"Remind me not to go to any of YOUR soirées." In today's episode Laura and Corwin tear apart the tropes and stereotypes in the second half of season 1 of Showtime's Polyamory: Married and Dating. If you'd like to watch along, anywhere you can stream showtime shows, be it an individual app or adding the channel to Amazon or Hulu accounts, will get you access. We're discussing episodes 4-7 today; you can hear our take on episodes 1-3 in Season 1, Episode 6 of this podcast. We talk about what looks faked and real in this prime example of a scripted/ "unscripted" reality show, and how to avoid the interpersonal errors made by the characters on the program. We also giggle about how cringey it is, abuse the word "soirée" and generally have a good time, becaus getting your best friend on Zoom for a couple hours of trash tv trashing is a quality pandemic activity for THIS host. Corwin has been practicing ethical non-monogamy for the past eight years, getting his start with polyamory and slowly branching out into other styles of non-monogamy. Currently, he describes his relationship style as ethical non-hierarchical non-monogamy. He also owns and operates Upline, CT's premiere rope studio, the details about which can be found at https://uplinestudio.com. His personal rope & photography projects can be found on Instagram @corwinropeSpecial Guest: Corwin.

"I mean, really I just want to scream it from the rooftops that I love these humans - that's my important thing." The Relationship Escalator (https://www.readyforpolyamory.com/post/the-relationship-escalator) is a strong cultural imperative even beyond monogamous culture to make sure your relationship keeps "going somewhere"- that you go through all the steps of dating, "getting serious," getting engaged, getting married, having kids, getting a house, and being together forever til death do you part at that pinnacle. Polyamory inherently assumes that not all relationships must do this; in fact, that no relationships need do this. So, outside of these cultural norms, what markers do we use to measure the progress of our relationships? What milestones do we embrace? This is an essentially personal decision in each relationship, but this week's podcast tries to give some food for thought on the topic. Today's discussion is between our blog author & host, Laura, and her telemour, Meadow Perry, who have both found themselves intentionally building off-escalator relationships in recent years following breakups with spouses and nesting partners. Faithful readers of the blog at www.readyforpolyamory.com may remember Meadow's guest post, Love is Not A Loaf of Bread. Meadow Perry is a Philadelphia-based Magician, Bubble Artist, and Actress who has been performing in various venues for 15 years. She has been in polyamorous relationships for three years, and during the pandemic, in addition to being booked for socially distanced and virtual group events, she has been putting on her own virtual shows. You can find information on her work in general at www.meadowperry.com and click [here](www.meadowperry.com/events) for tickets to her hour-long virtual Bubble Magic show on February 5. As always, we are grateful to our Patrons for helping keep the boat afloat and if you'd like to join them you can do so at www.patreon.com/readyforpolyamory, or one-time coins in the hat may be left at www.ko-fi.com/readyforpolyamory. The wonderful intro and outro music is provided by the talented Vince Conaway, who can be found at www.vinceconaway.com.Special Guest: Meadow Perry.

"PS: I FOUND THE GUY!" 2020 has been defined, in large part, by the COVID-19 pandemic and precautions the population at large has taken to prevent its spread. How have these affected polyamorous relationships and networks? Have there been greater numbers of breakups? Have lockdown orders strengthened some relationships and weakened others? Our guest this week is a polyamorous event organizer in his local area and ran the New England Poly Prom event for 4 years (it would have been 5, but 2020 happened). His household came up with carefully defined, science-based, case-number per population guidelines for seeing their partners from outside the household when it became clear the shelter in place orders were not just going to be "a couple weeks in March." So, we had an interesting conversation about the effects these guidelines have had on their extended polycule that I struggled to cut down to an hour-long podcast for you all. Additionally, at the end of our long, fun conversation, I realized that he is "The Guy" Kimota Tigerlily and I thought was a myth in episode 1, so, having found the guy, I report back to you all that someone should alert the tabloids, and that I'm not going to because he's nice. He said he's got no events to promote or sites to link, so no formal guest page or links today. As always, the wonderful music is provided by Vince Conaway and his hammered dulcimer, and more information and ways to purchase and support can be found at www.vinceconaway.com The blog remains at www.readyforpolyamory.com; the Patreon, where in exchange for your support you can get advanced releases of posts, outtakes of podcasts or advance releases of podcasts (or video of my sight gags from recording via videochat - always worth it) is at www.patreon.com/readyforpolyamory; and the Ko-fi, where you can throw a one time coin in my hat, is at www.ko-fi.com/readyforpolyamory.

