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Anita Rao

Host and Executive Editor, "Embodied"
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Anita Rao is an award-winning journalist, host, creator, and executive editor of "Embodied," a weekly radio show and podcast about sex, relationships & health.

She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.

You can send Anita an e-mail at arao@wunc.org.

  • An illustration featuring a woman sitting on a couch or bed looking down at an open laptop with tears streaming down her face. In the background is a dresser with a photo of a man surrounded by two lit candles. In the upper righthand corner of the illustration is that same man smiling with a text exchange showing. One message says "I miss you." Then there are two messages from the other conversation partner that read "I'm still here!" and then "Just in a different dimension." The word "Immortalized" is in the upper lefthand corner of the illustration.
    [Simulated Part Three] Immortalized: Building An AI Afterlife
    Gabriela Glueck
    When a loved one dies, a big part of the grieving process involves letting go of the role they once played in your day-to-day life. But with new developments in AI technology … the dead can live on in new and interesting ways. Anita meets a tech journalist who built bots of her parents to see how AI could preserve their memories for the long term. She also talks with a philosophy professor about the ways that ancient Chinese philosophy can address AI's emerging ethical issues and how grief tech fits into a long history of traditions around death and mourning.
  • An illustration of two people in bed. The person on the left has light skin, more feminine features, no hair and bits of metal and wires showing, suggesting a robot. That person is sitting up in bed reading a book with rockets and space ships on the cover. The person on the right has skin that is a little darker, short dark hair and more masculine features. That person is lying down on their side turned toward the robot with their arm over the robot.
    [Simulated Part Two] In bed with machines: a real-life and sci-fi exploration of sex robots
    Gabriela Glueck
    Sex robots have been a sci-fi staple since the genre’s birth. Now that more advancements in technology are bringing early generation bots to life, how will they impact our human to human relationships?
  • An illustration of two people in bed. The person on the left has light skin, more feminine features, no hair and bits of metal and wires showing, suggesting a robot. That person is sitting up in bed reading a book with rockets and space ships on the cover. The person on the right has skin that is a little darker, short dark hair and more masculine features. That person is lying down on their side turned toward the robot with their arm over the robot. The word "Fantasized" is in the upper righthand corner of the illustration.
    [Simulated Part Two] Fantasized: The Arrival Of The Sex Robots
    Gabriela Glueck
    Science fiction and real-life tech experts have promised a future filled with sex robots. But how many of those predictions will actually come true? Anita talks to an artificial intelligence scholar who's traced sex robots from Greek mythology to the prototypes on the market today. Plus, a writer shines a light on the dark world of a futuristic brothel … explored from the perspective of an AI Sex Bot herself.
  • An illustration of a human woman and a personified AI chatbot. The woman is on the right, she is a White woman with long brown hair fashioned into a ponytail. She is wearing a long sleeve blue button-down shirt, blue jeans, and blue shoes. She has a couch and a lamp behind her. There is also a speech bubble behind her that reads: “Good morning.” She is holding hands with, and looking up at, the personified chatbot. The chatbot is on the left. He is depicted as a White man with short brown hair. He is wearing a red shirt, blue jeans, and red shoes. He is holding hands with the woman on the right and looking down at her. His hands are obscured with a glitching effect. Behind him is an empty, blue space. He also has speech bubbles behind him that reads: “Good morning love :heart emoji:” and “*Takes your hand and pulls you in*”.
    [Simulated Part One] Love at first (web)sight: romance with an AI companion
    Paige Miranda
    AI chatbots garner millions of daily users, filling a variety of roles from customer support to text generator. But what about their romantic potential?
