The Fat Doctor Podcast
How would you react if someone told you that most of what we are taught to believe about healthy bodies is a lie? How would you feel if that person was a medical doctor with over 20 years experience treating patients and seeing the harm caused by all this misinformation?In their podcast, Dr Asher Larmie, an experienced General Practitioner and self-styled Fat Doctor, examines and challenges 'health' as we know it through passionate, unfiltered conversations with guest experts, colleagues and friends.They tackle the various ways in which weight stigma and anti-fat bias impact both individuals and society as a...
The Logical Fallacies That Season Your Holiday Fatphobia
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This holiday season, you'll hear countless claims about weight and health dressed up as concern or common sense. But beneath every "everybody knows" and "the experts say" lies a logical fallacy waiting to be dismantled. In this episode, I arm you with the tools to recognize and challenge the flawed reasoning behind anti-fat rhetoric from ad hominem attacks to deliberately vague language designed to make illogical arguments sound scientific." Whether you're facing concern trolling from relatives or rage-watching haters online, understanding these patterns of illogic reveals what's really happening: weak arguments from people...
When Healthcare Becomes Compliance Theater
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Healthcare's approach to diabetes has become less about treating a disease and more about fixing the person. In this episode, I walk through Cosmo's fictional-but-familiar journey from diagnosis through multiple medications to a specialist referral that came with a homework assignment. When we receive forms asking us to set goals, rate our confidence, and think about what our blood sugar levels "mean to us" before we've even met a clinician, we're being set up to fail. I examine how medical professionals have shifted responsibility for treatment outcomes onto patients, turning a manageable chronic...
Ignoring the Harm: Why We Justify Suffering for Weight Loss
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 When doctors recommend weight loss, they describe the supposed benefits but remain silent about the harms—reduced metabolism, increased appetite, hormonal disruption, eating disorders, and profound mental health impacts. This ethical failure extends beyond outdated diet advice to newer interventions like GLP-1 medications, where we celebrate short-term metabolic improvements while ignoring gastrointestinal distress, financial burden, social isolation, and unknown long-term consequences.Â
In this episode, Asher challenges the dangerous assumption that fat people should suffer to become thinner, exposing how this narrative serves the weight loss industry's profits while treating fat bodies as u...
Why It's So Hard To Just BE Fat
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 We've been taught to hate and fear fat bodies in equal measure—for social reasons, moral reasons, and medicalized health reasons that justify the first two. Society tells us fat people don't belong, that we're unacceptable, abnormal, and undesirable. We're judged as lazy, undisciplined moral failures who are stealing resources from those who deserve them. And when these prejudices become too uncomfortable to defend, health concern provides the perfect cover. In this episode, I break down exactly why it's so hard to accept that it's okay to be fat, even for rational, critical-thinking peo...
Taylor's story: What if everyone else is right and we're wrong?
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Taylor was diagnosed with sleep apnea six months ago and told the only real solution was weight loss. Like so many fat people, they've tried every diet imaginable—keto, Weight Watchers, calorie counting—and watched their weight cycle up and down for years. When a friend introduced them to intuitive eating and the anti-diet movement, it felt revolutionary. But the what-ifs started creeping in. What if I just keep eating and never stop? What if this damages my health? What if everyone saying "just lose weight" is actually right, and I'm the one who...
The Weight Loss Lie: A History of Medical Mistakes
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 We've been told our entire lives that losing weight will prevent health problems. But where did this belief come from? In this episode, I trace the shocking history of how insurance companies, pharmaceutical funding, and arbitrary statistical cut-offs created the mythical illness we now know as "ob*sity" crisis. From Quetelet's obsession with the "average man" to the International Ob*sity Task Force's pharmaceutical funding, I expose how we've been working off logical fallacies for over a century. There's no evidence that being fat causes health conditions, no evidence of a "healthy weight f...
You Deserve Better: The Fat Doctor's Reassurance on Your Right To Healthcare
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In a healthcare system that routinely dismisses, blames, and denies treatment to fat patients, it's easy to doubt whether choosing to stay fat is the right decision. But here's the truth: you deserve a doctor who listens, believes, and validates you—regardless of your size. You have the absolute right to refuse to be weighed, to refuse weight loss, and to demand treatment without prerequisites. The ethics are clear, even when the reality feels impossible. This episode is your reminder that you're making the right choice, and that the fight for dignified healthcare is...
