Embodied

Reimagining The Wedding Ceremony

25 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The marriage rate in this country has fallen nearly 60% in the last half century. So what’s motivating those of us still choosing to say I do? Anita...

Coming Of Age As A Chinese Restaurant Kid

18 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Curtis Chin grew up inside Chung’s Cantonese Cuisine. His great-grandfather first opened the Detroit restaurant in 1940, and in the 1970s and ‘80s...

Sex And Intimacy After Sexual Assault

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After being raped at 18, journalist Katie Simon had a burning question: How do you navigate sex and intimacy after sexual assault? Katie tells Anita a...

Dating, Sex & Love With HIV

04 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How does living with a condition that is so deeply stigmatized affect who and how we love? Anita meets a mixed-HIV status couple who shares how they'v...

Is Food The Key To Cultural Belonging?

27 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Anita's been reckoning with what it means to stay connected to cultural identity as a mixed-race adult. And in pursuit of what things to prioritize, s...

Why It’s So Hard To Break Up With Fast Fashion

20 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The consequences of fast fashion are well known: worker exploitation, environmental damage and poor quality items. And yet many of us keep buying it —...

How Fake Claims To Native Identity Cause Real Harm

13 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dina Gilio-Whitaker knows that it’s complicated to talk about Native American identity. She occupies a gray zone herself: she’s a legal descendant...

How LGBTQ Seniors Are Aging In Community

06 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When married couple Pat McAulay and Margaret Roesch were in their 40s, they had a shared dream for old age: living in a big house with other lesbians ...

(Single) Mothered: Choosing To Parent Solo

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There's a growing number of women challenging the expectation that you need a partner to have a child. Anita meets two single moms by choice. They tal...

The Sex Lives Of Gen Z (And Why They Matter)

23 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You’ve likely seen some version of the headline: “Gen Z Is In a Sex Recession.” But there’s a lot more to the story. Journalist Carter Sherman...

Desiring Disability in Fashion

16 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Mainstream adaptive fashion lines are relatively new, but creating clothes to fit and flatter a range of bodies has long been part of disability cultu...

BONUS: A Preview of The Second Opinion with Dr. Sharon

13 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On Dr. Sharon Malone’s new podcast, women take back the conversation on health with straight talk, real experience and the care we all deserve. You’...

Navigating Chronic Insomnia In A Sleep-Obsessed Culture

09 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For almost 29 years, journalist Jennifer Senior was a self-described “brilliant sleeper.” Then, one night, something changed…and Jennifer has st...

A Mission To Tell Trans History Differently

02 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Kit Heyam was first trying to understand their gender identity as an adolescent, they looked to history. But they only found stories that painted...

Boomers On Psychedelics

25 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's been half a century since the psychedelic era, but some baby boomers are returning to the drugs of their youth — not for rock and roll, but to ...

Searching For Love And Legal Status

18 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When María Lopez was 6 years old, her grandmother gave her a piece of advice: marry someone with papers. María was undocumented, and throughout her ...

What It Takes To Make Art Your Life

11 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Building a life as an artist is an uphill climb. After decades of hustling to make it work, writer Stephanie Elizondo Griest had one big question: How...

The Life of Trans And Queer Long-Haul Truckers

04 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Long-haul trucking is not an easy job. The schedule is grueling, and the burnout rate is high. But the profession does offer a certain sense of freedo...

Dyslexia And The Reading Brain

28 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At its best, reading is a portal to new worlds and new ideas. But a lot can get in the way — up to 20% of the population experiences symptoms of dys...

One Sperm Donor, 31 Half Siblings & A Long Search For Identity

21 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ryan Kramer was born through an anonymous sperm donor in 1990. By the time he was 2 years old, he already had some big questions about his identity —...

Undertaken: The Next Generation Of Funeral Directors

14 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A significant portion of the funeral home workforce is entering retirement...but there's a crop of young people who are ready to take the helm. Anita ...

When Long Covid Rewrites Your Love Story

07 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Philip Hoover and his wife Lauren Hill-Hoover tested positive for COVID-19 three years ago, they thought they knew what to expect. But then Phili...

