Episode 1: How It Hacked You. The Pitch Built For Your Personality.
The diet industry used your own personality to sell you body shame. This series shows you exactly how they did it…and how to get free.
The racist origins of anti-fatness that led to the current $591B diet industry
Sophia shares how her grandmother taught her how to diet
Why how you were hacked is the key to getting unhacked
Poem:
"Remember" by Joy Harjo
Sources:
Episode 2: How It Got The Peacemaker. The Hack That Never Raises Its Voice.
Someone at the family dinner says you should try their new diet, and you hear yourself say, “yeah, maybe.”
How diet culture hacked you by making sure you’re never rude
Sophia shares how she performed the Good Fatty for decades to keep the peace
4 practices to getting unhacked…including permission to feel your anger for one second longer than you usually would
Poem:
"The Peace of Wild Things" by Wendell Berry
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Episode 3: How It Got The Helper. The Hack That Feels Like Love.
Your date says “I don't usually go for bigger people, but there's just something about you,” and you say thank you.
How diet culture hacked you by making sure you're grateful to be chosen at all
Sophia shares how she posted dating profile photos that hid her body size
4 practices to getting unhacked…including allowing yourself only one "yes" per day
Poem:
"Small Kindnesses" by Danusha Laméris
Sources:
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Episode 4: How It Got The Loyalist. The Hack That Sounds Like A Warning.
It's 12:20 in the morning and you sign up for the latest diet craze, not because you're convinced, but because doing something quiets the alarm bells in your mind long enough to let you sleep.
How diet culture hacked you by making sure you never trust yourself over an expert
Sophia shares how a diagnosis she was handed for being fat sent her into the most harmful dieting of her life
4 practices to getting unhacked…including deciding what counts as enough before you open the first tab
Poem:
"Kindness" by Naomi Shihab Nye
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Episode 5: How It Got The Achiever. The Hack That Looks Like Winning.
A crowd forms around the coworker who lost weight, and from beside the coffee maker you think: that could be me, I've done it before.
How diet culture hacked you by making your body the one project everyone judges you by
Sophia shares how she spent a client dinner managing a body that didn't fit the booth, and nobody noticed
4 practices to getting unhacked…including lying down in the middle of the day for no reason
Poem:
"won't you celebrate with me" by Lucille Clifton
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Episode 6: How It Got The Enthusiast. The Hack That Feels Like A Fresh Start.
It's Sunday night and the new diet starts tomorrow, and you’re genuinely lit up standing in the produce aisle with your beautiful list.
How diet culture hacked you by selling you the ‘night before’ energy, over and over
Sophia shares how she bought close to twenty beautiful journals for twenty diets that never made it past the first few pages
4 practices to getting unhacked…including giving one orange your entire attention
Poem:
"Sorrow Is Not My Name" by Ross Gay
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Episode 7: How It Got The Individualist. The Hack That Promises The Real You.
You catch a glimpse of someone in a shop window, recognize the coat, and everything in you says: that's not me.
How diet culture hacked you by promising it could finally introduce the world to the real you
Sophia shares how excruciating it was to read her fat memoir pieces out loud and get an extra beat of silence every time
4 practices to getting unhacked…including wearing the thing in your closet you've been saving for a smaller body
Poem:
"Love After Love" by Derek Walcott
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Episode 8: How It Got The Investigator. The Hack That Feels Like Understanding.
You've read enough about weight and bodies to dismantle any claim at any dinner table, and yet your relationship with your own body hasn't changed in years.
How diet culture hacked you by making your body a subject to research instead of a place to live
Sophia shares how her legendary diet & workout spreadsheets let her ignore a body that was sore and starving
4 practices to getting unhacked…including naming one thing your body feels without explaining what it means
Poem:
"What the Living Do" by Marie Howe
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Episode 9: How It Got The Challenger. The Hack That Feels Like A Fight.
Somebody at dinner makes a comment about what's on your plate, you shut it down in one sentence, and hours later, alone, you realize it landed anyway.
How diet culture hacked you by letting you think you were the one in charge
Sophia shares how she aimed her rage at her own body for years before she found the right target
4 practices to getting unhacked…including eating one meal a day the way you'd feed someone under your protection
Poem:
"How to Triumph Like a Girl" by Ada Limón
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Episode 10: How It Got The Perfectionist. The Hack That Feels Like Virtue.
You ate one cookie at a party and the verdict came down before you'd finished chewing: I was so bad today.
How diet culture hacked you by selling you your own goodness
Sophia shares how she stole from her mom's wallet to buy chips and chocolate that she ate in secret
4 practices to getting unhacked…including hanging a picture a degree off and walking away
Poem:
"Antilamentation" by Dorianne Laux
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Episode 11: How It Hacked You. And What You Get To Refuse Now.
You've walked through all nine hacks and seen the diet culture machine from nine angles. This episode lays every hack on the table at once and tells you what’s next.
The complete con, start to finish, and what refusing it actually looks like in an ordinary room
Sophia shares the 50/50 plan she built to halve her debt and her body in six months, and the five hacks that made her do it
Why your motivations never had to change…they just had to stop working for diet culture
Poem:
"The World Is Ending and I Am Still Fat" by Yesika Salgado from her forthcoming collection MENTIROSA
Send this to one person:
Someone you know is inside one of those nine hacks right now. Set them free, please.
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