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Kaia Findlay

Lead Producer, "Embodied"

Kaia Findlay is the lead producer for Embodied, WUNC's radio show and podcast on sex, relationships and health.

Her first exploration of radio came in elementary school, when she usually fell asleep listening to recordings of 1950s radio comedy programs. After a semester of writing for her high school newspaper, she decided she hated journalism. While pursuing her bachelor’s in environmental studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, she got talked back into it. Kaia received a master’s degree from the UNC Hussman School of Journalism, where she focused on reporting and science communication. She has published stories with Our State Magazine, Indy Week, and HuffPost. She previously worked as the manager for a podcast on environmental sustainability and higher education.

When not working at WUNC, Kaia goes rock climbing, takes long bike rides, and reads lots of books.

 

  • An illustration of a woman standing on a yoga mat, balancing on one foot and waving her arms around as if she is off balance and about to fall. Around her are different wellness trends in boxes: a CBD drink with a thought cloud of a person mediating coming out of the can opening, several prescriptions and supplements, a symbol for a heart rate monitoring app, a mortar and pestle and fresh fruits and vegetables. The word "Commodified" is in the lower lefthand corner of the illustration.
    Commodified: When 'Wellness' Makes Us Unwell (Revisited)
    Kaia Findlay
    Anita has fallen down her fair share of wellness rabbit holes [including a certain alliterative family's beauty and shapewear brands...]. Wellness industry insider and journalist Rina Raphael shares how this $4 trillion industry misleads all of us, and 'Dope Black Social Worker' Kim Young gives us the wellness reframes we all need.
  • An illustration of a South Asian woman with long brown hair and an off-the-shoulder gray-green top. She is looking off into the distance, and behind her is a mosaic patterned background. The shards of mosaic are colored white, green and red, with a red and white cross hatched background in between the shards. Text in the lower right reads: Complicated.
    Complicated: Healing from Complex PTSD
    Paige Miranda
    What happens when trauma occurs not as a single isolated event, but millions of smaller, ongoing incidents? Guest host Anisa Khalifa talks with an artist, psychotherapist and racial trauma expert about understanding complex post-traumatic stress disorder and the path to healing.
  • An illustration of a young boy with short brown hair, a green shirt and gray pants who sits with his arms held around his knees. He’s smiling and looking out of the illustration. Around his head are six symbols - from left to right, the flag of Thailand, an ice cream sundae, the flag of the Philippines, a hamburger, the flag of the U.S., and a passport with plane tickets. The background is made of up rays of yellow, red and purple hues. Text at the top of the illustration reads: Traveled.
    Traveled: The Lives Of Third Culture Kids
    Paige Miranda
    As a child of two immigrants, Anita has a tumultuous relationship with the question: "Where are you from?" So, too, do many third culture kids — people who spend a significant number of their developmental years living in places that are not their parents' homelands. She talks with two third culture kids — one 35 and one 12 — and their moms about growing up between cultures and how they’ve built identity and relationships along the way.
  • A person with shoulder length salt-and-pepper hair wearing a purple headset sits at a cluttered desk. Just the back of their head is visible above their desk chair, which has a purple sweatshirt draped over it. On the desk are three monitors, and various purple-hued knick knacks and notebooks. On the wall are a purple poster and purple calendar with the outlines of human characters on them. The desk and wall items are intended to be paraphernalia from the same fandom.
    Here’s what fandoms can teach us about community and identity
    Kaia Findlay
    Fandoms have got a lot of media attention for their toxicity. But there’s a big flip side — one that describes the mental health and community benefits of being a fan.
  • A person with shoulder length salt-and-pepper hair wearing a purple headset sits at a cluttered desk. Just the back of their head is visible above their desk chair, which has a purple sweatshirt draped over it. On the desk are three monitors, and various purple-hued knick knacks and notebooks. On the wall are a purple poster and purple calendar with the outlines of human characters on them. The desk and wall items are intended to be paraphernalia from the same fandom. Text in the bottom left reads:” Adored.”
    Adored: How Fandoms Build Community
    Kaia Findlay
    Guest host Anisa Khalifa first became a fan in high school. She gets an explanation from a psychologist about how being in fandoms benefits mental health, and a journalist describes what role the internet has played in shaping fan culture. Plus, Anisa invites the co-hosts of her K-drama podcast to reflect on how fandom brought them together — and what it means to be a fan.
  • A woman with brown skin wearing makeup and a black lacy bra is lying in a bathtub with flowers in her hair.
    Celebrating self-love and sexiness in intimate photography
    Kaia Findlay
    Intimate photography is more than just portraits of a nude or semi-nude body. Intimacy, eroticism and empowerment show up in this art form — in ways as unique as the subject.
  • Illustration of a femme-presenting person posing in nature seen through a reflection of a camera lens. The person, who has shoulder-length dreads and medium-tone skin, is wearing lipstick, a tie crop top, arm warmers and high-waisted bottoms. Behind the lens is a close-up view of the upper right-hand portion of the photographer's face and their fingers holding the shutter of the camera. In the bottom left corner of the illustration there is the text "Posed."
    Posed: Intimate Photography Goes Beyond Nudes (Revisited)
    Kaia Findlay
    Anita hasn't always loved getting her photo taken, but seeing herself through the artistic eye of a close friend and photographer has changed her perspective. She meets two intimate photographers who take her behind the scenes of their shoots and share their philosophies on capturing the erotic in an image. Plus, she talks with a model about her intimate work that explores disability and sexuality.
  • An illustration of a masculine-presenting, brown-skinned person with short brown hair, wearing a purple hoodie, sitting at a desk. He is using a laptop. On his right are a stack of books, and a vining plant. Several hallucinated figures surround him.
    ‘Integrating the stuff that scares you’: life with schizophrenia
    Kaia Findlay
    The range of diagnoses that make up schizophrenia spectrum disorders are hard to define and tricky to diagnose. An author, an artist and a blogger tell their own stories about experiencing schizophrenia.
  • An illustration of a masculine-presenting, brown-skinned person with short brown hair, wearing a purple hoodie, sitting at a desk. He is using a laptop. On his right are a stack of books, and a vining plant. Several hallucinated figures surround him.
    Seen: Living With The Schizophrenias
    Kaia Findlay
    When Anita first picked up “The Collected Schizophrenias" by Esmé Weijun Wang, she realized how rare it was to find a first-hand account of someone navigating periods of psychosis. She brings Esmé on to talk about the relationship between mental illness and identity. Plus, she meets an artist who explores his hallucinations through drawing and a blogger documenting her experience as a mother with schizoaffective disorder.
  • An illustration featuring four people who are participating in the BDSM lifestyle. The person on the very left has light brown skin and a brown afro and is wearing a fishnet top with long sleeves over a purple tank top. They have leather straps around the upper half of their body and are wearing a leather cuff around their neck with a leash attached. Next to them is a person with darker brown skin with a larger black afro, wearing sunglasses and a fishnet tank top over a purple bra, with leather straps and chains on it. They're smiling and wearing a leather cuff necklace. On the right is a person wearing a leather mask that covers all of their face except for their eyes with pointy ears on top. They're wearing a black tank top and a leather collar around their neck with a leash attached. In the background is a masculine-presenting person wearing a black driving cap and sunglasses with some leather straps on the upper half of their body.
    What BDSM Can Teach Us About Community, Safety and Consent
    Kaia Findlay
    It’s time to put down “Fifty Shades of Grey” … and learn about BDSM that’s rooted in community, healing and self-exploration.
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