After a lot of thought and with a heavy heart, the podcast chapter of the Full Bloom Project is coming to an end. I have learned so much through the creation of the podcast and from our guests and I hope that you have as well. Thank you all for supporting us in the search for a more inclusive next generation. This is not the end of the Full Bloom Project and we hope that you stay in touch with us as we embark on the next chapter. Please consider supporting us on Patreon,...

There is no health without mental health, and yet we don’t often think to take our kids (or ourselves!) for mental health check-ups. Pediatric mental health struggles are often overlooked, misunderstood, and stigmatized, but Dr. Helen Eggers is changing that with a new Teletherapy platform for kids and families.  Read the full show notes for this episode here.

Dedicated body-positive affinity spaces for youth are hard to come by, but we can and should change that. Hillary Kinavey and Dana Sturtevant of Be Nourished join for a conversation about how to apply their Body Trust model to heal ourselves and build a body-compassionate and weight-inclusive world for our children. Read the full show notes for this episode here.

Body-positive adolescent medicine physician, Shelly Aggarwal, joins for a conversation about the nuances of weight-inclusive healthcare during the tween and teen years.   Read the full show notes for this episode here.

We've talked about the well-meaning, yet potentially harmful messages kids hear about food, nutrition, and health in schools...but can we offer more than complaints and concerns? If we're lucky enough to have (or be!) teachers and school administrators who are receptive to making changes, where can we send them for practical, impactful guidance? One place is @Dietitians4teachers, the instagram account run by registered dietitian, Gwen Kostal. Tune in for tons of actionable strategies,...

Have you ever wondered how your unconscious bias works? Or how we can move away from a culture infected by stigma and towards one dominated by genuine inclusion? Jessica Nordell, author of the book The End of Bias: A Beginning: The Science and Practice of Overcoming Unconscious Bias, is here to offer practical, science based, guidance to help us make meaningful change...and help others do the same. Read the full show notes for this episode here.

Weight-based bullying is brutal and, unfortunately,  pretty common. Despite our best body-positive efforts to protect our kids, young victims still sustain emotional and psychological wounds that can have traumatic, life-long effects. But… there’s hope. New treatment to help bullied youth has emerged and Dr. Janet Lydecker, of Yale’s Teen POWER program, joins for a conversation about the path towards healing…and how parents can help.  Read the full show notes for this episode here.

In honor of eating disorders awareness week 2022 we are re-posting this crash course in everything you need to know to support you in early detection and intervention! 

Organized children are not born, they are raised. That is the philosophy of this week’s guest, developmental pediatrician, Dr. Damon Korb. This week we get a crash course in executive function, otherwise known as those critical skills that help us plan, focus, and juggle all of our tasks, goals, and impulses. Dr. Korb shares 5 principles to help us nurture this critical aspect of development in children of all ages, neurotypical and neurodivergent alike. Read the full show notes for this...

This week Dani Lebovitz, of Kid Food Explorers, returns for a real time demonstration of how to build food acceptance skills, featuring two very special guests: Zoë’s kids! In this very practical episode, Dani leads Noah (6) and Leo Bisbing (7.5) on a food exploration adventure, using their 5 senses... in search of delicious!  Read the full show notes for this episode here.

As a parent, it is so hard to understand how to feed our kids. Mealtimes can be frustrating! We want to take away morality in foods, but we still want them to eat their veggies. This is where pediatric registered dietitian Dani Levowitz comes in to teach us to be food explorers. In this episode, we talk about how to turn everyday frustrations and anxieties into opportunities for learning and excitement. Through play, we begin our search for delicious and help our kids build confidence and...

Do you ever feel like intellectually you connect with concepts of intuitive eating, anti-diet culture, and body-positivity, but when you try to put it into practice for yourself you hit a wall? Well, you’re not alone! In this week’s episode, Zoë partners with Kimmie Singh, RD to give you a taste of what bespoke body-positive support could look for YOU. Read the full show notes for this episode here.

With so much conversation about body-acceptance, fat-positivity, and health at every size are we neglecting medical conditions that are long-thought to be caused by “unhealthy lifestyles”?  More specifically, how does diabetes fit into all of this if we have a family or personal history, but want to do what we can to minimize our kids’ risk? Zoë sits down with endocrinologist Dr. Gregory Dodell for a lesson on the endocrine system, why diabetes is coated in weight stigma, the interplay of...

