Jan 112016
 

Explore More Email Logo
Announcing the Explore More Summit! A 10-day virtual summit January 28-February 6, 2016 hosted by Dawn Serra. Explore More Summit features intimate interviews with 30 experts from around the world on all things sex, relationships, and self-love including Allison Moon, Amy Jo Goddard, Ashley Manta, Barbara Carrellas, Bianca Laureano, Charlie Glickman, Conner Habib, Cyndi Darnell, Dan Savage, Devi Ward, Elena Lipson, Feminista Jones, Erin Lee Kaufmann, Gina Senarighi, JoEllen Notte, Karen B.K. Chan, Lauren Marie Fleming, Dirty Lola, Meg John Barker, Nadine Thornhill, Mark Michaels and Patricia Johnson, Marlene Wasserman, Reid Mihalko, Sophie Delancey, Stacey Herrera, Sunny Megatron and Ken Melvoin-Berg, Toby Hill-Meyer, Victoria Rosa, Virgie Tovar, and me, Tristan Taormino! Trust me…these talks are PHENOMENAL.

All of the talks air for free on their designated day. If you register for the summit before January 28, you’ll also get a free workbook emailed to you each morning during the summit with all kinds of prompts and questions that build on the talks. Get all the details about the free interviews, bonuses, and upgrades!

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Apr 302015
 

come as you are

This week on Sex Out Loud I talk live with Emily Nagoski, sex educator, writer, researcher, and one of the best sex question answerers I know! Her latest book, Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life, is a New York Times bestseller and you’ll learn so much this essential exploration of why and how women’s sexuality works. We’ll discuss the biological and psychological factors that influence our sexuality and how you can shape them intentionally to create better sex and more profound pleasure than you ever thought possible.

Tune in Friday, May 1st at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET. This week’s show is LIVE so call in to Voice America with questions and comments at 1-866-472-5788, join the discussion on Facebook or Twitter, or e-mail me via tristan(at)puckerup.com and I’ll read them live on the air. Tune in to Sex Out Loud every Friday, you can listen along on your computer, tablet, or phone, find all the ways at SexOutLoudRadio.com!

emily nagoskiSex educator, author, research and activist Emily Nagoski has a Ph.D. in Health Behavior with a doctoral concentration in human sexuality from Indiana University (IU), and a Master’s degree (also from IU) in Counseling, with a clinical internship at the Kinsey Institute Sexual Health Clinic. She also has a B.A. in Psychology, with minors in cognitive science and philosophy, from the University of Delaware. While at IU, Emily worked as an educator and docent at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex Gender and Reproduction. She also taught graduate and undergraduate classes in human sexuality, relationships and communication, stress management, and sex education. She is the author of three guides for Ian Kerner’s GoodInBed.com: The Good in Bed Guide to Orally Pleasuring a Man, The Good in Bed Guide to Female Orgasms, and A Scientific Guide to Successful Relationships, and the New York Times bestseller, Come as You Are: the surprising new science that will transform your sex life. A sex nerd among sex nerds, Emily has the lowest Erdős number of any sex educator in the world. She lives in western Massachusetts with two dogs, two cats, and a cartoonist.

Jul 222014
 

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This week’s guest on Sex Out Loud is Lisa Vandever: a producer and consultant with over twenty years of experience in film and television. She seized the unique opportunity to combine two of her overriding fixations, film and sexuality. Founded in 2003, CineKink recognizes and encourages the positive depiction of sexuality and kink in film and television, most visibly through its annual film festival, CineKink NYC. We’ll discuss media representations of alternative sexuality, visual depictions of kink, and the intersections of film and sexuality.

This week’s show is LIVE. Find out all the ways to listen here so you can call in with questions and comments at 1-866-472-5788, join the discussion on Facebook or Twitter, or e-mail me via tristan(at)puckerup.com and I’ll read them live on the air.

