This is the first in a series of Podcast Showcases, where we share podcasts with you in the words of the podcasters themselves. This week, we feature Fat. So?
Sum up your podcast in three sentences
Ameya: Two fat Indian women talk about their lives and experiences as fat Indian women, and how they have learned to deal with the things society forces on them. We swap strategies for how to respond to people, how to find and build your confidence in yourself, and what to do with men–in and out of bed.
Pallavi: Our podcast is two fat women sharing their experience of navigating life in the last 40 or so years. We cover various aspects of life – food, clothes, sex, doctors, relationships and how we have grown in these areas – through the conditioning, through figuring out other perspectives exist to our current state where we are far more empowered. We’re often asked how we manage to be so authentic and genuine when we know so many people will listen to us – I think it’s the only way we know to communicate.
Who is your ideal listener? Who loves your show?
Pallavi: In my opinion our ideal listener is anyone who is dealing with being an outlier in relation to societal norms – while we speak of our experience as fat women, I believe that the strategies to deal with being a non-conformist are similar. We initially thought that we would only have fat women listening to the podcast but were delighted to find that a lot of women who don’t identify as fat are also avid listeners and have thanked us for the perspective we give them as well as told us they relate to our content in many ways. Our demographic data tells us we have 75% women listeners and 25% men. Also 65% from India, but 35% across the world.
Ameya: Our ideal listener is a woman who has felt rejected and constrained by the label fat, who hasn’t let herself feel and do things because that word is attached to her. This is a woman who thinks she is alone and who is ashamed of herself, her body. We want her to hear that there are more of us out there, that society is full of BS and she can completely refuse to listen to the nonsense it spews. As for who loves the show… well haha women! But also some men. A lot of people write in to tell us they love our energy and our honesty, and yes it’s a lot of Indian women, of varying shapes and sizes.
What made you start this podcast?
Ameya: I was desperately seeking a space for creative output that would help me connect with something i felt strongly about, that I felt I had an experience that needed sharing about because it would resonate with many others. Somehow I never thought of fatness! Or podcasts, given I used to make them. Pallavi said she was thinking of a podcast and I said wow, great idea, i will support you any way I can, I can help you figure out how you want to do it and introduce you to the community–at which point she said no I want to cohost with you. And yes popped out!
Pallavi: The idea of the podcast has been in my heart since 2016 when I was interviewed by Cat Pause for her show “Friends of Marylin”. Also I am very grateful to the fat activists and body positive influencers across the world for helping me shift my perspective and I felt the need for this conversation to happen in the Indian context. Further, I wanted this conversation to be not just about acceptance in terms of beauty but also in terms of representation and acknowledging we are a body type that exists and cannot be wished away. In 2019 I finally got my “brain based coach” certification and felt I would love to reach out to the “fat community” as that’s where I feel most authentic. So when I met Ameya, and heard she had experience with podcasts, I jumped at the opportunity to discuss this with her. When we met we hit it off so well and I felt it would be great if we did this together! So I proposed, and she said yes and luckily I did not have to get down on any knee – the rest is history.
What have you learned about your subject thanks to this podcast?
Pallavi: I am not sure I have learnt that much more about the subject of fat itself but I have definitely learnt a whole lot more about myself as well as perspectives that others have on the subject. Right from the prep for the podcast to our conversations to handling social media and responding to people it’s all been very insightful. As I told Ameya – I was a closet body positivity activist to some extent and so to come out and voice my opinion – and that too so publicly is not always easy but always satisfying.
Ameya: I have learned a LOT about the body positivity community! I didn’t know about Lindo Bacon or Ragen Chastain or many of the things Pallavi has introduced me to.
What has your experience of podcasting been? What do you love / hate about the process?
Ameya: I used to podcast professionally heh and it was a different thing. I didn’t enjoy working to someone else’s schedule and producing content for their requirements. But I love making this one! It helps that I have such a great cohost haha, but also that I care so much about the subject. It’s really great that we have the support of Suno India (the platform that hosts us) because they take care of all the irritating parts: hosting, metrics, studio time hahaha. So we just need to show up, record and then I cut the recording into the template. Which means it’s all just fun.
Pallavi: I am so grateful I found Ameya – she’s a pro and that takes care of so many things for us. I have a tendency to speak in great detail on any subject and so when Ameya points out how I need to have a tighter script it causes some stress but I am much improved from our first recording, even though I say so myself. Other than that I really love that this platform is available for anyone to speak about the things that are important to them.
If someone wants to start listening to your podcast, which episode would you recommend they start with? Why?
Pallavi: The first for sure because that’s where we introduce ourselves and why we are doing this so it will make the rest of the podcast more relatable. And I would honestly recommend that listeners go by the episodes we have because I feel the way we’ve sequenced them does justice to what we are talking about. But then again am quite process oriented so perhaps someone else may want to go to subjects that interest them and that’s OK too. As long as they start with “Meet the Fatsos”.
Ameya: Meet the Fatsos. Because it’s the one that explains us, as people, and what we’re trying to do. From there you can jump to any episode, it doesn’t matter. That’s the one that underlies it all.
Which other podcasts do you love listening to?
Ameya: No such thing as a fish, The guilty feminist, That classical podcast, Infinite monkey cage, you’re dead to me, my dad wrote a porno… that’s about it
Pallavi: I’ve been listening to – “Unbuttoned, the podcast” and that’s about it (sheepish grin)
If people want to find you online, where can they do so? Drop all your links here (social media, podcast subscription, etc.)
- twitter.com/fatsopodcast
- fatsopodcast@gmail.com
- facebook.com/fatsopodcast
- medium.com/fat-so
- instagram.com/fatsopodcast
- https://www.sunoindia.in/fat-so/
- Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2r11eSM
- Google podcasts: http://bit.ly/2JLQhLp
- Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2PGc232
- Castbox: https://castbox.fm/va/2439553
If you have a podcast and would like to find out more about taking part in the Podcast Showcase, email editor@globalcomment.com