Quitted cover art

Quitted

Quitted

By: Holly Whitaker & Emily McDowell
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Quitted is a podcast about quitting, hosted by Holly Whitaker and Emily McDowell.


What happens when you don't want to be who you are anymore?


For all of us, there comes a time when in order to thrive (or simply survive!), we have to walk away from something that represents a huge piece of our identity. This could be a career, a relationship, a religion, a long-held dream, a social norm, a gender–whatever it is, it’s a massive part of who we are, and letting it go comes at great personal cost. Quitting means disappointing all the people invested in our staying; it requires giving up the security of what we know, and stepping into a liminal space where we’re not sure who we are anymore.


Unlike growing and building, which our culture obsessively celebrates, endings are quiet and lonely, because we don’t talk about them. Quitting is synonymous with failure. We’re conditioned to believe perseverance is a virtue, “winners never quit,” and giving up means losing. Quitting is only acceptable when it's a waypoint to something greater, some imagined bigger and better future. But what if that’s all a lie?


We’ll talk with guests who have quit all kinds of seemingly impossible things, about the decision to quit, but even more importantly, about what happens after that. Quitting doesn't mean going directly from being one thing to being another thing; in between, there’s a middle space, a transitional space, and that space is hard, confusing, and groundless. We'll talk about navigating that space, and everything surrounding it, in order to help provide insight, permission, and illumination for others seeking the courage to risk everything to find a truer north.


We’ll also explore the concept of quitting itself, how it came to hold the meaning it does, its inextricable links to late-stage American capitalism, and how a shifting narrative around giving up could be the key to a different future.

Become a Quitted supporter on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Holly Whitaker & Emily McDowell Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Who moved our cheese? (An update episode.)

    Who moved our cheese? (An update episode.)
    May 30 2024

    In June 2022, Holly drove across the country to move back to Los Angeles from New York after Martha Beck live-coached her into it on episode 14.


    The plan was to get to New Mexico by Friday in order to record episode 22 of Quitted (quitting compulsory sexuality!), but then Roe got overturned, and because we were both in the middle of having total life meltdowns already and didn't have much grace or space to begin with, we kind of broke. By July, neither of us had any desire to be talking in public; we couldn't even get ourselves together enough to release a five minute episode explaining why we were quitting Quitted.


    In the two years that have passed things have changed significantly for both our hosts in really beautiful and surprising ways, mostly thanks to their shared commitment to remaining in the messy ass middle of their individual transitions from founder/CEOs/influencers to whatever they are now (people??).


    This episode is a catch up episode in which both Emily and Holly discuss where they were, where they are now, and what happened when they didn't try to find their next gig, and instead sat in the complete shi^^y mess that is the long in between.


    Links:

    https://quitted.myflodesk.com/

    https://www.emilyonlife.com/

    https://www.hollywhitaker.com/

    Become a Quitted supporter on Patreon

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 6 mins
  • Diane Sanfilippo Quits Diet Culture Part 2

    Diane Sanfilippo Quits Diet Culture Part 2
    Jun 30 2022

    Diane Sanfilippo Quits Diet Culture Part 2


    Last week in our interview with best-selling author of diet books and former-diet-entrepreneur-turned-anti-diet-activist Diane Sanfilippo: we got deep into how after 20 years of dieting and building a whole VERY SUCCESSFUL career steeped in diet culture, Diane found she couldn’t make herself lose the same x pounds yet again. Last week we dug into what diet culture is and how that came to define Diane’s existence. This week we go deep into the implications of that decision. We talk about changing our minds in public, being true to our integrity at the cost of the public’s understanding or agreement; the dreaded liminal space and what happens when you’ve got ADHD and nothing to keep you structured, and committing to the truth over consistency.


    About Diane Sanfilippo: Diane is the owner and founder of Balanced Bites - a wholesome food company that creates frozen meals, organic spice blends and snacks - all shipped nationwide. She's a certified holistic Nutrition Consultant, and two-time New York Times bestselling diet book author turned anti-diet advocate. Diane co-hosts Full Plate, a weekly podcast about healing from diet culture, setting boundaries, exploring mental health, and finding body liberation. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, Scott, and two fur kids.

