Embodied

What does becoming a mother do to your brain, body and sense of self? Anita — currently in her third trimester —  puts that question to science writer Lucy Jones. Lucy spent years studying matrescence, a word for the shift that happens during pregnancy, childbirth and becoming a parent. They talk about Lucy's own path through motherhood and why we need new ways to support mothers through this transformation that never really ends. 
Meet the guest:
- Lucy Jones is the author of “Matrescence: On Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood”
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Imagine sitting down in a theater only to be distracted from the performance by armrests digging into your sides. Or arriving at the doctor’s office to find the patient gown won’t fit. For tens of  millions of Americans in larger bodies, experiences like this are part of everyday life. Anita talks to two people who argue this is a design problem, not a personal one. Artist Suzy Hooker is building a free, searchable directory that rates the accessibility of everyday spaces and designer Margarita Zulueta is reimagining how places like airplanes could be built with fat bodies in mind. 
Meet the guests:
- Suzy Hooker is an artist, fat activist, cohost of the podcast "Thunder Thighs and Bedroom Eyes" and the founder of Fat Fab Free
- Margarita Zulueta is a product designer whose thesis is about designing towards fat liberation
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When Philip Hoover and his wife Lauren Hill-Hoover tested positive for COVID-19 in 2022, they thought they knew what to expect. But then Philip’s symptoms persisted, morphed and intensified. They talk to Anita about how an illness that’s affected tens of millions of Americans upended their life and forced them to confront big, existential questions, like: What does caring for each other in sickness and in health *really* mean?
Meet the guests:
- Philip Hoover is a writer who has long COVID
- Lauren Hill-Hoover is Philip's wife
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Dig deeper:
Philip's Modern Love essay
Please note: This episode originally published August 7, 2025.
Updates: Philip and Lauren have now moved into their own place, and Philip is starting graduate school in the fall to pursue his Master’s of Social Work. He still lives with long COVID, and there are still no FDA-approved treatments for the condition.

Somewhere between 20-50% of children are picky eaters at some point in early childhood, and many of us assume that’s just how kids naturally are. But after historian Helen Zoe Veit spent more than a decade reading memoirs, cookbooks and parenting manuals from the past 200 years, she came to a radically different conclusion: picky eating is not inevitable. It is a modern cultural phenomenon. She tells Anita how we got here — to the age of bland kids’ menus and dinner tables ruled by toddlers yelling ‘yucky!’ Plus what lessons history has for modern-day parents.
Meet the guest:
- Helen Zoe Veit is the author of “Picky: How American Children Became the Fussiest Eaters in History” and an associate professor of history at Michigan State University
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When Yowei Shaw got laid off two years ago, there was no amount of bad TV, fried food or even therapy that could get her out of a deep emotional rut. So, she turned to the one thing that had worked in the past: reporting on her feelings. That journey led her to starting a new podcast called Proxy and inventing a new journalism beat: emotional investigative journalism. Anita talks to Yowei about why and how she reports on emotions (both hers and other people’s) and the surprising discoveries she’s made along the way.
Meet the guest:
- Yowei Shaw is the host and creator of Proxy
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Please note: This episode originally published July 31, 2025.