A Journalist’s Solution to Emotional Conundrums

31 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Yowei Shaw got laid off two years ago, there was no amount of bad TV, fried food or even therapy that could get her out of a deep emotional rut. ...

Abraham Verghese On Writing, Medicine & The Body

24 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Abraham Verghese has two acclaimed careers. He’s an infectious disease specialist known for his focus on the human side of medicine and a bestsellin...

Bisexuality Beyond The Binary

17 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Our understanding of the term bisexuality has been in a state of constant evolution. In a moment when bisexual adults make up the largest share of the...

Parenting Wisdom From An Interabled Couple

10 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Jessica Slice was 28 years old, a bout of heat exhaustion triggered an underlying neurological disorder that led to permanent physical disabiliti...

Why We Need More Therapists Of Color

03 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It took Anita 12 years and five therapists to find someone who could help her tackle questions of racial and cultural identity. She meets two therapis...

BONUS: A Quest for the Black Lesbian South

30 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Anita hands over the mic to Embodied’s intern, Nina Scott. After listening to our recent episode about country queers living in rural America, Nina ...

The Making Of Great Erotica

26 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Anita's been deep in romantasy land this year reading Fourth Wing & ACOTAR. And it's gotten her thinking about the skill required to make steamy s...

The Hidden Labor Of Flight Attendants

19 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When you board a plane, flight attendants greet you with practiced smiles and seamless service. But there’s a lot of mental and emotional labor that...

Building A Queer Life In The Country

12 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Rae Garringer grew up on a sheep farm in rural West Virginia, and once they left for college and came out as queer, they weren't sure they could ever ...

Two Brothers, One Uncertain Future

05 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What would you do if you knew your brain would stop functioning normally in just a decade? For brothers Ansel Dow (31) and Cosmo Hinsman (26), this is...

Why We Need To Talk About Sex In Nursing Homes

29 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sex has no age limit. But having a robust intimate life well beyond age 65 comes with distinct challenges, particularly when you no longer live in the...

What Kids' Books Teach Us About Our Bodies

22 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A new crop of children’s book authors are trying to help kids develop curiosity about their physical bodies. But how exactly do they turn fraught bo...

BONUS: On Psychedelics, from Other People’s Problems

19 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sharing something special with you this week, it’s an episode of Other People’s Problems, from CBC. Normally, therapy sessions are totally confide...

Climate Anxiety And The Choice To Parent

15 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Gen Z is anxious about climate change, and it’s impacting their family planning. Anita talks to researcher Jade Sasser, who's been studying young pe...

A New Playbook For Raising Boys

08 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When the #MeToo movement exploded in 2017, journalist Ruth Whippman — nearly nine months pregnant with her third son — experienced a profound conf...

Balanced: Love & Bipolar Disorder

01 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When you’re living with a stigmatized mental illness like bipolar disorder, opening up to romantic partners can be tough, but Anita brings on two pe...

Life After A Gray Divorce

24 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In Anita's lifetime, the divorce rate for Americans over 55 has doubled. People are living longer, divorce stigma has decreased and women are more fin...

Beyond Bromance: Searching For Deeper Male Friendship

17 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

American men are in a friendship recession. Compared to a few decades ago, five times as many men have no close friends. So what’s going on? Anita t...

A Doctor’s Intuition Lost And Found

10 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Doctors are expected to make high-stakes decisions quickly and often. And while plenty of medical guidelines exist, sometimes finding the right answer...

Decades Of ‘Death Cramps’ Later, A Search For Answers To Period Pain

03 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ever since Kate Downey got her first extremely painful period at age 14, every month feels like playing Russian roulette with her uterus. Will she get...

Why We Need Trans Tech In 2025

27 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When technology creators see problems … they fix them. No less is true for trans designers, who for decades have responded to emergent needs in thei...

Why Black Women’s Disordered Eating Is Overlooked

20 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Despite a decade of restrictive behavior and a career path in mental health counseling, Alishia McCullough had never associated herself with the phras...

Mixed: Owning Your Multiracial Story

13 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 tha...

Forgive, But Don’t Forget: Sexuality & Healing From Religious Trauma

06 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Celeste Gracia was 17, her religiously conservative parents sent her to conversion therapy. This was the same summer that the Supreme Court legal...