"Look, let's use an example that has nothing to do with polyamory - Let's talk about TERFs." Laura talks with Dr. Liz Powell (despite the best efforts of the local cable internet monopoly to make it impossible to do so) about hierarchies in polyamorous networks. They touch on reasons people often enter their polyamorous journies with prescriptive hierarchies in place, and what the distinction of using these terms descriptively rather than prescriptively means, as well as situations where hierarchies might appear by surprise or "sneakily." Some of the conversation turns a little 'blue,' and is frank about sex and STIs, maybe don't listen to this one with the kids under teen age, so I'm marking the episode accordingly. Dr. Liz is a sex educator, therapist, speaker, and popular podcast guest who works with singles, couples, and polycules across the sexual spectra to improve their lives - including the sexual portions of them. They work with anyone who wants to cultivate healthy, consent-driven, and autonomy-focused relationships, although non-monogamists, non-binary folx, kinksters, and queerdos are a special focus. You can learn more about their therapy practice (licensed in CA and OR) and coaching at their site, become a backer of their Patreon for early access and exclusive content at their Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/drliz, buy their book "Building Open Relationships" here or follow their social media for more information on their future work. This January they're leading an initiative to go into the New Year treating ourselves well with self-love for our present beings, instead of beating our bodies up with diet and exercise resolutions for a future self. You can find more information on that here. Laura remains the author of the Ready for Polyamory Blog, www.readyforpolyamory.com, both blog and podcast can be supported either monthly at the Patreon www.patreon.com/readyforpolyamory or in a one-off at www.ko-fi.com/readyforpolyamory. As always, intro and outro music is provided by the talented Vince Conaway and his hammered dulcimer, who can be found at www.vinceconaway.com . Special Guest: Dr. Liz Powell.

"One of those is your boyfriend, one of those is your husband, one is your best friend, and one has been your lover for the last 15 years" Kimota Tigerlily and Laura discuss different forms of ethical non-monogamy, how polyamory has become a catch-all term for all of them, the ways this is good and bad for polyamorous visibility, and how our guest could have four relationships all called best friend that an outsider describes with that tagline. They touch on this being a re-recording of an episode intended to close Season 1 (guess who only has half her notes?); the legalization of domestic partnerships between 3+ people in Somerville, MA (sorry for the jokes, Somerville, but the fact that your city employees can add other city employees they're in partnerships with to their health plans now was too good not to giggle at); the pros and cons of using polyamory as our public "pretty word" for all non-monogamy; and much more, mostly on topic! (That's this show's motto - much more, mostly on topic!) As always, our beautiful music is provided by the talented Vince Conaway, who you can find at www.vinceconaway.com If you're listening from somewhere other than host of our podcast and don't get a cute link to her guest page here, Kimota would like you to know that she's a dominatrix, shibari switch, lover of food, and huge nerd, who has been on the polyamorous side of the ENM spectrum for 8 years, and you can find her at https://kimotatigerlily.tumblr.com/tagged/polyamory or on OF under KimotaTigerlily. As always, you can find the Ready for Polyamory blog at www.readyforpolyamory.com and if you'd like to support the blog and podcast and get excised tidbits and early releases, you can become a Patron at patreon.com/readyforpolyamory . Alternatively, you can throw a one time tip in the hat at www.ko-fi.com/readyforpolyamory. Have a lovely week, everyone.Special Guest: KimotaTigerlily.

