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
For years, audio creator Helena de Groot felt almost certain that she did not want kids. Then, she got unexpectedly pregnant. That pregnancy was the first in a series of curveballs that set her on a path of questioning everything she thought she knew — not just about whether or not to have children, but about how to live with the doubt and uncertainty that comes with any big adult decision. Helena talks to Anita about this journey, captured in her new memoir podcast “Creation Myth.” Plus, Anita hears from a psychotherapist who has devoted her career to helping people find clarity in the choice about whether to become parents.
Meet the guest:
- Helena de Groot, creator of the audio memoir “Creation Myth”
- Merle Bombardieri, parenting decision coach, psychotherapist and author of “The Baby Decision: How to Make the Most Important Choice of Your Life”
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You can learn more about coaching opportunities with Merle Bombardieri here and also sign up for her newsletter here.
When Mary Cain stepped onto the track as a high schooler, it was clear that she was a once-in-a-generation kind of talent. Her rise was quick and spectacular, which made it all the more stunning that just a few years after going pro with Nike, she stepped back from competitive running. She joins Anita to talk about the physical and emotional abuse she says she experienced behind the scenes and the systemic change she is calling for in sports culture.
Meet the guest:
- Mary Cain, author of “This is Not About Running: A Memoir” and the founder of the nonprofit Atalanta NYC
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NOTE: We reached out to Nike, Alberto Salazar and Darren Treasure for comment. You can find statements from Nike and Salazar here. We did not hear back from Darren Treasure.
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
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Please note: This episode originally published March 31, 2023.
Updates: You can learn more about Jia’s work at the Spartan Stuttering Lab here. You can learn more about National Stuttering Awareness Week here. Nina G is in the midst of the making the comedy docu-special: Comedians with Disabilities Act: Going Beyond The Punchlines.
How do you care for someone you struggle to communicate with ... and can never fully understand? That's the question anthropologist Danilyn Rutherford has been wrestling with for decades — ever since it became clear that her daughter Millie would never speak, sign or use symbols to express herself. Danilyn talks with Anita about how mothering a multiply-disabled child challenged her beliefs about the importance of language for human connection.
Meet the guest:
- Danilyn Rutherford is the author of “Beautiful Mystery: Living in a Wordless World”
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Comedian Chris Duffy believes everyone has a sense of humor. And if you think you don’t? That’s just years of adult socialization talking! He shares his roadmap for building a more humor-filled life, from learning to be present and notice the absurdities of the world to taking social risks. Plus, he and Anita workshop some comedy exercises that will not just get you laughing more — but also help you kickstart your creative juices and feel more connected to those around you.
Meet the guest:
- Chris Duffy is the host of the TED podcast “How To Be a Better Human” and the author of “Humor Me: How Laughing More Can Make You Present, Creative, Connected, and Happy”
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When the #MeToo movement exploded in 2017, journalist Ruth Whippman — nearly nine months pregnant with her third son — experienced a profound conflict. As a feminist, she celebrated the movement; as a mother, she worried: "How am I gonna raise these boys to be good?" This tension launched Ruth on a quest to understand modern American boyhood and what's not working. Ruth and her husband Neil Levine tell Anita about their journey of putting Ruth’s research into practice, working to give their sons the emotional tools to thrive in a changing world — and what’s at stake if we don’t shift our approach to raising boys.
Meet the guests:
- Ruth Whippman is the author of "BoyMom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity"
- Neil Levine is Ruth's husband
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Please note: This episode originally published May 8, 2025.
Kaila Yu spent years as an Asian American pinup model, singer and actress, leaning into a hypersexualized image of Asian femininity and burying her doubts about it. But after the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings, she started reckoning with how fetishization can lead to violence — and interrogating her own role in perpetuating harmful stereotypes. She talks with Anita about her new memoir. Plus, a sociologist breaks down how history and Hollywood built the stereotypes in the first place and what we can do to break free.
Meet the guests:
- Kaila Yu is a culture writer and the author of "Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism and Beauty"
- Nancy Wang Yuen is a sociologist and a professor in the department of ethnic studies at Crafton Hills College and the author of “Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism”
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Gen Z is anxious about climate change, and it’s impacting their family planning. Anita talks to researcher Jade Sasser, who's been studying young people’s attitudes about climate change and reproductive choices while unpacking her own experiences with climate anxiety. They’ll talk about how to manage climate emotions while making big life decisions, and how “the kid question” isn’t just about babies — it’s about what bringing new life into an uncertain world represents.
Meet the guest:
- Jade Sasser is the author of “Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question: Deciding Whether to Have Children in an Uncertain Future” and an associate professor at the University of California, Riverside
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Please note: This episode originally published May 15, 2025.
Update: Jade Sasser is working on a third book, tentatively titled “Climate Change Hates Mothers.”
When you board a plane, flight attendants greet you with practiced smiles and seamless service. But there’s a lot of mental and emotional labor that passengers don’t see. Missy, a Hawaii-based flight attendant, takes Anita inside her world and shares stories from her close to five years on the job — from managing unruly passengers to dealing with medical emergencies. Travel journalist Natalie Compton also shares her reporting on the financial precarity some flight attendants face and how understanding more about their reality has changed the way she approaches air travel.
Meet the guests:
- Missy is a Hawaii-based flight attendant who is using only her first name since she's not authorized to speak on behalf of her airline
- Natalie Compton is a travel reporter for The Washington Post
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Dig deeper:
Natalie's reporting on the financial precarity of early-career flight attendants
Natalie's reporting on flight attendant training
Please note: This episode originally published on June 19, 2025.
When Chris Mosier became the first openly trans athlete to qualify for Team USA in 2015, he catalyzed policy change for trans people in sports. Now, more than a decade later, his legacy is beginning to unravel. Chris talks to Anita about how sports have affirmed him as a trans person and why they’ve become a battleground for trans rights. They also discuss the assumptions that underpin many of the bans on trans athletes in the U.S. and solutions that Chris says could make sports better for all athletes.
Meet the guest:
- Chris Mosier is an eight-time Team USA athlete who wrote the forward to and conducted interviews for the recent book “Fair Game: Trans Athletes and the Future of Sports”
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You can read the new International Olympic Committee's policy on gender here.
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