We each have a body, but every body’s story is unique. In this intimate conversation, sociologist Charlotte Bates tells Alexis and Rosie why studying bodies – and how we talk about them – matters in a society where some are privileged over others, and why ableism harms us all.
Charlotte talks about her co-authored work on wild swimming, arguing that despite its commodification, it holds subversive power. She also considers how the unwell body collides with the demands of capitalist life – revealing just how absurd it can be. Plus: what “wellness” fails to capture – and why health is not a lifestyle choice.
Guest: Charlotte Bates
Hosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu Truong
Executive Producer: Alice Bloch
Sound Engineer: David Crackles
Music: Joe Gardner
Artwork: Erin Aniker
Find more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review.
Episode Resources
Charlotte, Rosie, Alexis and our producer Alice recommended
- Nina Mingya Powles’ book “Small Bodies of Water”
- Andy Jackson’s poem “The Change Room”
- Viktoria Modesta’s song “Prototype”
- Mark O’Connell’s book “To Be A Machine”
From The Sociological Review
- “Making Visible: Chronic Illness and the Academy” – Anna Ruddock
- “Race and Disability in the Academy” – Moya Bailey
- “Embodying Sociology” [Supplement Issue]
By Charlotte Bates
- “Vital Bodies: Living with Illness”
- “Conviviality, disability and design in the city”
- Research on wild swimming with Kate Moles – including this article and this forthcoming publication.
Further readings
- “Beyond the Periphery of the Skin” – Silvia Federici
- “Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s” – Donna Haraway
- “Moving Beyond Pain” – bell hooks
- “On Being Ill” – Virginia Woolf
- “Believing Your Pain as Radical Self-Care” – Jameisha Prescod (in this publication)
- “Wellness Culture is Ableism in Sheep’s Clothing” – Lucy Pasha-Robinson
- The Polluted Leisure Project – Clifton Evers and James Davoll
- The Moving Oceans project
- “Illness: The Cry of the Flesh” – Havi Carel
- Alexandre Baril’s scholarly work
- “Everybody Needs Beauty: In Search of the Nature Cure” – Samantha Walton
- “Why climate justice is impossible without racial justice” – Georgia Whitaker
- On maternal mortality – Divya Talwar
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