    You can find Diane on Instagram: @dianesanfilippo

    and via her websites balancedbites.com and dianesanfilippo.com 


    Support us:

    Quitted is listener-supported, made possible by us and by you; you can support this podcast by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/quitted


    Music: Michael Blumenfeld, mikebloomstudio.com

    Sound engineering + edits: Adam Day, https://www.adamdayphotography.com/

    Producer: Cathleen Kisich


    Become a Quitted supporter on Patreon

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Show More Show Less
    46 mins
  • Diane Sanfilippo Quits Diet Culture: Part 1

    Diane Sanfilippo Quits Diet Culture: Part 1
    Jun 23 2022

    Diane Sanfilippo Quits Diet Culture: Part 1


    During the pandemic, Diane Sanfilippo got on the scale and saw a number that was more than when she started dieting twenty years before; and she realized she couldn’t make herself diet again. This isn’t entirely exceptional, it probably happened to a lot of us, except in Diane’s case she was the author of six bestselling diet books, from Keto QuickStart to Practical Paleo to The 21-Day Sugar Detox. So it wasn’t as if she was just done dieting; she was also done with her career, livelihood, an entire identity.


    What happens when the thing you believed in stops aligning? What if that thing is a decade’s worth of best-selling books that don’t represent your current value system? What if you’ve been the poster child of dieting and you’ve decided to not just stop dieting, but become a visible and active critic of diet culture itself? Or what about this: what if you’re career kept your life together, kept you structured, and all that just goes away and you’re left in the vacuum of what’s next?


    In this first part of a two-part series, we get into a lot: What diet culture is, how it keeps us distracted and forever chasing acceptance within patriarchy instead of burning it down; what about using diets to actually not feel horrible or to improve our health and the spectrum of anti-diet to diet positive; whether sugar addiction is real!; how in 2021 Diane realized after getting on the scale and seeing she’d “undid” all her work and that she couldn’t diet again or spend the rest of her life managing her food, and what came from realizing she was part of the problem.


    In next week’s episode we get way down into what happened after Diane walked away and how she’s managing a pretty extreme liminal space.


    About Diane Sanfilippo: Diane is the owner and founder of Balanced Bites - a wholesome food company that creates frozen meals, organic spice blends and snacks - all shipped nationwide. She's a certified holistic Nutrition Consultant, and two-time New York Times bestselling diet book author turned anti-diet advocate. Diane co-hosts Full Plate, a weekly podcast about healing from diet culture, setting boundaries, exploring mental health, and finding body liberation. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, Scott, and two fur kids.

    You can find Diane on Instagram: @dianesanfilippo

    and via her websites balancedbites.com and dianesanfilippo.com


    Support us:

    Quitted is listener-supported, made possible by us and by you; you can support this podcast by joining our Patreon community at patreon.com/quitted


    Music: Michael Blumenfeld, mikebloomstudio.com

    Sound engineering + edits: Adam Day, https://www.adamdayphotography.com/

    Producer: Cathleen Kisich

    Host: Holly Whitaker, https://hollywhitaker.substack.com/

    Host: Emily McDowell, https://emilyonlife.com


    Become a Quitted supporter on Patreon

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr

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Profile Image for Anonymous User

Not what I expected

Hi Holly, I loved your book as it was full of critical thinking, solutions and guidence on quitting alcohol.

During your podcast episode it is appears that you still are in the early stages of recovery. The pain and grief shines through, whilst also flaunting the capitalist world which I don’t believe the listeners would resonate with.

I expected, which I shouldn’t have, to hear about organic experiences of the journey and current practices that you live by for your spirituality, wellbeing and wholeness.

I hope you are continuing your journey on loving yourself in all the ways and more in your discussion found in your book. It is inspirational and I would love to hear more positivity on this podcast, maybe a new podcast, about holistic and spiritual meanings of one in place,

Keep your head up, continue the legacy where you have touched so many lives, and own it for your new meaning. Tempest was successful because of you, I wonder what else could be?

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