I’ve really gotten into podcasts of late and of course, as soon as I do, I find out that there are tons of them with more appearing every day. It reminds me of when I first discovered blogging and created and deleted countless blogs myself. As it turned out, everyone had a blog, which is how I eventually settled on this personal blog to get my writing fix with no other goal.
The thing I like most about the podcast during this time of self isolation (which for me is basically always), is that I get a little taste of human interaction. There’s people having a conversation in my apartment which I can comment on if I choose, or more often than not, speak my commentary aloud. Can’t do that with a blog.
I’ve been thinking I would do my own podcast just for fun, but I’d need a theme and I can’t think of one I can really get behind. Oh, I have one topic I could envision, but it would have to be under my pseudonym and I can’t seem to motivate myself to do that yet. It would require research, having my evidence and arguments well thought out and prepared, and if I’m going to create a damn job for myself, it would have to actually pay me. Fat chance of that.
I’ve just finished listening to one of my regulars that has taken a quarantine shift from its usual fitness format, although still incorporating fitness in part. They brought up Stephanie Buttmore, whose name sounded familiar, but at first I wasn’t interested enough to Bing her. Just kidding, I don’t Bing. But as they went on and on about her, I sought her out. Her name was familiar to me because she is Jeff Nippard’s girlfriend and I’d seen her in a few of his YouTube videos. Apparently she had emotional and psychological issues with food from years of being really freaking lean. I mean she was ripped, which is always impressive but even more so as a female. She decided to deal with her food issues by an All In approach of eating whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, and as much as she wanted. The universe would love her just the same. She wouldn’t weigh herself or monitor any aspect of her body composition, assuming her body would settle in at its natural weight and she’d be happier and such.
I think you can guess how that turned out. I don’t much care what anyone does or how they choose to eat. I know what I want to achieve and I work hard to learn as much as I can and I implement the things I need to reach my goals. But I don’t have tons of people listening to me for advice. I don’t claim to be a part of the fitness industry and I don’t have a PhD. She does.
Peruse her Instagram and you’ll find pictures of a woman who looks as one might expect that eats as she does and takes the approach to eating that she does. Again, if she’s happy that way, goodie for her. But is it appropriate for her to use her influence to send other women down this path? There are clearly documented adverse health effects to being chronically overweight, or perhaps being overly fat is a more accurate description. If you really have emotional and mental health issues with eating, there are professionals out there you can talk to instead of concluding that the best approach is to eat as many bags of Doritos as you want and tell yourself it doesn’t matter.
Speaking of Instagram and podcasts, what started out as a photo sharing app now has Live features where people broadcast to their followers, answer questions and the like, and even has an Instagram TV option for longer video posts. YouTube is the endless sea of podcasts, either made for YouTube or more often than not, an upload of an audio podcast made for another platform.
Some of my personal favorites at the moment are The Daily by the NY Times, Social Distance from The Atlantic (although I was a little upset at Katherine today for her derogatory remarks about Jim’s approach to food. That hit a little close to home for me), the Stronger by Science podcast, Revive Stronger’s regular BS session they post on Monday’s and most of Steve’s interviews he typically posts on Saturday. I enjoy the Quarantine Tapes depending on the guest, and I’m a daily consumer of the David Pakman show, although I usually watch it on YouTube vs. just listen. I do occasionally play online card games and just listen to him, but come back to the video feed when he posts video clips he wants to discuss.
The podcast has basically replaced cable news or TV talk shows for me. I like the independence of the forum, the specialized content and the ability to comment and perhaps even engage with the podcaster. I still enjoy reading well written posts, but sometimes it’s just too damn quiet around here and talking to my pets just doesn’t quite cut it. So I listen to other people talk and nod in agreement, or “interact” with them in this introverted way of keeping in touch with humanity without having to ever see them.
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