) are shaped by experiences and beliefs that have accumulated since childhood. She talks with a financial therapist and a money coach about their work to help people better understand their money hang-ups and explores some unconventional ways to think about your money. Meet the guests: - Steven M. Hughes , a financial...
Nov 04, 2022•30 min
The first time we did an episode about the pelvic floor, Anita learned that y'all needed that education just as much as she did. She revisits the topic with a focus on access for trans and gender nonconforming folks. Two providers reflect on the sexuality education that has informed their approaches to treatment, and a patient shares his experience navigating pelvic pain with providers who weren't always well-informed about treating trans patients. Meet the guests: - Markus Harwood-Jones , an au...
Oct 28, 2022•35 min
Anita is well aware that bringing a new baby into the world is a lotttttt of work (even though she's never done it herself). But when she heard about friends and family members choosing surrogacy to build their families, she realized how little she knows about that process — and how many misconceptions exist. She talks to a three-time surrogate about why she chose this path. A father who has had a child via surrogacy details how his family navigated the process from a financial, legal and emotio...
Oct 21, 2022•32 min
After Anita watched the Netflix docuseries "Keep Sweet," it was on her mind for weeks. She sat down with Elissa Wall, one of the central figures in the series, to talk about growing up in an isolated, polygamist religious community in which everything was decided for her – from what she could wear to whom she would marry. Elissa talks about adjusting to life outside the FLDS Church, her process of healing after a traumatic childhood and her ongoing journey of embodiment. Meet the guest: - Elissa...
Oct 14, 2022•44 min
For most of guest host Omisade Burney-Scott's life, she was a reluctant viewer of horror films — squinting through her fingers long enough to get to the closing credits. In recent years, that trepidation has turned into thrill as she's watched the Black horror genre evolve. She talks with a filmmaker, director and horror scholar about how they see their own experiences reflected in the Black horror renaissance. Meet the guests: - Lana Garland , writer, director, producer and curator of the Hayti...
Oct 07, 2022•30 min
Anita pretty much stopped wearing bras in the pandemic, and she's likely not going back. But she knows that for many, a good bra is clutch for daily comfort. She traces the surprising history and technology of the brassiere with the inventor of the sports bra and an expert who consulted with the Army on their first-ever tactical bra. Then she meets two people whose bra stories bump up against how we define and redefine gender and social norms for ourselves and others. Meet the guests: - Lisa Lin...
Sep 30, 2022•32 min
Anita has long taken a laissez-faire approach to digital security. But as she's learned (the hard way), just because she doesn't have something to hide, doesn't mean she has nothing to lose. She calls in experts, including an abortion doula and sex worker, to learn strategies for keeping personal information safe online. Meet the guests: - Amanda Bennett , a project manager for Digital Defense Fund , walks us through the basics of digital security and shares practical tips - Kestrel , an abortio...
Sep 23, 2022•31 min
Anita revisits a conversation with folks who've undergone facial feminization surgery as part of their gender confirmation process. FFS is a set of bone and soft tissue surgical procedures that reshape the forehead, brow, jaw and more. They share what the surgery meant for them, plus a medical anthropologist helps unpack who gets to decide what femininity looks like. Meet the guests: - Emma Ward , songwriter, producer and community manager, shares her experience of facial feminization surgery - ...
Sep 16, 2022•35 min
Guest host Omisade Burney-Scott is a proud Aries Sun-Leo moon-Virgo rising and has been looking to the stars since the ‘70s. She and her best friend of over 50 years look back on how astrology influenced their relationship growing up and how they move in the world today. Plus, she talks to two astrologers about how this practice can play a role in social justice movements and in the intersections of our identities. Meet the guests: - Cheyanne Headen , a community and de-escalation specialist and...
Sep 09, 2022•35 min
Anita shares an episode of “This Is Uncomfortable,” a podcast from Marketplace that explores the ways money messes with our relationships and life plans. Rebecca Danigelis never planned to stop working. Raising two kids as a single mom, everything she earned went to making sure they got the best education she could afford. But when her son Sian-Pierre's career took off, hers started to crumble. Find “ This Is Uncomfortable ” wherever you get your podcasts. Look out for their next season in early...
Sep 02, 2022•37 min
Anita grew up betwixt and between two religious communities and never felt like she fully belonged to either. The upside? She had a lot of room to figure things out on her own. She talks with two people who didn't find that freedom until they left their conservative religions. They tell her about extracting themselves from tight-knit religious communities and reconnecting with their sexuality and identity on their own terms. Meet the guests: - Nicole Hardy, writer and author of the memoir "Confe...
Aug 26, 2022•31 min
Before recording this episode, Anita would have turned to Google for her burning questions about abortion. But now, she knows better. She meets two abortion doulas who share the practical and philosophical components of their job. They reflect on what has changed for them since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and what's stayed the same for their alternative and community-based networks of care. Meet the guests: - KáLyn Banks Coghill , an abortion doula, writer, organizer, educator and doctoral stud...
Aug 19, 2022•33 min
Anita had a terrible 18th birthday (she'll tell you later), but not much changed for her when she legally became an adult. For tens of thousands of young folks in the U.S. each year who turn 18 while in foster care, "legal adulthood" brings a slew of new challenges. Two women who aged out of foster care tell Anita about their experiences and how they informed the relationships they're building today. Plus, she meets someone who's seen the foster care system from both sides — as a kid, and as a f...
Aug 05, 2022•34 min
Anita is a dog mom. Her wire-haired, bearded terrier Oliver has been her companion through heartbreak, job changes and pandemic turmoil. She's never going to feel ready to say goodbye, but she knows from watching others lose family pets, that pet grief can wreck you, and it's better to acknowledge this reality sooner rather than later. She talks with pet owners, a veterinary social worker, a vet and her own parents about making space for pet grief and memorializing the animal companions we have ...
Jul 29, 2022•34 min
