Your Body, Your Brand
17 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 4 years ago - ★★★★★ - 54 ratingsWomen are dropping out.
They’re dropping out of the workplace to become yoga teachers. Leaving behind careers to sell essential oils and fitness programs. Opting out of STEM to focus on their Paleo diet cookbook.
And even when they stay in, they’re spending their lunch hours talking about their latest diet, getting up from their desks to do burpees or add a few more steps to their FitBit, waking up early or staying out late to beat their bodies into submission at hot yoga or Crossfit. They’re giving the money they earn to the women who have dropped out.
We're making dangerous investments.
We’re bought into the idea that health and fitness is where the money is, and if we could just spend or make a few more dollars and hit the next PR, all of our problems will be solved, we’ll improve our relationships, and finally stop hating our bodies. But though the Internet seems bullish on optimizing your health, no one ever talks about the real reason we’re feeling so bad in the skin we’re in: money.
And it’s time that we had a conversation about it. In our increasingly branded and visual online world, we need to talk about how capital —both social and financial — affects the ways in which we hold onto damaging beliefs about our body image, fitness, and nutrition.
And getting rewarded for disorder.
The things we invest in often control us. This podcast isn't about eating disorders, though it does touch on how we're buying and selling disordered eating, fitness, and body image. But really, it's about the pervasiveness of brand, the difficulty of selling something authentically, and the sad fact that it's easier to sell something you can control (your body) than trying to control corporate America.
This podcast will introduce you to marketing psychology and behavioral economics and tell the story of how we gave up our sense of embodiment, empowerment, and participation in the workforce in exchange for a few “likes” and the veneer of a “healthy” personal brand.
The Your Body, Your Brand podcast brings experts in sales, marketing, branding, feminism, and coaching into conversation with coaches, entrepreneurs, and diet consumers to ask:
Visit the website to read show notes, meet the guests, and learn more about each episode: bodybrandpod.com.
Support the podcast and receive exclusive extended audio interviews through our Patreon-only podcast feed: patreon.com/bodybrandpod.
Reach Kaila Tova at [email protected]
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/bodybrandpod.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Episodes
Epilogue
December 02, 2019 12:00 - 1 hour - 111 MBIn our prologue, we met Jennifer Saminathen on the eve of yoga teacher training. What became of her? In this episode, we find out Jennifer’s next steps — and also hear from two previous guests about their decision to leave wellness entrepreneurship behind. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/bodybrandpod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Health is Wealth
November 18, 2019 12:00 - 1 hour - 124 MBBuckle up, because we’ve reached the final episode of the podcast wherein we ask: what does it mean to do helping work in the context of a capitalist society? Wellness entrepreneurship seems to promise to make health into wealth — but what about the other helping professions? In this episode we look at David Graeber’s theory of Bullshit Jobs,* David Geary and Gijsbert Stoet’s study on the gender equality paradox, and continue our discussion on neoliberalism’s influence on wellness professi...
Accountability
November 11, 2019 12:00 - 55 minutes - 44.8 MBWhen we start a diet or a fitness program, we often ask others to hold us accountable. When we launch a brand or start a business, we often feel accountable to our audience and customers. What does all of that accountability mean, when we consider it in a neoliberal framework? In this episode, we look at economies of visibility and ask what whether becoming consumable objects via brand images is as feminist as we think it is. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/bodybrandpod. Ho...
The Future is (Neoliberal) Female
November 04, 2019 12:00 - 46 minutes - 37.5 MBIf you’re listening to this podcast, you’ve probably heard the word “neoliberalism” before. Most of us only have a vague concept of what that means — I certainly did when I started this project. But to understand wellness entrepreneurship, we need to understand neoliberal economics — and neoliberal feminism — and how it shapes our ideas about who we are and how we’re meant to function in the world. In this episode, we dive deep into the economic foundation of “self-worth” and discover how t...
What Men Feel All the Time
October 28, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 53.9 MBWhat drives women into multilevel marketing is the same thing that drives women into wellness entrepreneurship writ large. While MLM has codified a certain business model, wellness entrepreneurship requires the same level of commitment, often for the same slim chance at payoff. Yet the women who remain optimistic about this business model must have a reason. And that reason is: to feel what men feel all the time. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/bodybrandpod. Hosted on Acast....
Interlude
October 26, 2019 11:00 - 5 minutes - 7.48 MBA brief word to add some context, and ensure that the audience is aware that 1) being a guest on this podcast doesn't imply endorsement of the context I've added around the pieces of the interviews I've chosen to include, 2) this is cultural criticism and not investigative journalism, which means that I'm using narrative to contextualize something bigger in our culture, not implicate specific participants, and 3) this podcast is meant to raise awareness about an issue, not prescribe action o...
