16 episodes

From coast-to-coast women grow up with their bodies being watched and, almost without fail, learning to watch their own bodies. This self-surveillance begins young and for many women feels impossible to stop. It permeates our relationships and decisions, negatively impacts our physical wellbeing, mental health, and overall quality of life. The Body Myth podcast features conversations with women about when they first began judging themselves, how that has impacted their lives, and what they’ve come to understand about their bodies and the world. Each episode explores how we got here, why our size and shape has nothing to do with happiness, and what we can do to find body peace.

More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/
Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/

The Body Myth Ronit Plank

    • Health & Fitness
    • 4.9 • 15 Ratings

From coast-to-coast women grow up with their bodies being watched and, almost without fail, learning to watch their own bodies. This self-surveillance begins young and for many women feels impossible to stop. It permeates our relationships and decisions, negatively impacts our physical wellbeing, mental health, and overall quality of life. The Body Myth podcast features conversations with women about when they first began judging themselves, how that has impacted their lives, and what they’ve come to understand about their bodies and the world. Each episode explores how we got here, why our size and shape has nothing to do with happiness, and what we can do to find body peace.

More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/
Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/

    Finally Free From Diet Culture featuring Maureen Schiller

    Finally Free From Diet Culture featuring Maureen Schiller

    Ronit’s mom Maureen joins The Body Myth for a conversation about being thrust into dieting by her mother at age 15 with doctor-prescribed pills and how from that point on her relationship with food and her body would forever be painful and complicated. From Weight Watchers to calorie counting to compulsive and binge eating, decades of yo-yo dieting took their toll on her self-worth and ability to eat intuitively. Now, after years trapped on the diet culture roller coaster she shares what she’s learned and how it feels to be free.
    Maureen Schiller has been an advocate for women of size for the last 35 years. She’s been in the plus size fashion industry where she has moderated fashion shows and dressed women to look and feel their best. She practices body acceptance, which is an ongoing process. She enjoys being social with family and friends. Laughter is wonderful!
    The NYT article and recording we discuss: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/11/magazine/weight-loss-pandemic.html
    --
    Ronit is a writer, teacher, and mom who has taught elementary school through high school and whose writing has been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, Salon, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, Scary Mommy, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about her body image struggles and the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was named Finalist in both the 2021 Best Book Awards and the 2021 Book of the Year Award and a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2022. She is also host and producer of the podcasts And Then Everything Changed and Let’s Talk Memoir.
    More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
    Have a body image story you’d like Ronit to read on air or want to take the Your Body and the World survey? Follow this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScZiXP1FklUkWaYg4T6IAqFKDRp6OIvef4be8SRHVaaWt044w/viewform
    Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
    Follow Ronit:
    https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
    https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
    https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
    Photo credit: Baran Lotfollahi on Unsplash
    Theme music: The Lighthouse by Sounds Like Sander 

    • 44 min
    Loving Our Bodies When They’ve Been a Source of Pain featuring Stephanie Weaver

    Loving Our Bodies When They’ve Been a Source of Pain featuring Stephanie Weaver

    Stephanie Weaver, author of the Migraine Relief Plan Cookbook joins The Body Myth for a conversation about the toll of chronic illness on her feelings of peace with her body, having undiagnosed disordered eating for 40 years, how being riddled with insecurity about her body distracted her from her life’s purpose, and the changes she’s made emotionally, physically and nutritionally to meet her body where it is.
     
    Stephanie Weaver is a writer, speaking coach, and recipe developer based in San Diego, CA. She has a Master of Public Health in Nutrition Education from the University of Illinois. She’s the host of The Blue and Yellow Kitchen and The Resilience Series on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Her Migraine Relief Plan Cookbook will be out in July and is available for pre-order now. Learn more about her at stephanieweaver.com
    https://www.instagram.com/sweavermph/
    --
    Ronit is a writer, teacher, and mom who has taught elementary school through high school and whose writing has been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, Salon, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, Scary Mommy, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about her body image struggles and the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was named Finalist in both the 2021 Best Book Awards and the 2021 Book of the Year Award and a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2022. She is also host and producer of the podcasts And Then Everything Changed and Let’s Talk Memoir.
    More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
    Have a body image story you’d like Ronit to read on air or want to take the Your Body and the World survey? Follow this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScZiXP1FklUkWaYg4T6IAqFKDRp6OIvef4be8SRHVaaWt044w/viewform
    Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
    Follow Ronit:
    https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
    https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
    https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
    Photo credit: Baran Lotfollahi on Unsplash
    Theme music: The Lighthouse by Sounds Like Sander 

