The Burnt Toast Podcast

You’re listening to Burnt Toast! Today my conversation is with Jamilah Lemieux.

Jamilah is an award-winning writer, cultural critic, and leading voice in digital feminism, known for shaping online conversations around race, gender, and relationship. She writes the Care and Feeding Parenting Advice column for Slate, and her work has appeared in outlets like the Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, and the Washington Post.

Jamilah is also the author of the brand new book, Black. Single. Mother. Real Life Tales of Longing and Belonging.

I've been a fan of Jamilah from Slate's Care and Feeding Parenting Podcast, where she was a longtime co-host. Today we get into who gets to call themselves a single mom, the kind of social life co-parenting lets you have, the importance of friends, and we ask: Is dating (especially for single moms) a diet?

Become a paid subscriber to comment, get episode transcripts, and hear Indulgence Gospel — our new bonus segment, running after every episode!

Corinne hops on to debrief with me about my conversation with Jamilah. Indulgence Gospel segments are audio-only so don't miss out! You can listen right here (tap "play" above) or add us to Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 

Another great way to support Burnt Toast is to MAKE SURE you are following us for free in your podcast player! And if you have two more seconds, please leave us a rating and/or review! Just scroll down wherever you're listening and tap the stars, five of them please, and leave a little note about why you love Burnt Toast. Both of these things really help new listeners find conversations like these!

BUTTER

Jamilah: Old Wisconsin Yumbo honey brown sugar turkey sausage stick.

Virginia: Kin by Tayari Jones

EPISODE CREDITS
Co-hosts: Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay.
Producer: Kim Baldwin.
Logo design: Deanna Lowe.
Theme Song: Farideh.
Video Editor: Elizabeth Ayiku
Audio Engineer: Tommy Harron
Follow us on social!
Virginia is on Instagram and Threads as @v_solesmith and on Bluesky at @virginiasolesmith.
Corinne is on Instagram at @selfiefay, on Bluesky at @corinnefay and on Patreon at Big Undies.
Support the Me Little Me Foundation, a virtual food pantry supporting multiply marginalized folks recovering from eating disorders.
Thanks for listening and supporting anti-diet, body liberation journalism!

You're listening to Burnt Toast! We are Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay, and today we're talking about PEPTIDES.

 

This new diet trend is the cursed love child of the protein bros and the RFK stans, and it's supposed to make you thin, tan, and maybe horny. What could go wrong?!

We're getting into:

⭐️ What the heck is a peptide? Why would one stack them?

⭐️ Clavicular, the 20-year-old looksmaxxer extraordinaire.

⭐️ Why Bro Science is exhausting and deliberately hard to fact-check. 

⭐️ Why are so many peptide fans... also anti-vax?

We also have a new Indulgence Gospel for you, with a few unfiltered life updates plus a rundown of what we've been reading!

To hear that bonus segment, read the transcript, and join us in the comments, you do need to be an Extra Butter subscriber.

Butter

Virginia: toe spreaders, Petra Fisher

Corinne: Instant Glow Serum

EPISODE CREDITS
Co-hosts: Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay.
Producer: Kim Baldwin.
Logo design: Deanna Lowe.
Theme Song: Farideh.
Video Editor: Elizabeth Ayiku
Audio Engineer: Tommy Harron
Follow us on social!
Virginia is on Instagram and Threads as @v_solesmith and on Bluesky at @virginiasolesmith.
Corinne is on Instagram at @selfiefay, on Bluesky at @corinnefay and on Patreon at Big Undies.
Support the Me Little Me Foundation, a virtual food pantry supporting multiply marginalized folks recovering from eating disorders.
Thanks for listening and supporting anti-diet, body liberation journalism!

You’re listening to Burnt Toast! I’m Virginia Sole-Smith. Today my conversation is with Emma Copley Eisenberg.

Emma is the author of the nationally bestselling novel Housemates and the story collection Fat Swim. Her essays, literary criticism and reporting have appeared in The New Republic, Granta, and Esquire among others, and she writes the Substack newsletter Frump Feelings. She lives in Philadelphia.

Emma joined me to chat about her new short story collection Fat Swim, fat characters in fiction, what thin authors get wrong, why we’re over Jonathan Franzen and so much more.

And become a paid subscriber to get Indulgence Gospel — our new bonus segment, running after every episode!

Corinne is going to hop on to debrief this interview with me. We're talking about fat kids in fiction, our Default Outfits and MORE! Paid subscribers all get commenting privileges and a full episode transcript. JOIN US HERE. 

