Every Body | Reclaiming Body Talk

Martha Grover is an author, poet, artist and writing coach living in Portland, Oregon. Today we talk about her experience with Cushing's Disease and Addison's disease and what it's like to live with chronic illness.  When she is not writing, Martha is making zines, coaching her writing clients, making art, and selling Real Estate.

Shilo George is Southern Cheyenne-Arapaho and Scottish international speaker, trainer, and owner of Łush Kumtux Tumtum Consulting, which means “a great awakening of the heart and spirit” in the Chinuk Wawa trade language. She has lived her life in a body that transgresses and violates Western standards of beauty, size, sexuality, and health.

Aaron Flores is a registered dietitian nutritionist based out of Los Angeles, California. With nearly 10 years of experience, Aaron has worked with eating disorders in a variety of settings.

Sarah Vance is a coach who focuses on body image, self-worth, and helping others become embodied within their lives. She helps women all over the world reclaim their power back from diet culture, and reconnect with who they are so they can show up unapologetically and powerfully in who they are. 

Kai was first cast into the spotlight through her participation in, and subsequent denunciation of the weight loss game show The Biggest Loser. Going through the program, she realized the negative impact the show had, not only on her own life, but on society in general.

Dr. Boero is also is the author of Bypassing Blame: Bariatric Surgery and the Case of Biomedical Failure" in Biomedicalization: Technoscience, Health, and Illness in U.S. Biomedicine and "Fat Kids, Working Moms, and the 'Epidemic of Obesity': Race, Class, and Mother-Blame," in The Fat Studies Reader and along with Dr. CJ Pascoe recently published "Pro-anorexia Communities and Online Interaction: Bringing the Pro-ana Body Online" in the journal, Body & Society.

In Killer Fat, Dr. Boero examines how and why obesity emerged as a major public health concern and national obsession in recent years. Using primary sources and in-depth interviews, Boero enters the world of bariatric surgeries, Weight Watchers, and Overeaters Anonymous to show how common expectations of what bodies are supposed to look like help to determine what sorts of interventions and policies are considered urgent in containing this new kind of disease.

Jes Baker (@themilitantbaker) has been a major figure in the fat-positive community for years beginning with her "Attractive and Fat" photo campaign as backlash against Abercrombie and Fitch's anti-fat advertising. Since then, her refreshingly authentic voice has garnered over 77 thousand followers on instagram as well as a wildly popular personal blog.

Kimberly Dark is a writer, storyteller and speaker who helps audiences discover that we are creating the world, even as it creates us. She’s the author of seven award-winning performance scripts and a number of educational programs regarding the body in culture – how appearances and identities influence our experiences in the world related to gender, race, body type/size, beauty, ability, etc.

Valerie Sagun aka Big Gal Yoga is a yoga practitioner, installation artist, ceramicist, radical self love enthusiast, and body positive encourager based in the SF Bay Area. She started her yoga practice at her university with yogi Lawrence Caughlan who gave her a positive view on practicing yoga, and believing that as long as you have the determination, motivation, and patience anyone can do yoga. Valerie's yoga practice is about learning to love yourself physically and mentally through yoga.

Laura Fraser is the author, her first book, Losing It: America’s Obsession with Weight and the Industry that Feeds on It (Dutton, 1995), was a ground-breaking and award-winning exposé of the diet industry. Recent article, "My sister’s cancer might have been diagnosed sooner — if doctors could have seen beyond her weight" can be found on Stat News.

This episode is a follow up to Episode 14 with Lucy Aphramor. I asked if you had questions for her and some wonderful questions were posted on Instagram. Here are some of the answers. Enjoy!

Dianne Bondy – Writer, Activist, Motivator,  Educator, Yoga Teacher, and a Leading Voice in the Diversity in Yoga and Yoga of Inclusion Movement. With over 1000 hours of yoga training in diverse modalities such as yoga therapeutics, restorative yoga, meditation, and Anusara Yoga – Dianne truly believes that yoga is for all!

Anita Johnston, Ph.D., is a Depth Psychologist and author of Eating in the Light of the Moon, which has been published in six languages.  She is the co-creator of the online course, Light of the Moon Café, which is an interactive “workbook” and women’s support circle for Eating in the Light of the Moon.

Dr. Rebecca Pearl is a clinical psychologist and an assistant professor of Psychology at the Department of Psychiatry at Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Her research revolves around weight bias and stigma, how it affects the overall health of a person, and the possible solutions and interventions to this concern.