This bonus episode is a cozy, honest end-of-year conversation about visibility, overwhelm, and what I’m choosing to carry — and leave behind — as we move into 2026.

I reflect on the past year of creating The Culture Of It All: from stepping into visibility on TikTok, to finding community, to navigating the emotional toll of being outspoken in a fat body online. I talk candidly about the tension between wanting to keep showing up — and needing to protect my mental health, my softness, and my family.

The holidays can be a lot — especially when diet culture, visibility, and body talk are turned all the way up.

In this bonus episode, I share a gentle, honest reflection on overwhelm, being visible in a fat body, navigating online criticism, and why it’s okay to shut down conversations about your body, health, or food.

We talk about:

Holiday overwhelm & diet culture fatigue

Visibility spirals and body image

Responding to unsolicited comments

Protecting your energy this season

Choosing softness over “New Year, New Me” pressure

This episode is a reminder that you don’t need to reinvent yourself to be worthy — rest, boundaries, and self-trust are more than enough.

This is our final full episode of 2025, and what a year it has been. In this episode, I’m reflecting on what it truly meant for me to live at full volume this year: in my work, in my body, in my creativity, and in community with all of you.

I want to take a moment to say THANK YOU for following my work, subscribing, reading and listening to The Culture Of It All. This work couldn’t exist without the incredible support you’ve shown me, and I’m excited to continue giving diet culture a big old middle finger right alongside you in 2026.

This year certainly took me by surprise, or perhaps I surprised myself by deciding to “take TikTok seriously” (that’s what I told my friend Ali earlier this year) and then having a 72 hour viral moment which may not have changed my life, but it showed me that there is an incredibly supportive anti diet community there.

You can hear more about my mini viral TikTok moment here.

I may not have known where this podcast was headed back in January — but it found its way, slowly, softly, and more honestly than ever. Throughout the seasons, one message kept coming back to me: we were never too much.

Not our bodies.

Not our voices.

Not our joy.

And so much of this episode is me reflecting on what it means to carry that belief into every part of my life.

I talk about how fat joy showed up in ordinary moments — especially in parenting — and how my style evolved when I stopped shrinking, performing, or dressing for anyone but myself. I share what it was like to confront old fears about visibility, how softness helped me stay grounded, and what it felt like to create something like Full Volume from a place of curiosity instead of urgency.

And of course, I share what’s ahead for 2026: an anti–New Year energy, new conversations, new guests, and a continued commitment to making space for fat stories, creativity, and community.

In “Joy, Style, Softness: A Year at Full Volume” we’re exploring:

* What living “at full volume” looked like this year

* How an unexpected viral TikTok video helped shape my work

* What it looked like to parent my child (and myself) through body shaming

* How my style has evolved without shrinking, performing, or reinventing myself

* The energy I’m bringing with me into 2026

Takeaway to Hold Onto

Softness isn’t the opposite of strength — it’s the space where I meet myself with honesty and enoughness.

Thank you for being here this year. Whether you’ve listened since the beginning or found the show last month, I’m grateful for you. Here’s to ending softly, and entering next year without the pressure to reinvent ourselves 🧡

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This week we’re talking about something so many folks in larger bodies have experienced: what happens when you find yourself trying to dress a body you’ve spent most of your life trying to shrink?

If you’ve ever:

✨ held onto “some day” clothes

✨ bought outfits for the fantasy body (not the body you live in)

✨ felt disconnected from your own style

✨ or realised you’ve never dressed without shame, rules, or fear—

…this one is for you.

We discuss what happens when you stop trying to shrink, start dressing your current body, and discover that style can be a source of comfort, self-trust, and joy — not punishment.

In “Reclaiming Style After Diet Culture” we’re exploring:

* How diet culture disrupts your identity, your style, and your relationship with your body

* The “some day wardrobe” — why so many of us had one

* Clothing as motivation vs. clothing as information

* Dressing the fantasy body vs. the now-body

* Fear, visibility, and the fashion rulebook handed down like an unwanted family heirloom

* The moment you realise you’ve never actually explored your own style

* How experimenting with clothes can rebuild body trust

* The power of comfort as a value — not a failure

* How I’ve developed my personal style instead of following trends, and included legacy and comfort in my wardrobe

* What changes when you let your wardrobe fit your life (not the other way around)

Links mentioned:

* Read my full article at Unflattering

* The TikTok crop-top moment I mention in the episode

* Full Volume: Autumn Issue — Waistcoat Energy, Fuck Flattering & more

A question for you to reflect on:

If you stopped dressing for the body you were trying to shrink into… what would you wear?