As co-founder and director of CineKink, an organization that recognizes and encourages the positive depiction of sexuality in film and television, Lisa Vandever curates and oversees an annual film festival and touring series, designed to promote and showcase such works. Billing itself as “the kinky film festival,” with offerings drawn from both the independent cinema world and the adult, works presented at CineKink, currently in its eleventh season, range from documentary to drama, comedy to experimental, slightly spicy to quite explicit–and everything in between. A producer and consultant with over twenty years of experience in film and television, Vandever was formerly the director of programming for a regional network of public television stations, worked as a development executive for two New York-based independent production companies and was associate producer of the Sundance award-winning feature film, “Songcatcher.”

Seizing the unique opportunity to combine two of her overriding fixations, film and sexuality, Vandever previously co-founded the New York S/M Film Festival, which ran 2000-2002. Over the years she has also consulted with media distributors on how to best reach sexuality communities, and has advised filmmakers on how to present their works to a wider market. In addition to serving on the board of directors of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, she also volunteered on its media committee, alerting community members to media presentations of alternative sexuality, and encouraging feedback. She has spoken several times on the intersection of film and sexuality at the prestigious SXSW conference, with additional appearances including the International Film Festival Summit, Film Festival Academy, DIY Convention, Sex 2.0, MomentumCon, CatyalystCon and Leather Leadership Conference. She is proud to have once stumped the panel as a guest during a round of “What’s My Fetish?” on the Radio Chick Show …and she probably watches a lot less porn than everyone seems to think she does.

Sex Out Loud airs every Friday at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET on the VoiceAmerica Variety channel. You can listen on your computer, phone, or tablet, find all the ways here!

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Apr 232014
 

funkybrownchick1Alexander Morozov

This Friday on Sex Out Loud at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT, I’m thrilled to have two amazing guests on my show! Award-winning artist, performer, playwright, and artistic producer, Regie Cabico has been on two seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and NPR’s Snap Judgment. The recently dubbed “the Lady Gaga of poetry” shares his spoken word skills in storytelling and humor. Twanna Hines first started writing about sex anonymously as Funky Brown Chick. The award-winning educator, writer, and media commentator now focuses on the sociology of sexuality and its relationship to culture and technology. This episode was filmed before a live studio audience at CatalystCon East 2014.

Twanna A. Hines, M.S., is an award-winning educator, sex columnist, and TV and radio commentator focused on the sociology of sexuality and its relationship to culture and Internet technology. Founder of FUNKY BROWN CHICK®, she has contributed to CNN, NPR, Sirius, Time Out New York, Lifetime, Mashable, Nerve, New York Press, Fast Company magazine, and the Huffington Post as well as CBC (Canadian National Radio), Paris Première (French Television), and Al Jazeera. She has also been quoted in a host of outlets throughout the U.S., from New York magazine to the San Francisco Chronicle. She is a syndicated sex columnist for Metro International newspapers. Twanna has 15 years experience in education, and she has received certified training in medically-accurate, evidence-based sex education. From speaking at Harvard to working one-on-one with undergraduate students at Florida State University, Hines has taught a broad range of majors with differing levels of academic competencies in both small and large enrollment classes. Her comprehensive approach to education prepares individuals to participate in an increasingly interconnected world, and her commentary on immigration is included in the textbook Migration and Immigration: A Global View. She has worked with health policymakers and elected officials and for the University of Chicago, Newsweek, and U.S. State Department. Having lived in London, Chicago, Amsterdam, New York, Los Angeles and The Hague, she speaks English and Dutch fluently. Raised evangelical Christian in rural Illinois and Mississippi, she received abstinence-only sex education. She can tell you, from first-hand experience, exactly how it functions and why it’s not really education at all. In 2005, strongly believing adults needed a space to discuss sex openly without fearing judgment, she built FUNKY BROWN CHICK®. Called one of “the internet’s sultriest sharers” by the Village Voice, details about her rendezvous have been printed in Glamour magazine.

