The Fat Joy podcast is a joyful rebellion against anti-fatness. Each episode is a conversation between host and Professional Coach Sophia Apostol and another fat person about how to flourish in our fatphobic world. We’re exploring the harms, biases, and oppressions we’ve experienced while living in a world that marginalizes plus-size & fat bodies and promotes the lies of Diet Culture. But most importantly, we’re sharing how we still dare to have the audacity and courage to reach towards joy and live our best lives while advocating for collective fat liberation & body positivity. And, at the end of every episode, Sophia reads you a poem. Topics include: body acceptance, self-love, fat activism, body positivity, fatbulous, anti-fatness, anti-diet, diet culture
Diet Culture Wants You: How It Hacked Your Personality To Sell You Body Shame
Sophia Apostol, host of Fat Joy, reveals how the diet industry exploits personality traits to sell body shame, offering insights to break free from these tactics.
17 Feb 2026TRANSCRIPT
Good-bye To The Creation Lab Capsule Collection -- Sophia Apostol
Six conversations. So much creativity. And one last invitation.
In this final episode of the Creation Lab Capsule Collection, Sophia wraps the series with gratitude, reflection, and a return to ritual. After realizing she forgot to include poetry at the end of these episodes, she closes things properly with a poem.
She reflects on what the guests stirred in her, the creative risks she’s taking in her own life, and the deeper theme running through it all: fat joy as resistance.
This is also the final invitation to join Fat Joy Creation Lab, as Applications close on Friday, February 20, 2006. Please visit https://www.fatjoy.life/creation-lab (https://www.fatjoy.life/creation-lab) for program information and the Application form.
Keep connected with Fat Joy:
Fat Joy Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/fatjoy.life/)
Fat Joy website (https://www.fatjoy.life/)
10 Feb 2026
Creativity, Fat Joy, And Building A Business That Lasts -- Vinny Welsby
In this episode of the Fat Joy Creation Lab capsule collection, Sophia talks with longtime fat liberation educator, podcaster, and consultant Vinny Welsby (they/them) about building meaningful work over time without burning out or shrinking yourself to fit.
They explore creativity as a source of joy, a tool for connection, and a quiet force for cultural change. From podcasting before feeling “ready,” to building a consulting practice that brings fat liberation into corporate spaces, Vinny shares what it looks like to make things imperfectly and keep going anyway.
In this episode, they talk about:
Why your first drafts, first episodes, and first offerings are supposed to be messy
Turning an idea into a Minimum Viable Product instead of waiting for perfection
Fat visibility as an act of resistance, especially in business and leadership
This episode is for you if you’re holding an idea that won’t leave you alone — and you’re ready to take one imperfect, brave step toward bringing it into the world.
To learn more about how you can tap into your creativity and take an idea from napkin scribble to something alive in the world, check out the Fat Joy Creation Lab (https://www.fatjoy.life/creation-lab). Applications close February 20th!!!
Vinny Welsby (they/them) is a fat activist and diversity, equity and inclusion leader. They are a world-leading expert on dismantling anti-fat bias and diet culture, a TEDx speaker, podcast host and best-selling author. Vinny is trans-non-binary and is dedicated to shifting how society views fat and queer bodies through education and compassion.
When Vinny isn’t talking about DEI stuff they love snuggling with their dog, cross-stitching swear words and singing in a pop choir.
Website: www.fiercefatty.com (https://www.fiercefatty.com)
Website: www.weightinclusiveconsulting.com (https://www.weightinclusiveconsulting.com)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fierce.fatty/ (https://www.instagram.com/fierce.fatty/)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weightinclusiveconsulting/ (https://www.instagram.com/weightinclusiveconsulting/)
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fiercefatty (https://www.tiktok.com/@fiercefatty)
Connect with Fat Joy on the website (http://www.fatjoy.life), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/fatjoy.life/), subscribe to the Fat Joy newsletter (https://fatjoy.substack.com/), and watch full video episodes on YouTube (https://youtube.com/@fatjoy).
Want to share some fattie love? Please rate this podcast and give it a joyful review.
Our thanks to Chris Jones and AR Media (https://armedia.ca/) for keeping this podcast looking and sounding joyful.
Inside a recent episode
Diet Culture Wants You: How It Hacked Your Personality To Sell You Body Shame
Published 27 Sept 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] What this means is that anti-fat bias was built on racial hierarchy. It gave white supremacy a biological language, and most of us absorbed that language before we were even old enough to question it. It is just the waters we swim in now. And that language got a number attached to it, the BMI, which was never built to measure health. It came from a Belgian mathematician in the 1830s who was measuring the average white European man. And it was a statistical tool for describing populations, not a verdict on any individual body, but then insurance companies picked it up and then the diet industry picked it up after that, a number that was only ever meant to describe a group of people. […]
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