Happy Obama! - 11/7/12

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Although my show this week was a bit scattered, I am so pleased to share it with you. Instead of 4 years of regression and the destruction of the equality that we have been striving for, America was smart enough to elect President Obama for a second term. This means progress, hope, and to be blunt, getting shit done.

I don't have much else to say, but enjoy the episode. 

Music you heard:

1. "6PM" from Animal Crossing OST
2. "Time Is All Around" by Regina Spektor
3. "Change" by Podington Bear
4. "bamboo cactus" by i, cactus

Useful links:

1. Obama's Victory Speech

Safety Girl! - 10/24/12

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Today's show I had a very special guest: Tanya Veilleux, who you might know as Safety Girl. She recently opened Get Curious with Safety Girl on Liberty (under Bongz & Thongz), and is on a mission to help the community by offering lots of toys, workshops, and fun costumes.

Something I love about what Tanya does, is that she is not afraid to be completely sex positive, and in a completely safe way. There are no dumb questions with her, and there's nothing TMI. You can talk about anything, and her shop is a completely safe space for this. Tanya also has developed a relationship with First Step, a domestic violence support community, which I think is so necessary to talk about and bring to light, since 1 in 4 women has experienced domestic violence.

The thing I realized while talking to Tanya was that it's important to band together in small communities like ours. Sometimes it's hard to open up about your sexuality, whether your straight or queer, and it feels good to have other people that are open about it. That is one of the fundamental reasons for my show here guys: to make you feel comfortable talking about your sexuality. I want you to feel empowered and comfortable with yourself, and the only way for that to happen is if other people are open about their own sexuality. Sex-positivism is catching.

Music you heard:

1. "Curious Jungle" by Podington Bear
2. "Ask Me Now" by Thelonious Monk
3. Safety Girl Theme

Useful links:

1. Get Curious with Safety Girl
2. Safety Girl on Facebook
3. "Boutique caters to student sexual needs" via Michigan Daily
4. First Step

Kissing and Commumnication - 9/11/12

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I've been thinking a lot about communication lately, and the ways that we tell or show what we mean. That could mean with a partner, girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse, whatever, but really it's about everyone we interact with. We all have our ways of communicating, and we connect most with the people that communicate in the most similar way we do. This goes especially for dating. If you can't have a conversation, chances are your sexual communication will be a little off as well. And if you don't kiss the same way, chances are you won't have sex the same way either. Something to think about also is that sometimes kissing takes practice. You don't have to stick to kissing the way you've always been kissing, just like how you shouldn't get yourself in a rut when it comes to your openness to trying new things in the bedroom.

These are the things we think about.

We also talked a bit about toys, and especially male toys, such as cock rings, nipple clamps, and masturbation sleeves! So many fun things!

Useful links:

1. Nipple toys on Adam and Eve
2. Article about kissing
3. What's with the stigma surrounding fleshlights?

Music you heard:

1. "The Beach" by Podington Bear
2. "Jungle Love" by Morris Day & The Time
3. "Gimmeakiss" by The Avett Brothers

See you next week, my beloved listeners. 

Erotica - 8/29/12

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Today's show is all about erotica, peeps. We talk a bit about the definition of erotica and what makes it different from pornography, but our main emphasis is on the written form of erotica, like romance novels.

Erotica (from the Greek ἔρως, eros "desire"): works of art, including literature, photography, film, sculpture and painting, that deal substantively with erotically stimulating or sexually arousing descriptions

A lot of people say that erotica is porn for women, and in a lot of ways that's true, but it also has a literary quality to it when it is done well, and done beautifully, which is something we all agreed on. A good example of this is "Delta of Venus" by Anaïs Nin, which I read a bit of on the July 4th episode. That said, I think that a lot of people separate things that are sexual, and things that are literary, which doesn't necessarily have to be true. In visual art, erotic things are often considered high art, but in the written form, it's called smut. This seems unfair to me, and is something Elissa has experienced firsthand with her erotica, which I read aloud in this episode as well. Hope I've piqued your interest. See you on the other side.

Music you heard:

1. "Up From The South" by The Budos Band

Useful links:

1. Umich Library search of "best erotica"
2. Ann Arbor District Library search for "erotica"
3. Tiny Nibbles
4. Juxtapoz Erotica

Thanks for listening! Let us know what you thought!

Roundtable: Real Men™ - 8/22/12

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Lucky for you, I was a bit lazy and didn't want to prerecord anything, so you got a LIVE show out of the deal. To be honest, I love doing live shows, especially when I have cool people like Steph and Elissa with me in the studio.

Today the topic we landed on was about a Jezebel article by Lindy West that I recently came upon and posted on my Facebook. This was a great read, and I got a lot of interesting responses from my friends, which I talked a little bit on the show (no names, don't worry guys). The main ideas of the article are that our society has ingrained us with an idea that there is an ideal kind of woman, and an ideal kind of man, and that we need to get as close as possible to that, as unrealistic, and unreasonable as it might be. Men have unrealistic expectations of how women should dress or act, and women can do the same thing. It's a two way street.

We also touch on a few mildly related topics, such as weddings, communication, and very small dogs. Enjoy the show!

Useful links:

1. Jezebel article by Lindy West "Everything Real Men Think Is Wrong With You"

See you next week! As always, if you have any comments/suggestions/hate mail, please feel free to comment or e-mail!

Sexxit! - 7/25/12

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Check it out, so Sonya and I were like, "We have no idea what to do this week," so we decided to take my obsession with Reddit and make a show out of it.

