LaidOPEN Podcast

On today’s episode, our guest is certified conscious executive and leadership and life coach Nick Palladino-King (@nickpalladinoking). In addition to coaching Nick’s spent his career training and teaching movement, breathwork, meditation, and entrepreneurship to clients. He brings these tools to his podcast Conscious Conversations with Nick and Nintin. Together with his co-host, Nick focuses on having conversations with guests that elevate the consciousness of the planet through conversations that change people's lives. Nick brings his conscious conversations to LaidOPEN Podcast where we talk about the matrix of coaches, teachers, and therapists that have begun to emerge since the onset of the Pandemic. And how this community works together to support and refer clients in order to get people the help they need.  We end this episode with Nick leading a short meditation that can help you learn to check in with yourself and regulate your system in a quick and easy way.

Welcome back to LaidOPEN Podcast. This week we have renowned intimacy expert Susan Bratton, author and publisher of 34 books and programs, including “Relationship Magic,” “Revive Her Drive,” “The Steamy Sex Ed®️ Video Collection,” and her Amazon #1 International Bestseller, “Sexual Soulmates: The Six Essentials for Connected Sex, as well as, FemiWave. Susan joins us this week to talk about her expanded orgasm practice, which can help you to have better and better big Os your entire life. She also speaks with Charna about female arousal, embracing ageless sexuality and how getting off is a learned skill any of us can accomplish if we put in the effort to learn. Plus we end this episode with an exercise from Suaan about how to slowly warm up and turn on a vulva owner’s whole system and all aspects of their genitals. Find the visual component for this exercise here.    

Did you know that you can go in for any kind of surgery at a teaching hospital, and while under anesthesia receive pelvic exams, from multiple students, (yes this happens to men with anal or prostate exams) without your consent?  Most people are shocked to discover that they could go in for a knee surgery and be given an anal or pelvic exam they did not consent to. However, let’s call it what it is, medical rape and 85% of medical students currently report having done this.  On today’s episode I speak with activist, author, educator, speaker and filmmaker A’magine about her award winning documentary film that tackles this topic, At Your Cervix.  These pervasive exams are still very much legal in 27 states in the US and continues to occur where it is illegal despite laws meant to prevent this practice. Together A’magine and Charna talk about when pelvic exams happen when you’re unconscious, medical rape, sexual assualt in Western medicine, and unlearning the dehumanization that causes sexual assault in the medical filed and society at large.  The conversation is capped with an embodied mindfulness practice led by @Amagine.    

On the season opener of LaidOPEN Podcast, we welcome LaidOPEN Podcast producer Sabrina Cognata as our guest. When Charna receives a message from a listener who wants to potentially work with her and then sends a sexually explicit message, Charna reaches out to producer Sabrina who says, “Make art, not war. In addition to being a producer of a variety of podcasts and projects, @sabrinasee is the creator of The Dickoupage Project aka @thedickoupageproject, which you can find on IG. Initially, the dick pic art project was available online, but you can sign up to read it via her Patreon, to get a better idea of her work and how it influenced and informed the conversation she has with Charna. Together the two talk about consent, vulnerability, boundary crossing, the motivation behind sending unsolicited dick pics, fight, flight, and freeze responses, anger, manipulation, and of course, the bait and switch. The episode ends with a fantastic exercise from Charna to help address a variety of reactions when you find yourself in a situation where someone you trust or attempted to trust has set out to manipulate you.  

