T-Shirt Swim Club

Stories from Being Fat in a World of Thin People

By: Ian Karmel, Alisa Karmel PsyD

Narrated by: Ian Karmel, Alisa Karmel PsyD

Length: 9 hrs

Publisher's summary

Comedian Ian Karmel, with help from his sister, Dr. Alisa Karmel, opens up about the daily humiliations of being fat and why it’s so hard to talk about something so visible.

“As charming and funny as it is poignant and thoughtful.”—Roxane Gay, author of Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body

Ian Karmel has weighed eight pounds and he has weighed 420 pounds and right now he’s almost exactly in between the two, but this book is not a weight-loss book. It’s about being a fat person in a skinny world. It’s about gym class and football practice, about chicken wings and juice cleanses, about airplane seats and roller coasters, about fat jokes and Jabba the Hutt, about crying in the Big and Tall section and the joys of being a sneakerhead, about prediabetes and gout, and about realizing that you actually don’t want to eat yourself to death and hoping it’s not too late.

This book also includes a “What Now?” section from Ian’s sister, Alisa, who herself cycled through so many fad diets that she eventually pursued a master’s in nutrition and a doctorate in psychology with the goal of changing the contemporary narrative around fatness.

Ian and Alisa Karmel grew up fat. As kids, they never talked about it. They were too busy fighting over the last SnackWell’s Devil’s Food cookie. Now, decades later, having both turned into fat adults who eventually figured out how to get their health under control, they are finally ready to unpack the impact that their weight has had on them.

For them, the T-Shirt Swim Club is meant to be a place of support for anyone who struggles with weight issues. A place of care and candor, free of shame. A place to not deny or avoid the emotions you feel, the experiences you go through, the embarrassment, the anger, the resentment. T-Shirt Swim Club is about being a fat person and how the world treats fat people—but also an acknowledgment that maybe it doesn’t always have to feel quite so lonely.

©2024 Ian Karmel, Alisa Karmel, PsyD (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Ian Karmel is truly an inspirational person. He took his life and his weight by the scruff of the neck and refused to back down in his quest to get healthier. He also got funnier when he got slimmer; this never happens. I love him and I love this book.”—James Corden

“Ian Karmel is funny and his sister is smart. Together they create a work that is both of those things and so much more.”—Seth Meyers

“T-Shirt Swim Club is as charming and funny as it is poignant and thoughtful. Ian Karmel writes about life as a fat boy who grows into a fat man and eventually figures out a better way to live in his body. The stories Karmel shares are heartbreakingly relatable. And Karmel’s sister Alisa, a psychologist, gracefully speaks to the emotional realities of making this world so inhospitable to fat people and how we can better embrace people whatever their size and wherever they are in their journey to have a healthy relationship with their body.”—Roxane Gay, author of Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body