Hungering for Health
Craving Food, Culture, and Meaning in the Ozempic Era
Thank you to everyone from the campus, the clinic, and the community who joined us for the conversation on April 9th. Please enjoy the photos, video recordings, and resources from the event below.
And please continue to think and talk to one another about the questions we raised together, including those posed by our MC, Dr. Stephen Dahmer:
What am I truly hungry for when I think about health?
Where do my stories about food and body come from?
What might need to change for me, and for us, for that hunger to be met more fully and more justly?
Event Overview
By muting hunger and recalibrating blood sugar, Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs offer life-saving tools to address chronic health conditions like diabetes and obesity. And yet, these biomedical advances have arisen amid a landscape of global food insecurity, disordered eating, and shifting narratives about health and body image. This program invites participants to explore what it means to hunger – for nourishment, belonging, and balance – in an age of pharmaceutical "fixes."
What happens when complex questions about our bodies are answered with commercial taglines? When we treat appetite as a switch and diets as data points, do we lose food’s deeper connections to nourishment, community, heritage, and care? How do technologies that promise bodily control intersect with human experiences of health, beauty, identity, and justice?
Join us for an evening that brings together scholars, clinicians, culinarians, and community members to explore the meaning of appetite and nourishment through science, story, and sensory experience. By mixing art, food, and conversation, we’ll reflect on the possibilities that emerge when we consider metabolism as a bridge between science and meaning, the body and the world.
When: Thursday, April 9th, 2026 | 5-8pm
Where: The Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona | 1502 E. Mabel St.
Free and open to the public, but seating is limited!
Register to Join Us
This will not be your average reception, lecture, or panel discussion. Guided by an outstanding line-up of facilitators, guests will be invited to think across disciplines and outside comfort zones, to grapple with big questions of culture and health, and to share food, ideas and experiences.
The dynamic program will feature:
- Mingling and Enjoying Appetizers
- Exploring an Interactive Student Art Exhibit
- A Lightening Keynote
- Transdisciplinary Panel Discussion
- Culinary Demonstration & Tasting
Our exceptional speakers and facilitators shared a variety of resources to learn more, to find support, and to engage in dialogue about the topics of food, health, hunger, medication, and our human experiences.
El Rio Health Builders Programs (English & Español)
Adult Lifestyle Programs - Register
Youth Wellness Programs - Register
For Healthcare Providers & Trainees
Weight Neutral Health Interprofessional Training - Summer 2026
Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine Patient Education Library
For University of Arizona Community Members
Campus Health Nutrition Resources & Counseling Services - including support for eating disorders
Campus Pantry and the Basic Needs Coalition
Other Food-Related Resources
Event Video Recordings
Special thanks to videographers Nate Mehr and Melody Murray from the College of Humanities Marketing and Communications Team.
Images from the Event
Special thanks to photographer Michelle Doggett from the College of Humanities Marketing and Communications Team.
Interactive Student Art Exhibit
Special thanks to the students from the Health and Human Values Club, the Health Humanities Hub, and Health Humanities Collective.
Speakers and Facilitators
Student Artists and Humanists
Students from the W.A. Franke Honors College's Health & Human Values Club, the College of Humanities' Health Humanities Hub, and the student-led Health Humanities Collective will kick off the evening by engaging us in art and interactive experiences to explore the variety of ways we conceive of and connect to food, health, body image, and hunger.
Stephen Dahmer, MD
Dr. Stephen Dahmer is the Assistant Dean for Wellness at the College of Medicine - Tucson and Director of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, our beautiful venue for the evening. He will serve as Master of Ceremonies, bringing integrative medicine and whole-person health lenses to help frame our exploration of appetite, nourishment, and the body in the Ozempic era.
James F. Richardson, PhD
Dr. James Richardson will kick-off the evening with a thought-provoking talk "Never Sated - The Tragedy of the Ozempic Age." Richardson is a Tucson-based cultural anthropologist whose fieldwork in South India and market research in the pantries of America gives him a unique, cross-cultural perspective on how American food consumption has evolved since the mid-20th century and what it means for public health policy. He writes a growing Substack - Homo Imaginari - and is author of the Nautilus award-winning book, Our Worst Strength - American Individualism and Its Hidden Discontents.
DeAnna Daniels, PhD
Dr. DeAnna Daniels is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Religious Studies whose scholarship spans Black religion, gender and sexuality, Black speculative fiction and horror, visual culture, and art and aesthetics. As moderator of the evening's interdisciplinary panel, she brings critical perspectives on identity, embodiment, and meaning-making, and her lived experience with GLP-1 medication grounds this discussion in both intellectual and personal knowledge.
Mari Ricker, MD
Dr. Mari Ricker directs the Integrative Medicine in Residency Program at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine. She is a family medicine physician at Banner - University Medical Center South and Professor at the College of Medicine - Tucson where she teaches culinary medicine to MD students. Dr. Ricker brings clinical expertise and a deep commitment to reconnecting food, medicine, and healing to the panel discussion.
Josh Schlachet, PhD
Dr. Josh Schlachet is an Assistant Professor in East Asian Studies with scholarship centered on food and diet in early modern Japan--and Culinary Institute of America-trained chef. As a panelist and co-leader of the evening's culinary demonstration, he will offer a combination of historical, cultural, and culinary expertise that illuminates food's deep connections to meaning, tradition, and identity across time and place.
Joy Mockbee, MD, MPH
Dr. Joy Mockbee is a physician and medical director for El Rio Family Medicine where she leads multiple community and clinical programs focused on weight management, youth health, and lifestyle behavior change, including HYPE and FRESHT2DM. Her work bridges clinical medicine and community-based approaches to metabolic health and wellbeing.
Chef Shuka Parker
Shuka Parker is a chef, owner of Shuka Sweets, and a Tucson City of Gastronomy Chef-Ambassador. Originally from Awaji Island in Japan, she brings a cross-cultural culinary vision shaped by Japanese, French, and American traditions. Her belief that "we are what our microbes eat" and her philosophy that sweets do not have to be sugary highlight the connections between fermentation, health, and enjoyment of food. With a live culinary demonstration, she will show how the joy of creating food can nourish both body and community.
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