Casey's story: When good intentions aren't enough
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 Casey is a passionate, well-meaning therapist who believes in weight-inclusive care but freezes when clients bring up medical concerns. They've learned about anti-diet principles through Instagram and podcasts, but lack the medical knowledge to counter doctors' weight-focused advice. When a client receives a devastating diabetes diagnosis with the usual "lose weight" lecture, Casey wants to help but secretly wonders if the doctor might be right. Add in family pressure about their own weight, hostile colleagues questioning their approach, and the constant fear of professional consequences - and you have a dedicated professional caught b...
Weight Loss Doesn't Improve Your Health
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Weight loss doesn't improve your health—and I'm tired of having to prove it. While doctors continue pushing weight loss as a cure-all, the evidence tells a different story. The Look AHEAD Study followed 5,000 diabetics for 10 years and found that weight loss didn't prevent heart attacks or strokes. Similar studies show no long-term benefits for diabetes, arthritis, blood pressure, or fatty liver disease. Yet fat patients are still forced to advocate for basic medical care while being blamed for conditions that have nothing to do with their weight. It's time for healthcare professionals to...
When 'nice' isn't enough: The search for truly safe care
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Some healthcare professionals are nice. Some would go so far as to call themselves “body positive" or “HAES aligned”. But being pleasant doesn't make you safe for fat patients. There's a crucial difference between practitioners who are steadfastly kind while perpetuating harm, and those who actively work to counter medical weight bias. In this episode, I expose why often times anti-diet isn't enough, how well-meaning professionals can cause more damage than obvious bigots, and why fat people are trapped in an endless cycle of seeking help, getting weight loss advice, and avoiding care until...
Jordan's Story: When Endometriosis Gets Blamed on Being Fat
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Jordan's seven GP visits for debilitating period pain, fatigue, and pelvic symptoms should have led to an endometriosis diagnosis within the first appointment. Instead, every symptom was blamed on weight, leaving them dismissed, traumatized, and untreated. In this episode, I expose how medical fatphobia intersects with misogyny to deny fat people proper gynecological care, and why being fat makes you fundamentally unsafe with most doctors. Through Jordan's story, I reveal the devastating reality that fat patients face when seeking help for legitimate medical conditions.Â
Like the sound of the Consulting Room?
My Weight Says Nothing About Who I Am
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Society has conditioned us to believe that our weight reveals everything about our character, intelligence, willpower, and worth as human beings. From childhood, we're taught that fat bodies represent moral failure, laziness, and unworthiness of love or respect.
In this raw and powerful episode, I dismantle the extensive list of harmful stereotypes we've internalized about ourselves and call out healthcare professionals who perpetuate discrimination. I explore how these beliefs shape our relationships, our sense of self-worth, and our right to exist fully in the world—and why it's time to reject th...
Fat People Are Not Entitled to Autonomy
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Medical autonomy is supposedly a fundamental pillar of healthcare - the right to make informed decisions about your own body without coercion. But as I discovered in a conversation with my husband Junior, a fat dentist, this principle simply doesn't apply when you're fat. In this episode, I expose how the medical profession systematically denies autonomy to fat patients, exploring the difference between theoretical rights and practical agency, and why doctors can get away with withholding treatment until you lose weight. I also introduce The Weigh Forward - my new service to help...
Riley's Story: The Bariatric Surgery Risks Nobody Talks About
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Riley's doctor recommended bariatric surgery as the solution to their health concerns, but when Riley came to me for advice, I realized they hadn't been told about the real risks. From anastomosis leaks with 15% mortality rates to spontaneous bowel perforations years later, the complications of weight loss surgery extend far beyond what most patients are counseled about.Â
In this episode, I walk through the evidence-based risks that every patient deserves to know before making this life-altering decision, because informed consent requires the whole truth. If you or someone you know is c...
Your Health Is Not Determined by Your Size
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 Health and weight are two completely separate things that we've been taught to view as synonymous. While society insists that being fat is inherently unhealthy, the evidence tells a different story. In this episode, I break down why genetics, not lifestyle choices, primarily determine our weight, how weight stigma actually causes poor health outcomes, and why fat people often have better medical outcomes than thin people. I challenge the fundamental assumption that body size equals health status and explain why perpetuating this myth isn't just wrong—it's literally killing people.Â
Got...
Why I Can't Move On: Staying Put When I Want to Run Away
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During my supposed break, I wrote a 45-page booklet called "Jenny Needs a New Knee, But She's Too Fat to Get One"—complete with 29 clinical references proving that denying joint replacements based on weight is medically unjustified and harmful. Coz that's what people do during their time off, right?
