Embodied

Stimulated: How Vibrators Became America's Favorite Sex Toy (Revisited)

05 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Transitioned: When One Partner Comes Out As Trans

28 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Bonus Episode: Can Couples Learn to Argue Better? from The Happiness Lab

26 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 Joh...

Signed: How ASL Became A Language Of Resistance

22 Mar 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...

Tingled: Your Brain And Heart On ASMR

15 Mar 2024

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...

Retrieved: What Egg Donors Want You To Know

08 Mar 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...

Lifted: Wanting (And Getting) A Bigger Butt

01 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 proc...

[Simulated Part Three] Immortalized: Building An AI Afterlife

23 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 devel...

[Simulated Part Two] Fantasized: The Arrival Of The Sex Robots

16 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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? A...

[Simulated Part One] Auto-mated: When A Bot Becomes Your Boo

09 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 jou...

Menstruated: What Our Period Blood Tells Us

02 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 biolog...

Bonus Episode: How y'all conquered the world

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

You might have noticed that the word “y’all” is popping up everywhere. For decades, linguists have noted that regional American accents are disa...

Obsessed: Breaking the OCD Cycle (Revisited)

26 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 worr...

Sobbed: Why We Cry (Revisited)

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 scie...

Normalized: Speaking Up About Erectile Dysfunction

12 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

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

05 Jan 2024

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...

Stuttered: Diversifying The Way We Speak (Revisited)

29 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Separated: Growing Up With An Incarcerated Father (Revisited)

22 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita reconnects with the woman who changed her thinking on incarceration: her beloved college thesis adviser Ashley Lucas. Ashley reflects on her fat...

Popped: Adult Acne In The 'Perfect Skin' Era

15 Dec 2023

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’...

Cared: The Last Decades Of Our Lives

08 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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-...

Gripped: The Passion For Pole Dancing

01 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita walked away from her first pole dancing class slightly bruised … but very intrigued. She talks with a veteran stripper about the history and p...

Commodified: When 'Wellness' Makes Us Unwell (Revisited)

24 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita has fallen down her fair share of wellness rabbit holes [including a certain alliterative family's beauty and shapewear brands...]. Wellness ind...

Complicated: Healing from Complex PTSD

17 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when trauma occurs not as a single isolated event, but millions of smaller, ongoing incidents? Guest host Anisa Khalifa talks with an art...

Traveled: The Lives Of Third Culture Kids

10 Nov 2023

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...

Adored: How Fandoms Build Community

03 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 hea...

Masked: Coming Out As Autistic In Adulthood

27 Oct 2023

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...

Posed: Intimate Photography Goes Beyond Nudes (Revisited)

20 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 pers...

Seen: Living With The Schizophrenias

13 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Meet the guests: - Esmé Weijun Wang, a writer, speaker and the author of "The Collected Schizophrenias," talks about navigating medical stigma and t...

Guided: Practicing Intimacy & Sex With A Surrogate

06 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita first learned about surrogate partner therapy from the 2012 movie "The Sessions," and her curiosity was piqued. It's a widely misunderstood and ...

Plucked: The Calm And Chaos Of A Hair-Pulling Disorder (Revisited)

29 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita agrees to a suggestion posed by a listener: Explore why the hair-pulling disorder trichotillomania is so taboo. She talks with an artist who sta...

Inked: Rewriting Your Body’s Story With Art

22 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita has no tattoos but plenty of admiration for the art form that gives us new ways to experience our bodies. She talks with a heavily-tattooed scho...

Dominated: Getting Kinky With BDSM

15 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita discovers just how wrong “Fifty Shades of Grey” was about BDSM. A dominatrix and community leader introduce her to kink spaces rooted in com...

Mourned: Life After Losing A Parent

08 Sep 2023

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...

Reconstructed: Building New Definitions Of Masculinity

01 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Fifteen years ago Anita took Women's Studies 101 on a whim … and to this day, she still doesn't have an answer to the question: what is masculinity?...

Unfriended: When Your BFF Breaks Your Heart (Revisited)

25 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita got friend dumped for the first time in 6th grade, and she's still not over it. She talks to folks about the distinct pain of a platonic breakup...

Co-Worked: The Good, Bad & Ambivalent Of The Office Bestie (Revisited)

18 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita wouldn't have made it through her 20s without her work friends. But now that she's a manager and working in a hybrid office, she's noticed that ...

Uncoupled: Thank U, Next (Revisited)

11 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita has no qualms about being an armchair therapist for friends going through a breakup. But sometimes she wonders how her advice aligns with what r...

Hooked Up: The Myth Of Sex With No Strings Attached (Revisited)

04 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita is confused about hook up culture. Is it a thing, and if so, who makes the rules? She talks to a recent college grad about her research on the s...