Regie Cabico. His work appears in over 30 anthologies including Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café, Spoken Word Revolution, Chorus & The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry . He co-edited Poetry Nation,: A North American Anthology of Fusion Poetry and guest editor for Beltway Poetry Quarterly. He has shared the stage with Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg and through Howard Zinn’s Portraits Project at NYU, has performed with Stanley Tucci, Jesse Eisenberg & Lupe Fiasco. He is a recipient of a 2008 Future Aesthetics Arts Award Regrant from The Ford Foundation/Hip Hop Theater Festival, three New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships for Poetry and Multidisciplinary Performance, The Larry Neal Awards for Poetry 2007 (3rd Place) and 2008 (1st Place), a 2008 DC Commission for the Arts Poetry Fellowship. He received the 2006 Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers for his work teaching at-risk youth at Bellevue Hospital in New York. Other recipients include Arthur Miller, Sharon Olds, Stephen King, Amy Tan & Edward Albee. He is a former Artist In Residence at NYU’s Asian Pacific American Studies Program and has served as faculty at Banff’s Spoken Word Program and Kundiman. As a theater artist he has directed two plays for the 2007 & 2008 Hip Hop Theater Festival,Elegies In The Key Of Funk and The Other Side. He received three New York Innovative Theater Award Nominations for his work in Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind with a win for Best Performance Art Production The Kenyon Review recently named Regie Cabico the “Lady Gaga of Poetry” and he has been listed in BUST magazine’s 100 Men We Love. His plays have been produced at the 2003 Humana Theater Festival (as part of RHYTHMICITY with UniVerses, Reg E. Gaines, Willie Perdomo & Rha Goddess, 2004 Kennedy Center Play Lab, Joe’s Pub The Public Theater Festival, The Asian American Theater Festival, Living Word Festival, San Francisco. The Kitchen, Dixon Place, LaMama, The Philadelphia Fringe Festival, The New York Fringe Festival, Theater Offensive, among other venues. He received three New York Innovative Theater Award nominations for his work in the New York Production of Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind with a 2006 award for Best Performance Art Production. His latest solo play Unbuckled was developed with grants from National Performance Network and Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. He has been longtime curator of Composers Collaborative’s Non Sequitur Series presented at Lincoln Center, Here Theater & The Flea Theater. He has been 2006 artist in residence for New York University’s Asian American Studies Program & 2009 artist in residence at Deanza College. He is the Youth Program Coordinator for Split this Rock Poetry Festival and is he artistic director of Sol & Soul, an arts and activist organization. He is the co-founder of SULU DC, a monthly Asian American Performance Series and is the co-director of CAPTURING FIRE: A QUEER SPOKEN WORD SUMMIT.He is pleased to be part of BANFF’s 2011 Spoken Word Faculty.

Sex Out Loud airs every Friday at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET on the VoiceAmerica Variety channel. You can listen on your computer, phone, or tablet, find all the ways here!

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Feb 192013
 

christopher ryan

This Friday on Sex Out Loud at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT, I’m live with Christopher Ryan, the renegade researcher behind the New York Times bestseller, Sex At Dawn, a controversial, idea-driven book that challenges everything you know about sex, marriage, family, and society. We’ll discuss the ideas behind the book including monogamy, sexual orientation, and family dynamics, as well as his latest project, KoTango.com. Kotango is an ethical non-monogamy site, a global community dedicated to modern relationships, and the culture that surrounds them.

Christopher Ryan received a BA in English and American literature in 1984 and an MA and Ph.D. in psychology from Saybrook University, in San Francisco, CA twenty years later. He spent the intervening decades traveling around the world, living in unexpected places working at very odd jobs (e.g., gutting salmon in Alaska, teaching English to prostitutes in Bangkok and self-defense to land-reform activists in Mexico, managing commercial real-estate in New York’s Diamond District, helping Spanish physicians publish their research, Ebonics to English translation for a Spanish film festival…). Along the way, he decided to pursue doctoral studies in psychology. Drawing upon his multi-cultural experience, Christopher’s research focused on trying to distinguish the human from the cultural. His doctoral dissertation analyzes the prehistoric roots of human sexuality, and was guided by the world-renowned psychologist, Stanley Krippner.

Christopher has lectured at the University of Barcelona Medical School, consulted at various hospitals, contributed to publications ranging from Behavioral and Brain Sciences (Cambridge University Press) to a textbook used in medical schools and teaching hospitals throughout Spain and Latin America. He’s been featured in major national media, both conventional (e.g., MSNBC, Canada’s CBC-TV, Oprah Radio, CNN, NPR, The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, The Atlantic, Outside magazine) and Internet-based (e.g., Salon.com, Seed.com, Big Think, and Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish blog over a dozen times). He and his work have also appeared in many international newspapers (e.g., The Times of London, Toronto Globe and Mail, Israel’s Ha’aretz, The Sydney Morning Herald, SonntagsBlick) and television (U.S., Spain, Russia, Canada, Australia).