This week we welcome, William Winters, Rebecca Ferrar, and Tyson Adams to talk about their various experiences with cults or cult-like communities with a special focus on the One Taste community. Tyson Adams is an integrated men’s work practitioner and happens to have done a lot of searches around cults after having his own experiences in different communities. You may also remember @tysonadams_ as a returning guest from Episode 55. William Winters is the founder of the Bonobo Tribe, @bonobotribe on IG, a sex-positive community that throws parties, teaches workshops, and offers general resources to poly people. And Rebecca Farrar is a well-known astrologer better known on IG as @wildwitchofthewest, who also participated in the One Taste courses. She is still integrating and understanding what she took away from her experience there.  Together we spend an hour dissecting our own experiences, yes, even I have my own experiences with the One Taste community and chat about a variety of things related to One Taste and cults at large. This includes the differences between cults and communities, our natural desire to belong, how to spot a cult, the sense of language or jargon these communities often have, and what it means if you leave the group and ultimately are forced to abandon the community you’ve learned to lean on. If cults, the brainwashing used by nefarious leaders, and how people become drawn to and eventually a part of cults is something that interests you, make sure you check out our episode when it comes out tomorrow.

For our penultimate episode of Season 3, we welcome author, actress, comedian, and mental health advocate, Sara Benincasa. She’s the author of four books, "Agorafabulous!: Dispatches From My Bedroom," which explores her journey with anxiety, depression, and agoraphobia. You may also have seen her on the hit drama “Law & Order: SVU.” Sara and I sit down to talk about the importance of therapy and all the different ways we heal. Plush, we explore generational trauma, substance abuse, and watching your parents do their own work. We end this episode with a great little exercise led by Sara.

Hello! Happy Valentine’s Day. Today I am going to do something a little bit different. I’ll be doing this episode all by myself where I answer the questions you’ve sent in looking for advice. I love being able to connect with my listeners, especially on a day like today, Valentine’s Day, which can often put a lot of societally based pressure on people to feel like they should be coupled up, or simply feel like their relationship should be at a certain place. We’re going to do a deep dive into questions like “How do I communicate to someone on a dating app that I want to feel safe” and “How to slide into someone’s DMs and not seem like a creep” and even “How to be single and date casually when you love intimacy.” If you’re new here, don’t worry if you have something you want me to answer, I plan to do more of these episodes. Just head to my website CharnaCassell.com and click on the link in the header that says “Ask Charna” to submit your question. 

Today’s episode is a special one. I’m joined by my friend and birthday twin, Carrie Katz, on our birthday, February 7th. Carrie’s a fellow somatic psychotherapist and as you’ve probably surmised, my birthday twin extraordinaire. Together we celebrate our birthday and discuss ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and answer listeners' questions about the ins and outs of determining whether you could benefit from ketamine.  I candidly share how I’ve benefited from ketamine-assisted journeys to reboot my nervous system. While Carrie shares about her client work, using her knowledge to answer all your questions. We discuss the recent large transitions Carrie has gone through with the loss of her dad, her son going to college, and the disbanding of Rosen Coven, a band she’s traveled the world with for over two decades. If you’ve ever considered doing a Ketamine journey with a professional to help you with your anxiety, depression, PSTD, complex PTSD, ODC and more–this is the episode for you. We do a deep dive into people who are potentially good candidates for ketamine therapy and circumstances when it’s inappropriate. We also talk at length about the difference between social use, versus therapeutic use, especially since so many people self-medicate. Carrie ends the episode with a beautiful rose in the heart meditation sometimes used in the ketamine space.

Dr. Walter Sipe, a former pediatric gastroenterologist turned psychiatrist expert witness, discusses cults vs. spiritual communities, sociopathic leader traits, and a breathing exercise for resilience. Delving into his unusual family background and navigating trauma and institutional power dynamics, the episode offers insights on trauma, shame, resilience, loyalty in educational programs, and promoting child safety.

Tyson Adams, an integrated men’s work practitioner and leader of the Thrive Men's Group, dives into the transformative world of semen retention and its profound impact on men’s health. He shares his personal journey through celibacy and overcoming porn addiction. The discussion weaves through ancestral trauma, mindful sexual practices, and the importance of self-connection in healing relationships—with both women and the planet. Tyson also leads a breathing exercise aimed at redirecting compulsive behaviors, empowering men on their path to self-awareness and growth.