Obesity, Eating Disorders & the Shame No One Names with Melinda J Watman

Things My Mother Forgot to Mention · Mar 19, 2026 · 55m

This week, Jan connected us with Melinda Watman, a woman who has lived inside the obesity and eating disorder world since she was two and a half years old, and who somehow turned that into a career that's literally changing how pharmaceutical companies and clinical trials treat patients. We had a feeling this conversation was going to be good. We had no idea.

Melinda is a patient advocacy consultant, a former CEO, a French restaurant owner (yes, really), and a person who has had bariatric surgery, survived three concurrent eating disorders, and came thisclose to not being here. She's also as…