Appearance Matters: The Podcast!

Welcome back to Appearance Matters: The Podcast! To mark Women’s Health Month, Ella speaks to Dr Sophie Williams, Assistant Subject Lead for Psychology at University of Derby, and Trainee Health Psychologist, Dr Laura Falconer, UK-based Health Psychologist at Reed Wellbeing, and Dr Melissa Pehlivan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the InsideOut Institute, University of Sydney, Australia about thei...

Welcome back to Appearance Matters: The Podcast! In this month’s episode, Ella speaks to Dr Helena Lewis-Smith, Associate Professor at the Centre for Appearance Research (CAR), along with Fiona and Lucy, who have lived experience of breast cancer and are expert advisors for Helena’s research. They update us on the findings from Helena’s feasibility trial of the Accepting Your Body After Cancer (AB...

Welcome back to Appearance Matters: The Podcast! In this month’s episode, Kat speaks to Dr Aisha Sobey. Aisha is a Research Associate at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, where she studies the ethical implications of Generative AI and digital health systems, especially focusing on the impacts on non-normative bodies, employing Political Economy, Science and Technology Studies,...

Welcome back to Appearance Matters: The Podcast! In this month’s episode, Ella speaks to Research Fellow Dr Emma Waite and Visiting Professor Dr Amy Slater from the Centre for Appearance Research about their work on social media and visible difference as part of the VTCT Foundation Programme of Research at CAR. They are also joined by Laure Dedecker, a PhD student at the Media Psychology Lab at KU...

Welcome back to Appearance Matters: The Podcast! In this month’s episode, Kat speaks to Zali Yager, an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Institute for Health and Sport at Victoria University, Australia, and the founder and executive director of the Embrace Collective. The Embrace Collective: https://theembracehub.com/ If you’re interested in hearing more about the Appearance Matters Conference, h...

Welcome back to Appearance Matters the podcast! This month we are kicking off our Appearance Matters 11 conference series. This month Maia speaks with Phyllida Swift CEO of Face Equality international about her inspirational work with the organisation, her path into working into the visible difference field, some highlights of her career so far, as well as goals for the future. Phyllida also speak...

Welcome back to Appearance Matters: The Podcast! In this month’s episode, Ella speaks to Dr Kerry Montgomery, who is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Appearance Research, about the STAR Project. Kerry’s work explores how people with conditions that affect appearance and that can be passed on to their children make decisions about starting a family.  They talk about research Kerry has carried ou...

Welcome back to Appearance Matters: The Podcast! In this month’s episode, Kat speaks to Dr Luciana Zuest (Towson University, US) and Dr Eva Pila (Western University, Canada) about weight bias and weight stigma in sport and exercise settings, and how to make physical activity spaces more inclusive for all bodies. Dr Eva Pila: https://www.uwo.ca/fhs/kin/about/faculty/pila_e.html Body Image & Health...

Welcome back to Appearance Matters: The Podcast! In this month’s episode, Maia speaks to Prof. Di Harcourt about the development of The Visible Difference Support Hub, a brand new website that is aims to provide easy access to evidence-based support for people with visible differences and their families which has been developed at CAR. Di and Maia talk about the research that has gone into creatin...

Welcome to our 2025 Summer Short Series! We're back with bitesize episodes showcasing recent work from our team at the Centre for Appearance Research! In this episode, we are joined by Dr Maia Thornton, Senior Research Fellow at CAR, who tells us about her recent paper entitled: The Visible Difference Parenting Toolkit: development of an ACT-based intervention to improve the well-being of parents...

Welcome to our 2025 Summer Short Series! We're back with bitesize episodes showcasing recent work from our team at the Centre for Appearance Research! In this episode, we are joined by Emma Waite, Research Fellow at CAR, who tells us about her recent paper entitled: “Make sure that everybody feels there is a space for them”: Understanding and promoting appearance inclusivity at university." Emma d...

Welcome back to Appearance Matters: the podcast! In this episode, Maia speaks to Ginny Ramseyer-Winter, an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, and Savannah Roberts, a PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh. This episode focuses on appearance and body image through the lens of sexuality, sexual health, and gender. Tune in to hear a great discussion reflecting on the role of app...

