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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)

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 cracked mirror. A different version of one person's face is in each section of the cracked mirror. The upper-left face has a beard and eyes with eyeliner on the top lid. The face to the right of that features a handlebar mustache with the ends curled up, a nose stud, multiple earrings and eyes donned with eyeshadow and a cat-eye in eye liner. The face on the righthand side of the mirror features a full beard and no makeup. Only the eyes of the face on the bottom of the mirror are visible, and they are lined with eyeliner and feature eyeshadow. The word "Reconstructed" appears along one of the mirror cracks.

Reconstructed: Building New Definitions Of Masculinity

Fifteen years ago Anita took Women's Studies 101 on a whim … and to this day, she still doesn't have an answer to the question: what is masculinity? In further pursuit of some clarity, she talks with a trans man and a non-binary person about what's possible when we take a more gender-fluid approach to manhood. The two share where their own beliefs about gender come from and how they're building a more expansive definition of masculinity in their own lives.

An illustration featuring a masculine-appearing person with their head in their hands. They're wearing a gray hoodie and have red squiggly lines branching out and up from their upper body. To the left is a thought bubble with a heart with a question mark in it. To the right is a thought bubble with two praying hands in it. In the bottom righthand corner of the illustration is a thought bubble with a bottle of poison tipped over, a match and a house on fire. In the bottom lefthand corner of the illustration is the word "Obsessed."

Obsessed: Breaking The OCD Cycle

Anita is no stranger to anxiety, but her spirals are mostly short lived. In this episode she meets folks who often get caught in loops of extreme worry and compulsions with little relief. A married couple shares how OCD put them in survival mode and a woman whose OCD symptoms began in kindergarten talks about learning how to open up about her experience in friendships and dating.

An illustration of two Black parents of either side if a young kid with cornrows. The father is on the left and the mother is on the right, and both parents are holding one hand of the child and swinging them. The child has their feet off the ground and their knees bent. The three of them are standing on a grassy field and are all wearing coats. The word "Singled" is on the left side of the illustration.

Singled: Inside The Only-Child Family

Anita has many close friends who defy all stereotypes about only children. But when it comes to thinking about having her own kids, she still can't shake some of those ingrained ideas. She hears three perspectives on single-kid families (including that of former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins) and learns why the debunked mythology around only children still lingers today.

An illustration of an office. There's a man wearing a mask sitting at a computer behind a cubicle wall looking up to a man standing with his arms on the cubicle wall. The man who is standing is smiling and talking to the man behind the desk, who also appears to be smiling under his mask. The word "Co-Worked" is in the upper-left corner.

Co-Worked: The Good, Bad & Ambivalent Of The Office Bestie

Anita wouldn't have made it through her 20s without her work friends. But now that she's a manager and working in a hybrid office, she's noticed that work friendships don't come as easily as they used to. A psychologist answers her burning workplace relationship questions and dives into the surprising amount of data about work besties. Plus, a Gen Z writer urges her to re-think the importance of work as a primary social hub.

An illustration of a Black parent on their knees with a calm face looking into the eyes of their Black child, who looks angry. The parent has locs in ponytail and is wearing glasses. It looks like they are talking to the child calmly. The child also has locs. They are standing outside of a building. The word “Intentioned” is in the upper lefthand corner.

Intentioned: Parenting Ourselves And Our Kids

Guest host Omisade Burney-Scott is well aware that gentle parenting is a divisive concept. So she's gets into it! Omi talks with two other Black mothers about their definitions of gentle parenting and how it can break cycles of generational trauma. Then her older son shares how he has seen her parenting evolve over the past three decades.

Plucked: The Calm And Chaos Of A Hair-Pulling Disorder (Revisited)

Anita agrees to a suggestion posed by a listener: Explore why the hair-pulling disorder trichotillomania is so taboo. She talks with an artist who started pulling their hair more than two decades ago but only recently told her parents…after publishing part of their story in a national news outlet. A psychologist on the front-lines of studying trich treatment talks about the importance of acceptance; and a hairstylist with trich takes us into why her salon is a safe haven for other folks with hair loss.

Slayed: Gender Performance Beyond The Binary

After not seeing a drag show for the first 30 years of her life, Anita now dives in. She explores the history and evolution of the artform with a drag scholar-turned-performer; meets a non-binary drag 'thing' pushing boundaries through performance; and talks with a Durham-based drag artist who speaks out against anti-drag violence.

An illustration featuring many different faces: a young girl with dark skin and braids in her hair, a young boy with blond hair, a teen girl with brown hair and green eyes, a brown dog, a young Black man and an older white woman. These faces are scattered across the illustration, mixed with holly, snowflakes, leaves, acorns, speech bubbles and twigs. The word "Navigated" is in the upper righthand corner.

Navigated: The Rao Sisters On Holiday Conversations

Anita has a lot of practice talking about taboo topics with strangers. But when it comes to having these conversations in her own family, especially around the holidays, she gets squirmy like the rest of us. She invites her older sister Priyanka onto the podcast to reflect on tricky — but often inevitable — conversations with family members. Priyanka, a mom and pediatrician, talks about her ongoing journey to broach difficult subjects that come up a lot this time of year: loss, family dynamics and parenting boundaries.

Plucked: The Calm And Chaos Of A Hair-Pulling Disorder

Anita agrees to a suggestion posed by a listener: Explore why the hair-pulling disorder trichotillomania is so taboo. She talks with an artist who started pulling their hair more than two decades ago but only recently told her parents…after publishing part of their story in a national news outlet. A psychologist on the front-lines of studying trich treatment talks about the importance of acceptance; and a hairstylist with trich takes us into why her salon is a safe haven for other folks with hair loss.

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