RISK! Reacts - "The Day I Met ARFID"
Podcast: RISK!
Host: Kevin Allison
Guest Storyteller: Danielle Minard
Release Date: November 25, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode of RISK! Reacts features Kevin Allison experiencing Danielle Minard's powerful story—originally shared on The Story Collider's “Food Fights” episode—about living with ARFID (Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder) and her transformative journey toward expanding her relationship with food. The episode explores the lifelong challenge of ARFID, the hope found through unconventional therapies (including a psychedelic experience), and the emotional victories of overcoming ingrained limitations. Kevin provides immediate, insightful reactions on the story’s themes of resilience, personal growth, and the universality of struggle.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Danielle Minard’s Story: Living with ARFID

Childhood & Early Experiences

• Danielle describes herself as a once-adventurous eater, nicknamed "the garbage disposal" as a toddler, who could eat anything ([02:03]).
• After an ear surgery at age two—which successfully restored her hearing—Danielle developed a sudden, severe sensitivity to foods. Nearly everything, even favorites, triggered gag reflexes or became intolerable ([02:45]).
• She recalls therapy sessions as a child, being coaxed to try just a bite of chicken in exchange for a plain animal cracker—a moment highlighting both desperation and frustration ([04:20]).

"I was a teenager who couldn’t eat."
—Danielle Minard ([05:12])

Adolescence & College

• The disorder followed her through adolescence, making social eating fraught with shame and anxiety.
• She structured her life to avoid food-related situations, even choosing an English major to reduce future social meal obligations: “I literally won’t have coworkers to comment on why I’m eating the same Easy Mac every day for lunch. It’s a plan.” ([06:13])

Understanding ARFID

• Danielle names her condition: “Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID),” explaining how her brain misread most foods as disgusting or even trash-like.
• The isolation caused by ARFID led her to hide from the world and seek out solutions as an adult ([07:23]).

Therapies Tried & Psychedelic Exploration

• Traditional therapies—including exposure therapy and at-home hypnotherapy—failed to bring significant change.
• A chance moment watching a documentary introduced her to the idea of psychedelic-assisted therapy as a potential treatment for eating disorders ([09:13]).
• Overcoming her own anti-drug upbringing, Danielle meticulously prepared for a self-led psilocybin mushroom experience, supported by her husband ([10:40]).

The Psychedelic Breakthrough

• The experience is both humorous and poignant; after ingesting the mushrooms in a concoction with hot chocolate (“Does it mask the taste? No. But I drink it. I chug it.” [12:27]), Danielle has a vision of her disorder personified as a "sweet, friendly, scared, fluffy purple monster named ARFID."
• She bids it farewell:

  "Thank you for keeping me safe, but I don't need you like that anymore. I love you. Goodbye."
  —Danielle Minard ([13:28])

The Joy of Rediscovery

• Under the influence, she tries a nectarine for the first time:

  “It’s wet and soft and juicy and it smells like a sweet flower and it tastes like sunshine on a cold day after a wind just passed by. Food can do this. I am stoked.”
  —Danielle Minard ([14:16])

• Rapid progress follows: kale salads, avocados, sushi—all firsts. Each new food becomes an adventure and a small triumph over fear ([15:07]).

Reflections and Closing

• Danielle embraces her newfound joy and unity through food, noting: “I was born without one sense, my hearing. But when I gained that, I lost another. But now I’m 30, and I eat everything.” ([16:42])

“Have you ever heard of sandwiches? You can put literally anything on a sandwich. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
—Danielle Minard ([16:11])

Kevin Allison’s Reaction

On Storytelling and Empathy

• Kevin celebrates the transformative power of a well-told story:

  "It can take you out of your own head and your obsession with your own problems and just help you to see… there’s so much else possibility in the world.”
  —Kevin Allison ([17:05])

Experiential Parallels

• Kevin connects Danielle’s encounter with her inner “ARFID monster” to Jungian “active imagination,” highlighting the psychological value of dialoguing with one’s inner challenges and the natural enhancement of this practice via psychedelics ([19:10]).
• He notes the unfair randomness of life's hardships, referencing his own struggles with acceptance and personal growth:

  “Life is so not fair. And I think that there is a childish part of me that at 55 still really, really struggles with that… the fact just is that a lot of people are saddled with problems that other people just aren’t, and those things can be so huge.”
  —Kevin Allison ([20:30])

