Special: Dieting to Death

The Oprah Winfrey Show: The Podcast

Oprah

Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

From November 27, 1989: Oprah talks to Rudine Howard, a woman weighing only 60 pounds, about her battle with anorexia nervosa. Rudine discusses her fear of food and how treatment with medical hypnotherapist Dr. Henry Parker helped her self-esteem. Other women suffering from bulimia share their patterns of bingeing and purging, the role of denial and why they see food as their only friend. Plus psychiatrist Dr. Patricia Santucci describes the characteristics of those who suffer from eating disorders, the adverse side effects and why it’s important to break the chain of secrecy. Rudine Howard later succumbed to her disease, passing away in 1996.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Through 25 seasons, 4,561 episodes.
0:05.0	I believe the Oprah Winfrey show
0:08.0	was one of the greatest classrooms in the world.
0:10.0	I really never thought of it that way.
0:12.0	The aha moments, the breakthroughs, the connections,
0:16.0	the occasional ugly cry.
0:18.0	I miss him so terribly, I miss it every single minute.
0:21.6	The LOLs.
0:22.6	The moments that mattered.
0:24.6	The eye-opening life lessons.
0:27.6	Never allow them to take you somewhere else.
0:30.6	I'm bringing them back.
0:32.6	It's time to open the vault.
0:34.6	I've personally chosen these classic episodes to share with you again.
0:40.2	Every single person you ever will meet shares that common desire.
0:45.0	They want to know, do you see me?
0:47.9	Do you hear me?
0:48.7	Does what I say mean anything to you?
0:52.7	You are listening to the Oprah Winfrey Show, the podcast.
1:00.0	Rudine Howard is a human skeleton living on what she calls God's will.
1:05.5	After 11 years, she still suffers from life-threatening anorexia nervosa.
1:10.4	We've been following Rudain's battle to survive for the past four months now.
	...

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