Embodied

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 experience of stuttering and what we know about what causes stuttering - Jia Bin, doctoral student at Michigan State University, talks about growing up in rural China with a stutter and what she's hoping to bring back to the stuttering community there - Nina G, comedian and author of "Stutterer, Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn’t Happen," explains why she decided to embrace her dream of doing stand-up and shares how her stuttering has impacted romantic and platonic relationships Read the transcript | Review the podcast Follow Embodied on Twitter and Instagram Leave us a message for an upcoming episode here! Dig deeper: Matice Morris on YouTube Courtland Crain on YouTube Info about Nina’s upcoming comedy special National Stuttering Association

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 they're working to bring more young folks into the naturist movement in Florida Read the transcript | Review the podcast Follow Embodied on Twitter and Instagram Leave us a message for an upcoming episode here!

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 vibrator and debunks myths and misconceptions around how this sex toy evolved- Anna Lee, co-founder and head of engineering at Lioness, talks about how her company designed their smart vibrator, how they collect data and what they've learned from their users so far Read the transcript | Review the podcastFollow Embodied on Twitter and InstagramDive deeper:Read more about Von’s musicSee some vibrator ads throughout historyHallie debunking the vibrator myth

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 Joy of Being One,” shares her personal experience and ways to reframe the negative stereotypes about being and having only children - Corinne Lyons, a middle school teacher in Detroit, talks about how her childhood being the only child of only children has shaped how she thinks about family - Billy Collins, former U.S. poet laureate, reads his poem "Only Child" and shares the joy of being an only child Read the transcript | Review the podcast Follow Embodied on Twitter and Instagram

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 - Chris Ufere, the founder and CEO of uDreamed, a free online service for dream logging, talks about analyzing 3,000 COVID19 dreams and what patterns emerged - Michael Nadorff, an associate professor of psychology at Mississippi State University, shares his research on the link between nightmares and suicide Read the transcript | Review the podcast Follow Embodied on Twitter and Instagram

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 marketing can be - Kim Young, licensed clinical social worker known as the Dope Black Social Worker, explains how we can take charge of our own wellness ... without buying anything Read the transcript | Review the podcast Follow Embodied on Twitter and Instagram

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 has informed — and been informed by — their drag persona - Larry La Fountain-Stokes, professor at the University of Michigan and author of "Queer Ricans" and "Translocas," dives into the history of drag and shares how his drag persona Lola von Miramar has had an effect on his research - Naomi Dix, Afro-Latinx drag artist based in Durham, North Carolina and a member of the House of Coxx, talks about how she uses drag as a platform to educate and speak out against anti-queer and anti-drag violence Read the transcript | Review the podcast Follow Embodied on Twitter and Instagram

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 of theatre and drama at the University of Michigan, talks about how her experience growing up with an incarcerated father informs her research and led to her play "Doin' Time: Through the Visiting Glass" - Sylvia A. Harvey, a journalist and author, examines the intersection of the carceral, education and child welfare systems and investigates some of the larger forces shaping the experiences of families with an incarcerated loved one Read the transcript | Review the podcast Follow Embodied on Twitter and Instagram Dive deeper: My Dad Went to Prison When I Was 5. Now I Write About Families Like Mine by Sylvia A. Harvey Resources from SAH

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 journey with sex and intimacy as a deaf and hard of hearing person- Vika Mass, Anna's fiancee, shares how she has adjusted as part of an interabled couple- Yat Li, disability advocate, inclusive model and creator of “Let There Be Ears” on YouTube, talks about how he learned to self-disclose his deafnessRead the transcript | Review the podcastFollow Embodied on Twitter and Instagram

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. Alexes Hazen, a New York City-based aesthetic and reconstructive surgeon who performs top surgeries, explains some of the various factors that come into play for surgeons when considering patients- Lacie Parker, a psychotherapist who works with queer people and focuses on eating concerns and body image, talks about weight stigma for trans folksMeet the creator:- H Conley is a a New York City-based journalist, audio producer and artist. Find more of their audio work here.Read the transcript | Review the podcastFollow Embodied on Twitter and Instagram Click here to see the photos that accompany HC’s story.