RagenChastain
Speaker, writer, researcher at the intersections of weight science, weight stigma, and healthcare. MEd, BCPA
Writing: weightandhealthcare.substack.com
Speaking: sizedforsuccess.com
*she/her
- "I think we really need to put our values into action. And if we're really here to serve patients and to advocate for patients, then we need to push back in whatever ways that we can, and for me, this is my way of pushing back." Celeste Royce, MD
- Today in donald's regime: Taking a billion dollars away from local farms and ranches to facilitate taking food away from hungry children. But the rich will get tax cuts so it all works out I guess? www.cnbc.com/2025/03/11/u...
- Reposted by RagenChastainSeeing the laughably bad takes on Rep. Al Green's stand last night, including by never-trumper darlings like Adam Kinzinger. Do you really think a 77-year-old Black man who was born and raised in the Jim Crow South and didn't have the right to vote until he was an adult needs a lecture on optics? 1
- Reposted by RagenChastainHere's what big companies know: the average consumer doesn't have the resources they need to fight back to protect themselves against corporate scams or greed. That's where the CFPB comes in and why we're fighting tooth and nail to defend it.
- "We could find alternate ways of publishing it, I guess," he said. "And I think we don't want to legitimize this process of what's happened. I think it would be a mistake. It would be a disservice, actually, to cave in. I think people do need to stand up and say, this is not okay."
- "we have been locked out of our computers, and have no chance to assist in an orderly transition in our work... We’re supposed to return our equipment, but can’t use our email to find out how or where....we came to the government to fix things. And we’re not done with this work yet"
- I got laid off today, with the rest of 18F. 18F was an elite federal software shop. We made gov't websites work better, more efficiently for the American people. We saved taxpayers from getting screwed over by contractors. And were fired for it. We made this website to tell our story: 18f.org
- Love to see it. There are far more people who support diversity, equity, &inclusion than don't. Profit is the love language of biz. For those who are able (not everyone is) we have real opportunities to drive change through our dollars (or lack thereof) to companies bowing and kowtowing to bigotry.
- I have recently discovered white coffee - twice the caffeine and doesn't taste like coffee (which I loathe)? Amazing! If you knew about this perfect beverage and didn't tell me, we're in a fight now.
- CNN used the Freedom of Information Act to for records related to the security clearances for Musk and DOGE. An OPM email responded, “Good luck with that” — the staff responsible for responding to FOIA requests at OPM had been fired. www.cnn.com/2025/02/18/p...
- Jeff Bezos: "We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets... viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others." www.npr.org/2025/02/26/n...
- Me when I have to press and hold a bar to prove I'm not a bot and get to the website I want to see (even though I understand the utility of doing so.)
- Workshop tomorrow with Dr. Lisa Erlanger. It feels like the right time to talk about weight neutral options for managing blood pressure. All registrants get a recording and there is a pay-what-you-can option so money isn't a barrier. Register: danceswithfat.org/monthly-onli...
- Reposted by RagenChastainThe global South is leading in keeping us all safe. 1.Rwanda &Tanzania contained marburg outbreaks 2.Uganda is fighting Ebola 3. DRC is fighting #mpox Knowledge can flow from the global South to North. With CDC EIS gutted, consider Africa CDC's AES www.globalsouthopportunities.com/2025/02/17/a...
- "Trump has ordered the Justice Department to stop enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for the next six months and instructed prosecutors to refrain from bringing FCPA cases."
- A beautiful story that I wish never needed to happen. www.kqed.org/arts/1397192...
- Reposted by RagenChastainHell yeah. Hold the line. This is what we need people to do. Slow things down, don’t comply in advance so the courts have time to stop them. It’s starting to work.
- Activism works. One DOGGIE down.
- Resource to keep up with pushback on the legal side.
- Obviously this will solve none of the horrors that are happening right now, but coming from my pettiness-as-self-care file: I would like to suggest that we start pronouncing DOGE as "Doggie"
- I didn't know about this: "I pleaded guilty because I was guilty, and accepting a pardon also would serve to contribute to their gaslighting and false narrative...We were wrong that day, we broke the law - there should be no pardons"
- Reposted by RagenChastainHappy Black History Month! Here is my favorite story about a Black American you may not know about: Robert Smalls. He commandeered a confederate ship and sailed himself, his family, and the other enslaved crew and their families to freedom. THROUGH waters controlled by the Confederacy.
- CDC orders mass retraction across all science and medicine journals What can and cannot go forward appears to require approval by a Trump political appointee - there is only one political appointee in the entire CDC, acting Director Susan Monarez (& her personal assistant, who is not a scientist).
- Boosting!
- LGBTQ+, HIV treatment and Prevention, environmental justice, and Mpox prevention have been removed from public view. There are archives here:
- Discussions about higher-weight and inflammation tend to leave out the research that shows that weight stigma and weight cycling are independently associated with increased inflammation. Dr. Zed Zha and I are talking about it for Part 4 of our series on weight, weight loss, and inflammation.
- donald fired about 17 independent inspectors general, reportedly including for Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, and Education. "a sweeping action to remove oversight of his new administration that some members of Congress are suggesting violated federal oversight laws."
