The Burnt Toast Podcast

You’re listening to Burnt Toast! I’m Virginia Sole-Smith. Today, my conversation is with Debra Benfield , RDN. Deb is a registered dietitian/nutritionist with 40 years of experience helping people heal their relationship with food, movement and their bodies. Her work sits at the intersection of anti-ageism, body liberation and trauma-informed care, offering a radically compassionate alternative to...

Welcome to Indulgence Gospel After Dark! We are Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay , and it's time for your November Extra Butter episode. Today we're talking about our problematic faves! These are shows, musicians, influencers and other pockets of culture that we want to enjoy without thinking much about them, even if there's discourse. We'll get into: Our favorite Bad Skinny Girl TV shows. The...

You’re listening to Burnt Toast! I’m Virginia Sole-Smith. Today, my conversation is with Kaila Yu. Kaila is an author based in Los Angeles. Her debut memoir, Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty , came out earlier this fall to a rave review in The New York Times. She's also a luxury travel and culture writer with bylines in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The LA Times...

Welcome to Indulgence Gospel After Dark! We are Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay , and it's time for your October Extra Butter episode. Today we're talking about plus size fashion influencer and body acceptance advocate Katie Sturino — who teamed up with WeightWatchers last year. What happened there? And where is the line between body liberation activism and capitalism? (Yes, we struggle with t...

You’re listening to Burnt Toast! I’m Virginia Sole-Smith. Today, my conversation is with Lisa Sibbett, PhD. Lisa writes The Auntie Bulletin , a weekly newsletter about kinship, chosen family and community care. As a long time Auntie herself, Lisa often focuses on the experiences of people without children who are nevertheless, in her words, "cultivating childful lives." We’ve been talking a whole...

You’re listening to Burnt Toast! I’m Virginia Sole-Smith. Today, my conversation is with Laura Birek. You probably know Laura as co-host of The Big Fat Positive Podcast , but today she’s here to talk about her new book, co authored with Gia Gambaro Blount. It’s called Good to Go: A Fresh Take on Potty Training for Today's Intentional Parent . I'm years past potty training (thank God!!), but I hone...

Welcome to Indulgence Gospel After Dark! We are Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay , here with our first-ever Patreon podcast episode! We're going to chat about: ⭐️ How we're feeling about the BIG MOVE. ⭐️ How to think about clothes after a significant size change. What even IS your style now?! ⭐️Figuring out fall uniforms! ⭐️ Diet culture in disaster prep. ⭐️ The one thing we wish straight-...

You’re listening to Burnt Toast! Today, my guest is Emily Ladau , a disability rights activist, and author of Demystifying Disability . Our conversation today is about the many intersections between anti-fatness and ableism. This is such an important conversation, even if you feel like you’re new to both of these worlds. We investigate who is considered a “worthy” disabled person or a Good Fatty —...

Welcome to Indulgence Gospel After Dark! We are Corinne Fay and Virginia Sole-Smith . These episodes are usually just for our Extra Butter membership tier — but today we’re releasing this one to the whole list. So enjoy! (And if you love it, go paid so you don’t miss the next one!) Episode 212 Transcript Corinne Today is a family meeting episode. We’re catching up on summer breaks, back to school,...

You’re listening to Burnt Toast! Today, my guest is Denise Hamburger , founder and director of Be Real USA. Be Real is a nonprofit that imagines a world where every child can grow up with a healthy relationship to food and their body. They work with body image researchers, psychologists, teachers and public health officials to design curricula about nutrition and body image that are weight neutral...

You’re listening to Burnt Toast! We are Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay , and it’s time for your September Indulgence Gospel! It’s time for a mailbag episode, so we’ll be diving into your questions about: ⭐️ How to clap back when people say, “Wow, you’ve changed!” ⭐️ What to do with ageist grandparents? (We’re surprisingly…Team Grandparent on this one?) ⭐️ Why it’s so hard to like photos of...

You’re listening to Burnt Toast! Today, my guest is Mara Gordon, MD . Dr. Mara is a family physician on the faculty of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, as well as a writer, journalist and contributor to NPR. She also writes the newsletter Your Doctor Friend by Mara Gordon about her efforts to make medicine more fat friendly. Dr. Mara is back today with Part 2 of our conversation about we...

You’re listening to Burnt Toast! Today, my guest is Ash Brandin of Screen Time Strategies , also know as The Gamer Educator on Instagram. Ash is also the author of a fantastic new book, Power On: Managing Screen Time to Benefit the Whole Family . Ash joined us last year to talk about how our attitudes towards screen time can be…diet-adjacent . I asked them to come back on the podcast this week bec...

