Katriona O'Sullivan on women's bodies, hunger & why women shrink

The Shift with Sam Baker

Sam Baker Ltd

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.8 • 525 Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2026

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My guest today is Dr Katriona O’Sullivan. Katriona grew up in Coventry and her early life was marked by poverty, addiction and abuse. She became pregnant and subsequently homeless at 15, let down and written off by the adults who were meant to care for her. In 1998 she moved to Dublin with her son and entered Trinity College through the access programme. There She earnt a Phd in psychology and is now a professor at Maynooth university, directs the National Centre for inclusive higher education and writes a regular column for the Irish Independent. Amongst other things. Katriona’s debut memoir, Poor, an intimate personal examination of the complexities of growing up in poverty, spent an incredible 114 weeks in the bestseller lists. Now she’s written Hungry, a fierce and moving examination of her own battle with body image and the way trauma, class and gender shape the way women see themselves. Katriona joined me to talk about spending a lifetime trying to shrink herself to fit and how the world benefits from women hating our bodies. We also discussed why over yogaing is a class issue, holding mothers to a different standard, ambition hunger, parenting boys, really bad sex, how hunger comes from the soul not the stomach and why no longer being an object of sexual interest is a bloody enormous relief. * You can buy all the books mentioned in this podcast at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Shift bookshop on Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, including Hungry by Katriona O'Sullivan as well as the book that inspired this podcast, The Shift: how I lost and found myself after 40 - and you can too, by Sam Baker. * If you enjoyed this episode and you fancy buying me a coffee, pop over to my page on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠buymeacoffee.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. • And if you'd like to support the work that goes into making this podcast and get a weekly newsletter plus loads more content including exclusive transcripts of the podcast, why not join The Shift community, come and have a look around at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.theshiftwithsambaker.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • The Shift is created, hosted and produced by Sam Baker and edited by Juliette Nicholls at Pineapple Audio Productions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to The Shift, the podcast that aims to tell the no holds barred truth about being a woman post 40, created and hosted by me, writer and broadcaster Sam Baker.
0:15.1	My guest today is the phenomenal Dr Katrina O'Sullivan.
0:20.5	Now, Katrina grew up in Coventry and her early life was marked by poverty, addiction and abuse.
0:27.1	She became pregnant and subsequently homeless at 15, let down and written off by the adults
0:32.6	who were meant to care for her.
0:34.4	So many adults.
0:36.7	In 1998, she moved as a single mum to Dublin with her son and entered
0:41.3	Trinity College through the Access Program. There, she earned a PhD in psychology, and she's now a
0:47.5	professor at Maynooth University. She also directs the National Centre for Inclusive Higher
0:52.9	Education and writes a regular column for the Irish Independent.
0:57.4	And that is just the tip of the iceberg of all the stuff she does.
1:01.9	She wrote a memoir, her debut, Poor, which was an intimate personal examination of the complexities of growing up in poverty.
1:10.0	She pulled no punches. And as a result of that,
1:14.1	in my view, spent an incredible 114 weeks in the bestseller lists. Now she's written hungry,
1:23.6	a fierce and moving examination of her own battle with body image and the way trauma, class and
1:29.5	gender shape the way women see themselves. It's just as candid. My dad included me in his
1:38.5	ogling of women. I was his special girl, as in like, I was the girl that he, you know, the child that he wanted with him and he took me out a lot.
1:48.2	My dad was a drug addict. My dad had a very traumatic child at himself and he included me in very adult conversations about women and their bodies.
1:57.3	Katrina joined me to talk about spending a lifetime trying to shrink herself to fit and how the
2:02.8	world benefits when women hate our bodies. We also discussed why over-yogaing is a class issue,
2:11.1	holding mothers to a different standard, ambition hunger, parenting boys, really bad sex, how hunger comes from the soul, not the stomach,
2:22.8	and why no longer being an object of sexual interest is a bloody enormous relief.
	...

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