Shows / Embodied
Embodied
Dig into the underdiscussed corners of the human experience. Each week, host Anita Rao leads intimate conversations with people unafraid to question what we think we know about identity, relationships and health.
Follow the show on Instagram at @embodiedwunc and on Bluesky at embodiedwunc.bsky.social. You can find Anita on Bluesky at asrao.bsky.social.
Episodes
EmbodiedBonus: Making Music From Family Secrets
Anita brings you into part of our family secrets variety show from earlier this year, featuring North Carolina country duo Blue Cactus. She talks with the band…
Embodied(Un)Circumcised: How Parents Decide (Revisited)
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 (and…
EmbodiedLife After A Gray Divorce
In Anita's lifetime, the divorce rate for Americans over 55 has doubled. People are living longer, divorce stigma has decreased and women are more financially…
EmbodiedThe Making Of Great Erotica
Anita's been deep in romantasy land this year reading Fourth Wing & ACOTAR. And it's gotten her thinking about the skill required to make steamy sex scenes…
EmbodiedAmplified: Building Intimacy With Hearing Loss (Revisited)
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 that as…
EmbodiedBonus Episode: Introducing Tested from CBC and NPR
Tested is a new podcast series from CBC and NPR that asks the question, who gets to compete? Since the beginning of women’s sports, there has been a struggle…
EmbodiedWhy We Need More Therapists Of Color
It took Anita 12 years and five therapists to find someone who could help her tackle questions of racial and cultural identity. She meets two therapists of…
EmbodiedCommitted: Life Inside A Psychiatric Hospital
Long-term stays in psychiatric institutions were once a relatively common treatment in this country. They’re not anymore, but that doesn’t mean they’ve gone…
EmbodiedWritten: Disability Love Stories
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 through…
EmbodiedPolished: Why We Care About Our Nails (Revisited)
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…
EmbodiedJourneyed: Crossing State Lines For Abortion
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 cross state…
EmbodiedTended: The Creative Work Of Dementia Caregiving
The vast majority of people living with dementia receive essential care from their own family and friends. This work is emotionally rigorous, but also filled…
EmbodiedIsolated: The Silence Around Male Infertility (Revisited)
Male fertility issues make up half of all infertility cases … but you’d never know it from consuming fertility content through culture, media and even…
EmbodiedAdjusted: Second Puberty After Testosterone
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 meets…
EmbodiedOpened Up: Black Masculinity and Friendship
Building intimate friendships can be difficult, especially for men and masculine-of-center people. And once you add up the challenges presented by patriarchy…
EmbodiedBalanced: Love & Bipolar Disorder
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 people who’ve…
EmbodiedHypersexualized: Understanding Sex Addiction (Revisited)
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 relationship…
EmbodiedBonus Episode: Meeting ‘The Horny Housewife’
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. Anita talks…
Embodied(Single) Mothered: Choosing To Parent Solo
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 single moms by…
EmbodiedBonus Episode: The Birds and the Bees, from Me and My Muslim Friends
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 for…
EmbodiedExpanded: Sexuality in Conversation with Islam
Religion and sexuality are often pitted against one another...so where does that leave folks who feel attuned to both? Anita interrogates that question…
EmbodiedAdvocated: How Disabled Activists Are Shaping Climate Justice
People with disabilities are disproportionately affected by climate change yet often sidelined from policy conversations. Anita marks Earth Day by meeting…
EmbodiedBonus Episode: The Parent Trap, from Love Letters
Sharing something special today, an episode of the Love Letters podcast. Love Letters tells stories about romance, marriage, partnership, sex, loss and the…
EmbodiedUndertaken: The Next Generation Of Funeral Directors
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 meets two…
EmbodiedSingled: Inside The Only-Child Family (Revisited)
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 shake some…
EmbodiedStimulated: How Vibrators Became America's Favorite Sex Toy (Revisited)
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 it did…
EmbodiedTransitioned: When One Partner Comes Out As Trans
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 choose…
EmbodiedBonus Episode: Can Couples Learn to Argue Better? from The Happiness Lab
