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...
Sep 29, 2023•34 min
Anita has no tattoos but plenty of admiration for the art form that gives us new ways to experience our bodies. She talks with a heavily-tattooed scholar who's interrogated how society treats tattooed women; a queer, Jewish tattoo artist reclaiming body art; and an artist who's pushing back on the misconceptions of tattooing melanated skin. Meet the guests: - Beverly Thompson , professor in the sociology department at Siena College in New York, talk about how gender impacts the perception of tat...
Sep 22, 2023•34 min
Anita discovers just how wrong “Fifty Shades of Grey” was about BDSM. A dominatrix and community leader introduce her to kink spaces rooted in community and healing. Plus, a scholar talks about the long history behind our understanding of masochism. Meet the guests: - Smoky , the co-founder of Obsidian , shares how she became interested in the world of BDSM, what draws her to the role of submissive and what inspired the creation of Obsidian - Dia Dynasty , a professional dominatrix based in New ...
Sep 15, 2023•37 min
Anita has heard one resounding truth from her friends who lost a parent in early adulthood: That death was the biggest thing that has ever happened to them. She meets two people who've built specific communities around their grief on the internet and a writer who experienced losing his dad twice. Meet the guests: - Liz Zorn , photographer and model, talks about the sudden loss of her father and how it's changed her views on the afterlife - Naomi Edmondson , grief educator and space holder, share...
Sep 08, 2023•32 min
Fifteen years ago Anita took Women's Studies 101 on a whim … and to this day, she still doesn't have an answer to the question: what is masculinity? In further pursuit of some clarity, she talks with a trans man and a non-binary person about what's possible when we take a more gender-fluid approach to manhood. The two share where their own beliefs about gender come from and how they're building a more expansive definition of masculinity in their own lives. Meet the guests: - Ocean Wei , a rising...
Sep 01, 2023•28 min
Anita got friend dumped for the first time in 6th grade, and she's still not over it. She talks to folks about the distinct pain of a platonic breakup and gets some tools for building strong friendships, setting boundaries and figuring out when it's time to let go. Meet the guests: - Michelle Elman is an author and life coach best known for her activism campaign Scarred Not Scared. She tells Anita about "the mass exodus" — a period of time in which she went through multiple friend breakups - Ton...
Aug 25, 2023•25 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 ...
Aug 18, 2023•34 min
Anita has no qualms about being an armchair therapist for friends going through a breakup. But sometimes she wonders how her advice aligns with what relationship experts say. Advice columnists Meredith Goldstein and Stacia Brown give guidance on breaking up "well," going no-contact, navigating social media and finding the right breakup anthem for the moment. Meet the guests: - Meredith Goldstein , writer and podcast host behind The Boston Globe column and podcast "Love Letters," shares insights ...
Aug 11, 2023•34 min
Anita is confused about hook up culture. Is it a thing, and if so, who makes the rules? She talks to a recent college grad about her research on the sex lives of her peers, plus a therapist who shares her take on why it doesn't feel as liberating as we think it should. Then she dives into Celibacy TikTok — a space where Gen Zers are committing to being sex-free. Meet the guests: - Sophie Aaron , a writer, researcher and 2021 graduate of Oberlin College shares insights from her senior thesis on h...
Aug 04, 2023•32 min
Anita invites her parents back to Embodied for a special bonus episode. She hears their take on our recent episode " Mixed ," about growing up biracial. Then she turns the tables and puts herself in the guest seat as her parents ask her a few questions. Meet the guests: - Sheila Rao , Anita's mom, shares some of the context surrounding her marriage to Satish and how that influenced the way they raised their children — and asks Anita how she's thinking about these issues as she's building her own...
Jul 28, 2023•24 min
Anita's nail habit has evolved in the past decade from $10 drop-in manicures to 90 minute appointments with a nail artist. That artist joins her for a conversation about how Black women have shaped nail culture. Plus a fashion historian details nail history from Egyptian mummies to ‘90s Chanel colors, and a Vietnamese-American woman tells the story of growing up inside her parents' nail salons. Meet the guests: - Crystal Sanders , nail artist and entrepreneur, shares her business and artistic ph...
