Katriona O’Sullivan on hunger, body image and the search for pleasure

The Deirdre O'Shaughnessy Podcast · May 5, 2026 · 59m

Katriona O’Sullivan’s remarkable memoir Poor saw her become a household name. But her new book, Hungry: A Memoir of my Body is her story told through a different lens, one of sexual abuse, disordered eating, diet culture, and the search for sexual pleasure.In this interview, recorded at St Luke’s in front of a live audience as part of the Cork World Book Festival, Katriona talks candidly about the abuse she suffered as a child, how she grew apart from her body through repeated abuse and sexualisation, and how she learned to find pleasure in it as an adult. And, how she’d like to become a…