Mixed (Parent Edition): The Rao Family Talks Racial Identity

28 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita invites her parents back to Embodied for a special bonus episode. She hears their take on our recent episode "Mixed," about growing up biracial....

Polished: Why We Care About Our Nails

21 Jul 2023

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...

Mixed: Owning Your Multiracial Story

14 Jul 2023

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...

Partnered: Mixing Business With Pleasure (Revisited)

07 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita does not work with her boo, but after sharing home office space for two pandemic years, she's started to wonder how couples who *do* work togeth...

Sexted: Authoring Your Own Erotica

30 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita is a bashful sexter, and she's ready to get over her insecurities. A pleasure enthusiast advises her on the art of a good sext; a sexting expert...

Intentioned: Parenting Ourselves And Our Kids

23 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Guest host Omisade Burney-Scott is well aware that gentle parenting is a divisive concept. So she's gets into it! Omi talks with two other Black mothe...

Isolated: The Silence Around Male Infertility

16 Jun 2023

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 ...

Distracted: Adulting With ADHD

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita passes the mic to our friends at the feminist documentary podcast "Bodies" for an exploration of ADHD and identity. Producer Hannah Harris Green...

Unpartnered: Building A Full, Single Life

02 Jun 2023

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...

Smooched: Why You'll Never Forget Your First Kiss

26 May 2023

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...

Sobbed: Why We Cry

19 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 scie...

Delivered (Part Two): No More Postpartum Silence (Revisited)

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita treasures sleep and moments of silence. So when she hears typical narratives of early parenthood that include unending cries and restless nights...

Delivered (Part One): Supporting A Post-Baby Body (Revisited)

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita has been around enough postpartum folks to know that there's a whole lot they felt unprepared for when it came to how their physical bodies woul...

Obsessed: Breaking The OCD Cycle

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 worr...

(Un)Circumcised: How Parents Decide

21 Apr 2023

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 ...

Decided: Child-Free By Choice

14 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita has interrogated so many aspects of parenthood. But how about the decision to become a parent at all? She talks with three women about making th...

Scented: Life According To Your Nose (Revisited)

07 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita sniffs out what's so fascinating about the science of smell — and gets her mind blown. A psychologist shares why smell is our most emotional s...

Stuttered: Diversifying The Way We Speak

31 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Naked: No Clothes, No Problem (Revisited)

24 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 e...

Stimulated: How Vibrators Became America's Favorite Sex Toy

17 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Singled: Inside The Only-Child Family

10 Mar 2023

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...

Dreamed: Inside Your Night Brain (Revisited)

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 b...

Commodified: When 'Wellness' Makes Us Unwell

24 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita has fallen down her fair share of wellness rabbit holes [including a certain alliterative family's beauty and shapewear brands...]. Wellness ind...

Slayed: Gender Performance Beyond The Binary

17 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Separated: Growing Up With An Incarcerated Father

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita reconnects with the woman who changed her thinking on incarceration: her beloved college thesis adviser Ashley Lucas. Ashley reflects on her fat...

Amplified: Building Intimacy With Hearing Loss

03 Feb 2023

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...

Refused: When You're Too Fat For Top Surgery

27 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Hypersexualized: Understanding Sex Addiction

20 Jan 2023

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...

Sobered: Reexamining Your Relationship With Alcohol

13 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita has not participated in a Dry January, but there are times when she's motivated to pay extra-close attention to her relationship with alcohol. M...

Inherited: Healing From Generational Trauma

06 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anita has been unpacking intergenerational trauma ... thanks, in part, to Hollywood. Seeing herself in movies like "Turning Red" and "Everything Every...

Purified: A Live Event Turned Podcast (Part Two)

23 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita is a sucker for live storytelling, so when she and the Embodied team planned their first in-person event, they knew the vibe they were going for...

Purified: A Live Event Turned Podcast (Part One)

16 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita met Embodied listeners IRL for the first time earlier this year at the show's first in-person event "Purified." The evening was part late night ...

Navigated: The Rao Sisters On Holiday Conversations

09 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita has a lot of practice talking about taboo topics with strangers. But when it comes to having these conversations in her own family, especially a...

Co-Worked: The Good, Bad & Ambivalent Of The Office Bestie

02 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita wouldn't have made it through her 20s without her work friends. But now that she's a manager and working in a hybrid office, she's noticed that ...

Involved: A Front-Row Seat To Your Parent’s Love Life

25 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita has not lived with her parents since leaving for college. But during the pandemic, many Millennials and Gen Zers returned home. For some of them...

Posed: Intimate Photography Goes Beyond Nudes

18 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 pers...

