In 2000, Sigrid Wade began writing to people on death row to express her solidarity against that kind of punishment; she never thought she’d end up marrying one of them and having a child. But that’s exactly what happened between her and Alan Wade.

Meet a sociologist who studies relationships like theirs, and hear directly from Sigrid and Alan about love, family, worthiness, and trust.

GUESTS: 

• Megan Comfort: Senior research sociologist in Research Triangle Institute’s Transformative Research Unit for Equity. She is also affiliated faculty in the Division of Prevention Science at the University of California, San Francisco, and she works with the non-profit, UnCommon Law
• Sigrid Wade: Originally from France, now living in Florida, she met Alan Wade in 2014 via a pen pal program when he was on death row. They have been married for seven years, and they have a three year-old son. She's the co-founder of Wire of Hope's Prison Pen Pal Program
• Alan Wade: Currently serving life without the possibility of parole in a Florida prison

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Last time, we did an episode about dominants in the world of BDSM and kink, and now? It’s time for the submissives to take center-stage.

Learn the difference between “submissive” and “slave”, and four people’s interpretations of what it means to obey, serve, and play.

GUESTS: 

• Kate Kinsey: Author of How to be a Healthy and Happy Submissive: A Practical Guide to Making Your Fantasies a Reality, and What Submissives Want to Know: Real Questions, Real Answers
• Kim Debron: A collared slave and writer living in rural Australia. She has been in a relationship with Master Joe for 18 years. Her fiction books are Souls in Chains, and Broken Links
• Chastity Slave: A Connecticut-based man in a polyamorous relationship with his master
• Blyss: A Maryland woman who identifies as a slave 

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Meet a world-renowned expert on kink who will explain exactly what we’re talking about when we talk about dominants. And you’ll meet three very different kinds of dominants in the BDSM world: One who is particularly sensual, one whose power lies in money, and one whose disability is just another component of his power.

This is the first of two episodes about kink. Tune in next week, when we meet four submissives, three of which refer to themselves as “slaves”, including a Black woman.

GUESTS: 

• Midori: An international educator and author about sexuality, personal fulfillment, and kink. She is the author of many books, including Wild Side Sex: The Book of Kink
• Food Fetish: A Findomme (Financial Dominant) based in Canada, and the author of The Virtual Findom(me) - Your Beginner’s Guide to Helping You Find A Paypig
• Jade Desires: Massachusetts-based Professional Mistress and BDSM consultant with a passion for dominance and sensuality
• Raven Kaldera: Author of Hell on Wheels: Disabled Dominants. He is based out of central Massachusetts and is joined by his slaveboy, Joshua Tenpenny

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When I say, “The Sugar Lifestyle”, I'm not talking about the typical high-fructose, American diet. I’m talking about the often financially-centered lifestyle of sugar daddies and sugar babies.

On this episode, you’ll hear from one sugar baby who teaches women how to “embrace their inner sugar”, and from a sugar daddy who talks with us about the ways in which meeting women this way has changed his life.

A researcher will give you a lay of the land, and you’ll hear stories about what it’s like being a sugar baby with absolutely no expectation of sex.

GUESTS: 

• Srushti Upadhyay: a Graduate Instructor at SUNY Buffalo's Department of Sociology. Her research, titled, “Sugaring: Understanding the World of Sugar Daddies and Sugar Babies” was published in the Journal of Sex Research in January, 2021
• Kerry: from New York, NY, and in 2008, she had an ongoing, non-sexual relationship with a sugar daddy
• Marcus (pseudonym): Host of the podcast, Secrets of a Sugar Daddy. He found the lifestyle after the divorce of his 16-year marriage. He joined us from Arizona
• Taylor B. Jones: Author of The Sugar Daddy Formula: A Sugar Baby's Ultimate Guide to Finding a Wealthy Sugar Daddy and host of The Sugar Daddy Formula Podcast

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When you hear the words, “cuddle party”, what do you picture? Something playful? Something salacious? Something… else?

When your culture equates affection with attraction, how does it feel to challenge that connection? And to what degree can affection be healing when it isn't necessarily connected with sex?

Join Chion as she ponders all this during her experience one-on-one with a professional cuddlist, and then as she attends a 25-person-strong cuddle party.

GUESTS: 

• Amanda Ananda: Professional cuddlist and cuddle party facilitator
• Isaac Paulman: Cuddle party facilitator-in-training 

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Think about your BFF (that’s Best Friend For Life).

Now, imagine if that “for life” part was a deliberate, co-creative commitment.

You’re free to date other people if you’re into that kinda thing, but you put each other down as your emergency contact, you live together, you may even raise kids together.

On this episode, you’ll meet people who are in what’s called Platonic Life Partnerships, or PLP’s.

GUESTS: 

• Rhaina Cohen: producer and editor for NPR’s Enterprise Storytelling Unit. She talked about it in her Atlantic article from October of 2020, “What If Friendship, Not Marriage, Was at the Center of Life?”
• April Lee and Renee Wong: PLPs living in Los Angeles, CA
• John Carroll and Joe Rivera: PLPs living in Austin, TX

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When I say, “sex doll”, do you imagine creativity? Improvisation? Self-love?

Find out why these synthetic companions can address more than just physical pleasure.

Plus, get a history of where these dolls came from, and a peek at what they might be like in the future.

On the podcast feed, you can hear a bonus conversation with Courtney Webb, who is just a few months into life with her doll, Dahlia Muriel Hollifield.

GUESTS: 

• Anthony Ferguson is the author of The Sex Doll: A History
• Davecat is an idollator and a robosexual with four synthetic partners: Sidore, Elena, Miss Winter, and Dyanne Bailey

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On past episodes of our Audacious Love series, we’ve talked with people who’ve been married for over 50 years, people who’ve fallen in love with synthetic companions, people who’ve fallen love with objects, and today, you’ll meet four people who are married to spirits, ancestors, or gods.

GUESTS: 

• Dr. Megan Rose: An initiated ceremonial magician, a Shakta Tantric practitioner, and the author of Spirit Marriage: Intimate Relationships with Otherworldly Beings. She serves as an ordained interfaith minister and psycho-spiritual counselor and is the executive director of the Entheosis Institute
• Caroline Kenner: A professional Witch and Tarotiste, a teacher of visionary healing methods, and a spiritual healer also known as the Washington Witchdoctor. Caroline is a founder of The Fool's Dog, a Tarot app publishing company.  She is married to multiple spirits
• Dr. Monica Mody: A transdisciplinary poet, writer, educator and spiritual practitioner whose border-crossing praxis lives at the intersections of earth-based wisdom, whole person philosophy, and embodied regenerative consciousness
• Orion Foxwood: A traditional witch, conjure-man, "Eco-Magical Activist", faery seer; author of The Faery Teachings, The Tree of Enchantment, Mountain Conjure and Southern Rootwork and The Flame in the Cauldron. He is the founder of the House of Brigh Faery Seership Institute, a co-founder of Conjure-Craft, and Witches in the Woods gatherings in California

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