Photo by Kenzi Crash

EPISODE CREDITS
Co-hosts: Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay.
Producer: Kim Baldwin.
Logo design: Deanna Lowe.
Theme Song: Farideh.
Video Editor: Elizabeth Ayiku
Audio Engineer: Tommy Harron
Follow us on social!
Virginia is on Instagram and Threads as @v_solesmith and on Bluesky at @virginiasolesmith.
Corinne is on Instagram at @selfiefay, on Bluesky at @corinnefay and on Patreon at Big Undies.
Support the Me Little Me Foundation, a virtual food pantry supporting multiply marginalized folks recovering from eating disorders.
Thanks for listening and supporting anti-diet, body liberation journalism!

In the original episode, we asked, "Is Mel Robbins a Diet?"

Plot Twist (or is it?): Mel is now selling nutritional supplements. Protein shots, to be exact—so we decided to give them a try.

Paid subscribers can listen or WATCH Corinne try Mel Robbins' Pure Genius protein shot and give us her honest review. 👀

Free list: You won't want to miss this! Subscribe here. 

EPISODE CREDITS
Co-hosts: Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay.
Producer: Kim Baldwin.
Logo design: Deanna Lowe.
Theme Song: Farideh.
Video Editor: Elizabeth Ayiku
Audio Engineer: Tommy Harron
Follow us on social!
Virginia is on Instagram and Threads as @v_solesmith and on Bluesky at @virginiasolesmith.
Corinne is on Instagram at @selfiefay, on Bluesky at @corinnefay and on Patreon at Big Undies.
Support the Me Little Me Foundation, a virtual food pantry supporting multiply marginalized folks recovering from eating disorders.
Thanks for listening and supporting anti-diet, body liberation journalism!

We are Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay and it’s time for your April Just Toast episode!
This is a special episode because we recorded in person! I traveled to New Mexico to see Corinne, have new Burnt Toast headshots taken and visit Meow Wolf with my kiddo and my boyfriend. It was a glorious trip and I'm excited to share some of the behind the scenes with you today.
In this episode we're talking about:
⭐️ Why it's so hard to have your photo taken.
⭐️ Thin friends not putting their fat friends on the grid.
⭐️ The art of a good selfie.
One audio note: our Airbnb in Santa Fe was an acoustical odyssey, so please bear with us on the sound quality.
You need to be a paid Just Toast subscriber to listen to this full conversation. Membership starts at just $5 per month! Learn more at https://www.patreon.com/virginiasolesmith/join.
Sign up for just $5!
Join Just Toast!🧈🧈🧈🧈🧈🧈🧈🧈🧈🧈🧈🧈🧈🧈
Episode 241 Transcript
Virginia
We're recording in person from an Airbnb in Santa Fe, New Mexico. If the audio is not perfect today, it's not Tommy's fault. It's that we're doing it in an adobe room and that creates some echoes.
Corinne
We have covered the floors with soft things, but it's still very echo-y.
Virginia
So bear with us. This is only our second ever in person episode, so it's going to be a really fun one.
This is a Just Toast episode. As we explained on our previous Extra Butter episode, we're no longer calling it the Indulgence Gospel, although we always will in my heart.
We're trying to make it clear what kind of episode you're listening to. So if you are listening to this whole episode right now, you are a Just Toast subscriber, which means you are a regular paid subscriber tier. There's also our premium tier, Extra Butter, for a little more money where you can get behind every single paywall. Whichever tier you are, we're very happy you're here.
Corinne
We're going to talk about something we did yesterday.
Virginia
Corinne and I did something together for the first time.
Corinne
If you're a longtime listener subscriber, you may have noticed that we have no photos together.
Virginia
Except one we took in a hot tub two years in Hot Springs.
Corinne
Yesterday, while Virginia is here in New Mexico, we got some photos taken by a photographer named Molly Haley.
Virginia
Who is an old friend of yours.
Corinne
We went to middle school and high school together.
Virginia
Since we were doing a photo shoot, we thought, well, we've got to talk about photos on the podcast because it's a whole thing.
Corinne
Photos can be hard!
Virginia
I would amend that sentence and say photos are hard.
Corinne
Although your child would disagree.
Virginia
My 8-year-old keeps telling us that that's a silly thing to think and photos are great and they love having their photo taken.
Corinne
They're not wrong.
Virginia
No, it's a lot of stuff. A lot of diet culture noise. It's a lot of being seen, I think. Being perceived.
Corinne
Would you say that you've struggled with photos?

EPISODE CREDITS
Co-hosts: Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay.
Producer: Kim Baldwin.
Logo design: Deanna Lowe.
Theme Song: Farideh.
Video Editor: Elizabeth Ayiku
Audio Engineer: Tommy Harron
Follow us on social!
Virginia is on Instagram and Threads as @v_solesmith and on Bluesky at @virginiasolesmith.
Corinne is on Instagram at @selfiefay, on Bluesky at @corinnefay and on Patreon at Big Undies.
Support the Me Little Me Foundation, a virtual food pantry supporting multiply marginalized folks recovering from eating disorders.
Thanks for listening and supporting anti-diet, body liberation journalism!