Plucked: The Calm And Chaos of A Hair-Pulling Disorder

11 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita agrees to a suggestion posed by a listener: Explore why the hair-pulling disorder trichotillomania is so taboo. She talks with an artist who sta...

Valued: Unpacking Your Money Baggage

04 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita is getting married next year, which means she's been thinking a lot about money and what kind of spending aligns with her values. Turns out that...

Provided: A Gender-Inclusive Guide To Pelvic PT

28 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The first time we did an episode about the pelvic floor, Anita learned that y'all needed that education just as much as she did. She revisits the topi...

Carried: How Surrogacy Grows Families

21 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita is well aware that bringing a new baby into the world is a lotttttt of work (even though she's never done it herself). But when she heard about ...

Disobeyed: Elissa Wall’s Journey To Reclaim Her Body

14 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After Anita watched the Netflix docuseries "Keep Sweet," it was on her mind for weeks. She sat down with Elissa Wall, one of the central figures in th...

Horrified: Joy, Memory & The Body In Black Horror

07 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For most of guest host Omisade Burney-Scott's life, she was a reluctant viewer of horror films — squinting through her fingers long enough to get to...

Supported: The Stories Behind Our Bras

30 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita pretty much stopped wearing bras in the pandemic, and she's likely not going back. But she knows that for many, a good bra is clutch for daily c...

Secured: Health Data In A Post-Roe World

23 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita has long taken a laissez-faire approach to digital security. But as she's learned (the hard way), just because she doesn't have something to hid...

Feminized: Aligning Your Inner And Outer Selves

16 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita revisits a conversation with folks who've undergone facial feminization surgery as part of their gender confirmation process. FFS is a set of bo...

Destined: Using The Stars As A Guide

09 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Guest host Omisade Burney-Scott is a proud Aries Sun-Leo moon-Virgo rising and has been looking to the stars since the ‘70s. She and her best friend...

Invested: When It Gets Uncomfortable With Family

02 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita shares an episode of “This Is Uncomfortable,” a podcast from Marketplace that explores the ways money messes with our relationships and life...

Renounced: Leaving A Religious Community

26 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita grew up betwixt and between two religious communities and never felt like she fully belonged to either. The upside? She had a lot of room to fig...

Undaunted: How Abortion Doulas Support You

19 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Before recording this episode, Anita would have turned to Google for her burning questions about abortion. But now, she knows better. She meets two ab...

Aged Out: Life After Foster Care

05 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita had a terrible 18th birthday (she'll tell you later), but not much changed for her when she legally became an adult. For tens of thousands of yo...

Remembered: How To Grieve An Animal Loved One

29 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita is a dog mom. Her wire-haired, bearded terrier Oliver has been her companion through heartbreak, job changes and pandemic turmoil. She's never g...

Neurodiversified: New Representation In Romance Novels

22 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita's idea of relaxation often involves a good book. She's begun exploring the vast world of romance novels and was surprised to learn how much more...

Partnered: Mixing Business With Pleasure

15 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita does not work with her boo, but after sharing home office space for two pandemic years, she's started to wonder how couples who *do* work togeth...

Sobered: Reexamining Your Relationship With Alcohol

08 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita has not participated in a Dry January, but there are times when she's motivated to pay extra-close attention to her relationship with alcohol. M...

Overturned: Accessing Abortion Care In A Southern State Where You Still Can

01 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita's now living in one of the few places in the U.S. South without an abortion ban. As her home state becomes the nearest safe provider for million...

Caffeinated: The Science & Culture Of Your Coffee Habit

24 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita comes from a tea-drinking family, but she's happiest when she's holding a mug of coffee the size of her face. For years, she's been reading head...

Delivered (Part Two): No More Postpartum Silence

17 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita treasures sleep and moments of silence. So when she hears typical narratives of early parenthood that include unending cries and restless nights...

Delivered (Part One): Supporting A Post-Baby Body

10 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita has been around enough postpartum folks to know that there's a whole lot they felt unprepared for when it came to how their physical bodies woul...

Perceived: Disrupting The Blind Stereotype

03 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita got glasses young, and as a kid every time her prescription got worse, her anxiety about losing her vision spiked. She realizes now how much of ...

Re-Cleansed: Skip The 10-Step Routine, But Not Your SPF

27 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita finally learned how to put on sunscreen properly and care for her body’s largest organ, thanks to medical and skincare industry experts who gi...

Co-Parented: Raising Children In Community

20 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita turns the mic over to guest host Omisade Burney-Scott to explore the many ways folks are raising kids outside the nuclear family unit. First, Om...

Fated: Terminal Illness & No-Limit Love

13 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anita knows there's no way she can prepare herself or her loved ones for the ways a terminal illness can alter their lives. But meeting people with in...