Thanks for listening to The Fat Psychologist Podcast. Join me to decode wellbeing research so it can have a real impact in our lives. Let's make decisions based on information we understand, not based what others say we should think of ourselves. I will explore themes that have been important in my life, as I search for happiness and belonging. This is our journey, I would love you to contribute too!

The Fat Psychologist Podcast

I am fat: Identity with Nina Robinson and Faith Stadnyk

My secret to happiness: “If I’m a Staffy, why try to look like a Greyhound?”

Season 1 Episode 1

In this episode

Ninna and Nina co-host. We talk about our identities, how they link to happiness and how we are perceived in the world. We interview Faith, who shares her research on how fat liberation and Health at Every Size are portrayed on social media.

Guests

Faith Stadnyk is an academically-trained intersectional feminist, critical health, fat studies, critical disability studies, and critical eating dis/order studies researcher and advocate for social justice. She graduated from the University of Ottawa with an Honours Bachelor of Health Sciences and a minor in Women's Studies and holds an MA in Women's and Gender Studies. She is now completing her PhD in Sociology examining community and activist frameworks of care for people who identify with dis/ordered eating and internalized anti-fatness.

In short, Faith is passionate about academic research, intersectional social justice, health equity, accessibility, and community engagement. In this episode, she talks about her research article Co-healthism in Health at Every Size®-aligned TikTok activism: Transforming the definition of healthism via feminist-of-color disability studies theorizing.

Nina Robinson is CEO of the media production company Soundtruism, which tells diverse and authentic stories in audio as factual narrative podcast formats. She worked for the BBC World Service as a documentary maker and correspondent for over 15 years. Nina has helped establish the Podcasting, Seriously Fund to the UK and is the festival director of Birmingham's Podcast Festival UniPodFest.

Nina is a graduate of Oxford University in Philosophy, Politics & Economics and Msc in Economics from Birmingham University. She is winner of a prestigious Peabody Award; recognised with Foreign Press Association prize for the innovative documentary, 'Chicago Dog Fighting'; Fellow of the Radio Academy, the highest accolade awarded to members of the UK radio industry (2023); Fellow of the Sir Lenny Henry Centre Media Diversity (2021). Look out for The White Newsroom book, coming soon and based on her PhD work. Nina is also an inclusive teaching SEDA accredited tutor and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Ninna Makrinov, aka The Fat Psychologist, is a teacher, trainer, coach and the author of The Fat Psychologist Podcast. A critical thinker by nature, Ninna is an activist who questions knowledge from a feminist, fat inclusive, disability informed, anti-racist perspective. By day, Ninna works as Assistant Professor (Research Methods) at the University of Warwick and Chair of Governors in two Birmingham Primary Schools. She has been an academic in Chile, Mexico and the UK. Ninna is passionate about the development and well-being of people and the organisations they are part of.

Ninna is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She holds a BSc Psychology and Professional Title in Organisational Psychology from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, an MSc in Occupational Health Psychology from The University of Nottingham and a Masters in Business Administration from Tecnológico de Monterrey. She has most recently completed the Postgraduate Award (PGA) Curriculum Design in Higher Education and the PGA Technology Enhanced Learning at The University of Warwick.

Show Notes

In this episode, we talked about:

Associations and groups
Health at Every Size® (HAES®) Principles by the Association for Size, Diversity and Health (ASDAH)

Popular media
Crutches and Spice – Disabled. Loud. Proud by Imani Barbarin

Academic articles
Pillow, W. (2003). Confession, catharsis, or cure? Rethinking the uses of reflexivity as methodological power in qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 16 (2), 175–196. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951839032000060635
Schott, N., Stadnyk, F., & Shanouda, F. (2023). Coalizing against fatmisic and sanist targeted ads of oppression. Excessive Bodies: A Journal of Artistic and Critical Fat Praxis and World Making, 1(1), 184–223. https://doi.org/10.32920/eb.v1i1.1880
Stadnyk, F. (2024). Co-healthism in Health at Every Size®-aligned TikTok activism: Transforming the definition of healthism via feminist-of-color disability studies theorizing. Fat Studies, 13(3), 277–292. https://doi.org/10.1080/21604851.2024.2306991