LaidOPEN Podcast

Welcome back to Season 2 of LaidOPEN Podcast. I am elated to kick off the season with sex and relationship coach, Janel Vitale. Janel specializes in relationship design, which is the concept that you and whoever you're with can build a mutually-fulfilling intimate life around your authentic needs and desires, even if unconventional. She leads an exercise on core erotic themes, that I participate in and you can too. We explore Janel’s journey to helping people discover a relationship design that works for them, plus so much more including somatics, sexual healing, and living authentically.

This week’s episode of LaidOPEN Podcast is the season finale and one of my favorites that I’ve recorded so far. Please welcome Carvell Wallace, a New York Times Bestselling author, memoirist, and award-winning podcaster who covers race, arts, culture, film, and music for a wide variety of news outlets. During our chat Carvell shared his journey navigating dissociation in a cis-male body, not feeling he had a right to say “No”, experiencing fear in anticipation of sex, and the lack of training around consent offered to men, and consent as an ongoing collaboration versus a contract. There is so much to learn from our conversation, which I hope inspires you on your journey until we meet again next season.

I am really excited for you to hear this week’s episode of LaidOPEN Podcast. It features the remarkable Lyvonne Briggs, better known as “Pastor Baé,” who is an Emmy Award-winning, body and sex-positive womanist spiritualist. She’s also a writer, pastor, preacher, spiritual life coach, and highly sought-after transformational speaker and seminar leader. We sit down and talk about her experiences working in the church as an advocate of pleasure as its connection to resiliency, as well as,  the divine design of pleasure. There’s so much to learn and grow from in this conversation for all of us.

Sexual and Spiritual paths are often intertwined, which is the case with this week’s guest Jessica Graham. They are a mindfulness teacher and author of “Good Sex: Getting Off Without Checking Out.” Join us as we discover we’re both proponents of somatic therapy and the journey of a spiritual awakening. Additionally, we talk about shifting identity, connecting more in and expressing anger, and using sex and romance as an escape. I loved speaking with Jessica and hope it’s as engaging and uplifting for you as it was for me.

This week on LaidOPEN Podcast Charna welcomes ex-youth pastor, podcaster, and comedian Steve Hernandez. Steve takes us on a journey through his awakening from working in the church to finding the comedy community and the realization that he’s poly and queer. We also talk about being an artist, connected sober sex, emotionally connected gay sex, machismo in Mexican culture, and finding the humor in it all. Tune in to learn more about Steve and his hilarious stories about life, love, and sexual freedom.

In this episode of LaidOPEN Podcast we welcome Darshana Avila, an Erotic Wholeness Coach you may have seen on this past season of Goop. She believes we are erotic by nature and is dedicated to helping people feel truly at home in their bodies. We also talk about what an Erotic Wholeness Coach is and what it entails. You’re not gonna want to miss this. Especially, if you’re looking to learn more about intimacy and the hard work of healing.

On the latest episode of LaidOPEN Podcast, Charna invites former Data Scientist & current photographer and Sex and Relationship Coach, Raj Bandyopadhy onto the podcast. Raj defines himself as a straight man in a queer poly marriage with his partner Andy. Together, Charna and Raj discuss a variety of topics related to this experience including: identity, authentic creative expression, the rigidity of marriage in a heteronormative culture, poly relationships vs ethical nonmonogamy & creating your own rules.

This is part 2 of Amy and Charna’s conversation from last week. They left off discussing the value of compassion to transform abuses of power and navigate parental relationships. While exploring how essential denial and dissociation can be, Charna shares how her mom’s addiction, birth trauma, and mentally revisiting abuse impacts the physical body long-term. She also answers the question “What does expansive sex as well as empath sex feel like?” Charna guides a meditation on how to be with your whole self. This episode features royalty-free music from https://www.fesliyanstudios.com

Amy and Charna talk about #Metoo, gender equity, and power dynamics in the workplace. Charna explains the window of capacity to be with, the difference between self and coregulation in relationships, and how learning to track yourself and others benefits your relationships. They dig into what resilience is and how it might be hard to understand, feel or identify with as a trauma survivor. There is also an exercise to help bring the unconscious material behind triggers into consciousness.

In today’s episode of LaidOPEN Podcast, Charna welcomes a powerhouse guest, Tara Nicholle-Kirke, a globally recognized unrepression expert and former CMO of MyFitnessPal. Together they explore mindful parenting, befriending criticism, and spiritual dating. Plus, they tackle some very big topics including defining trauma, how productivity is rooted in slavery, as well as, Marie Kondoing your whole life. Charna explains her concept “Asshole Angels” and Tara prescribes an exercise for dating with freedom.