What happens when the world’s most delightfully impractical sport runs straight into the hardest questions about fairness and inclusion? We invited amateur strongman athlete and community mod Lola Phoenix to lift the lid on Atlas stones, log presses, and the culture that keeps people coming back for more. Along the way, we unpack a controversy shaking the strongman scene and sketch a better path forward that puts competition—and community—first.

Lola walks us through the nuts and bolts of strongman: why odd objects make lifting feel like a puzzle, how a 90 kg stone becomes a rite of passage, and which events are secretly miserable (looking at you, Dinnie-style carries). If you’re new, you’ll get a no-nonsense roadmap for getting started without a fancy gym: build deadlifts, carries, and overheads; find a crew; and follow approachable pros and evidence-based resources like Stronger By Science. We also laugh a lot about height problems, bag toss fails, and the eternal allure of big rocks.

Then we get serious. Strongman’s gendered divisions, uneven funding, and patchwork rules have produced real harm, from stripped titles to targeted harassment. Instead of arguing identity in a vacuum, we zoom out to everything that already skews “fairness”: height, hormone profiles, coaching access, money, and the absence of consistent PED testing. Lola shares a practical fix hiding in plain sight—use existing competition data to build ability-based brackets. Set the events first, auto-cluster athletes by performance, and let the weights match the lifter. You get closer heats, better shows, and a bigger tent for strongwomen and nonbinary athletes without locking anyone out.

If strength sports intrigue you or you care about making competition genuinely fair, this one’s for you. Tap play, meet Lola, pick up a metaphorical stone, and help us grow a smarter, kinder strongman community. If you enjoyed the conversation, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review so more people find the show.

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What happens when the persona becomes the product? We sit down with creator and model Annie Miao to explore the strange, funny, and sometimes tender space where AI influencers, VTubers, and deepfakes collide with mental health, body image, and the business of being online. From cat ears to consent, we unpack why audiences follow people more than topics—and how that changes what “authentic” even means.

Annie traces her path from bullied band kid to internet-native creative, sharing how the web offered belonging long before real life did. We get into the economics behind modern media—OnlyFans as a curiosity-powered Patreon, Hollywood and gaming chasing billion-dollar budgets, and the course economy where coaches coach coaches. Along the way, we challenge the culty edges of “life optimization” and ask what creators actually owe their communities: disclosure, value, and boundaries.

Our most important pivot lands on mental health and body image. We talk toxic positivity, why suffering can be a teacher, and how body neutrality helps when self-love feels impossible. Models and bodybuilders aren’t immune to dysmorphia—if anything, the pressure can be worse. So we trade mirror battles for kinder questions: What does my body let me do today? How do I nourish it without shame? With AI blurring faces and voices, we propose a simple ethic: tell the truth, label the edits, and keep the humanity in the loop.

If you’re curious about AI e-girls, burned out on hustle sermons, or just trying to feel like yourself on the internet, this one’s for you. Hit follow, share with a friend who lives online, and leave a review telling us where you think authenticity goes next.

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Ever tried to introduce yourself without saying what you do, where you’re from, or what you’ve achieved? That discomfort is the doorway we walk through with Sophia, a 23-year-old mental health creator, researcher, and former college athlete who left her team to pursue eating disorder recovery—and ended up rebuilding her identity from the inside out.

We trace the messy middle: panic in fast-casual parking lots, a banana that wouldn’t stay down, and the steady exposure work that turned survival into momentum. Sophia shares how she reframed control, moved the disorder’s voice from driver’s seat to trunk, and found quiet victories like a holiday without panic for the first time in years. Along the way, she gives a practical identity framework—avowed vs ascribed—that helps anyone in fitness or recovery stop outsourcing self-worth to roles, numbers, and applause.

The conversation takes aim at curated bodies and AI-made “candids.” We break down why side-by-side posts—posed vs unposed—matter, how hyperreal images are distorting baseline expectations, and what creators can do to protect younger audiences from dysmorphia and comparison spirals. We also talk coaching, sports psychology, and the line between being helpful and hinging your worth on usefulness. Sophia previews her next research steps in experimental psychology and her ongoing essays on Happy You’re Here, where she writes about recovery, dating, and early adulthood with clarity and bite.

If you’re navigating weight, identity, or the pressure to be “useful,” this is a warm, unposed invitation to build a self that stays when the roles shift. Listen, share with a friend who needs a nudge toward hope, and leave a review to help more people find these conversations.

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