Stay ConnectedDig 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.
Copyright: © 2022 WUNC Podcasts
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 talks to an artificial intelligence scholar who's traced sex robots from Greek mythology to the prototypes on the market today. Plus, a writer shines a light on the dark world of a futuristic brothel … explored from the perspective of an AI Sex Bot herself.
Meet the guests:
- Dr. Kate Devlin, a scholar in artificial intelligence and society in the department of digital humanities at King's College London, shares her research into sex robot technology and philosophy
- Sarah Cho, writer and director, talks about her new graphic novel, Red Light, which takes readers into a futuristic AI brothel from the perspective of an AI sex bot named Lacy
Dig Deeper:
Learn more about Kate's book Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots
Find Sarah's graphic novel series Red Light in installmentsonline or find the full collection in paperback July 2024
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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 who got dumped by her AI crush and talks with a woman whose AI companion turned her life around. Plus, psychologist Melissa McCool, the clinical product consultant for AI tech company Luka, takes Anita behind the scenes of making AI companions.
Meet the guests:
- Christina Campodonico, thesenior reporter of arts and culture at The San Francisco Standard, talks about her experience dating a bot named Kyle through the app Blush, and how the relationship met an untimely demise
- Denise Valenciano, a Replika app user, shares how her interactions with her AI companion Star have taught her boundaries and preferences for human relationships
- Melissa McCool, a clinical product consultant at Luka, licensed psychotherapist, and chief product officer at Ellipsis Health, talks about her behind-the-scenes work with building AI companions and why we build strong bonds with digital entities
Dig Deeper:
Read more about Christina's experience dating on Blush in her article, What’s It Like To Date AI? We Tried
Denise and her AI partner Star's NBC Nightly News interview
More about Denise and Star's story: Meet the artificially intelligent chatbot trying to curtail loneliness in America , Mental Health and AI: How Replika users find support from chatbots | IBTimes UK, The Women Falling in Love With Their AI Boyfriends (thecut.com)
Investigate the Replika and Blush apps
To read TJ Arriaga’s interviews with his AI companion, Phaedra, check out his Instagram highlight ‘AI7’
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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 meets an OB/GYN who shares little-known facts about period blood, and talks with two menstrual health advocates about how art and community have connected them to their cycles. Plus, an attorney discusses what she's paying attention to this year in terms of period policy.
Meet the Guests:
- Dr. Charis Chambers, who is known as "The Period Doctor," talks about how period blood can inform menstruators about other things going on in their bodies, and why we don't want to think of a period as "a detox"
- Vianey Blades, a certified exercise physiologist and menstrual embodiment mentor, traces her connections to menstruation activism back to her grandmother and how art has helped her feel connected to her period
- Ashi Arora, a reproductive and menstrual health liberation activist and researcher, shares how complex trauma can affect menstruation and how community has been significant in her experience of her period
- Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, attorney and executive director of the Birnbaum Women's Leadership Center at the NYU School of Law, discusses how and why she coined the term "menstrual equity" in 2015 and what she's paying attention to in terms of period policy this election year
Dig Deeper:
Omisade's work with Black Girl's Guide To Surviving Menopause
Dr. Charis Chamber’s Instagram and TikTok accounts (check her out on YouTube too, why not!)
Explore the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research
Join Vianey's newsletter or sign up for her interactive sister circle meetups
Jennifer Weiss-Wolf’s book Periods Gone Public
Why 2015 was the "Year of the Period"
Learn more about the "tampon tax"
Kiran Gandhi on bleeding and running
The trailer for Lina Lyte Plioplyte's film "Periodical"
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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 at the same time, use of this traditionally Southern pronoun is rapidly spreading — and the reasons may surprise you. We hope you learn as much as we did from this special episode from The Broadside, produced by our colleagues at WUNC!
Meet the Guests:
- Brody McCurdy, Linguist and Researcher at NC State
- Antonia Randolph, Assistant Professor of American Studies at the UNC-Chapel Hill
Dig Deeper:
- You can find a transcript of the episode here.
- Check more of The Broadside's episodes here.
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 compulsions with little relief. A married couple shares how OCD put them in survival mode, and a woman whose OCD symptoms began in kindergarten talks about learning how to open up about her experience in friendships and dating.
Meet the guests:
Dig Deeper:
Nicole's Modern Love essay
Mike and Nicole's Substack, Hey Honey
The website for psychologist Dr. Monnica Williams
OCD advocate Alexandra Reynolds on Instagram
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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 culture of crying. And a forerunner of the "crying selfie" trend shares how he pushes back on toxic masculinity by embracing tears.
