I am so thrilled to be able to share this conversation with Tia Levings with you today because if you don't know her and her work, you need to!

Tia Levings is the New York Times Bestselling author of A Well-Trained Wife, her memoir of escape from Christian Patriarchy. She writes about the realities of religious trauma and the Trad wife life, decoding the fundamentalist influences in our news and culture. Her work and quotes have appeared in Teen Vogue, Salon, the Huffington Post, and Newsweek. She also appeared in the hit Amazon docu-series, Shiny Happy People. Based in North Carolina, she is mom to four incredible adults and likes to travel, hike, paint, and daydream. Find her on social media @TiaLevingsWriter and Substack at DeconstructingFundamentalism.com. Her second book releases with St. Martin’s Essentials May 5, 2026.

On this episode we talk about:

• Tia's incredible life story that led her to be doing the work she does today.
• How we see it playing out in religion, in our homes, in our own lives, in our country as a whole.

• What could cause a person to gravitate to fundamentalist thinking and things we can do in our lives to push back against and avoid that.
• Parallels between what she experienced in her religion and home and what we sometimes get sucked into in fitness and wellness spaces.
• The pipeline from wellness to getting red pilled and how it happens.
• How to embrace more both/and thinking when our own experiences (a religion, dieting, our identity, life in general) have impacted us so profoundly that we just want to scream "NO YOU'RE WRONG!".
• How to reconcile doing that when some people are just terrible people with harmful ideas.
• Simple daily practices to keep ourselves grounded in a both/and sort of reality in a world that is increasingly polarized.
• How to we show up in our relationships when our loved ones see things so differently than we do.

• Insider info she wants to share with people as someone who was in a high control religion and marriage and got out.
• What to do if you see yourself in her story.

• So many other important things!

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This week we are diving deep into the world of eating disorders and recovery, and much like all of the work I do here, Mallary Tenore Tarpley is here to help us embrace the gray area between being sick and fully recovered. She's here to normalize living in the in between place when you're trying to heal, and share some things that you may not have known about eating disorders. This topic is hard to talk about without dipping into some potentially triggering topics, so honor yourself and your own journey as you listen, especially if you are in early eating disorder recovery.

Mallary Tenore is an assistant professor of practice at The University of Texas at Austin's School of Journalism and Media and McCombs School of Business, where she teaches writing and reporting courses for undergraduate and graduate students. Mallary specializes in a variety of topics, including longform feature writing, creative nonfiction, solutions journalism and nonprofit journalism.A longtime journalist, Mallary's articles and essays have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Tampa Bay Times, Harvard University’s Nieman Storyboard and more. She also maintains a weekly newsletter, Write at the Edge, where she shares writing tips and best practices. Mallary’s debut nonfiction book, “SLIP: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery,” will be published by Simon & Schuster's Simon Element imprint and is now available for pre-order. The book blends immersive reporting, emerging science and social history around eating disorders alongside Mallary’s own harrowing journey from a childhood with anorexia to her present-day reality as a mother in recovery. While working on the book, Mallary received a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to support her reporting and writing.

On this episode we talk about:

• Mallary's experience developing an eating disorder as a child that led her to write this book.
• The most surprising discoveries she made about eating disorders while researching for her book?
• The social history of eating disorders. (And the wild parallels to what's happening today.)
• How anorexia can reduce your brain size, specifically gray matter.
• Things is life that can cause "slips" in recovery.
• How she hopes to redefine how we see slips and eating disorder recovery as a whole.
• The biggest things that are perpetuating eating disorders today.
• Getting treatment for your eating disorder when you don't fit the traditional mold of what we think an eating disorder looks like.
• What she wishes society knew and did differently when it comes to eating disorders.
• So many other important things!

⁠Subscribe to Mallary's Substack ⁠⁠

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⁠Watch Mallary's TV interview⁠

⁠Pre-order Mallary's book⁠



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I can't seem to let go of the need to talk about the current social and political climate, the rise of fascism and authoritarianism, and how it relates to fitness, wellness, diet culture, and everything I do here. I wanted to approach this topic from a historical lens, so I knew that Jen Borruso was the person I needed to talk to. We've known each other for years professionally, but as a friend she has always be my go-to person when I want to learn more about the historical context behind something. I'm so excited for you to learn from her today!

Jen Borruso is a personal trainer and nutrition coach who helps people build a healthier, more compassionate relationship with their bodies. Before entering the fitness world, Jen studied history and literature at the University of Central Florida, earning a Bachelor’s degree in History (with a focus on post-Civil War U.S. history) and a minor in English, with an emphasis on American Literature. Originally planning to become a high school teacher and possibly pursue law school, Jen developed a strong foundation in critical thinking, analysis, and understanding how historical and cultural forces shape the present. Reading Fearing the Black Body by Dr. Sabrina Strings was a pivotal moment in Jen’s learning journey, deepening her understanding of how diet culture is rooted in systems of control and oppression, including racism and the policing of bodies.Today, Jen works at the intersection of fitness and social justice, exploring how we can resist harmful narratives about health, worth, and perfection; and build a more inclusive, body-positive world.

On this episode we talk about:

• Jen's origin story as a history major turned fitness professional.
• Ways that diet culture and fascism are two flavors of the same shit sandwich.
• What fascism is, why we need to be concerned, and whether or not we're being too dramatic.
• Historical examples of fascist regimes as a cautionary tale for what we're slipping into today.
• How purity culture, whiteness and national identity play into this and how it's showing up right now.
• The dangers of seemingly innocent things like hyperfemininity, tradwife content, and skinnytok.
• How things like fat liberation, body neutrality, and feminism, are a way to reject both diet culture and fascist ideals and participate in political resistance.
• How capitalism plays into all of this.
• Attempts to whitewash history and demonize intellectualism, and books we can read to further our knowledge.
• So many other important things!

⁠Work with Jen ⁠

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