Nadia, Kirsty and Harriet from CAR talk about an exciting project focused on boosting young children's body image. Links: Blippi's Wonderful Talent Show on Neflix https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81910281 Blippi's Wonderful Talent Show on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h281Ojvs0Bc Research Papers Protocol: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-20869-z Outcomes: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.body...

Welcome back to Appearance Matters: The Podcast! This month’s episode focusses on a project aimed at providing peer support for young people with cleft lip and/or palate. Abbi is joined by Kenny Ardouin, a speech language therapist and lecturer at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. As part of his PhD, Kenny has been involved in running a youth camp for children with cleft aged 10-18. In...

Maia speaks to CAR's own Christine Ramsey-Wade (Associate Professor in Counselling Psychology) about her PhD exploring whether mindful eating programs can be beneficial for people experiencing disordered eating. Maia and Christine discuss the research, reflect on the PhD process, and even practice a mindful eating exercise together. Content warning: Mindful eating exercise starts at 28:52 If you’r...

This Girl Can turned 10 this year so to celebrate, we are sharing an episode from deep in our archive (ep 20!!) on exercise and body image with with Tanya Joseph - architect of Sport England's 'This Girl Can' Campaign and body image & body functionality researcher, Assistant Professor Jessica Alleva. To find out more about CAR: www.uwe.ac.uk/car Follow CAR on Twitter: twitter.com/car_UWE For more...

Happy New Year from Appearance Matters: The Podcast! New year, new episode. Today, we are joined by PhD candidate and Associate Lecturer Mia Morgan from the University of Derby, who is conducting a body of research into the benefits of nature connectedness for individuals who are experiencing disordered eating / eating disorders. Mia shares the results of her PhD so far, including a literature rev...

This month Maia speaks to local Bristol artist, Gail Reid, and visible difference advocate, Amit Ghose, about a project which focussed on representing visible difference through art. Gail was commissioned to paint a portrait of Amit which was unveiled at CAR's AM10 conference in June 2024. We discuss the process of Gail, Amit and CAR working together to create the portrait and reflect on the unvei...

On this episode, Abbi speaks with Dr Nicole Paraskeva and Sharon Haywood, both researchers at the Centre for Appearance Research, about an emerging research area harnessing the power of social media influencers to deliver body image interventions. Papers discussed: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-56578-1 https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/v83ht https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/artic...

On this episode, social psychologist and lecturer at Brighton University Dr Jamie Chan speaks with Nadia about body image and social class. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we did! For more on Jamie: https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/persons/jamie-chan To read Jamie's Thesis: https://sussex.figshare.com/articles/thesis/Beyond_resources_how_social_class_contexts_shape_women_s_body_image_in_t...

Welcome back to Appearance Matters the Podcast! In this episode, we share the recording of one of our Appearance Matters 10 Keynote talks, delivered by Prof. Phillippa Diedrichs. Please note, the sound quality isn't the best as this was a live recording, but we hope it's good enough. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we did! To find out more about Phillippa, visit her website: http://phillipp...

Welcome back to Appearance Matters the Podcast! In this episode, we share the recording of one of our Appearance Matters 10 Keynote talks, delivered by Prof. Kathleen Bogart. Kathleen's keynote was entitled: 'Putting a Face to Appearance Research: Representation of understudied visible differences'. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we did! If you'd like to find out more about Kathleen's work...

Welcome back to Appearance Matters the Podcast! In this episode, we share the recording of our Appearance Matters 10 Conference panel discussion event, titled ‘Beyond the Selfie: Can Social Media Influencers Shape the Appearance Diversity Landscape?’ Our panel members include: - Stephanie Yeboah, an award-winning content creator, author and writer. - Amit Ghose, an advocate for the visible differe...

A slightly different kind of episode on the show this month. Nadia speaks with Professor Phillippa Diedrichs about her new book for teenagers: The Body Confidence Book!! A mixture of personal stories, science, statistics, and tips and actions for young people curious to learn ways to improve their body image. To buy the book: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/body-confidence-book-respect-accept-and-...

In this month's episode, Abbi speaks with Dr Lise Deguire; a clinical psychologist, public speaker, author and burn survivor. Abbi and Lise discuss how visible differences are represented within the media, what we as individuals can do to reject negative stereotypes, and the small changes that the media could make for a positive impact. Sign the Face Equality petition: https://www.change.org/p/tel...