- Last chance to register for the live workshop! We're going to break down how to analyze weight-science research, including and especially the research driven by the weight loss industry. There's a sliding scale so money isn't a barrier and recordings if you can't make it live. marcird.com/workshop
- Part 3 of the series Dr. Zed Zha and I are writing about myths and truths around weight and inflammation is out! weightandhealthcare.substack.com/p/weight-and...
- I appreciate the powerful work that @naafaofficial.bsky.social does and I deeply appreciate this attitude. I will also continue to fight - I will not back down, I will not stop. I have a lot of privilege and this is the time to use it.
- NAAFA has served fat people through eleven U.S. presidential administrations. Not only do we intend to keep up the fight, we intend to fight harder. Read more in the NAAFA Newsletter tomorrow at naafa.org/newsletter Subscribe to get our newsletter and other alerts delivered to your email.
- Today's bit of troll genius: "Weight loss studies are never good enough for you because you always find the problems with them." Astute observation my dude. weightandhealthcare.substack.com/p/lancet-opi...
- Jan 22 we're going to be busting the myths about Fat Health that the weight loss industry uses to make billions while risking our health, lives, and quality of life. Pay-what-you-can option so money isn't a barrier and all registrants get a video of the talk & Q&A danceswithfat.org/monthly-onli...
- For those looking for ways to help, here is a masterlist of LA fire disaster support options www.theconsciouscitizens.org/los-angeles-...
- Today in Articles That Shouldn't Have to Exist: I note, as the author alludes to, that there are many people who will not be able to enact this advice and others whose treatment when they do try to enact it will differ greatly due to the treatment they receive as part of marginalized group(s)
- “As politicians’ prejudice transitions from rhetoric to government-sanctioned anti-trans vigilantism, we will certainly see violence increase,” Gooch said. “Trans people will pay the cost with their lives.” truthout.org/articles/mor...
- "The Department of Justice on Tuesday sued six of the nation’s largest landlords, accusing them of using a pricing algorithm to improperly work together to raise rents across the country."
- RealPage’s software collects pricing information from multiple landlords and feeds it through an algorithm that then recommends an optimal rent level to landlords who use it — in violation of rules that prohibit collusion, DOJ prosecutors alleged. By @heathervogell.bsky.social
- We shouldn't need strategies to deal with weight stigma - we should have access to healthcare without it. Still, In a healthcare system rife with weight stigma, here are three things you can do. weightandhealthcare.substack.com/p/three-opti...
- From the article: "As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable. For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the Post."
- Reposted by RagenChastainReally important research that provides evidence against one way fat people experience weight bias in medicine. TYSM Hayley!! 🙏🏻
- "Private equity firms acquire a health system, sell the real estate, force the hospital to pay rent it wasn't paying before, and then take out loans, giving itself dividends that hospitals have to repay..." www.medpagetoday.com/hospitalbase...
- “Perpetrators are emboldened when they not only face no consequences for their violence, but also reap rewards.” Think: classroom accommodations, embellishments to their transcripts, protections from future or additional Title IX complaints, the opportunity to humiliate their victims."
- I just wrote a long thread about being treated as unreliable in the professional sphere; this describes the horrific way victims are discredited and dismissed in campus rape. Very different subjects/seriousness, but it's the same problem of not being treated as credible/ competent when you speak up.
- So far today I have written a paper with footnote citations and re-formatted an existing powerpoint into new template. If you think I think I deserve some kind of medal for this, you are correct.
- I got frustrated trying to find a tab in the (roughly) four million I had open and I just closed them all. What have I done?!?!
- Reposted by RagenChastainCongressman and veteran @repdeluzio.bsky.social lays out the ongoing semi-stealth effort to dismantle veterans healthcare. — The GOP is waging a stealth attack on veterans healthcare thehill.com/opinion/heal...
- Conservatives being shadow-banned on the bird app shrieking that they CAN'T BELIEVE they would be treated like they insisted other people be treated, & shocked- shocked I tell you! - to find out that billionaires only care about acquiring more money is peak lolsob, leopards eating my face behavior.
- GOP/Pharma - If people can't make outrageous wealth, there will be no medical innovation Banting, Best & Collip - Sell insulin patents for $1 to ensure access GOP/Pharma - SUCKERS! The $$=innovation lie is used to prop up a paradigm where innovation is constructed to be the purview of the greedy
- "The rich can bail themselves out, even if they are likely to hurt someone or flee future court dates, while poor people—and disproportionately Black people—languish in jail, which often costs them work, housing, and time spent with family. All of this has now changed in Illinois."
- Reposted by RagenChastainPrison profiteers gonna find a way to profit. With increased efforts to implement caps on the cost of prison phone calls, they've got a new gig: electronify the mail. The profit motive in the US for locking people up is way too strong for way too many. www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2022/11...
- Reposted by RagenChastainWe're trying to dump insurance companies and give people good, solid health care that doesn't break the bank. Want to join us? Pledge to sign our ballot initiative: actionnetwork.org/forms/pledge... And/or become a volunteer: actionnetwork.org/forms/volunt...
- "Enter the tech-bro, app in hand. The tech-bro’s most absurd (and successful) ruse is 'it’s not a crime, I did it with an app.'...One group of workers whose rights are being devoured by gig-work apps is nurses..."
