Media & Research Roundup - August 2026
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By Bill and Terri Weitze
Content note: Some articles featured in the Media & Research Roundup may refer to stigmatizing events or use stigmatizing language. Websites hosting the articles linked below may allow advertisements for weight loss products and/or otherwise problematic ads.
July 6, 2026: Space City Nutrition, in Houston Texas, offers weight neutral services incorporating the principles of Health at Every Size, emphasizing relationship with food and body cues, in an environment that is LGBTQIA+ affirming, anti-racist, and neurodiversity affirming.
July 20, 2026: Reema Dbouk, MD, discusses what weight stigma and bias are, and why clinicians need to start addressing and eliminating them from practices.
July 22, 2026: The focus of Weight Stigma Awareness Week 2026 will not be the harms of weight stigma, but Fat Joy! Co-created by Dr. Wendy Oliver-Pyatt and Chevese Turner, the event will take place September 8-9, 2026. “Fat Joy is not about denying the realities of discrimination,” said Turner. “It is about refusing to allow that discrimination to define the boundaries of fat life. Joy can be personal, cultural, communal, and political. Claiming it is an expression of power.”
July 27, 2026: A paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research finds empirical evidence of weight bias in employment against women. Studying unemployed women, women who lost significant weight on GLP-1 drugs had an increase in hiring rates of 27%.
July 29, 2026: Jessie Sage shares what Pittsburgh’s fat community has been building, including yoga classes, Discord channels, drawing sessions, clothing swaps and art installations that center fat bodies.
July 30, 2026: In this ABC News: Australia feature, Virgie Tovar, Dr. Emma Beckett and Professor Gemma Sharp discuss how GLP-1 drugs affect the fat community and body positivity movement.
July 30, 2026: Fat in Connecticut? You might want to check out this local news feature on Fat Babes CT, a group where fat people can be surrounded by other fat people who are not judging them and have some fun, too.
July 31, 2026: Former concert pianist Michael Yaffi is now a pediatric endocrinologist and is encouraging art history studies to help teach medical students to fight weight stigma and bias and to have more empathy for individual bodies, especially larger-bodied patients.
August 2, 2026: Three experts discuss mental health in the age of GLP-1 drugs, whether or not you are on weight loss drugs, and offer some practical steps you can take to help deal with the constant bombardment of weight loss messages we face.
August 3, 2026: Skeletons, Sequins, and Kin, a poetry collection from Wednesdae Reim Ifrach focused on transgender identity, fat liberation and chosen family is now available.
August 3, 2026: Betty Ross, daughter of UK broadcaster Jonathan Ross, celebrates turning 35 by embracing her identity as fat, disabled, nonbinary and polyamorous. Her public statements reflect shifting cultural paradigms in Britain and beyond.
