The Full Bloom Podcast: Why Do We Need to Demedicalize Fatness?

In this episode of The Full Bloom Podcast, Zoë Bisbing and I discuss:

• “what listeners should know about fat studies, and how scholarship on fat studies and race/ism intersects

• how systems of oppression are replicated even in spaces where they are being challenged

• why Mikey centers fat black people in her work

• why we can’t discuss sizeism or weight stigma without discussing racism

• lack of diversity on the full bloom podcast and its impact

• how racism and sizeism show up on the playground

• BMI report cards and Mikey’s painful personal experience with this intervention

• what harmful messages children may internalize from well-meaning public health programs

• Mikey’s concerns about the scientific quest to erase fatness

• the problem with calling “obesity” an epidemic

• how to address weight stigma at its root and go beyond education

• the power of language

• why Mikey recommends targeting change in the community rather than at an institutional or policy level

• Mikey’s recommended resources for listeners”

You can learn more about Dr. Bisbing’s work on size-inclusive parenting through The Full Bloom Project on her website.