Roxane Gay: “What Fullness Is”
On the first episode of Medium Playback, Roxane reads her essay and chats about her decision to undergo bariatric surgery
For the first episode of our first-ever podcast, there was only one possible guest we had in mind: Roxane Gay. Her powerful and devastatingly honest essay “What Fullness Is” is one of the most read stories on Medium this year. In the piece, Roxane discloses her decision to undergo bariatric surgery — from the moment in the car when she made up her mind, to the painfully awkward moment with the nurse post-surgery, to her fears about how her fans might respond. It’s the type of story that stays with you for months: “I was an unruly body for him to fix, nothing less, nothing more,” she writes.
In this episode, Roxane performs the essay (2:06), along with music and sound design, and then chats with host Kara Brown (27:52) about why she published the essay, telling her family about her decision, why she believes all insurance companies should need to cover weight loss surgeries, the recent magazine she published with Medium, and the difference between trolls on Twitter vs. real life. (View the show credits.)
Press play at the top of this page to listen to the episode — or listen on Apple Podcasts…