Instead of moving on to the next project like I always do, I'm trying something different and terrifying: staying put. In this vulnerable episode, I explore my lifelong pattern of pivoting when things get uncomfortable, the childhood trauma that drives my need to...
Fat People Are Being Denied Surgery for Money (Say It Isn't So!)
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 A third of NHS areas are denying hip and knee replacements based on BMI alone—not for medical reasons, but purely to save money. In this episode, I expose how the medical establishment openly admits these discriminatory policies lack evidence while pushing profitable weight loss interventions instead. Meanwhile, actual surgeons and researchers confirm what we've known all along: this is financial discrimination masquerading as healthcare.Â
Have you been denied a knee replacement because of your BMI? Get your free, customizable template here.Â
The Newspaper article by Rebecca Thomas is "Obe...
Coming Out As Fat with Ross Anderson-Doherty
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Coming out as fat is harder than coming out as transgender, at least in our experience. When performer and cabaret artist Ross Anderson-Doherty refused to pursue weight loss as medical treatment, their healthcare became a weapon of punishment rather than care. In this raw conversation, we explore how medical fatphobia intersects with transphobia, classism, and ableism to create devastating trauma that nearly destroyed one person's will to live. Ross's journey from medical neglect to triumphant revenge reveals the urgent need to recognize healthcare discrimination as the trauma it truly is.Â
 You ca...
Cameron's Story
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Medical weight stigma creates dangerous catch-22 situations for patients seeking care. In this episode, I share Cameron's story of developing gallstones after weight loss surgery, only to be denied treatment because their BMI was "still too high."Â
In this episode, I expose how rapid weight loss can trigger gallstone formation and how medical professionals often ignore evidence-based care when treating higher weight patients. I challenge the "lose weight to get treatment" narrative while offering practical advocacy strategies for navigating a biased healthcare system.Â
Today’s journal article was Gregori, Matt...
Challenging the Economics of Fat Bodies
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The obsession with calculating the "cost of ob*sity" to society reflects our troubling tendency to commodify human life and health. In this rather ragey and explosive episode, I expose how a widely-cited figure of ÂŁ98 billion was manufactured by pharmaceutical interests to sell weight loss drugs.Â
I challenge the notion that we "owe" society a debt of health and explore how weight stigma, not weight itself, drives depression and poor health outcomes. Through a rather provocative thought experiment, I reveal the absurdity of reducing human experience to economic calculations and argue th...
How a Positive Consultation Changed Everything For Me
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 Medical trauma is more than an abstract concept—it's a physical reality that impacts millions of people daily. In this episode, I share my transformative experience at a gender identity clinic, contrasting it with previous healthcare encounters that left me hypervigilant, tense, and bracing for judgment.Â
I explore how our bodies physically store medical trauma—in our gut, our muscles, our posture, and even our skin—creating patterns that repeat with each new medical encounter. For fat people and those with other marginalized identities, this trauma compounds exponentially.Â
This episode i...
Healing Trauma with Elle Bower Johnston, Body Witch
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In this episode of The Fat Doctor Podcast, I'm joined by Elle Bower Johnston, a breathworker, rest teacher, and somatic trauma resolution practitioner who describes herself as a "body witch." Our conversation explores the intersection of trauma, embodiment, and healing beyond traditional therapy.
Elle explains trauma as "when our body-mind experiences something that it can't digest in the moment - either too much too fast, or not enough over too long." While our protective mechanisms (fight, flight, freeze, and fawn) are natural responses to threats, trauma occurs when these responses get s...
Robin's Story
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In this episode, I explore the journey of Robin, a 45-year-old art teacher navigating a high cholesterol diagnosis and the frustrating world of weight-centric healthcare. Through their story, I break down the actual science of heart disease risk factors (spoiler: weight is the least of your concerns), explain the difference between primary and secondary prevention, and reveal how the medical establishment's obsession with numbers obscures more important social determinants of health. I also dissect the evidence (or lack thereof) for dietary and lifestyle interventions, highlighting how medication decisions should be based on informed...
My Health Does Not Define My Worth
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Our worth as human beings is not determined by our health status. In this powerful episode, I challenge the pervasive narrative that ties personal value to health metrics and physical ability. I explore how healthism is deeply rooted in capitalism, racism, ableism, and colonialism, creating harmful hierarchies even within marginalized communities.
