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...
Apr 12, 2024•33 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...
Apr 05, 2024•33 min
A gender transition is a moment of personal flux that can also have a big impact on a romantic relationship. Anita meets two couples who continued to choose each other after one partner came out as trans: a South African couple in their 20s and an American couple who went through a transition after 22 years of marriage. Meet the guests: - Summer Tao and Lucy Aalto , partners and freelance writers in South Africa, describe the unexpected ways in which Summer’s transition brought them closer toget...
Mar 28, 2024•39 min
No matter how much you love your partner, your relationship will never be totally free from disagreement. And nor should it be, say researchers Dr John Gottman and Dr Julie Schwartz Gottman. We actually just need to learn to argue better . Enjoy this episode from our friends at The Happiness Lab . The Gottmans join Dr Laurie Santos to talk us through how to raise complaints with our partners and how to react when they complain about us. Further reading: Fight Right: How Successful Couples Turn C...
Mar 26, 2024•35 min
American Sign Language is the third-most used language in the U.S. ASL has its own culture and art forms, and for many Deaf folks, ASL is about much more than just communication. Anita talks to Deaf author Sara Nović and Deaf ASL Slam poet Douglas Ridloff about how ASL gave them tools for self-understanding and artistic expression. Then she learns from scholars Carolyn McCaskill and Joseph Hill about Black American Sign Language (BASL), an ASL dialect that emerged because of school segregation. ...
Mar 22, 2024•33 min
Anita finds a lot of ASMR videos to be deeply relaxing, but she doesn't get the well-hyped/well-documented 'brain tingles.' Why? She puts the question to a physiologist who's been exploring the science of ASMR for the past decade. Plus, she meets an ASMR artist who's entranced hundreds of thousands of people with her medical role play videos and a woman who turned to the world of Boyfriend ASMR to heal her broken heart. Meet the guests: - Craig Harris Richard , ASMR researcher and professor of b...
Mar 15, 2024•36 min
Egg donation in the U.S. is a multibillion dollar industry with high stakes and complicated dynamics. Anita talks with two egg donors about why they donated and what they wish they'd known earlier. Plus, a medical anthropologist shines a light on the messy world of donor compensation and why some eggs are valued higher than others. Meet the guests: - Julie Ventura , egg donor and nail artist , shares her journey of donating eggs for her best friends to start a family - Claire Burns , egg donor a...
Mar 08, 2024•35 min
The Brazilian butt lift (or BBL) is the fastest-growing cosmetic surgery in recent memory ... but why? Anita learns about the ins and outs of the procedure from a plastic surgeon and a BBL recipient. Then a scholar puts our obsession with big butts in historical context — tracing the conversation from Sir Mix-a-Lot to Kim Kardashian. Meet the guests: - Dr. Kelly Bolden , a clinical assistant professor at Howard University and Medical Director and plastic surgeon at CulturaMed, details the proced...
Mar 01, 2024•34 min
When a loved one dies, a big part of the grieving process involves letting go of the role they once played in your day-to-day life. But with new developments in AI technology … the dead can live on in new and interesting ways. Anita meets a tech journalist who built bots of her parents to see how AI could preserve their memories for the long term. She also talks with a philosophy professor about the ways that ancient Chinese philosophy can address AI's emerging ethical issues and how grief tech ...
Feb 23, 2024•38 min
Science fiction and real-life tech experts have promised a future filled with sex robots. But how many of those predictions will actually come true? Anita talks to an artificial intelligence scholar who's traced sex robots from Greek mythology to the prototypes on the market today. Plus, a writer shines a light on the dark world of a futuristic brothel … explored from the perspective of an AI Sex Bot herself. Meet the guests: - Dr. Kate Devlin , a scholar in artificial intelligence and society i...
Feb 16, 2024•33 min
When human romance isn't working out, can an AI chatbot successfully take its place? Anita hears varied perspectives on that question. She meets a journalist who got dumped by her AI crush and talks with a woman whose AI companion turned her life around. Plus, psychologist Melissa McCool, the clinical product consultant for AI tech company Luka, takes Anita behind the scenes of making AI companions. Meet the guests: - Christina Campodonico , the senior reporter of arts and culture at The San Fra...
Feb 09, 2024•35 min
In the 34 years that guest host Omisade Burney-Scott was a menstruating person, she always felt that blood held more significance than just the biological. She meets an OB/GYN who shares little-known facts about period blood, and talks with two menstrual health advocates about how art and community have connected them to their cycles. Plus, an attorney discusses what she's paying attention to this year in terms of period policy. Meet the Guests: - Dr. Charis Chambers , who is known as "The Perio...
Feb 02, 2024•31 min
You might have noticed that the word “y’all” is popping up everywhere. For decades, linguists have noted that regional American accents are disappearing. But at the same time, use of this traditionally Southern pronoun is rapidly spreading — and the reasons may surprise you. We hope you learn as much as we did from this special episode from The Broadside, produced by our colleagues at WUNC! Meet the Guests: - Brody McCurdy , Linguist and Researcher at NC State - Antonia Randolph , Assistant Prof...
Jan 30, 2024•21 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 and married couple, talk about what led to Mike's diagnosis with...
Jan 26, 2024•37 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...