The Pyramid-Shaped Elephant in the Room
October 21, 2019 11:00 - 59 minutes - 47.7 MBWhen we talk about wellness entrepreneurship, it’s hard to ignore the pyramid-shaped elephant in the room: multilevel marketing. MLM or network marketing gets plenty of time in the media, but instead of just talking about why the actual system is good or bad, we’re going to ask: why do women join them in the first place? I approached these interviews from a place of curiosity instead of condemnation, and they revealed some pretty interesting stories. I encourage you to listen to these inter...
Publish or Perish
October 14, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 60.9 MBWhen professional brand takes over personal life, performing your branded self can feel like a life-or-death proposition. In this episode, we continue our look at the pitfalls of engaging in what Brooke Erin Duffy calls “aspirational labor,” and we examine the factors that keep us trapped in a performance of success, even when it leads to failure. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/bodybrandpod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A Cage with the Bars Labeled "Freedom"
October 07, 2019 11:00 - 55 minutes - 44.2 MBNot every health coaching program starts or ends with an eating disorder — but that doesn’t mean that most forays into wellness entrepreneurship leads to fame, fortune, and a cookbook deal. In this episode, we’ll look at how, branding becomes a performance and, as Pace Smith puts it, a “cage with the bars labeled freedom.” Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/bodybrandpod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Diets, Dogma, and Dollars
September 30, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 56.2 MBAre you religious about your workouts? A fanatic about nutrition? Do you consider yourself a clean eater or try to stay “good" about your fitness? While it’s funny to joke about Crossfit or veganism being a “cult,” have you ever stopped to really consider the intersections of religion and food? And what happens when your religious fervor gets tied up with your income stream? In this episode, we’ll look at the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, the spread of orthorexia (the “clean eating diso...
Dangerous Investments
September 23, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 82.4 MBNo one wants to consider sunk cost, whether financial or otherwise. Losing capital in a capitalist society is a sign that you’ve failed — and especially in America’s culture of the self-made man, failure is just something that we don’t tolerate. We’re not failing at breaking the glass ceiling, we’re succeeding at harnessing alternative income streams. We’re not failing at body positivity or fat acceptance or self-love, we’re just works in progress, trying to push until we don’t have anything...
To Sell Ourselves is Female
September 16, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 60.6 MBWhat, exactly, is a brand, and why are we all trying to become one? While bestselling author Daniel Pink says that “to sell is human,” exactly what is it that women are selling? In today’s episode, we examine why even feminist women end up objectifying themselves in the pursuit of the almighty dollar. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/bodybrandpod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Pipeline Problems
September 09, 2019 11:00 - 44 minutes - 35.5 MBWomen are dropping out. Maybe that woman is you. Maybe it's someone you know. Maybe it's someone you follow online. They say there's a serious leak in the corporate pipeline, or maybe it’s the lack of female representation in STEM roles. If you've ever felt like your nose was pressed up against the glass ceiling or like you had to be more "masculine" in order to make it at work, then you'll understand why women are choosing to no longer either give up and work for less money and recognitio...
The Ouroboros
September 02, 2019 12:28 - 1 hour - 49 MBDo you know where you first got the idea that thinner, leaner, more or less muscular was better? Do you know why you keep reading articles that tell you that your beliefs are true? How about why magazines don't publish more plus size women or why diet companies keep raking in millions despite studies that show that representation can change the way you think about body image and diets don't work? In this episode of the Your Body, Your Brand podcast, we'll discuss how representation of bodi...
Prologue
September 02, 2019 12:23 - 41 minutes - 56.7 MBIt starts with a toxic workplace and ends in a yoga studio. Jennifer Saminathen, a smart, driven, and vibrant woman, has an MBA and a promising career in Silicon Valley. So why does she want to leave it all to become a yoga teacher? Before we dive into the whys and wherefores wellness entrepreneurship, we’ll hear a case study on dropping out, on the eve of Jennifer’s first yoga teacher training class. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/bodybrandpod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.c...
Introduction
September 02, 2019 12:10 - 17 minutes - 24.4 MBAn introduction to the ethos and story behind the Your Body, Your Brand podcast. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/bodybrandpod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Trailer
August 09, 2019 15:53 - 3 minutes - 4.73 MBThe Your Body, Your Brand podcast launches on September 2. Hear some of the voices you'll listen to beginning on Labor Day! Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/bodybrandpod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.