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 John Gottman…
EmbodiedSigned: How ASL Became A Language Of Resistance
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 more than…
EmbodiedTingled: Your Brain And Heart On ASMR
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 to a…
EmbodiedRetrieved: What Egg Donors Want You To Know
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 donated…
EmbodiedLifted: Wanting (And Getting) A Bigger Butt
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 procedure…
Embodied[Simulated Part Three] Immortalized: Building An AI Afterlife
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 developments…
Embodied[Simulated Part Two] Fantasized: The Arrival Of The Sex Robots
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? Anita…
Embodied[Simulated Part One] Auto-mated: When A Bot Becomes Your Boo
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 journalist…
EmbodiedMenstruated: What Our Period Blood Tells Us
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 biological. She…
EmbodiedBonus Episode: How y'all conquered the world
You might have noticed that the word “y’all” is popping up everywhere. For decades, linguists have noted that regional American accents are disappearing. But…
EmbodiedObsessed: Breaking the OCD Cycle (Revisited)
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 worry and…
EmbodiedSobbed: Why We Cry (Revisited)
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 science and…
EmbodiedNormalized: Speaking Up About Erectile Dysfunction
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 it. Anita…
Embodied(Self) Helped: Inside The Industry That Wants To Change Your Life
Anita is committed to self-improvement but skeptical of self-help. She brings her qualms and questions to the experts: Kristen Meinzer, a podcaster who has…
EmbodiedStuttered: Diversifying The Way We Speak (Revisited)
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 and a…
EmbodiedSeparated: Growing Up With An Incarcerated Father (Revisited)
Anita reconnects with the woman who changed her thinking on incarceration: her beloved college thesis adviser Ashley Lucas. Ashley reflects on her father's…
EmbodiedPopped: Adult Acne In The 'Perfect Skin' Era
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’s a whole…
EmbodiedCared: The Last Decades Of Our Lives
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-year-old…
EmbodiedGripped: The Passion For Pole Dancing
Anita walked away from her first pole dancing class slightly bruised … but very intrigued. She talks with a veteran stripper about the history and politics of…
EmbodiedCommodified: When 'Wellness' Makes Us Unwell (Revisited)
Anita has fallen down her fair share of wellness rabbit holes [including a certain alliterative family's beauty and shapewear brands...]. Wellness industry…
EmbodiedComplicated: Healing from Complex PTSD
What happens when trauma occurs not as a single isolated event, but millions of smaller, ongoing incidents? Guest host Anisa Khalifa talks with an artist…
EmbodiedTraveled: The Lives Of Third Culture Kids
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 — people who…
EmbodiedAdored: How Fandoms Build Community
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 health, and…
EmbodiedMasked: Coming Out As Autistic In Adulthood
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 two women…
EmbodiedPosed: Intimate Photography Goes Beyond Nudes (Revisited)
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 perspective…
EmbodiedSeen: Living With The Schizophrenias
Meet the guests: - Esmé Weijun Wang, a writer, speaker and the author of "The Collected Schizophrenias," talks about navigating medical stigma and the ways…
EmbodiedGuided: Practicing Intimacy & Sex With A Surrogate
Anita first learned about surrogate partner therapy from the 2012 movie "The Sessions," and her curiosity was piqued. It's a widely misunderstood and…
EmbodiedPlucked: The Calm And Chaos Of A Hair-Pulling Disorder (Revisited)
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 started…
EmbodiedInked: Rewriting Your Body’s Story With Art
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 scholar who's…
EmbodiedDominated: Getting Kinky With BDSM
Anita discovers just how wrong “Fifty Shades of Grey” was about BDSM. A dominatrix and community leader introduce her to kink spaces rooted in community and…
EmbodiedMourned: Life After Losing A Parent
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 them…
EmbodiedReconstructed: Building New Definitions Of Masculinity
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? In further…
EmbodiedUnfriended: When Your BFF Breaks Your Heart (Revisited)
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 and gets…