Jan 19, 2024•35 min
Erectile dysfunction affects as many as 30 million people in the U.S. — yet the fears of not being “normal” prevent folks from speaking up about it. Anita meets a man who was silent about his ED for 10 years before getting surgery and opening up to partners…and talks with a sex therapist who challenges the word “dysfunction.” Plus, a 72-year-old describes how he’s redefined intimacy in his 30 years of experiencing ED. Meet the guests: - Ven Virah , a public speaker and global healthcare staffing...
Jan 12, 2024•33 min
Anita is committed to self-improvement but skeptical of self-help. She brings her qualms and questions to the experts: Kristen Meinzer, a podcaster who has lived by the rules of more than 50 self-help books, and Beth Blum, a scholar who's traced the genre back to its roots. Plus Sondra Rose Marie, a former self-help fan, shares how the industry has failed her as a woman of color. Meet the guests: - Kristen Meinzer, pop culture commentator and podcast host, shares what she learned from following ...
Jan 05, 2024•35 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...
Dec 29, 2023•36 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 ...
Dec 22, 2023•31 min
Dealing with pimples and blackheads in middle school is practically a right of passage. But when acne is a defining feature of your adulthood... it’s a whole different experience. Anita meets two acne content creators and a photographer who talk about the emotional toll of severe acne, the myth of normal skin, and the responsibility of being today’s skincare influencers. Meet the Guests: - Patsy Chem , an acne-positive skinfluencer, shares the experience of getting severe acne in her 20s and how...
Dec 15, 2023•33 min
More Americans are living into their 90s and 100s than ever before, and it blows Anita's mind that so few people are talking about it! She meets a 94-year-old man who opens up about the changes in his romantic, platonic, and familial relationships, and his two kids join to share their perspectives. Plus, a woman in her 70s introduces Anita to an innovative model for combating social isolation in your senior years. Meet the Guests: - Charles Owens, a 94-year-old man living in North Carolina, talk...
Dec 08, 2023•32 min
Anita walked away from her first pole dancing class slightly bruised … but very intrigued. She talks with a veteran stripper about the history and politics of modern pole dancing and meets a pole sport athlete and studio owner who is trying to build an inclusive space for pole practitioners. Plus, a nonbinary pole dancer shares how their relationship with the pole has evolved alongside their gender identity. Meet the Guests: NatsHoney , a veteran stripper, pole artist, entrepreneur and mother ta...
Dec 01, 2023•34 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...
Nov 24, 2023•30 min
What happens when trauma occurs not as a single isolated event, but millions of smaller, ongoing incidents? Guest host Anisa Khalifa talks with an artist, psychotherapist and racial trauma expert about understanding complex post-traumatic stress disorder and the path to healing. Meet the Guests: - Fariha Róisín , a multidisciplinary artist and writer, talks about her journey to healing from complex trauma and why her newest book is titled "Survival Takes a Wild Imagination" - Dr. Karen Winkler ,...
Nov 17, 2023•33 min
As a child of two immigrants, Anita has a tumultuous relationship with the question: "Where are you from?" So, too, do many third culture kids — people who spend a significant number of their developmental years living in places that are not their parents' homelands. She talks with two third culture kids — one 35 and one 12 — and their moms about growing up between cultures and how they’ve built identity and relationships along the way. Meet the Guests: - Rayla Heide , a senior narrative designe...
Nov 10, 2023•31 min
Guest host Anisa Khalifa first became a fan in high school. She gets an explanation from a psychologist about how being in fandoms benefits mental health, and a journalist describes what role the internet has played in shaping fan culture. Plus, Anisa invites the co-hosts of her K-drama podcast to reflect on how fandom brought them together — and what it means to be a fan. Meet the guests: - Lynn Zubernis , a psychologist and professor at West Chester University, talks about what poises some peo...
Nov 03, 2023•36 min
Many autistic people assigned female at birth remain undiagnosed at 18, so what's it like to get an autism diagnosis in your adulthood? Anita meets two women whose paths to a diagnosis started on the internet. Plus a non-binary photographer shares how their late autism diagnosis has informed their marriage and sense of self. Meet the guests: - Irene Chon , neurodivergent creator and self-empowerment coach, talks about the challenge of getting assessed for autism as an adult and why working in cu...
Oct 27, 2023•34 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...
Oct 20, 2023•32 min
Meet the guests: - Esmé Weijun Wang , a writer, speaker and the author of " The Collected Schizophrenias ," talks about navigating medical stigma and the ways that writing and performance have contributed to her understanding of schizophrenia - Christopher Grant , an artist and animator based in Canada, talks about how he uses drawing to process his moments of psychosis and what it's been like to share his story on TikTok and Instagram - Ashley Smith , an author and writer who runs the blog "Ove...
Oct 13, 2023•35 min
Anita first learned about surrogate partner therapy from the 2012 movie "The Sessions," and her curiosity was piqued. It's a widely misunderstood and stigmatized type of therapy work in which touch is a mechanism for healing. Two surrogate partners take her inside the day-to-day of their jobs, and a certified sex therapist shares why she hopes others in her industry will be more welcoming to the practice. Meet the guests: - Brian Gibney , a surrogate partner, educator and advocate, explains what...
Oct 06, 2023•31 min