Meet the guests:
- Heather Christle, poet and author of "The Crying Book," takes us into some of the science of crying and looks at tears through a political and gender-informed lens
- Viorel Tanase, a model and creative director, explains why he decided to share a crying selfie (before the trend took off) and how being vulnerable is part of the human experience
Dig Deeper:
More about the "crying selfie"
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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 meets a man who was silent about his ED for 10 years before getting surgery and opening up to partners…and talks with a sex therapist who challenges the word “dysfunction.” Plus, a 72-year-old describes how he’s redefined intimacy in his 30 years of experiencing ED.
Meet the guests:
- Ven Virah, a public speaker and global healthcare staffing professional, talks about experiencing erectile dysfunction for 10 years before seeking help
- Dr. Reece Malone, a sexologist, sexuality educator and sex therapist, discusses how ED can be a gateway to discussing other relationship, mental or physical problems
- George Marx, a retiree in his 70s who started experiencing ED in his 40s, talks about how he's developed intimate relationships without penetration
Dig Deeper:
Reflections on ED from George's blog
An interview with author Will N. Richards, and his book "Mother" that features a character with erectile dysfunction
Steve Jones’s new book of poetry, Words Woke Me: My Prostate Cancer Journey in Poetry.
The blog,A Touchy Subject, which Steve credits for preserving his sanity during his ED experience
The documentary Hard: The Fight to Solve Erectile Dysfunction, which features personal ED stories and info about inflatable penile prosthesis
Shannon's Facebook group
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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 lived by the rules of more than 50 self-help books, and Beth Blum, a scholar who's traced the genre back to its roots. Plus Sondra Rose Marie, a former self-help fan, shares how the industry has failed her as a woman of color.
Meet the guests:
- Kristen Meinzer, pop culture commentator and podcast host, shares what she learned from following the rules of over 50 self-help books
- Beth Blum, Harvard humanities professor and author, talks about the long history of the self-help industry, and how it's changed over the decades
- Sondra Rose Marie, writer, talks about why she started following a self-help guru...and what events made her leave
Dig Deeper:
Kristen's podcasts How To Be Fine and Daily Fail
Beth's book "The Self-Help Compulsion"
Sondra's Medium article on self-help
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 comedian help Anita question cultural assumptions about stuttering and explore the growing movement to embrace speech diversity.
Meet the guests:
- Dr. Derek Daniels, licensed and certified speech-language pathologist and associate professor in the department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Wayne State University, shares his own experience of stuttering and what we know about what causes stuttering
- Jia Bin, doctoral student at Michigan State University, talks about growing up in rural China with a stutter and what she's hoping to bring back to the stuttering community there
- Nina G, comedian and author of "Stutterer, Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn’t Happen," explains why she decided to embrace her dream of doing stand-up and shares how her stuttering has impacted romantic and platonic relationships
Dig Deeper:
Follow Nina G's comedy on Instagram
Jia on stuttering as a superpower
Stuttering content on YouTube by Courtland Crain and Matice Ahnjamine
National Stuttering Association website
Anita reconnects with the woman who changed her thinking on incarceration: her beloved college thesis adviser Ashley Lucas. Ashley reflects on her father's 20-year prison sentence and the untold stories of families navigating incarceration from the outside. Journalist Sylvia A. Harvey also shares how losing her mother to asthma and her father to a life sentence in prison before she was 6 years old led her to investigate the carceral system as a whole.
Meet the guests:
- Ashley Lucas, professor of theatre and drama at the University of Michigan, talks about how her experience growing up with an incarcerated father informs her research and led to her play "Doin' Time: Through the Visiting Glass"
- Sylvia A. Harvey, a journalist and author, examines the intersection of the carceral, education and child welfare systems and investigates some of the larger forces shaping the experiences of families with an incarcerated loved one
Read the transcript | Review the podcast
Follow Embodied on X and Instagram
Leave us a message for an upcoming episode here!
Dive deeper:
My Dad Went to Prison When I Was 5. Now I Write About Families Like Mine by Sylvia A. Harvey
An article Ashley wrote about Russell Maroon Shoatz, who served 49 years in Pennsylvania prisons and was the father of seven children
An interview Ashley did with Maroon’s son, Russell III, “Tell a Tale of Two Fathers”
A virtual panel featuring Ashley called “What Prison Does to Children”
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