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The logo for Embodied, which features a person with brown skin wearing yellow pants, a white shirt and white glasses pulling back a starry curtain of the silhouette of a person that is roughly twice as large as the person in yellow pants. The word "Embodied" is at the top with the WUNC logo directly underneath it and the PRX logo in the bottom righthand corner of the illustration. All of the text is in white, and the background of the illustration is light blue.
Embodied
Fridays at 1 p.m., Saturdays at 6 a.m., Mondays at 9 p.m. | Also available as a podcast
Hosted by Anita Rao

Sex and relationships are intimate — and sometimes intimidating to talk about. In this award-winning show, host Anita Rao guides us on an exploration of our brains and bodies that touches down in taboo territory.

Stay Connected

Want to get in touch with us? Send us an e-mail: embodied@wunc.org or leave us a message on Speakpipe.

Ways To Subscribe

Embodied is distributed nationally by PRX. If you are interested in airing this program on your station, contact PRX Station Services for more information: station-services@prx.org.

WHERE YOU CAN LISTEN TO EMBODIED

    Our theme music is by Quilla (Anna Luisa Daigneault).

    Embodied won an Ambie Award in March 2024 for Best Wellness & Relationships Podcast! In 2024 it also took home first and second place awards from the Public Media Journalists Association. In 2020, Mashable named us as one of the best sex, erotica, dating and relationship podcasts. Embodied has won three Edward R. Murrow Regional Awards for best podcast and four National Headliner Awards for Best Information Podcast. In the summer of 2022, NPR's Codeswitch featured us on their Summer Road Trip Playlist! Read Anita's piece on the origin story of the Embodied series in The Huffington Post!

    Latest Episodes
    • Illustrated promotional image for "Embodied" podcast showing a peaceful rural scene. A person in a yellow sweater sits on a wooden porch with a large white dog lying beside them, overlooking rolling green hills and trees. The "Embodied" logo appears in large brown letters at the top.
      Building A Queer Life In The Country
      Kaia Findlay
      Up to 20% of the LGBTQ+ population in the U.S. lives in rural America. That’s millions of people defying the narrative that the only place queer folks want to live is in a city or on the coast. One rural queer person set out to interrogate that false narrative by documenting the stories of other queer folks in the country.
    • An illustration of two young men standing close together against a dreamy background of soft purple sky and fluffy white clouds. The man on the left wears a captain’s hat, sunglasses, a black T-shirt with a blue mountain graphic and blue shorts; he has a mustache and his arm around the other man's shoulder. The man on the right has long hair, wears a backward black cap and a light blue tank top and has his arm around the first man's waist. Above them, in bold dark blue letters, is the word “Embodied.”
      Two Brothers, One Uncertain Future
      Audrey Smith
      Two brothers diagnosed with a genetic mutation that almost certainly causes dementia share how they’re building their lives while preparing for symptoms of the disease, which are likely to start in their late 30s or early 40s.
    • An illustration looking into a room from the perspective of the doorway. In the room, there’s an older interracial couple cuddling affectionately in bed, both smiling and content. The room is softly decorated with pastel tones and wall art. In the foreground, a “PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB” door hanger is prominently displayed on the door handle. The hanger includes the logo for “Golden Acres Assisted Living.” The word “Embodied” appears at the top.
      Why We Need To Talk About Sex In Nursing Homes
      Kaia Findlay
      Research shows that older adults want and need sexual intimacy well into their later years. But when they move out of their homes and into long-term care communities, they have a lot less privacy and autonomy to seek it out.
    • An illustration featuring a masculine-appearing parent reading a book to a toddler. The parent has short dark hair and is wearing a blue long-sleeved shirt and darker blue pants. He is sitting on a couch and has the book "Bodies Are Cool" open in his hands. To his left is the toddler, who has dark hair in two pigtails and is wearing a long-sleeved pink shirt, blue pants and pink socks. The toddler is standing on the couch next to the parent and holding up her shirt and touching her belly. On the couch next to her is the book "Laxmi's Mooch." There is a bookshelf in the background. The word "Embodied" is at the top of the illustration.
      What Kids' Books Teach Us About Our Bodies
      Kaia Findlay
      A new crop of children’s book authors are trying to help kids develop curiosity about their physical bodies. But how exactly do they turn fraught body politics into compelling children's stories?
    • An illustration of a pregnant person with dark skin and shoulder-length hair, standing with hands on their lower back, looking at a swirling, surreal background. The background includes elements of land, sea, sky and space, representing various natural forces: ocean waves and rain on the left, fire and stars on the right. The person appears contemplative or burdened. At the top, the word "Embodied" is written in bold red-orange letters.
      Climate Anxiety And The Choice To Parent
      Kaia Findlay
      A scholar examining the intersection of climate anxiety, reproductive justice and race shares her research on how emotions about climate change are impacting folks’ plans to have kids.
    • A colorful illustration with a bright purple background and flowing ribbon-like shapes in pink, teal, and coral. At the center, a black silhouette of a woman with a ponytail is lifting a light blue silhouette of a baby into the air. Above them, bold green text with a white outline reads “Embodied.”
      A New Playbook For Raising Boys
      Kaia Findlay
      One writer's concerns about raising her three sons in the post-Me Too landscape led her on a journey to learn more about challenges boys and young men face in the U.S. — and how to parent better.
    • Illustration of two people embracing. A masculine-presenting person with medium-tone skin and dark brown hair is hugging from behind a femme-presenting person with light-tone skin and shoulder-length brown hair. The femme person in front has her head tilted back, laughing, while the masc-presenting person is nuzzled into her head.
      Balanced: Love & Bipolar Disorder
      Kaia Findlay
      When you’re living with a stigmatized mental illness like bipolar disorder, opening up to romantic partners can be tough. A married couple and a single woman share their stories.
    • An illustration featuring the silhouettes of two people facing each other. The silhouette on the left is masculine-presenting, and inside the silhouette is a bird's-eye-view of a house with a sign in front of it, two stacks of large coins in front of hte house, and a document that says "Divorce Decree" at the top woth hands and a pen hovering over the document. The silhouette on the right is feminine-presenting, and drawn inside the silhouette is a big dollar sign, a front view of the same house in the other silhouette with a "SOLD" sign in front of it. The word "Embodied" is at the top of the illustration.
      Life After A Gray Divorce
      Kaia Findlay
      In the past 30 years, the divorce rate for Americans over 55 has doubled. After a decades-long marriage, serving the papers is just one small act before what comes next.
    • An illustration of three men walking together, viewed from behind. The man in the center wears a red shirt and navy pants, with his arms around the shoulders of the two men on either side. The men on the left and right are partially transparent, dissolving into abstract colorful dots. The word "Embodied" appears in bold blue letters at the top against a soft sky background.
      Beyond Bromance: Building Deeper Male Friendship
      Audrey Smith
      What’s the deal with male friendship? A podcaster describes the particular features and challenges of friendships among men, including how his research into masculinity has changed how he’s thinking about his own relationships.
    • An illustration featuring the word "Embodied" in bold teal letters at the top. Below it, two overlapping human silhouettes face the same direction — one in black and the other in white — both within a single outline. Black directional lines swirl around and through the heads.
      A Doctor’s Intuition Lost And Found
      Kaia Findlay
      Two doctors describe the role of intuition in medical decision-making as a case study into the mysterious power of this unquantifiable form of knowledge.