Sexual Liberation for Single Moms

27 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Most parents in Anita's life tell her that it's a relentless job ... so if you're doing it all without a partner, how is it possible to also sustain a...

‘I’ve Got The Same Thing You Do’: Ehlers-Danlos Across Generations

20 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Soph Myers-Kelley and his mom, René Myers, have always been close. As of five years ago, they also share a diagnosis: the connective tissue disorder ...

Why Is Good Food So Sexy?

13 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Food and sex have been deeply intertwined in our cultural imagination for millennia. Anita talks with a cultural historian who has combed through cent...

One Woman's Guide To Divorcing America

06 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the hours and days following President Donald Trump’s re-election, online searches about leaving the U.S. surged. Historically, most folks who ha...

(Self) Helped: Inside The Industry That Wants To Change Your Life

30 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Anita is committed to self-improvement but skeptical of self-help. She brings her qualms and questions to the experts: Kristen Meinzer, a podcaster wh...

Tingled: Your Brain And Heart On ASMR

23 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Offline Lives of Online Sex Workers

16 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How does selling sexy online affect your offline relationship with sex and your body? Anita poses that question to two creators: Paris Bush, who in fo...

Boomers On Psychedelics

09 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's been half a century since the psychedelic era, but some baby boomers are returning to the drugs of their youth — not for rock and roll, but to ...

The Art of Giving Good Advice

02 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There are few things that are certain about 2025, but one of them is that at some point, you’ll be called upon for advice. Anita talks to Meghan Kea...

Traveled: The Lives Of Third Culture Kids

26 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 — peo...

BONUS: Food, Friends and Cultural Roots

23 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Anita hands over the mic to Embodied’s intern, Nina Scott. After listening to our episode about food and cultural identity from a couple of weeks ag...

Mourned: Life After Losing A Parent

19 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Why Are We Afraid Of Baldness?

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Like the majority of American men over 35, Anita's partner is balding...and they're both a little distressed about it. But why? She brings her questio...

Is Food The Key To Cultural Belonging?

05 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Anita's been reckoning with what it means to stay connected to cultural identity as a mixed-race adult. And in pursuit of what things to prioritize, s...

Unpartnered: Building A Full, Single Life

28 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Assisted Death And Dying in America

21 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The option to end one's own life through prescribed, lethal medication is legal in 10 states and in Washington D.C. Guest host Anisa Khalifa talks to ...

Signed: How ASL Became A Language Of Resistance (Revisited)

14 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 m...

Desiring Disability in Fashion

07 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mainstream adaptive fashion lines are relatively new, but creating clothes to fit and flatter a range of bodies has long been part of disability cultu...

What Kids' Books Teach Us About Our Bodies

31 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A new crop of children’s book authors are trying to help kids develop curiosity about their physical bodies. But how exactly do they turn fraught bo...

Intersex Reframes On Sex & Gender

24 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While early biology lessons often teach us about sex as a binary, our bodies tell a different story. An intersex physician tells Anita about the decad...

Masked: Coming Out As Autistic In Adulthood (Revisited)

17 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 tw...

Bisexuality Beyond The Binary

10 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Our understanding of the term bisexuality has been in a state of constant evolution. In a moment when bisexual adults make up the largest share of the...

Popped: Adult Acne In The 'Perfect Skin' Era (Revisited)

03 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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’...

Reimagining The Wedding Ceremony

26 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The marriage rate in this country has fallen nearly 60% in the last half century. So what’s motivating those of us still choosing to say I do? On he...

BONUS: Kennedy Ryan's Recipe For Romance

23 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kennedy Ryan has released 23 romance books in the past decade, and along the way she's developed a style and approach that speaks to hundreds of thous...

Retrieved: What Egg Donors Want You To Know (Revisited)

19 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 d...

Dyslexia And The Reading Brain

12 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

At its best, reading is a portal to new worlds and new ideas. But a lot can get in the way — up to 20% of the population experiences symptoms of dys...

Dating, Sex & Love With HIV

05 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How does living with a condition that is so deeply stigmatized affect who and how we love? Anita meets a mixed-HIV status couple who shares how they'v...