I've been a Redditor for about year now, and the community never fails to astound me in ways that I didn't think the internet could anymore. So many Redditors on /r/sex are willing to give you meaningful comments if you have questions, stories, or need serious help with a problem, and I don't think I've ever seen someone made fun of or trolled for a serious question. Topics are all over the maps, including but not limited to: trouble with orgasms, how to bring up BDSM with a partner, tips for oral sex, etc.

Besides talking about some important questions that we found on /r/sex and might be helpful to you, I hope that if you take away anything from this, it's to hopefully facilitate better communication with partners, and conversations with friends and family. Yes, sometimes it can be awkward. It's usually awkward in fact, but that shouldn't stop you from being able to talk about questions you have, or things you think are relevant, because they matter, and you're not alone.

Useful Links:

1. /r/sex (Sexxit)
2. /r/sexpertslounge (The Sexpert's Lounge)
3. The Sexpert's Lounge Blog

Music you heard:

1. "I Don't Know Enough About You" by Peggy Lee
2. "Toboggan" by Podington Bear
3. "Mayhem" by Terrorizer

Now go use the internet more! And as always, if you have questions/comments/rants, please hit the little contact button on top of the page!

Roundtable: Rape Jokes - 7/18/12

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So as a change of pace, today's show had special guests Rachael Crowe and Ben Yee, and we were LIVE on the air! The main thing we wanted to talk about is what makes a rape joke unacceptable, and really dissecting the reasons someone makes a rape joke. All over the internet you will see comedians fighting for free speech, and feminists fighting for compassion for rape survivors, but in my opinion, what we really need to do is put out the torches, sit down, and have a real conversation.

Even in today's show, we talked about how many people will make jokes to get around an awkward topic. Rape is a serious topic, and can be awkward to talk about, which is why people make rape jokes. It makes sense, right? The thing is, is that rape should be treated like any other serious topic. For example, let's take the Holocaust. Would you joke about the Holocaust to a group of Jewish internment camp survivors? "NO OF COURSE NOT" you might say. Well tell me this: how is joking about rape to a rape survivor any different? The answer: it's not. You need to be sensitive to your audience, and to context. That's just being a smart comedian. 

We realize this can be a very touchy topic, and we tried to be careful, but we also wanted to get to the heart of the cultural/society associations with rape, and why rape jokes are becoming a thing.

Useful links:

1. How to Make a Rape Joke
2. Louis CK Wasn't Defending Tosh, Restores Faith in Humanity
3. What 'Rape Jokes' Could Learn From Jewish Humor
4. Sexual Assault Prevention & Awareness Center (SAPAC)
5. RAINN Rape Statistics

Clips heard in this show: 

1. Louis CK - Rape
2. Ever Mainard - Here's Your Rape!

If you have any comments about this show, disagree with us, have something to add, please please please comment on this post! We love to hear what you have to say.

Happy Sexth of July - 7/4/12

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Due to a lack of interviews, the holiday season, and my dear co-host being out of town, I decided to do a live show for the first time, and talk a bit about the history of sex in Amurrica! Although it was a bit of an irregular show, I hope you really enjoyed it, and I hope that you check out some of the other resources listed below. I had a lot of fun reading these articles, and I tried to share what I thought was best, but each link has waaaaay more stuff than I could talk about on-air in 30 minutes.

A lot of what I wanted to talk about on the show was that every day, every month, every year, America is changing, sometimes for worse, but a lot of the time for the better. We've made huge strides not only in civil rights regarding gay marriage, but with sex and sexuality in general. It's finally becoming more OK to talk about sex, and hopefully someday we'll be as healthy and open about sexuality as our fellow humans in European countries.

If you have any questions, comments, etc. about the show, feel free to leave comments or e-mail us! We would love to have a conversation about whatever's on your mind!

Useful links:

• FAQ to The Kinsey Institute
• "The History & Future of Sex" by Marty Klein, PhD
• "Making War, Not Love: A French View On Sex In America" by Pascal Brunkner
• "Delta Venus" by Anaïs Nin
• Sexual Revolution via Wikipedia

Music used:

1. "C'était Une Histoire D'amour" by Edith Piaf
2. Satie: Gnossiennes #5 (Modéré)
3. "Memoir of a Future Past" by Ezekiel Honig

Tune in next week! 

Roundtable Discussion! - 6/13/12

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For today's show we had an idea percolating in the wings about having an open discussion about whatever issues were on our minds. This idea was also perpetuated by our friend Kate, because she likes to hear herself talk on the radio. The idea of this show, and hopefully more roundtable discussions to come, is to feel comfortable talking about whatever topics are on our mind regarding sex/sexuality/gender. Sex positivity is the name of the game, folks. We're not experts about anything, but we all have different experiences that allow us a unique perspective on these topics, and it would be such a waste not to talk about it, and share our experiences, and learn from others.

Useful links:

1. Autostraddle: Girl-on-Girl culture, news, opinion, and entertainment site.
2. /r/sex - This is a subreddit all about sex, where anyone can ask questions, get an outside opinion, or just browse the various posts that other people make.
3. LaciGreen.tv - Sex positive vlogger who is just super awesome.

Music you heard:

1. "Talking To Myself About You" by Peggy Lee
2. "Can I Talk To You?" by Podington Bear
3. "You Probably Couldn't See For The Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me" by Arctic Monkeys
4. "Rainy Day" from Animal Crossing OST

If you have any questions or reactions to the show, feel free to leave them here! Till next time!