Drawing from my own personal experience with chronic illness and analyzing problematic media representations of 'fat but fit' bodies, I make the case that every person is equally valuable, regardless of their health or ability to contribute through productivity.
<...The Lose Weight or Die Narrative
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 Medical moralism has transformed heart health from a medical issue into a moral judgment. When we label cholesterol as "good" or "bad" and patients as "compliant" or "non-compliant," we're not practicing medicine - we're passing judgment.Â
In this episode, I expose how the "lose weight or die" narrative serves financial interests while ignoring the real social determinants of health. I ask whether our obsession with metabolic markers has become a moral measuring stick rather than genuine care, and challenge listeners to question whether health status should ever define human worth.Â
T...
Unmasking My Autistic Self
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 We’re doing things slightly different this week (it is episode 13, after all). As a 44-year-old doctor who recently discovered I'm autistic, I'm sharing my personal journey of self-discovery for Autism Awareness Day. In yet another deeply personal episode, I walk through the signs I missed in myself while recognizing them in my kids, how I've been masking my whole life, and why I'm now embracing a more authentic way of living and working.Â
I also explain why I'm done trying to build a business the neurotypical way and how...
More Than Just Carrots with Dr Molly Moffat
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 In this episode, Dr. Asher Larmie speaks with fellow weight inclusive GP Dr. Molly Moffat about creating safe feeding environments for neurodivergent children that goes beyond conventional nutrition rules. They explore how diet culture and neurotypical expectations harm autistic individuals, while sharing personal stories of parenting neurodivergent children and navigating healthcare as autistic doctors themselves. Dr. Moffat offers transformative insights on helping children develop healthy relationships with food by prioritizing emotional safety over nutritional perfectionism.Â
Molly works as an NHS GP and Doctor in Community Paediatrics, as we...
Charlie's Story
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 In this episode, I dive into Charlie's story, who develops Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (IIH) in their early thrities. Charlie's journey reveals the terrible reality of weight stigma in healthcare - from delayed diagnosis to being blamed for their condition, and ultimately being prescribed weight loss instead of effective treatment. I also get pretty fired up discussing how the medical establishment continues to prescribe weight loss for IIH based on a single terrible study with just 25 participants who were essentially starved on 425 calories a day!Â
 If you'd like to learn more about IIH...
Stop Blaming the Patient! (Why Healthcare Needs More Compassion And Less Judgment)
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 In this episode, I tackle the simple but revolutionary idea that if we can't control our health (and we can't), then we shouldn't be blamed for it! When healthcare professionals blame patients, patients stop trusting us and start avoiding care. That's dangerous! This week I offer some straight-talking advice for both doctors (ask better questions!) and patients (call out the blame when you feel it!). Let's take the shame out of healthcare and remember that illness isn't a personal failure and when all else fails, chose compassion over judgment, folks. Every time.Â
...
World Ob*sity Day: Selling Solutions to Problems We Invented
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CW for the o-wordÂ
In this rather passionate episode of The Fat Doctor Podcast, I take on World Obsity Day and use this farce to challenge the very foundation of weight-centric healthcare. We take a look at how organizations like the World Obsity Federation medicalize and pathologize fatness while claiming to fight weight stigma, exposing the contradictions and financial interests behind these narratives.Â
Key moments:
Why ob*sity is not a disease but a descriptor (fat) that has been unnecessarily and intentionally medicalizedHow weight stigma and we...Rice, Beans, and Resistance with Dra. MĂłnica Peralta
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In this explosive episode, Dr. Asher Larmie speaks with Dra. MĂłnica Peralta, a physician from Nicaragua specializing in diabetes, intuitive eating, and Body Trust. Together they explore weight stigma in healthcare across cultures, focusing on the unique challenges faced in Latin America. Dra. Monica shares her journey from promoting weight loss to becoming a weight-inclusive practitioner, offering a candid critique of how diabetes care is too often reduced to weight management. Their conversation tackles the harmful impacts of GLP-1 medications being repurposed for weight loss, the deeply problematic concept of World Ob*s...
