Motherhood & the Messy Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery with Mallary Tenore Tarpley

Save 10% on your next Fleshlight with promo code 10PRIVATE at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fleshlight.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. For the 254th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes writer, journalist, and professor Mallary Tenore Tarpley. Mallary is the author of Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery, and her work reframes recovery not as a clean, finished destination, but as a messy, ongoing “middle place” where progress and setbacks coexist. In this episode, we talk about how grief, control, and perfectionism shaped her eating disorder after losing her mother at a young age, what treatment actually looks like behind the scenes, the concept of normative discontent (the cultural reality that most of us struggle with our bodies), how slips can become opportunities for growth instead of shame spirals, and how she talks to her kids about food, bodies, and emotions in a way that breaks generational cycles. Plus, we dive into the complexities of pregnancy and postpartum recovery with an eating disorder history. For more from today's guest, Mallary Tenore Tarpley: Buy Mallary's book ⁠Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery⁠ Follow Mallary on Instagram @mallarytenoretarpley

You can listen to Motherhood & the Messy Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery with Mallary Tenore Tarpley online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Motherhood & the Messy Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery with Mallary Tenore Tarpley is an episode from Private Parts Unknown (FKA Reality Bytes) by Courtney Kocak.

This episode is 36:39 long.

This episode was published on Apr 8, 2026.

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