    • 30 min
    14-Years Recovered from Binge-Eating Disorder featuring Ronni Robinson

    14-Years Recovered from Binge-Eating Disorder featuring Ronni Robinson

    Ronni Robinson joins The Body Myth for a conversation about being 14-years recovered from binge eating disorder and how she came to understand that the love she was missing during her childhood was what she was for decades trying to replace with food, her passion for helping others find their self-worth, and her memoir “Out of the Pantry” chronicling her 30 years of binge eating and compulsive overeating.
    Also in this episode:
    -menopause and body size
    -Overeaters anonymous
    -Breaking family relationship patterns
     
    Ronni is a member of the Sandwich Generation; she's the tired lunch meat layered between two college-age children and aging parents.
    She is a writer and indoor cycling instructor who lives in Eastern Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband in their second year of empty nesting, as both kids are off to college.
    Ronni’s passion is helping others who are struggling with eating disorders. She also does public speaking about eating disorders and emotionally abusive relationships.
    “Out of the Pantry” is Ronni’s debut memoir, chronicling her 30 years of binge eating and compulsive overeating, and her journey to recovery.
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronnirobwrites/
    --
    Ronit is a writer, teacher, and mom who has taught elementary school through high school and whose writing has been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, Salon, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, Scary Mommy, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about her body image struggles and the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was named Finalist in both the 2021 Best Book Awards and the 2021 Book of the Year Award and a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2022. She is also host and producer of the podcasts And Then Everything Changed and Let’s Talk Memoir.
    More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
    Have a body image story you’d like Ronit to read on air or want to take the Your Body and the World survey? Follow this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScZiXP1FklUkWaYg4T6IAqFKDRp6OIvef4be8SRHVaaWt044w/viewform
    Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
    Follow Ronit:
    https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
    https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
    https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
    Photo credit: Baran Lotfollahi on Unsplash
    Theme music: The Lighthouse by Sounds Like Sander 

    • 46 min
    Coming Back to Your Body featuring Natalie Serianni

    Coming Back to Your Body featuring Natalie Serianni

    Natalie Serianni joins The Body Myth for a conversation about being a college athlete and losing herself in perfectionism and performance, society’s messages about our size, the effect dissociating from her body had on her well-being, and how she’s learned to integrate the physical, mental, and emotional and find joy in her body again.
    Also in this episode:
    -how motherhood helped her appreciate her body
    -when she learned to stop pushing herself 
    -A reading from Natalie’’s essay “Well Played” 
     
    Natlie’s essay “Well Played” https://www.themanifeststation.net/tag/natalie-serianni/
     
    Bio:
    Natalie Serianni is a Seattle-based writer, professor, and mother of two with work at Motherwell, the Manifest-Station, Ruminate Magazine, ParentMap, SheKnows, and Literary Mama. She has an essay included in the recent anthology, "The Pandemic Midlife Crisis: GenX Women on the Brink." Her work centers on grief and motherless motherhood. Connect with her on Instagram and Twitter.
    --
    Ronit is a writer, teacher, and mom who has taught elementary school through high school and whose writing has been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, Salon, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, Scary Mommy, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about her body image struggles and the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was named Finalist in both the 2021 Best Book Awards and the 2021 Book of the Year Award and a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2022. She is also host and producer of the podcasts And Then Everything Changed and Let’s Talk Memoir.
    More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
    Have a body image story you’d like Ronit to read on air or want to take the Your Body and the World survey? Follow this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScZiXP1FklUkWaYg4T6IAqFKDRp6OIvef4be8SRHVaaWt044w/viewform
    Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
    Follow Ronit:
    https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
    https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
    https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
    Photo credit: Baran Lotfollahi on Unsplash
    Theme music: The Lighthouse by Sounds Like Sander

    • 29 min
    Body Appreciation After Childhood Trauma Featuring Lisa Kohn

    Body Appreciation After Childhood Trauma Featuring Lisa Kohn

    Lisa Kohn joins The Body Myth for a conversation about growing up in the Unified Church commonly known as the Moonies, and how shame about her burgeoning sexuality and defying the church soon manifested as Anorexia and drug use. Lisa shares how she found freedom, overcame years of self-destructive behavior, and offers her advice for body appreciation and self-care.
     