Harper's Story
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Through Harper's journey from dismissive doctors to eventual fibromyalgia diagnosis, I explore how weight stigma, medical gaslighting, and inadequate pain management create layers of trauma for patients in marginalized bodies. I break down the science of fibromyalgia in accessible terms and explain how the nervous system's "volume control" for pain gets stuck on high.Â
Key moments:
Medical Trauma Discussion (20:52) - An examination of how repeated negative healthcare experiences create lasting trauma (the bag of sh*t)Understanding Fibromyalgia (25:59): Explanation of fibromyalgia which affects 5% of t...From Body Control to Body Trust
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You can't control your health any more than you can control the weather. In this episode, I explore how holding individuals responsibe for their health is a relatively recent phenomenon tied to capitalism and neoliberalism, contrasting it with historical perspectives where health was viewed as a collective responsibility. I talk about the benefits of moving from body control to body trust, while addressing systemic factors affecting health and the importance of building supportive communities.Â
Key moments:
The Control Illusion [1:31]Â The Historical Perspective [11:17]Â What Actually Shapes Our Health? [15:53]Â Reframing Health as Coll...Yes, I'm Fat. Yes, I'm in Pain. No, They're Not Related.
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In this powerful episode, I examine the critical intersection of fatness, chronic pain, and medical bias. Drawing from both my professional expertise as a doctor and my personal experience with frozen shoulder, I expose how the medical system frequently fails fat patients seeking pain management – not through lack of treatment options, but through prejudice and assumptions.
Key moments:
How doctors make assumptions about fat patients in pain [6:00]The medical trauma cycle and delayed care [9:18]The three types of pain: nociceptive, neuropathic, and nociplastic [13:20]Your rights as a patient with chronic pa...Beyond Diet Culture: A Conversation with Leslie Jordan Garcia on Race, Bodies, and Liberation
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In this powerful conversation, wellness practitioner and anti-diet educator Leslie Jordan Garcia (MPH, MBA) joins me to explore the deep connections between diet culture, racism, and body liberation. From personal experiences with eating disorders to profound insights about food systems and movement, Leslie shares how her journey informed her mission to help others heal and reclaim their power. We discuss the rebranding of diet culture, the impact of racial stereotypes on healthcare, and why true wellness must include dismantling systems of oppression.
Leslie is a wellness practitioner and anti-diet educator. She...
Jay's Story
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Meet Jay, whose twenty-year health journey reflects the experience of countless Fat patients in rural communities. From an old motorcycle injury to high blood pressure, their story illustrates how weight-centric medical care can lead to years of frustrated consultations, missed diagnoses, and deteriorating health.
00:18:44 - What does weight inclusive care look like?
In this episode, I break down how weight-inclusive care changes everything - from the first examination to long-term treatment plans. I share how proper medical investigation, understanding of weight cycling, and compassionate care can transform both...
What Is Health, Really?
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Health isn’t a one-size-fits-all concept. It’s as diverse and dynamic as the people who experience it. In this episode, I challenge the narrow, static definitions of health and asks whether health is a basic human right or a privilege. A binary concept or a specturm. A journey or a destination.
If you want to explore health in more detail, don’t miss my FREE workshop, Redefining Health, available to download anytime.
Feeling exhausted by the endless "New Year, New You" hype and its narrow definition of health? Join m...
Putting Prediabetes Panic Into Perspective
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In this episode, I uncover the truths about prediabetes - what it is, what it isn’t, and why you’ve been misled. Meet Joy, a mother navigating the weight stigma tied to her diagnosis, and stick around for the debut of my new segment: "Everything You’ve Been Told About Weight Loss Is a Lie."
Learn more about my masterclass *“Prediabetes Isn’t A Real Medical Condition” or sign up right now.* Alternatively, check out my blog post “Prediabetes: A Lesson In PR”. https://www.fatdoctor.co.uk/2023/03/19/prediabetes-a-lesson-in-pr/
Today’s articl...
Season 4 Finale
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 In the final episode of season 4, Asher recounts his personal growth over the past year and has a message for 2025. WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED. Season 5 launches on Wednesday the 15th January.Â
Got a question for the next podcast? Let me know!
Connect With Me
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER: Get a free script when you sign up THE WEIGHTING ROOM: A community where authenticity thrives and every voice matters The CONSULTING ROOM: Get answers to all your medical questions via DM or Vo...Raven's Story
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Raven's story is one that I imagine many of us are intimately familiar with. Raven is a 34 year old graphic designer, A plus student and all round badass who has been trying to shrink their body their entire life. This episode is just in time for the holiday season and the run up to the January New Year, New You nonsense that we know is coming. It's the penultimate episode of season 4.Â
Got a question for the next podcast? Let me know!
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