Psychedelic Therapeutics

• Kevin reflects on another (un-broadcast) RISK! story about OCD and mushrooms, likening it to Danielle's breakthrough.
• He draws on Sam Harris's philosophy about psychedelics as tools for personal insight:

  “If one of my children got to be around 18… and they expressed that they had no interest in ever trying psychedelics, I’d be disappointed in them… it’s such a way of connecting to parts of your consciousness that are there, right? But kind of latent, you know, kind of hidden to you.”
  —Kevin Allison ([22:32])

Cautions and Growth

• He acknowledges both the potential and unpredictability of psychedelic journeys, referencing a “mushroom trip gone wrong” in his own life and the importance of setting for such experiences ([24:19]).
• Ultimately, Kevin underscores the importance of persistence and self-compassion in personal development:

  “It’s always great to hear about people who took a risk and got really like positive intentioned about something and made real progress and then kept on that journey. I mean, that’s as good as it gets.”
  —Kevin Allison ([26:45])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I was a teenager who couldn’t eat.” —Danielle Minard ([05:12])
• “I could smell a fresh ripe orange on the other side of the room and think that we’d left out last month’s trash to rot.” —Danielle Minard ([07:09])
• “Maybe I can eat a walnut. I can if I convince myself for about three weeks to work up to it. And can I keep it in my diet? No. But look, I ate it, I tried the walnut…” —Danielle Minard ([08:57])
• “Does it mask the taste? No. But I drink it. I chug it. It’s the biggest food exposure therapy of my life.” —Danielle Minard ([12:27])
• “Thank you for keeping me safe, but I don’t need you like that anymore. I love you. Goodbye.” —Danielle Minard ([13:28])
• “It’s wet and soft and juicy and it smells like a sweet flower and it tastes like sunshine on a cold day after a wind just passed by. Food can do this. I am stoked.” —Danielle Minard ([14:16])
• “Every moment, I have the ability to try to unite people through food, because it turns out, most of us don’t have an easy time with eating.” —Danielle Minard ([16:29])
• “You can never completely understand what someone else is living through, you know, what their background is, what their particular psychological framework for things is, and how their brain works.” —Kevin Allison ([21:15])
• “Never give up hope when it comes to personal growth… you master a bit and then regress and then have to work on again. And…it’s always great to hear about people who took a risk and got really like positive intentioned about something and made real progress and then kept on that journey.” —Kevin Allison ([26:45])

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:03] Danielle’s childhood onset of ARFID after ear surgery
• [04:20] Therapy as a child; food aversion examples
• [05:12] Impact on adolescence and social life
• [06:13] College major selection and life adaptation due to ARFID
• [07:23] Explanation and lived experience of ARFID
• [09:13] Discovery of psychedelic-assisted therapy as hope
• [10:40] Planning and preparation for the psilocybin experience
• [12:27] Consuming the mushroom tea
• [13:28] Encounter and farewell to the ARFID “monster”
• [14:16-15:07] First joyful food experiences post-therapy
• [16:11] Rediscovery and playful reflection on food (sandwiches!)
• [16:42] Closing insight: “Now I’m 30, and I eat everything.”
• [17:05] Kevin’s initial reaction and discussion on empathy
• [19:10] Jungian “active imagination” and psychedelics
• [20:30] Reflection on life’s unfairness and difference
• [22:32] Views on psychedelic therapy and Sam Harris quote
• [24:19] Mushroom trip cautionary tale
• [26:45] Summary insight on growth and persistence

Tone & Style

The episode maintains RISK!'s signature mix of disarming honesty, vulnerability, and humor—balancing deeply personal revelations with moments of levity and self-reflection. Danielle’s storytelling is raw, witty, and endearingly hopeful, while Kevin’s commentary is empathetic, philosophically curious, and peppered with personal anecdotes.

Further Resources

• Danielle Minard
  Instagram/TikTok: @learningaboutfood
  Features videos of new food discoveries post-ARFID breakthrough

• The Story Collider
  science-focused storytelling podcast: storycollider.org

Final Thoughts

“The Day I Met ARFID” is an inspiring story of grappling with and triumphing over a lifelong eating disorder, celebrating unconventional methods when conventional ones fall short, and highlighting the joy of reconnecting to a world of taste and possibility. Kevin’s reflections extend the story into broader themes of empathy, struggle, and the quirks of personal transformation. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the frontiers of mental health, neurodiversity, and the messy, hopeful business of being human.