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Embodied Podcast
Hosted by Anita Rao

Sex and relationships are intimate — and sometimes intimidating to talk about. In this award-winning podcast, Host Anita Rao guides us on an exploration of our brains and our bodies that touches down in taboo territory.

In 2020, Mashable named us as one of the best sex, erotica, dating and relationship podcasts. Embodied has won two Edward R. Murrow Regional Awards for best podcast (in 2021& 2022). The podcast has also won three National Headliner Awards for Best Information Podcast: first place in 2023; second place in 2022; and third place in 2021. In the summer of 2022, NPR's Codeswitchfeatured us on their Summer Road Trip Playlist!

Read Anita's piece on the origin story of the Embodied series in The Huffington Post!

Check out our gorgeously illustrated season one discussion guide! And our discussion guide for our diet culture series Resolved.

Leave us a rating or review! It helps other folks find our content.

Learn more about Quilla, the musical genius behind our theme music!

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  • An illustration of a human woman and a personified AI chatbot. The woman is on the right, she is a White woman with long brown hair fashioned into a ponytail. She is wearing a long sleeve blue button-down shirt, blue jeans, and blue shoes. She has a couch and a lamp behind her. There is also a speech bubble behind her that reads: “Good morning.” She is holding hands with, and looking up at, the personified chatbot. The chatbot is on the left. He is depicted as a White man with short brown hair. He is wearing a red shirt, blue jeans, and red shoes. He is holding hands with the woman on the right and looking down at her. His hands are obscured with a glitching effect. Behind him is an empty, blue space. He also has speech bubbles behind him that reads: “Good morning love :heart emoji:” and “*Takes your hand and pulls you in*”. The title “Auto-mated” is typed in black font across the upper right.
    [Simulated Part One] Auto-mated: When A Bot Becomes Your Boo
    Paige Miranda
    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.
  • An illustration of a Black person’s hand holding up a diva cup that is a third full with dark red liquid. We see the hand from the wrist up. The background is filled with blobby shapes that range from brown-red to dark red to light pink in color. Some of the blobs have white outlines. The word “Menstruated” is written in red text across the top left corner.
    Menstruated: What Our Period Blood Tells Us
    Paige Miranda
    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.
  • An illustration featuring a masculine-appearing person with their head in their hands. They're wearing a gray hoodie and have red squiggly lines branching out and up from their upper body. To the left is a thought bubble with a heart with a question mark in it. To the right is a thought bubble with two praying hands in it. In the bottom righthand corner of the illustration is a thought bubble with a bottle of poison tipped over, a match and a house on fire. In the bottom lefthand corner of the illustration is the word "Obsessed."
    Obsessed: Breaking The OCD Cycle (Revisited)
    Kaia Findlay
    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.
  • An illustration of a Black man sitting on an airplane from the seat in front of him. He is looking out the window with a tear running down his face. He is wearing a red shirt, has a beard and is wearing an earring in the ear that is visible in the illustration. The word “Sobbed” is in the lower right hand corner.
    Sobbed: Why We Cry (Revisited)
    Kaia Findlay
    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.
  • An illustration of an over-the-shoulder view of a masculine person looking at their phone. We see their short dark brown hair, right ear, the right shoulder of their blue sweatshirt and the right leg of their black pants. On their phone we see a web page open to Reddit and the r/erectile dysfunction thread. On a bedside table next to them is a blue and white pill bottle with diamond-shaped blue pills scattered next to it. Black text against a yellow background reads “Normalized” across the top right.
    Normalized: Speaking Up About Erectile Dysfunction
    Gabriela Glueck
    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.
  • An illustration of a woman with long, brown hair, a white shirt, blue jean and white sneakers. She has a curious expression. She is walking up steps made out of various self-help books with titles that read: “ The Four Agreements,” “ “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck,” “YOU ARE A BADASS,” "Atomic Habits,” and “The Secret.” The background is a light green color with large white and yellow flowers. Across the top right are the blue words “(Self) Helped” on a yellow background.
    (Self) Helped: Inside The Industry That Wants To Change Your Life
    Paige Miranda
    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.
  • An illustration of a person's chest, without a view of their face. The person is wearing a dark shirt under a denim jacket that features several colorful pins: a pansexual flag, a lightning bolt, a friendly mushroom, a smiley face with a stuck-out tongue, a slice of pepperoni pizza, a donut with pink frosting and sprinkles and a pin that says "Stutter Proudly." The word "Stuttered" is in the lower lefthand corner of the illustration.
    Stuttered: Diversifying The Way We Speak (Revisited)
    Kaia Findlay
    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.
  • An illustration featuring two panels side-by-side. In the left panel is a little girl with brown curly hair lying on her stomach and writing on a piece of paper with a pencil. In the right panel is a man in a dark khaki uniform with a number on it and wearing a beanie. He is reading a piece of paper. The image is outlined in black, which also separates the two panels. The word "Separated" is in the lower right-hand corner.
    Separated: Growing Up With An Incarcerated Father (Revisited)
    Kaia Findlay
    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.
  • An illustration of a white person in profile. The person has long brown hair tucked into the collar of their dark blue shirt. They are wearing large gold earrings, plum-colored lipstick and heavy eye makeup in white, black and purple shades. There are pimples and acne scars along their chin and jawline, and three star-shaped pimple patches on their cheekbones that match the colors of their eye makeup. The background is light purple with white flowers.
    Popped: Adult Acne In The 'Perfect Skin' Era
    Gabriela Glueck
    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 different experience. Anita meets two acne content creators and a photographer who talk about the emotional toll of severe acne, the myth of normal skin, and the responsibility of being today’s skincare influencers.
  • An illustration of a scrapbook featuring four photos of an older white man, who is bald, has a beard and wears glasses. In the photos clockwise from upper right photo: an older white woman hugs the man from behind; the man in front of a big house and trees talking with a Black man; the man with a young girl blowing out candles on a chocolate birthday cake that says ‘95’; the man sitting at a picnic table playing bridge with two other old white men. At the top of the scrapbook pages is the word ‘Cared’ in purple.
    Cared: The Last Decades Of Our Lives
    Gabriela Glueck
    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 man who opens up about the changes in his romantic, platonic, and familial relationships, and his two kids join to share their perspectives. Plus, a woman in her 70s introduces Anita to an innovative model for combating social isolation in your senior years.
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