Ten Podcasts Destroying Diet Culture
It’s that time of year again: It’s time to start getting bombarded with messages about bikini bodies, fad diets, and jeans that haven’t fit you in decades. If you’re trying to get healthy (and stay sane), it can be difficult to tune out all the noise and focus on what’s right for your body and not someone else’s. These podcasts challenge all the toxic diet messages we receive, help explain why your brain might be listening to them, and encourage you to laugh about it all.
Rebel Eaters Club
Join the revolution of Rebel Eaters Club , a podcast that will help you break away from diet culture. Hosted by Virgie Tovar, a writer and activist, she explores intuitive eating, food culture, and enjoying food with friends. She’s smart, funny, real, open and encouraging, discussing these issues in interviews and powerful conversations that are both entertaining and informative. This is a place where the word “pizza” is not a bad word. Say yes to cheese fries.
Fad Camp
Diet culture is notoriously toxic, but when you think about it, it can also be fun. Right? I mean, how ridiculous are “revenge bodies”? In Fad Camp, comedians Conor Dowling and Grace Mulvey bring humor to their scathing critiques of health traps, fat camps, BMI, wedding diets and more. These are your friends who will remind you that it’s okay to say “F-you” to all those messages you get about thigh gaps and bikini bodies—and laugh about it, too. Fad Camp is a real pleasure to listen to, and it’s the perfect remedy for anyone experiencing momentary (or lifelong) body doubt.
Food, we need to talk
“Food, We Need to Talk” is not just inspiring (it is) and not just funny (that too); this is scientifically proven. Juna Gyata, a woman who has struggled with her body image, pairs with Dr. Eddie Phillips (assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard) to tackle everything from nutritional supplements to artificial sweeteners, with a lot of information and a little sarcasm. . (Ozempic? Rolls eyes.) It can be fun to talk to fun, outgoing friends about diet culture, which is why Juna is here. But it’s also nice to have someone like Dr. Eddy around to confirm that your concerns about dieting are correct and that you can usually trust your gut (no pun intended) when it comes to eating and caring for your body. No matter what stage of body acceptance you are at, you’ll find a lot to gain from Juna and Dr. Eddie’s fun, fact-filled conversations.
It’s (not) about your body
You’ve heard of body positivity, but have you heard of body neutrality? It emphasizes a neutral and accepting attitude towards one’s own body, without placing undue emphasis on its appearance or societal standards of beauty. In a world of body neutrality, your body just… is. It’s great no matter what. That’s what “It’s (Not) About Your Body ” is about. Body image coach Jesse Niland, author of THE NEUTRAL BODY: A Revolutionary Guide to Overcoming Body Image Issues , explores the deep issues affecting our body image and features interviews with experts on everything it involves: mental health, ideals beauty, sexuality, gender, etc. more.
Rethinking health
By Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CEDS, author of The Health Trap and the Anti-Diet and host of the Food Psych podcast (another good one! Check it out!), Rethinking Health challenges all the things like “clean eating” and alternative medicine. that are presented to us as health tactics, and speaks honestly about the truths behind them. This is an anti-health podcast that will help you get closer to health, if that makes sense. Christy exposes the wellness industry for what it is, revealing the technically clever but toxic marketing tactics it uses to keep us obsessed with our bodies. Once you realize that a lot of wellness is smoke and mirrors, you won’t be able to get over it. The genie came out of the seed oil bottle.
Weight for this
Ronald Young Jr. is fat, and on his podcast Weight for It , which was selected as Tribeca’s Official 2023 Audio Storytelling Series, he talks about it. The Weight of This is part narrative narrative, part personal memoir, and it gets extremely personal. Each episode is a deep exploration of his own desirability, his shame, and his relationships. He even brings his microphone into the doctor’s office so we can hear the completely absurd ways doctors often treat fat people.
Maintenance phase
When Michael Hobbs left You’re Wrong About , he poured his energy into Maintenance Phase , a show he co-hosts with Aubrey Gordon that examines and critiques popular health and wellness trends and products. With lots of notes and angry laughter, Michael and Aubrey review the worst diets, exercise trends, nutritional supplements, beauty products and “nutrition” books, assessing whether they truly work or are based on misleading or harmful data. information. (It’s almost always the latter.) If you hate BMI, were confused by the ’90s food pyramid, or roll your eyes every time your friend goes on and on about their latest cleanse, you’ll appreciate their myth. failure of efforts.
Life after diets
Diets don’t work. So what? Once you’ve decided you’re ready to ditch the D-word, you may need some help from your new friends, intuitive eating coach Stephanie Michelle and psychotherapist Sarah Dosanjh, hosts of Life After Diets . They talk about all things disordered eating and poor body image, drawing on their own eating struggles to inform you and make you feel like you’re not alone. And if you think you’re alone, you’re wrong. I have just introduced you to two people who will lead you to a life free from body obsession.
Go love yourself
2020 Great British Bake Off finalist Laura Adlington and her best friend Lauren Smith – the duo behind Go Love Yourself , a bold show that tackles the ideas many of us grew up with in the 90s and 00s – about that we should watch our waistlines, that fat is unhealthy and that… we should all wear skinny jeans? They invite you to unlearn it all with love, confidence and friendship, covering things like body dysmorphia, almond moms, cosmetic surgery and opinionated family members. Fuck you, diets. And you, go, love yourself.
We can do hard things
We Can Do Hard Things is not a podcast about food culture, but about (as you might guess) how to do hard things. But for many of us, one of those things is life in the body. Tamed writer and thought leader Glennon Doyle recently spoke publicly about her anorexia and has become an open book about her recovery process and unlearning what got her here. So many stories focus on people who have already recovered rather than the messy middle, and that’s part of what makes We Can Do Hard Things so great. Joined by his sister Amanda and his wife, Abby Wambach, one of the most accomplished soccer players in the history of the sport, Glennon shares stunning insights and insights about his own recovery, fatphobia, and how to turn dangerous diet rhetoric around. his head. She also shares other tips on the topic, such as how to maintain friendships, get along with partners, and overcome impostor syndrome. Often it all comes down to problems with the body. So if your New Year’s resolution is to stop caring about dieting, this show will help you on that journey.