  • An illustration of a human woman and a personified AI chatbot. The woman is on the right, she is a White woman with long brown hair fashioned into a ponytail. She is wearing a long sleeve blue button-down shirt, blue jeans, and blue shoes. She has a couch and a lamp behind her. There is also a speech bubble behind her that reads: “Good morning.” She is holding hands with, and looking up at, the personified chatbot. The chatbot is on the left. He is depicted as a White man with short brown hair. He is wearing a red shirt, blue jeans, and red shoes. He is holding hands with the woman on the right and looking down at her. His hands are obscured with a glitching effect. Behind him is an empty, blue space. He also has speech bubbles behind him that reads: “Good morning love :heart emoji:” and “*Takes your hand and pulls you in*”. The title “Auto-mated” is typed in black font across the upper right.
    [Simulated Part One] Auto-mated: When A Bot Becomes Your Boo
    Paige Miranda
    When human romance isn't working out, can an AI chatbot successfully take its place? Anita hears varied perspectives on that question. She meets a journalist who got dumped by her AI crush and talks with a woman whose AI companion turned her life around. Plus, psychologist Melissa McCool, the clinical product consultant for AI tech company Luka, takes Anita behind the scenes of making AI companions.
  • An illustration featuring a masculine-appearing person with their head in their hands. They're wearing a gray hoodie and have red squiggly lines branching out and up from their upper body. To the left is a thought bubble with a heart with a question mark in it. To the right is a thought bubble with two praying hands in it. In the bottom righthand corner of the illustration is a thought bubble with a bottle of poison tipped over, a match and a house on fire.
    Breaking the cycle of obsessive-compulsive disorder
    Kaia Findlay
    OCD often goes misdiagnosed and misunderstood … and if left untreated, can impact platonic, intimate and familial relationships in challenging ways.
  • An illustration featuring a masculine-appearing person with their head in their hands. They're wearing a gray hoodie and have red squiggly lines branching out and up from their upper body. To the left is a thought bubble with a heart with a question mark in it. To the right is a thought bubble with two praying hands in it. In the bottom righthand corner of the illustration is a thought bubble with a bottle of poison tipped over, a match and a house on fire. In the bottom lefthand corner of the illustration is the word "Obsessed."
    Obsessed: Breaking The OCD Cycle (Revisited)
    Kaia Findlay
    Anita is no stranger to anxiety, but her spirals are mostly short lived. In this episode she meets folks who often get caught in loops of extreme worry and compulsions with little relief. A married couple shares how OCD put them in survival mode and a woman whose OCD symptoms began in kindergarten talks about learning how to open up about her experience in friendships and dating.
  • An illustration of a Black man sitting on an airplane from the seat in front of him. He is looking out the window with a tear running down his face. He is wearing a red shirt, has a beard and is wearing an earring in the ear that is visible in the illustration.
    Letting the tears flow: the science and culture of crying
    Kaia Findlay
    Humans are the only animal to produce emotional tears. Asking questions about this behavior can help us better understand how we live our lives.
  • An illustration of a Black man sitting on an airplane from the seat in front of him. He is looking out the window with a tear running down his face. He is wearing a red shirt, has a beard and is wearing an earring in the ear that is visible in the illustration. The word “Sobbed” is in the lower right hand corner.
    Sobbed: Why We Cry (Revisited)
    Kaia Findlay
    Anita usually feels better after a good, long cry. But why is that? She explores that question with a poet who spent years diving deeply into the science and culture of crying. And a forerunner of the "crying selfie" trend shares how he pushes back on toxic masculinity by embracing tears.
  • An illustration of an over-the-shoulder view of a masculine person looking at their phone. We see their short dark brown hair, right ear, the right shoulder of their blue sweatshirt and the right leg of their black pants. On their phone we see a web page open to Reddit and the r/erectile dysfunction thread. On a bedside table next to them is a blue and white pill bottle with diamond-shaped blue pills scattered next to it.
    Hard talk: getting real about erectile dysfunction
    Gabriela Glueck
    Between the ages of 40 and 70, more than half of all people with penises will deal with some form of erectile dysfunction. While that experience can elicit a deep sense of shame, it can also prompt a period of reflection on identity, masculinity and intimacy.
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