Beth Linker
speaker
154 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 20 Jul
Beth Linker’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
If you can somehow maintain upright posture, and they never tell you for how long, right?
Like no one ever says, stand up straight for the rest of the day, for an hour.
How long do you want me to stand up straight?
Hi Mike, thanks for having me.
Well, the takeaway point is that our belief in the benefits of good posture are not scientifically grounded.
They're instead grounded in our cultural attitudes and historical artifacts.
It actually comes out of the eugenic era and belief in eugenics.
Eugenics is a very complicated history, but eugenics is the belief in human perfectibility and doing so through correct breeding, so through correct reproduction, but also through engaging in the best possible lifestyle.
So it is a movement from the early 20th century that was about optimization of the human body.
Yes, I would say it's being oversold.
Is there anything wrong with it?
I talk about how upright posture is actually very morally loaded.
In the mid 20th century, straightness became meaning like word wise and meaning wise became synonymous with
Heterosexuality became synonymous with honesty.
And then on top of that is this medicalized history of posture, of good posture.
being essential for your health.
Good posture was talked about in terms of if you can have good posture now, you won't suffer lots of illnesses in the future or you won't suffer back pain in the future.
So I think, is it wrong?
I don't know that it's wrong for someone to tell you to sit up straight.
I just think it's really loaded.
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