    Also in this episode:
    -Lisa’s memoir To the Moon and Back
    -signs of Anorexic and rigid thinking
    -raising kids body positively 
     
    Lisa Kohn is the award-winning author of to the moon and back: a childhood under the influence, a memoir that chronicles her childhood growing up in the Unification Church (the Moonies) with her mom and a life of “sex, drugs, and squalor” in New York City’s East Village in the 1970s with her dad, as well as The Power of Thoughtful Leadership. She is a keynote speaker, leadership consultant, and executive coach (www.chatsworthconsulting.com) who brings to others the tools, mind-shifts, and practices she’s found and created that have helped her heal, as well as the hope and joy she’s let into her life. She will always tell you that she is a native New Yorker, but she currently lives in Pennsylvania.
     
    Websites:
    www.lisakohnwrites.com
    www.chatsworthconsulting.com
     
    Social media:
    https://www.instagram.com/lisakohnwrites/
    www.facebook.com/lisakohnwrites
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisakohnccg/
    --
    Ronit is a writer, teacher, and mom who has taught elementary school through high school and whose writing has been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, Salon, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, Scary Mommy, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about her body image struggles and the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was named Finalist in both the 2021 Best Book Awards and the 2021 Book of the Year Award and a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2022. She is also host and producer of the podcasts And Then Everything Changed and Let’s Talk Memoir.
    More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
    Have a body image story you’d like Ronit to read on air or want to take the Your Body and the World survey? Follow this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScZiXP1FklUkWaYg4T6IAqFKDRp6OIvef4be8SRHVaaWt044w/viewform
    Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
    Follow Ronit:
    https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
    https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
    https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
    Photo credit: Baran Lotfollahi on Unsplash
    Theme music: The Lighthouse by Sounds Like Sander

    • 38 min
    Overcoming Binge Eating Disorder and Embracing Body Acceptance featuring Amy Scheiner

    Overcoming Binge Eating Disorder and Embracing Body Acceptance featuring Amy Scheiner

    Amy Scheiner joins The Body Myth for a conversation about having bariatric surgery at age 17 and its consequences, her experience with binge eating disorder, how 1990’s body image and diet culture impacted her sense of self, the disconnect between the mental health and medical systems, the memoir she’s written and how she's helping others share their body stories.
     
    Also in this episode:
    -growing up hearing relatives disparage her size
    -the connection between autoimmune and eating disorders
    -why some facilities for eating disorders can make them worse
    Bio: 
    Amy Scheiner is a memoirist, essayist, and feminist. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from Stony Brook University and teaches Creative Writing. Amy hosts a body awareness series on Instagram called "What's your body's story" where she posts accounts of people sharing their body's experience. She is currently seeking representation for her memoir, WHO I ONCE WAS.
    www.amyscheiner.com
    IG: https://www.instagram.com/Bodies_Talks_Stories/
    --
    Ronit is a writer, teacher, and mom who has taught elementary school through high school and whose writing has been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, Salon, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, Scary Mommy, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about her body image struggles and the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was named Finalist in both the 2021 Best Book Awards and the 2021 Book of the Year Award and a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2022. She is also host and producer of the podcasts And Then Everything Changed and Let’s Talk Memoir.
    More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
    Have a body image story you’d like Ronit to read on air or want to take the Your Body and the World survey? Follow this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScZiXP1FklUkWaYg4T6IAqFKDRp6OIvef4be8SRHVaaWt044w/viewform
    Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
    Follow Ronit:
    https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
    https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
    https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
    Photo credit: Baran Lotfollahi on Unsplash
    Theme music: The Lighthouse by Sounds Like Sander 

    • 48 min

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5
15 Ratings

15 Ratings

terribleticketmaster ,

Compassionate and connected

A compassionate approach to a very emotional topic. The Body Myth highlights everyday stories of women who’ve struggled and, in many cases, found a way to make peace with their bodies. Ronit’s style is relational and conversational, giving the feel of a coffee chat vs being clinical or hard-nosed. Lots of grace and space for stories most women can find relatable!

Tiphanyk ,

Compassionate & intelligent

Ronit talks about a difficult subject: our body image- with compassion and intelligence. Her interview style is warm, open, & vulnerable. I throughly enjoy listening to her compassionate exploration of a topic that most women battle for their entire lives.

I used to love the Globe ,

Critical topic essential to dropping self-criticism

Ronit Plank is willing to talk about topics that others fear—and is willing to talk about her own experience. She reads comments from people who have been carrying the weight of body image as defined by others through their whole lives. Everyone should listen to this podcast as I doubt there’s a single person who has not suffered from poor body image. Remember the book: FAT AS A FEMINIST ISSUE. Thanks, Ronit. I love your work and admire your taking this on.

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