Episode 13: Crooked Teeth and Hairy Backs

In this conversation, Jacob and Scott talk about body image, and their personal relationships with their bodies. They reflect on how we’ve all been conditioned to see only certain bodies as beautiful, and how difficult (seemingly impossible) it can be to transcend this harmful conditioning. Especially for women, because the conditioning is that much more intense. Both share deep-seated insecurities they carry and how their relationships with these insecurities have and have not changed. As they explore the body-positivity movement, they also look at our excessively triggered society and realize they are triggered by how triggered people can be. This is one of their most revealing conversations to date.

Readings: Anne Lamott

“Oh my God, what if you wake up someday, and you're 65, or 75, and you never got your memoir or novel written, or you didn't go swimming in those warm pools and oceans all those years because your thighs were jiggly and you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were a kid? It's going to break your heart. Don't let this happen.”

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.”