Are good intentions good enough when it comes to promoting body-positivity? This week Zoë talks with writer and abolitionist, Da’Shaun Harrison, for a raw conversation about the harmful implications of peddling "body-positivity”. Tune in to learn who most often gets left out of our advocacy efforts and how we can deepen our conversations with each other — and our young people — to amplify the connection between anti-fatness and anti-blackness.   Read the full show notes for this episode here.

What exactly is an eating disorder and how much do I actually need to know about them? Dr. Erin Parks, co-founder of Equip, a virtual eating disorder treatment program that helps young people recover at home, joins Zoë for a concise yet thorough “eating disorders 101”. Tune in to learn how to spot disordered behavior in your kids, how to address concerns head-on, when it’s time to consult a professional, and what effective treatment looks like.  Read the full show notes for this episode here.

Many of us understand how harmful weight stigma can be, but what can any of us actually do about it? In this week’s episode, Zoë is joined by the leader of the Body Respect movement in Iceland, Sigrún Daníelsdóttir, for a discussion about why reducing anti-fat prejudice is so darn hard and how we can use everyday activism to get a little closer to a world where everyone, of every size, can live with dignity, peace, and justice.  Read the full show notes for this episode here

“Isn’t it cool how asses come in so many different sizes?” In this episode, Dr. Rachel Milner talks to Zoë about what it means to be fat-positive. Through personal and clinical examples they discuss the protective benefits of raising fat-positive children and how to break the cycle of intergenerational weight-related trauma once and for all. Zoë and Rachel offer practical strategies to help you talk to your kids about fat-positivity in a fat-phobic society, navigate awkward moments on the...

When was the last time you dismissed yourself or someone else as “lazy”? This conversation may change the way you look at that word. Dr. Devon Price, social psychologist, activist, and author of Laziness Does Not Exist joins for a discussion about the origins and legacy of ‘the laziness lie’  and how to arm young people with the skills they need to advocate for themselves and hold on to their “good enoughness” in a culture that tells us we should always be doing more. Read the full show...

This week we’re joined by Jessica Saunders, a feminist trained developmental scientist working to promote positive developmental outcomes across the lifespan and identify ways that negative body experiences can be improved.  We discuss the effect of weight-based teasing in school and how teachers are unprepared to have these conversations with students. But who teaches the teachers? Listeners will learn about Jessica’s research on the Comprehensive School Health Approach and how we can work...

This week we’re joined by Marquisele Mercedes, a writer and doctoral student working at the intersection of public health, fat studies, and scholarship on race/ism. We discuss the need for intersectional representation in spaces challenging oppression, how racism and sizeism show up on the playground, why language policies don’t work, and much more. In this conversation encompassing both academic scholarship and lived experience, listeners will think critically about the language we use with...

In this episode from season 2, “the Toddler Whisperer” Dr. Tovah Klein shares how parents can plant seeds for a child’s lifelong success during the toddler years. She explains the “toddler paradox,” gives us insight into the toddler mind, and shares practical tips for feeding toddlers without power struggles.

What good is the knowledge that research says family meals are associated with better academic performance and lower rates of depression, eating disorders, and substance use if you’re struggling to get out of bed. And who could possibly care about how many servings of fruit and vegetables is optimal for your kid if you can’t even access fresh produce… or figure out how to use it before it rots in your fridge….or can’t figure out how to get your kid to accept anything other than white food?...

All kids need to move, but not all kids get to move. While physical education programs level the socio-economic playing field and plant critical seeds for  life-long love of movement, they are also responsible for the grim practice of school-based BMI measurement programs. Berkley Public Health epidemiologist, Dr. Hannah Thompson, joins to fill us in on the state of physical education today and what the research says about what helps… and what unintentionally harms. 

While you're waiting for the next new episode (coming 8/11!) catch up on this conversation with Psychologist Dr. Lauren Muhlheim from our inaugural season. Lauren helped us understand the Health at Every Size® paradigm and the value of building a united front against diet culture. We discuss strategies and possible challenges for uniting with pediatricians, teachers, extended family members, and other care providers in the body-positive nurturing approach.