You’re listening to Burnt Toast! We are Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay . For our last August hiatus episode, we’re looking back at a conversation we ran back in February of this year — exploring the work of attorney turned self-help guru Mel Robbins. Did Mel steal the concept of “let them?” Is she just Andrew Huberman for the “We Can Do Hard Things” crowd? Is high-fiving yourself in the mirro...

Welcome to Indulgence Gospel After Dark! We are Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay . Today, we’re going to revisit our conversation about Emily Oster, and her evolving views on kids, weight and health. This episode first aired in November 2024, right after the presidential election. We’re now 8 months into Trump’s second term, and continuing to grapple with how America has slid to the right. So t...

Today Virginia is chatting with Anna Maltby.  Anna is a health journalist, editor, content strategist, personal trainer, and author of the newsletter  How to Move . Anna also created Pilates For Abortion Funds , a monthly online class that has raised about $30,000 for abortion funds since July 2022. She has been an ACE-certified personal trainer since 2015, and a certified mat pilates instructor s...

Welcome to Indulgence Gospel After Dark! We are Corinne Fay and Virginia Sole-Smith , and this month we’re discussing… Things Thin People Say. 👀 The list includes: ⭐️ The most bananas comment about swimsuit shopping ⭐️ That thing where they think their boyfriend’s clothes will fit you ⭐️ How Caroline Chambers’ thin privilege shows up ⭐️ Our thoughts on Haley Nahman’s sugar addict essay. ⭐️ A...

You’re listening to Burnt Toast! Today, my guest is Mara Gordon, MD . Dr. Mara is a family physician on the faculty of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, as well as a writer, journalist and contributor to NPR. She also writes the newsletter Your Doctor Friend by Mara Gordon about her efforts to make medicine more fat friendly. And she was previously on the podcast last November , answering...

Hello on this steamy Summer Friday! We’re popping in to share the (unedited! very casual!) video from the Live we did Wednesday… just generally catching up on some urgent summer news like: * Our new favorite tank tops * Why we hate And Just Like That (but can’t stop watching) * Why we love Lena Dunham but are…complicated?? maybe in love?? with Too Much. * Plus some Butters! As a reminder, we use t...

You’re listening to Burnt Toast! Today, my guest is Tracy Clark-Flory . Tracy is the feminist writer behind the newsletter TCF Emails and the author of Want Me: A Sex Writer's Journey into the Heart of Desire . She’s also the cohost of the new podcast Dire Straights where she and Amanda Montei unpack the many toxic aspects of heterosexual relationships and culture. I brought Tracy on the podcast t...

You’re listening to Burnt Toast! We are Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay , and it’s time for… part 2 of our 200th episode! We are continuing to revisit favorite moments from the podcast archives. Coming up: 🔥We have feelings about aging! 🔥What’s our current take on heterosexual marriage? 🔥How do you set boundaries when you’re in eating disorder recovery but your partner is…on a diet? And so...

You’re listening to Burnt Toast! We are Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay , and it’s time for your July Indulgence Gospel! And… it’s our 200th episode! To celebrate, we’re making today’s Indulgence Gospel free to everyone and offering a flash sale — 20% off to celebrate 200 episodes! This newsletter contains affiliate links, which means if you buy something we suggest, we may earn a small commis...

Sorting fact from diet culture myth, with Cole Kazdin You’re listening to Burnt Toast! Today, my guest is Cole Kazdin. Cole is an Emmy Award-winning television journalist and author of What's Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety . Cole came on Burnt Toast about two years ago to talk about What's Eating Us when it first came out—and the way the eating disorder industrial complex...

Plus what to eat when you don't want to eat and another fat dating update. You’re listening to Burnt Toast! We are Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay , and it’s time for your June Indulgence Gospel! It’s time for a mailbag episode, so we’ll be diving into your questions about: ⭐️ Virginia’s online dating adventures 👀 ⭐️ What we’re cooking right now 🧑🏻‍🍳👩‍🍳 ⭐️ How we’re doing with the Tar...

Divesting from aggro fitness motivation with weight neutral trainer Lauren Leavell. You’re listening to Burnt Toast! Today, my conversation is with Lauren Leavell . Lauren is a weight neutral fitness professional and content creator. She focuses on creating inclusive environments for movement and exercise to help clients feel strong and confident, and previously joined us on the podcast back in 20...