Dec 202012
 

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Media has an enormous impact on how we view and engage in conversations about sex and sexuality.  Broadly defined erotic media can be a tool for social change but can also reinforce stereotypes and promote a sex negative cultural backlash. Whether it is a porn film, a book of erotica, mainstream news coverage of sexual issues, social media bringing together sexual communities, or a sexy picture from a photo archive illustrating a news story, it is clear that the intersection of sexuality and the media is rapidly changing both discourses on sexuality and the media landscape itself. SWELL is a conference devoted to critical conversations about these forms of media, conversations that need to be dynamic, challenging, and creative. This meeting is meant to be a space for discussion, synthesis, and collaboration, a praxis on erotic media which in which we share both broader theoretical frameworks and practical skills. We invite presenters who engage with erotic media in any way:  in their business, in their activism, as a side project to other callings and disciplines, or as their central passion and life’s work.

SwellCon is a project hosted by The Smitten Kitten, a progressive sex toys and supplies provider and community resource located in Minneapolis, MN, USA. We are organizing this conference in honor of our 10th anniversary. It is very important to us that under-represented voices and communities be able to present and attend SwellCon. To that end, we will be offering honorariums on a sliding scale to cover travel and lodging costs as well as to pay you for your unique contribution to the success of SwellCon! We especially encourage people of color, differently-abled people, sex workers, LGBTQUIA folks, people of faith, and non-academics to send proposals and attend!

Deadline for Submissions: February 28th, 2013. Details are below or the link to the submission guidelines is here: http://swellcon.com/category/submit-a-proposal/

Submission Guidelines:

You may propose either an individual presentation or a pre-constituted panel.  Please note that because of limited time and space, we will be unable to accommodate all proposals, and we reserve the right to reconstitute some panels for reasons of time, space, and non-duplication of topics.

Please send us a proposal with the following information:

Session Title:
Presenter(s):
Equipment Needs and Special Considerations (AV, room layout, etc.):
What topic(s) of interest does your session address?
In a paragraph, describe your session topic:
What is the main thesis of your presentation? What do you hope to achieve during the session? What is the take away?
How would you describe the format of your proposed session? (roundtable discussion, lecture, small group work, skill share, etc.)
What learning styles will your session utilize (visual, oral, tactile, etc.)?
Please note that we are unable to accommodate live, explicit demonstrations in the conference area. Please contact me directly if you would like to discuss alternatives spaces.

Topics
We are interested in a wide range of topics for SWELL. These include, but are not limited to:

Media Skill Share
examples of topics that may be covered:
DIY Erotic Media, DSLR Photography and Videography, Editing in Free Software, Photoshop, and Final Cut Pro, Writing, Blogging and Web design, Podcasting and Internet Radio

Finding the Erotic Muse in Your Media
examples of topics that may be covered:
Writing Erotica, Humor and Comedy in Sexual Media, Innovation and Idiosyncrasy in Erotic Video, Performance and Sex Education, Crafting a Public Persona

Erotic Media and Social, Cultural, and Economic Change
examples of topics that may be covered:
Historical Perspectives on Erotic Media, Technological Change and Perceptions of Sexuality, Second Wave Feminism and New Media, Future Perspectives on Erotic Media

Censorship and The Politics of Erotic Media
examples of topics that may be covered:
Sex Work and Media, Education and Erotic Media, Censorship and Online Payment Technologies, Age-Appropriate Educational Media, Media and Sex-Positive Parenting

The Business of Erotic Media
examples of topics that may be covered:
Erotic Media and The Law, Making Money While Making Erotic Media, Using Media as a Tool of Your Business, Accounting for Your Media

Consent Culture and Media
examples of topics that may be covered:
Privacy and Social Networks, Fetlife, Privacy and Photo/File Sharing, Is Anyone Up?, Instagram, Facebook Posting Guidelines, Online Sexual Bullying and Harassment

