From coast-to-coast women grow up with their bodies being watched and, almost without fail, learning to watch their own bodies. This self-surveillance begins young and for many women feels impossible to stop. It permeates our relationships and decisions, negatively impacts our physical wellbeing, mental health, and overall quality of life. The Body Myth podcast features conversations with women about when they first began judging themselves, how that has impacted their lives, and what they’ve come to understand about their bodies and the world. Each episode explores how we got here, why our size and shape has nothing to do with happiness, and what we can do to find body peace.
THIS WEEK ON THE BODY MYTH
Finally Free From Diet Culture ft. Maureen Schiller
Ronit’s mom Maureen joins The Body Myth for a conversation about being thrust into dieting by her mother at age 15 with doctor-prescribed pills and how from that point on her relationship with food and her body would forever be painful and complicated. From Weight Watchers to calorie counting to compulsive and binge eating, decades of yo-yo dieting took their toll on her self-worth and ability to eat intuitively. Now, after years trapped on the diet culture roller coaster she shares what she’s learned and how it feels to be free.
About The Host
Ronit’s essays and fiction have been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in both the 2021 Best Book Awards and the 2021 Book of the Year Award and a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2022. She is host and producer of the podcasts And Then Everything Changed and The Body Myth.
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir.
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