Let’s Stay Connected

Come hang out on TikTok for more stories, soft rebellion, and fat-positive style inspo. Iff you enjoyed the episode, share it with a pal who’s learning to take up space too 🧡

Thanks for reading The Culture Of It All! Podcast! This post is public so feel free to share it.

This week, we’re talking about soft rebellion — the kind of quiet, grounded resistance that comes from slowing down, listening to your body, and refusing to perform hustle cultures version of “success.”

A topic that didn’t quite make it into Full Volume, but at this time of year is so deeply important to discuss.

This one weaves rest, cyclical living, post-pandemic shifts, unlearning hustle culture, anti-diet work, and the tenderness required to live in a world that constantly tells us to go harder, do more, shrink more, be less.

The Culture Of It All! Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

🧡 In “The Magick Of Soft Rebellion” We’re exploring:

* Why rest is deeply political — and deeply threatening to systems that rely on, and profit from our exhaustion

* How diet culture and hustle culture intersect (and why both want you distracted & depleted)

* The overwhelm of this time of year: holiday expectations, consumerism, Black Friday noise, and the pressure to “finish the year strong”

* How cyclical living and noticing my own energy patterns has supported my body trust

* Why softness is not weakness — it’s strategy, intuition, compassion, and clarity

* How post-pandemic shifts ripped things open and led to new forms of self-advocacy

* Softness as rebellion for fat folks specifically — and why leaning into your soft body is its own kind of magick

* Giving yourself permission to slow down, start later, start over, or not start at all

And at the end, I ask you to reflect on this question:

What do you need less of this season?

Because sometimes rebellion isn’t doing more — it’s choosing less. ✌️

🔗 Links Mentioned

🍂 The Autumn issue of Full Volume

Thanks for reading The Culture Of It All! Podcast! This post is public so feel free to share it.

This week, we’re talking about something diet culture never wanted you to learn: body trust.

Diet culture teaches us that our bodies are problems to solve.

Fatphobia teaches us that distrust is our fault.

And for many of us — especially those of us in larger bodies — that lack of trust is reinforced through stigma, restriction, medical bias, and years of being told we’re “too much.”

The Culture Of It All! Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

In “Take Care, Take Up Space”, I explore what it actually means to trust your body again — or maybe for the first time. From divesting from diet culture to navigating health anxiety, to understanding the difference between self-awareness and fear, we’re reclaiming the connection we were never taught to build.

And of course: we’re taking up space while we do it.

This Week I’m opening up about:

* Why body trust is a neutral practice — not forced positivity

* How diet culture destroys our ability to hear our own hunger, fullness, rest, and intuition

* The ways fat people are pushed away from trusting their bodies

* Navigating aging, body change, and the fear that often comes with it

* How medical weight stigma shapes our relationship with our bodies

* The difference between self-awareness and health anxiety

* What it means to take up mental, emotional, and physical space

* Practices that helped me rebuild body trust — slowly, gently, imperfectly

📝 Reflection Questions Mentioned

Take these to your journal, screenshot them, or come back to them whenever you need:

* What would it feel like to trust my body?

* What would it feel like to make decisions from a place of deep trust instead of fear?

* What is possible if I don’t fear my body?

* In what ways can I practice body trust this week?

🧡 Things to check out:

* Listen to my conversation on body neutrality on Nope, That’s Not Normal

* Check out Full Volume Issue 1

In this episode, Melanie discusses the politics of plus size fashion, reflecting on her personal journey as a fashion enthusiast who also lives her life in a fat body. She explores the discrimination within the industry, the challenges fat folks can face when finding clothes and discovering their own style. Melanie shares tools and reframed language that she uses to heal her body image, breaking fashion rules and embracing her personal style.

After a much needed break, Melanie returns to The Culture of It All with a new sound, new energy, and a heartfelt reminder that you were never too much. In this episode, she shares what inspired her new digital zine Full Volume — a fat, nostalgic, rebellious love letter to those who grew up not seeing their bodies represented in the glossy pages of their favourite teen mags. Melanie unpacks the evolution of the show, why softness can be political, and how fat joy, rest, and rebellion all coexist.