The Gist – March 19, 2026

Is That Bulls*it: Does The Body Keep the Score – in Your Hips

Host: Mike Pesca
Guest: Sadie Dingfelder, author of Do I Know You?: A Face Blind Reporter’s Journey into the Science of Sight, Memory and Imagination

Episode Overview

This episode of The Gist features an installment of the recurring segment “Is That Bullshit?” where host Mike Pesca and guest Sadie Dingfelder explore a popular claim: “Does the body keep the score—specifically in your hips?” The discussion unpacks the origins, scientific basis, and cultural interpretations of the idea that trauma is stored in the body, especially in the hips, a notion made famous by the bestselling book The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk. The duo also scrutinizes related pseudoscientific trends in wellness culture and addresses broader misunderstandings about memory, trauma, and body-mind connections.

Key Discussion Points

1. Where Does “The Body Keeps the Score” Come From?

• The idea gained massive popularity after The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk was published in 2014.
  • Sadie Dingfelder: “His book came out in 2014, The Body Keeps the Score, and it has been on the bestseller list basically ever since.” (11:00)
• Van der Kolk broadened the definition of trauma beyond acute events (like classic PTSD) to ongoing or developmental trauma.
  • He attempted to introduce new diagnoses such as “developmental trauma disorder” and promote complex PTSD as a category, though neither is in the DSM.

2. What Does “The Body Keeps the Score” Actually Mean?

• The phrase is broad and somewhat vague; in practice, it’s often interpreted as trauma imprinting itself physically in the body, sometimes manifesting as unexplained pain or emotional releases during activities like yoga.
• Sadie clarifies: it’s not controversial to say that “stress affects your body”—but extending this to say the body independently stores traumatic memories, especially in specific muscles, is highly disputed.
  • Sadie Dingfelder: “He never specifically says your body keeps the score without help from the brain. But that's what people have taken it to mean.” (13:09)

3. The “Trauma Lives in Your Hips” Myth in Yoga and Wellness

• Sadie recounts a yoga class where a teacher assured the group that “trauma lives in your hips,” especially in the psoas muscle (14:17).
  • This myth leads people to expect emotional outbursts or catharsis during hip stretches.
  • Mike Pesca: “Is this where the other, I think, equally scientifically valid idea of hips don’t lie came from?” (14:28)
  • Sadie Dingfelder: “Yes, that was Dr. Shakira.” (14:36, playfully referencing pop culture)
• The expectation of catharsis is now a “cultural script” in yoga classes.

4. Is There Any Scientific Basis? Cellular Memory and Muscle Physiology

• People grasp for scientific explanations, like “cellular memory,” to legitimize the idea.
  • Sadie consulted Dr. Nikolai Kukushkin, who clarified that “cellular memory” in muscle cells just means long-lasting changes (like getting stronger after exercise) but not storage of autobiographical trauma.
  • Muscle cells’ changes are generic and broadcast chemical signals, not detailed, transmissible memories.
  • The brain, especially its neurons with their complex synapses, is uniquely suited for storing nuanced, episodic memory. Muscles simply aren’t equipped for this type of “scorekeeping.”
  • Sadie Dingfelder: “Your brain keeps the score. Your body is the scoreboard.” (22:04, 26:41)

5. How Traumatic Memory Actually Works

• True “reliving” or PTSD flashbacks are brain phenomena—triggers like pain or sensation can recall painful memories, but the encoding and recall all happen in neural tissue.
  • Sadie Dingfelder: “If you cut off your head, your body has no score to keep. Basically, your brain keeps the score...” (22:05)

6. Pervasive Myths and Category Creep

• There’s growing public belief in concepts such as “repressed and recovered memory,” which memory scientists view with alarm because it does not reflect actual neuroscience.
  • 92% of people now believe in repressed/recovered memory, up from 70% twenty years ago (24:12).

7. Pseudoscience and Wellness Culture Critique

• Notions about flushing “toxins” from the spine, or attributing mystical properties to muscles and joints in yoga, are “anatomical fan fiction.”
  • Sadie Dingfelder: “There's just so much like anatomical fan fiction in yoga class… they're always just toxins, right?” (25:15–25:39)
• Modern yoga poses themselves are relatively new inventions, dating back to the 1920s.
  • Sadie Dingfelder: “What we call yoga, like a series of postures, only dates back to, like, around the 1920s.” (25:57)

8. Verdict: Is It Bullsh*t?

• Is “the body keeps the score” valid science, at least as commonly interpreted (trauma stored bodily, in places like hips)?
  • Sadie Dingfelder: “It is definitely bullshit. Your brain keeps the score. Your body can be a scoreboard.” (26:41)
• Mike closes with a tongue-in-cheek score: “40-love, the love being your yoga teacher who insists that the pigeon pose is the gateway to that bad thing that happened to you when you were 8.” (26:45)

Notable Quotes

• Mike Pesca (on trauma and body myths):
  “Is this where the other, I think, equally scientifically valid idea of hips don’t lie came from?” (14:28)

• Sadie Dingfelder (verdict):
  “It is definitely bullshit. Your brain keeps the score. Your body can be a scoreboard.” (26:41)

• Sadie Dingfelder (on yoga pseudoscience):
  "There's just so much like anatomical fan fiction in yoga class." (25:15)

• Mike Pesca (on wellness mysticism):
  “Can’t they just stretch and like stretching? Then again, I know it’s associated with Hinduism and so, you know, that’s...Maybe. I know a lot of people down south call it witchcraft.” (25:44)

Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment / Topic | |------------|--------------------------------------------------------| | 09:40 | Introduction to “Is That Bullshit” and the “body keeps the score” myth | | 10:45 | The origin: Van der Kolk and the bestseller’s impact | | 13:09 | Vague interpretations, what the claim really means | | 14:17 | “Trauma in your hips”? The yoga class anecdote | | 15:46 | Attempted scientific explanations—cellular memory | | 17:33 | Comparison of muscle and neuronal memory abilities | | 18:56 | The difference between biological and episodic memory | | 20:25 | Why “body keeps the score” is a big leap scientifically| | 21:26 | PTSD flashbacks, memory triggers, and brain mechanisms | | 22:05 | “Cut off your head, your body has no score to keep…” | | 24:06 | Memory myths—alarming public belief in “recovered memory” | | 25:06 | Piriformis muscle, more yoga myths | | 25:57 | The modern invention of yoga postures | | 26:41 | Final verdict: “Is that bullshit?” |

Takeaways for Listeners

• The belief that trauma is “stored” in your hips or other muscles is not supported by scientific evidence; it’s a product of misinterpreted neuroscience, cultural scripts, and wellness industry marketing.
• The brain is responsible for all meaningful memory, including traumatic experiences, though the effects can manifest bodily (e.g., tension, illness) due to stress responses.
• Wellness trends often perpetuate pseudoscience—always be wary of claims that use science-y language without clear evidence.
• Public understanding of memory and trauma is often shaped more by popular self-help narratives than actual science, sometimes to the detriment of how people interpret their own experiences.

This summary covers the main content of the episode, omitting ads, introductory banter, and closing credits to focus on substantive discussion.