Smooched: Why You'll Never Forget Your First Kiss (Revisited)

29 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 w...

Bonus: Making Music From Family Secrets

26 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Anita brings you into part of our family secrets variety show from earlier this year, featuring North Carolina country duo Blue Cactus. She talks with...

(Un)Circumcised: How Parents Decide (Revisited)

22 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Life After A Gray Divorce

15 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Anita's lifetime, the divorce rate for Americans over 55 has doubled. People are living longer, divorce stigma has decreased and women are more fin...

The Making Of Great Erotica

08 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Anita's been deep in romantasy land this year reading Fourth Wing & ACOTAR. And it's gotten her thinking about the skill required to make steamy s...

Amplified: Building Intimacy With Hearing Loss (Revisited)

01 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Bonus Episode: Introducing Tested from CBC and NPR

29 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tested is a new podcast series from CBC and NPR that asks the question, who gets to compete?  Since the beginning of women’s sports, there has been...

Why We Need More Therapists Of Color

25 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It took Anita 12 years and five therapists to find someone who could help her tackle questions of racial and cultural identity. She meets two therapis...

Committed: Life Inside A Psychiatric Hospital

18 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Long-term stays in psychiatric institutions were once a relatively common treatment in this country. They’re not anymore, but that doesn’t mean th...

Written: Disability Love Stories

12 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When you live in a disabled body, you don’t always get to see yourself in the love stories you consume. Anita talks with three folks changing that t...

Polished: Why We Care About Our Nails (Revisited)

05 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Journeyed: Crossing State Lines For Abortion

28 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been two years since the Supreme Court revoked the federal right to an abortion. Now, nearly one in five people seeking abortion care has to cr...

Tended: The Creative Work Of Dementia Caregiving

21 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The vast majority of people living with dementia receive essential care from their own family and friends. This work is emotionally rigorous, but also...

Isolated: The Silence Around Male Infertility (Revisited)

14 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Male fertility issues make up half of all infertility cases … but you’d never know it from consuming fertility content through culture, media and ...

Adjusted: Second Puberty After Testosterone

07 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Puberty is a right of passage that most of us experience as teenagers. But for some trans folks, big hormonal changes happen again in adulthood. Anita...

Opened Up: Black Masculinity and Friendship

31 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Building intimate friendships can be difficult, especially for men and masculine-of-center people. And once you add up the challenges presented by pat...

Balanced: Love & Bipolar Disorder

24 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When you’re living with a stigmatized mental illness like bipolar disorder, opening up to romantic partners can be tough, but Anita brings on two pe...

Hypersexualized: Understanding Sex Addiction (Revisited)

17 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Anita learned in the early days of this show that there's no such thing as "normal" sexual behavior. But what *is* worth considering: how your relatio...

Bonus Episode: Meeting ‘The Horny Housewife’

14 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Since late 2020, Jordyn Hakes has been on a quest to bring more pleasure and playfulness into her own relationship and those of her many listeners. An...

(Single) Mothered: Choosing To Parent Solo

10 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There's a growing number of women challenging the expectation that you need a partner to have a child. In honor of Mother's Day, Anita meets two singl...

Bonus Episode: The Birds and the Bees, from Me and My Muslim Friends

03 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Something Special for you all: an episode from "Me and My Muslim Friends," featuring Sameera Qureshi. She is a therapist and founder of Sexual Health ...

Expanded: Sexuality in Conversation with Islam

03 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Religion and sexuality are often pitted against one another...so where does that leave folks who feel attuned to both? Anita interrogates that questio...

Advocated: How Disabled Activists Are Shaping Climate Justice

26 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

People with disabilities are disproportionately affected by climate change yet often sidelined from policy conversations. Anita marks Earth Day by mee...

Bonus Episode: The Parent Trap, from Love Letters

23 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sharing something special today, an episode of the Love Letters podcast. Love Letters tells stories about romance, marriage, partnership, sex, loss an...

Undertaken: The Next Generation Of Funeral Directors

19 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A significant portion of the funeral home workforce is entering retirement...but there's a crop of young people who are ready to take the helm. Anita ...

Singled: Inside The Only-Child Family (Revisited)

12 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 sh...