Jul 21, 2023•35 min
When Anita moved away to college, she experienced a big shift in her biracial identity. Turns out that the questions that emerged for her are ones that many mixed young adults still ponder today ...15 years later. She meets two college seniors and they talk through navigating everything from "Where do I belong?" to "How do I date?" Plus she hears wisdom from a life coach who helps mixed adults tell new stories about identity. Meet the guests: - Adiah Siler , a senior at the University of the Art...
Jul 14, 2023•35 min
Anita does not work with her boo, but after sharing home office space for two pandemic years, she's started to wonder how couples who *do* work together make it work. She talks with two sets of couples in very different professional industries about their strategies for tackling finances, alone time and intimacy. Meet the guests: - Sarah & Austin McCombie , the married duo behind the North Carolina-based band Chatham Rabbits talk about how they learned to give each other constructive creativ...
Jul 07, 2023•39 min
Anita is a bashful sexter, and she's ready to get over her insecurities. A pleasure enthusiast advises her on the art of a good sext; a sexting expert traces the short and spicy history of sexting in this country; and a high schooler breaks down the relationship between sexting and consent. Meet the guests: - Penda N’diaye , founder and CEO of Pro Hoe and pleasure enthusiast, shares tips to help Anita get more comfortable with sexting and outlines the importance of consent - Amy Hasinoff , assoc...
Jun 30, 2023•33 min
Guest host Omisade Burney-Scott is well aware that gentle parenting is a divisive concept. So she's gets into it! Omi talks with two other Black mothers about their definitions of gentle parenting and how it can break cycles of generational trauma. Then her older son shares how he has seen her parenting evolve over the past three decades. Meet the guests: - Destiny Bennett , a content creator and mother of three boys, explains why she chooses to describe her parenting philosophy as "intentional"...
Jun 23, 2023•36 min
Male fertility issues make up half of all infertility cases … but you’d never know it from consuming fertility content through culture, media and even medicine. Anita meets three men breaking the silence in hopes that others get the help and support they need. Meet the guests: - Jared Wright , journalist who wrote a piece about his infertility journey for VICE , talks through his first time in a fertility clinic, the treatments he and his wife have undergone since their marriage in 2020 and abou...
Jun 16, 2023•31 min
Anita passes the mic to our friends at the feminist documentary podcast "Bodies" for an exploration of ADHD and identity. Producer Hannah Harris Green talks about how getting an ADHD diagnosis helped her release the shame she'd been carrying since childhood. Meet the guests: - Hannah Harris Green , contributing producer for " Bodies ," shares her journey to an ADHD diagnosis as an adult and how the disorder has impacted her entire life - Matthew , Hannah's partner, talks about how Hannah's ADHD ...
Jun 09, 2023•36 min
A growing number of American adults have the same feeling about romantic partnerships: They don’t want one. Anita meets three people who have chosen singlehood: a scholar who examines the double standard of relationship status, a single mother of two by choice and a man shedding toxic masculinity to build a deliberately single life. Meet the guests: - Dr. Kris Marsh , associate professor at the University of Maryland and author of “ The Love Jones Cohort: Single and Living Alone in the Black Mid...
Jun 02, 2023•33 min
Anita's highly-anticipated (and highly-awkward) first kiss was in eighth grade … but she remembers it like it was yesterday! A scientist tells her why our brains respond so strongly to kissing and how our kissing customs have changed over time. She also unpacks the power of a kiss with a photographer who documents queer Black love in public and three Gen-Zers school her on contemporary kissing culture. Meet the guests: - Sheril Kirshenbaum , science communicator and author of “ The Science of Ki...
May 26, 2023•32 min
Anita usually feels better after a good, long cry. But why is that? She explores that question with a poet who spent years diving deeply into the science and culture of crying. And a forerunner of the "crying selfie" trend shares how he pushes back on toxic masculinity by embracing tears. Meet the guests: - Heather Christle , poet and author of " The Crying Book ," takes us into some of the science of crying and looks at tears through a political and gender-informed lens - Viorel Tanase , a mode...
May 19, 2023•34 min
Anita treasures sleep and moments of silence. So when she hears typical narratives of early parenthood that include unending cries and restless nights, she has concerns for the mental toll on new parents. But culturally there is a lot of silence around how challenging it can be and recognizing deteriorating mental health while caring for another person can be isolating. In part two of the postpartum series "Delivered," she meets a prolific artist whose experience with postpartum depression catal...