Self-Distribution of Media Content
examples of topics that may be covered:
Sex Education and New Media, Podcasting, You Tube, eBooks, Digital Piracy, and the Artisanal Media Maker

Diversity and visibility in sexual media
examples of topics that may be covered:
Interlocking Oppressions and Erotic Media, Sex, Identity, and Bodily Autonomy in the Erotic Media age, ability, race, gender identity, Representing Kink and Non-Monogamy

Sexual media and the mainstream
examples of topics that may be covered:
Daytime Talk TV, Portrayal of Porn and Sex Work in Hollywood and Indiewood, News Coverage of Marriage Equality, Sex Worker Rights, California’s Prop B and Prop 35, Sexual Panics and Right-Wing Media Backlash, Pop Culture and Erotic Media

Please email question and submissions to Clare Jacky at clare@smittenkittenonline.com

 

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Aug 152012
 

Artwork by Joe Newton for The Stranger

While Dan Savage was on vacation, the “Savage Love” Letter of the Day—a.k.a. SLLOTD—had to go on! So Dan asked three different guest columnists to field his readers’ questions while he’s away. I was the guest columnist August 13-17! You can read each of my questions and answers on the SLOG, along with readers’ comments which were diverse and very opinionated here:

August 13: Even Less Kinky Than Plain Vanilla, about incompatibility, kinkiness, and communication
August 14: Fetishes, Porn, Meatballs, and Eggs, about women’s fetishes, a gyno sex fantasy, and gossip
August 15: Hungover and Hurt, about a partner’s boundary violation (trigger warning)
August 16: Maybe I’m More Vanilla Than I Thought, about crossdressing, anal, and sexual compatibility
August 17: Less Face, More Fuck, about a new Dom/sub sex partner who’s avoiding intercourse

Aug 102012
 

  • I recently appeared on the podcast Afroerotik, along with Dr. Cherie Ann Turpin, to have an in-depth conversation about race and sexuality. We talked about the implications and effects of continued stereotypes and racism in the adult industry and the how it affects perceptions in society. If you missed it, go listen to it now!

Take it slow.  Talk to your partner.  And don’t forget, just because you start off with strap-on play, doesn’t mean you have to end there, also, just because you start with anything else, doesn’t mean you can’t end with strap-on play.

(Thanks Jen!)

Jul 302012
 

This Friday on Sex Out Loud, I talk to writer, media maker, and crusader for people in the sex industry Audacia Ray about her role in the sex workers’ rights movement. We’ll discuss the work she does with the Red Umbrella Project, an organization she founded and directs as well as her thoughts on strategies for increasing awareness of the myriad issues facing sex workers. Plus, she’ll address her controversial remarks at this year’s Momentum Conference, and tell is why she no longer identifies as a sex-positive feminist. This will be a live show, so be ready to join in the conversation online and call in with questions!

Audacia Ray is the founder and director of the Red Umbrella Project, where she works to amplify the voices of people involved in the sex industry. At the Red Umbrella Project, Audacia hosts monthly live storytelling events and a weekly podcast, leads media and storytelling workshops, and provides communications support and leadership for individuals and communities who wish to tell their stories and reframe public debate. In 2010, the Village Voice named the Red Umbrella Diaries series and Audacia’s blog Waking Vixen to their Best of NYC list. As the Program Officer for Online Communications and Campaigns at the International Women’s Health Coalition and a communications consultant for the Global Network of Sex Work Projects, Audacia has worked with activists all over the world to build communications strategies around challenging topics like youth sexual health, sexual rights, HIV, and sex work.

Her skills are rooted in years of experience as an activist, writer, and media maker. Audacia is a former sex worker who was an executive editor at the Utne Reader award-winning $pread magazine for three years and is the author of Naked on the Internet: Hookups, Downloads, and Cashing In on Internet Sexploration. She has been blogging about sexuality and culture since 2004, and has shot and edited a variety of videos and video podcasts, including Naked City TV, a twenty-two episode documentary video show that she produced for the Village Voice in 2008. Audacia also developed a syllabus and taught as an adjunct professor of Human Sexuality at Rutgers University for three semesters. She has a BA from Eugene Lang College at the New School and a MA from Columbia University.