Contested Bodies with Leandro Loriga PhD
Contested Bodies is a podcast about the clash between individual autonomy and institutional authority.
Working from anthropological, moral, and ethical perspectives, the series enters the grey zones where medicine, law, and society decide what counts as legitimate suffering, treatment, and what can or cannot be done to the human body.
Hosted by Leandro Loriga, PhD, a medical anthropologist and bioethicist, and founder of Corpus Sui, an international non-profit network working across borders on questions of body, autonomy, and power.
Why are some forms of body-related suffering recognised as identity, while others remain medically and morally suspect?
In this episode of Contested Bodies, I examine the comparison between Body Integrity Dysphoria and Gender Dysphoria. The aim is to asks why two forms of profound body-related distress have received such different clinical, ethical, and cultural responses.
The episode explores how Gender Dysphoria became intelligible through a long history of theoretical, medical, political, and social elaboration, while BID has remained largely isolated, marginal, and morally suspect.
At the centre of the episode is a justice question: if BID is recognised as a real condition, what is the ethically relevant difference that justifies treating it so differently from Gender Dysphoria?
Contested Bodies is a podcast about the clash betweenindividual autonomy and institutional authority, and the moral and ethical grey zones of body, medicine, autonomy, and power.
Chapters:
00:09 Introduction
02:13 A Test of Consistency
04:08 What Identity Means
08:04 Shared Structure, Unequal Histories
10:28 From Sex-Typing to Gender Variance
15:19 The Importance of Telling the Right Story
18:57 A Matter of Authenticity
22:45 Justice and the Relevant Difference
27:36 Conclusion
29:25 Credits
Support the podcast:Contested Bodies is independently written and produced. If you want to support the project, you can do so here: https://buymeacoffee.com/drleandroloriga
Book:This season draws on my research and writing on bodily autonomy, medical authority, and contested forms of suffering. Read more here: BodyIntegrity Dysphoria and the Ethical Dilemma of On-Demand Amputation: Redefining Wholeness: Identity, Autonomy, and the Moral Boundaries of the Human Body
Explore more:Leandro Loriga, PhD:https://leandroloriga.com
Body Integrity Dysphoria project: https://bodyintegritydysphoria.com
Corpus Sui: https://corpussui.com
Credits:Written and produced by Leandro Loriga, PhD.Part of the Contested Bodies project.
Music:Music from Pixabay, used under the Pixabay Content License.
https://pixabay.com/music/mystery-familyx27s-dark-secret-true-crime-soundtrack-loopable-248652/
https://pixabay.com/music/mystery-ethereal-nightmares-halloween-horror-30-sec-403943/
https://pixabay.com/music/pulses-horror-trailer-30s-217439/
https://pixabay.com/music/ambient-marimba-trap-beat-451663/
https://pixabay.com/music/main-title-epic-intro-trailer-257344/
Disclaimer:This podcast is for educational and critical discussion purposes. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Rights:
© 2026 Leandro Loriga, PhD. All rights reserved.
Except as expressly permitted below, no part of this episode, transcript, description, or related material may be reproduced, republished, redistributed, adapted, sold,licensed, or used for commercial purposes without prior written permission from Leandro Loriga, PhD.
Short excerpts may be quoted or shared for non-commercial educational, critical, journalistic, or research purposes, provided that clear attribution is given to ContestedBodies and Leandro Loriga, PhD, and that the source is linked to: https://leandroloriga.com
Any commercial use, republication, redistribution, adaptation, translation, training use, or use of substantial portions of this material requires prior written permission.
For permissions or enquiries: info@leandroloriga.com
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Listen to Contested Bodies
A podcast about the clash between individual autonomy and institutional authority.
Hosted by Leandro Loriga, PhD, Contested Bodies enters the grey zones where medicine, law, and society decide what counts as legitimate suffering, what counts as treatment, and what can or cannot be done to the human body.
The series explores bodily autonomy, medical authority, consent, disability, identity, suffering, moral responsibility, and the forms of power through which bodies are interpreted, regulated, and governed.
Season One focuses on Body Integrity Dysphoria, or B.I.D., a condition recognised in the WHO ICD-11, and asks what happens when a person’s experience of their own body conflicts with medicine’s idea of health, society’s idea of normality, and the law’s authority over the body.
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Support the podcast
Contested Bodies is independently written and produced. If you want to support the project, you can do so here