LaidOPEN Podcast

You may have heard of this week’s guest from her two podcasts, blog, or books. Kate Sloan is a writer and podcaster specializing in sex, kink, and relationships. We talk about her books '101 Kinky Things Even You Can Do' and '200 Words to Help You Talk About Sexuality & Gender,' the latter of which was recently released.  Plus, we do a round robbin covering her two podcasts (The Dildorks and Question Box), sex-ed, and the perks of the daddy-little girl dynamic. We also chat about the fine art of surrendering to pain, as well as, pain as a tool for healing. If you've ever wanted to know the ins and outs of being a sex columnist, this episode is for you.

On LaidOPEN podcast this week, we’re welcoming Layla London, better known by her podcast moniker, Curious Girl Diaries, a podcast dedicated to her sexual awakening and adventures. However, she wasn’t always a podcast host. Layla started as a high-powered businesswoman married to her job. After a 3.5-year dry spell from sex, she decided to reprioritize sex by way of a sex bucket list.  Layla documents all the cumming and going in her podcast. Together we talked about the unexpected benefits and openings her sex bucket list has delivered. Plus, we talk about how her project became a 6-year podcast, how she offers her Sex Bucket List Challenge to listeners and the way she manages unwanted advances, and when men lie about their single status.  You’ll find all this and more in this tantalizing conversation.

Recently my friend Stephanie Ragazzo had a TikTok go viral where she was expressing grief and rage at having been cheated on. Join us for an exploratory conversation about why people cheat, what happens when you're cheated on, and what a holistic view of cheating might be. Our conversation also covers what to do when lines get crossed, how to recover after your partner has had an affair, the experience of being the cheater and then being cheated on, and the emotions that arise and need to be processed afterward. We also explore complicated topics like how attachment styles play into creating relationship dynamics, gaining clarity after betrayal, and how to be discerning in your next relationship. Plus, Charna guides us through an exercise in deepening intuition and responding to your gut. If you're working through having cheated or being cheated on, don't miss this eye-opening episode featuring TikTok's own @gorizzo90

I am so happy to introduce you to Mark Tanaka, a teacher, and coach that specializes in helping people with nervous system regulation, somatic attachment/developmental trauma repair, and inner child work. Mark is a beloved friend and colleague whom I met during a 2-year shamanic energy bodywork training. He has a background in teaching Qi Gong and Yoga, which he applies to his somatic attachment and development trauma repair practices. Through his process of helping people unwind the physical body, he discovered that relationship trauma patterns left an imprint. This made him dive deeper into techniques that can help create more security and safety in relationships of all kinds.  In this episode, Mark guides a beautiful exercise on how to return to and regulate yourself when confronted with a hard conversation. I highly recommend you try it out.

This week Anne Hodder-Shipp, a renowned sexuality educator, joins me to discuss her new book "Speaking From the Heart: 18 Languages for Modern Love." Her book offers an alternative perspective and response to what we have come to accept as the 5 Love Languages, which is focused on heteronormative monogamous relationships. Anne’s book offers a refreshing new take on intimacy and safety building in all types of relationships. In this episode, she invites you into creating additional love languages of your own while recognizing hers is based on 6 years of research with clients but not exhaustive. Plus, she offers up a dreamwork exercise to navigate our subconscious emotions and symbols. That you can easily do on your own.

Lauren Dollie Duke is a yoga teacher and author of a compelling memoir, "Sh!thouse." It tells a story of healing from developmental trauma, PTSD, sexual trauma, and addiction. Lauren and I have shared childhood experiences of growing up in an addicted household, with an incarcerated father and a mom who chose toxic relationships. Her story is incredibly honest and human and she eventually finds liberation through somatic therapy, mind-body connection, and yoga.  All that and Lauren also shares some practices for managing fear and anxiety in this episode of LaidOPEN Podcast.

Today’s guest, Gail Blair, is a remarkable being whom I am incredibly grateful to call my mentor. A near-death experience led to her seeing the energy fields of everything. She synthesizes what she’s discovered through her own awakening process and helps teach this to others. She leads us in a grounding practice and discusses different kinds of love, celibacy, child sexual abuse, and evolution with Charna. We’re so lucky to have her share her story and gifts with us in this episode.

This week’s episode was a joy to record and features crafting expert Matthew Boudreaux, better known as Mr. Domestic. He’s committed to creating an inclusive online community that bridges cultural gaps through quilting and crafting. Matthew shares his journey to rediscover his love of crafting and how it helped him manage his anxiety, panic attacks and how he even uses it to self-soothe.  Plus, we speak about how having a child helped him understand what had been lost when his family asked him to reject a core part of his identity. And how the experience led him to rediscover crafting and helped him embrace a part of himself that had been dormant.

This week’s guest is a great one, I’m speaking with sexologist Annie Sprinkle, who has had an epic career as a sex-positive and feminist porn star, a performance artist, filmmaker, eco-sex activist, and most recently the co-author of Assuming the Ecosexual Position—Earth as Lover. With her wife Beth Stephens, she launched an eco-sex movement, in addition to working with the founder of Sexological Body Work founder Joseph Kramer. I can’t wait for you to hear Annie speak about her incredible body of work.

Sexologist and ex-Jesuit, Joseph Kramer, Ph.D. is the founder of Body Electric School for Massage as well as Sexological Bodywork. Over the years, Joseph’s ushered in the next wave of Sexological Bodywork practitioners who offer sexual healing, such as Jaiya from Sex, Love, and Goop fame. He also created a variety of educational videos with Annie Sprinkle that teaches the practice of erotic massage. It’s this technique that led him to create the Body Electric School burning the onset of the AIDS epidemic. Plus, Joseph is a well of knowledge on the topic of mindful porn use and there’s so much to learn from him and his story this week on LadiOPEN Podcast.