Embodied
Episodes
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...
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...