May 12, 2023•34 min
Anita has been around enough postpartum folks to know that there's a whole lot they felt unprepared for when it came to how their physical bodies would experience pregnancy and childbirth. In part one of a two-part series, she hears from folks about meeting their new postpartum bodies. A postpartum doula talks about her trauma-informed approach to caring for the physical body; a photographer shares why they're trying to diversify the images we associate with postpartum bodies; and a former Marin...
May 05, 2023•34 min
Anita is no stranger to anxiety, but her spirals are mostly short lived. In this episode she meets folks who often get caught in loops of extreme worry and compulsions with little relief. A married couple shares how OCD put them in survival mode and a woman whose OCD symptoms began in kindergarten talks about learning how to open up about her experience in friendships and dating. Meet the guests: - Mike and Nicole Comforto , writers who published a Modern Love essay about how Mike's OCD impacted...
Apr 28, 2023•36 min
It's a small procedure, but a big question. Anita talks with a urologist about what medical advice to consider while making the circumcision decision (and where medicine doesn't have the answers). She also meets a rabbi and mother who offers alternatives to centuries-old circumcision rituals and hears from a circumcised father raising an uncircumcised son. Meet the guests: - Dr. Emilie K. Johnson , a pediatric urologist and associate professor of urology at Northwestern University, answers Anita...
Apr 21, 2023•31 min
Anita has interrogated so many aspects of parenthood. But how about the decision to become a parent at all? She talks with three women about making their child-free decisions and meets a psychotherapist who's devoted her career to helping people find clarity in that choice. Meet the guests: - Sarah Deavitt , certified holistic nutritionist, talks about her decision to live a child-free life and how taking over care for her grandfather with Alzheimer's solidified that decision - Samhita Mukhopadh...
Apr 14, 2023•33 min
Anita sniffs out what's so fascinating about the science of smell — and gets her mind blown. A psychologist shares why smell is our most emotional sense, plus stories about the mental health consequences of anosmia (losing your sense of smell) and a scent designer describes how to re-create memories through candles. Meet the guests: - Bonnie Blodgett, author of “ Remembering Smell .” - Rachel Herz , neuroscientist and author of “ The Scent of Desire .” - Christina Degreaffenreidt, founder and cr...
Apr 07, 2023•31 min
Stuttering occurs in every culture with a spoken language. So why do many communities treat it as a source of shame? Two speech-language pathologists and a comedian help Anita question cultural assumptions about stuttering and explore the growing movement to embrace speech diversity. Meet the guests: - Dr. Derek Daniels , licensed and certified speech-language pathologist and associate professor in the department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Wayne State University, shares his own e...
Mar 31, 2023•35 min
Anita learns about non-sexual, social nudity and why opting to live life mostly in the nude could actually make her think about her body LESS. [This episode originally aired in September 2021.] Meet the guests: - Naomi Brown , a reporter and host at WUNC, talks about her personal journey to becoming a practicing naturist - Jay Shapiro , lead coordinator and president of Triangle Area Naturists LLC , shares how to separate sex from nudity - Sam and Aleah , creators of Our Natural Blog , share how...
Mar 24, 2023•32 min
True or false? Victorian doctors invented the vibrator to cure women's "hysteria" by bringing them to sexual climax. The answer may surprise you...as it did Anita! She gets the truth about vibrator history from journalist Hallie Lieberman and meets Anna Lee, the engineer behind the first-ever “smart” vibrator that can help you better understand your arousal patterns. Meet the guests: - Hallie Lieberman , author of " Buzz: The Stimulating History of the Sex Toy ," shares the history of the vibrat...
Mar 17, 2023•32 min
Anita has many close friends who defy all stereotypes about only children. But when it comes to thinking about having her own kids, she still can't shake some of those ingrained ideas. She hears three perspectives on single-kid families (including that of former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins) and learns why the debunked mythology around only children still lingers today. Meet the guests: - Lauren Sandler , journalist and author of " One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child, and the J...
Mar 10, 2023•33 min
