Camp Shame

About Camp Shame

Camp Shane—one of America’s longest running weight loss camps for kids—promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But there were some dark truths behind Camp Shane’s facade of happy, transformed children. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. More than 50 years after its founding, host Kelsey Snelling is bringing the real story of Camp Shane to light. In this eight-episode series, she unpacks and investigates stories of mistreatment and reexamines the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. Along the way, she reveals and weighs the heavy price of shame. Subscribe to Camp Shame so you don't miss an episode and follow us on Instagram @CampShame (https://www.instagram.com/campshame/)

Publisher

iHeartPodcasts

Category

health & fitness · society & culture · true crime

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

15 Apr 2025

Latest episode

10 Jul 2025

Latest episodes

8 of 9 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   10 Jul 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Episode 8: Losing Isn't Everything

   This episode reveals the dysfunctional and unsupervised environment of Camp Shane, leading to an accident and subsequent state investigation that threatens to expose its long-standing issues.

2. 

   3 Jul 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Episode 7: Nobody Believes the Fat Kid

   This episode explores how Camp Shane, once a haven for overweight kids, devolves into a place of manipulation and sinister secrets, threatening to haunt campers for years.

3. 

   26 Jun 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Episode 6: When the Sh*t Hits the Fan

   This episode explores the decline of Camp Shane in the mid-2010s, revealing how inadequate staffing and oversight lead to a breaking point for the troubled camp.

4. 

   19 Jun 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Episode 5: Live, Laugh, Lose

   Kelsey recounts her summer at Camp Shane in 2011, revealing the camp's deep dysfunction and the unexpected costs of disordered eating.

5. 

   12 Jun 2025

   Episode 4: As Big as it Gets

   This episode explores how Camp Shane expands and profits from new millennium beauty standards, but struggles to manage the influx of campers, straining staff and facilities.

6. 

   5 Jun 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Episode 3: The Real Heavyweights

   This episode explores how David Ettenberg's leadership at Camp Shane in the 1990s led to stricter rules and a disastrous "Heavyweights" screening, revealing the camp's growing issues.

7. 

   5 Jun 2025TRANSCRIPT

   A Fat Girl's Vision

   This episode explores how societal obsession with size and weight created a demand for weight loss camps like Camp Shane, founded by Selma Ettenberg, offering refuge despite stringent methods.

8. 

   5 Jun 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Welcome to Camp Shane

   This episode introduces Camp Shane, a weight loss camp for kids, revealing how it became a haven where children found friendship and identity despite underlying imperfections.

9. 

   15 Apr 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Introducing: Camp Shame

   Camp Shane—one of America’s longest running weight loss camps for kids—promised extraordinary results. Campers who began the summer in heavy bodies were often unrecognizable when they left. In a society obsessed with being thin, it seemed like a miracle solution. But behind Camp Shane’s facade of happy, transformed children was a dark underworld of exploitation and neglect. Kids were being pushed to their physical and emotional limits as the family that owned Shane turned a blind eye. More than 50 years after its founding, host Kelsey Snelling is bringing the real story of Camp Shane to light. In this eight-episode series, she unpacks and investigates stories of mistreatment and reexamines the culture of fatphobia that enabled a flawed system to continue for so long. Along the way, she reveals and weighs the heavy price of shame. See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.

Inside a recent episode

Episode 8: Losing Isn't Everything

Published 10 Jul 2025 · Transcript excerpt

[…] And there's lots of evidence of employment discrimination in everything from whether you get paid the same as your thin counterparts, even if you have the same or better qualifications, to things like, do you even get past the first interview? You've done phone interviews and you've been doing great. Then you show up at the office and all of a sudden something changes, right? The discrimination that Tigris is referring to happens all over the country. Well, except Michigan. It's legal to discriminate based on body size in all states but Michigan. And while all of this feels completely backward and archaic, and I want to be definitive, it absolutely is, there is reason to be hopeful about where we could go. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

419,108,275

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

3.8 / 5

501 ratings

Spotify

4.2 / 5

317 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 57 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

41

Social presence

0

YouTube

93

Engagement

90

Shows with a similar audience

• 

  The Turning: Room of Mirrors

• 

  Betrayal

• 

  Hookergate: Criminals and Libertines in the South

• 

  Burden of Guilt

• 

  Witnessed: Fade to Black

• 

  Uncover