You all may remember that Laura wrote a bit of a screed against polyamorous representation in media on the blog on April 20 called "Advertising Polyamory" because she was getting annoyed at white FFM triads getting all the press. You may recently have read Ken's post about positive news media on polyamory this week, ["In the News: How the media Perception of Polyamory is good, actually." ](www.readyforpolyamory.com) So, we sit down and have a nice conversation about whether polyamorous representation is a good thing. (We got the fight out the first 5 times, the benefit of being partners. The number of times we've had the conversation changes every time you ask, also a benefit of being partners.) Ken is a brilliant author and storyteller. Now, the link pimping. Ken's new book Stories and Sins is available here. Ken is the creator of StoryPhoenix, which you can visit at StoryPhoenix.com, facebook.com/StoryPhoenixes/, Twitter @StoryPhoenix_ . You can follow Ken @AtlasWriter on Twitter and youtube.com/user/atlaswriter. You can buy his book of poetry Stories and Sins here, and you should, not just because I love him but because I like it. As always the intro and outro music has been provided by Vince Conaway who can be found at www.vinceconaway.com It is the last episode of season 1, I feel like I should be deeper than link pimping myself. Honestly, thank any and all of you who listened to all of these. I think it's a shame I lost the theory-wonkiest episodes; they're my deepest passion. If they're yours too and you'd like them for Season 2, let me know. If you want more general knowledge content, please tell me so, I can definitely do that too or instead, I'm just in my happy place arguing semantics. It's the near-academic in me. Special Guest: Ken Briodagh.

Today's guests are my metamours Daniel Greenwolf and Vanessa/Bella Greenwolf, discussing the relationship spectrum of parallel to kitchen table polyamory, how relationship definitions get slippery, why they think that makes them kind of useless for most people, and why the semantics are, in my opinion, kind of important anyway, because both agreeing you're "kitchen table polyamorous" and meaning two different things can cause huge problems down the line. In a polycule like ours, where things are kind of organically shifting and part kitchen table part parallel anyway (see this post from way back when everyone wanted me using pseudonyms for more information) that's less important, but for some folks it really matters. You can find more information from my blog under the Relationship Spectrum tag, and as always I'm on [Patreon](www.Patreon.com/readyforpolyamory) and [ko-fi](www.ko-fi.com/readyforpolyamory). Find our guests at www.DanielGreenWolf.com www.GreenWolfCast.Libsyn.com Facebook.com/GreenWolfCast and on all the social media through their guest links below. As always the beautiful intro and outro music is by Vince Conaway who you can find at www.vinceconaway.comSpecial Guests: Daniel GreenWolf and Vanessa "Bella GreenWolf".

This episode was meant to be centered on finding local community, meeting people near you, integrating into new polyamorous social circles, and so on - and went rather off the rails because I invited a very old friend to do it with me. Talya recently re-relocated (she was kind of migratory for a while) to Mexico City, and is exploring polyamory in that cultural context in a more serious way for the first time, which colored the conversation. Current events colored the conversation. Familial interruption colored the conversation. So, I've cut you a delightful, entertaining, and (I think) educational episode of me picking this brilliant woman I've been lucky enough to call a friend for many years' brain, and I hope you enjoy it. As always, the intro and outro music is provided by the talented [Vince Conaway.](www.vinceconaway.com) Talya is a polyamorous holistic mental health coach, mother and pagan eclectic witch with an M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. She has been polyamorous for more than a decade and draws on her experiences in polyamorous relationships, as well as her own mental health journey, to empower others to find their own ways of expressing their authenticity. She recently relocated to Mexico City and is exploring polyamory in this new cultural context. You can follow her journey and musings on Instagram: blue_lotus_mind The blog, of course, is at www.readyforpolyamory.com; I'd love it if you subscribed at the [Patreon](www.patreon.com/readyforpolyamory) or threw a coin in the hat at [ko-fi](www.ko-fi.com/readyforpolyamory).Special Guest: Talya Grumberg.

Laura and Seva discuss the good, the bad, and the meh, as regards relationships with metamours. Mostly an interview of Seva and discussion of the past. The ladies largely agree that 80-90% of metamour relationships are good to "meh", and bad relationships are few and farther between, as well as often being initiated by partners or "partner problems, rather than meta problems." Small content warning: allusions to adult/sexual activity content, no explicit descriptions. If you're looking for encouragement that good metamour relationships, or at least better ones, are coming, skip the nine to ten minutes after the intro, that's Seva reliving her worst ever metamour relationship, which was definitely a partner problem, but she was new enough to not know that yet. Seva is largely anonymous on this show due to not being out at work but teaches in the poly and rope communities and helped build upline rope; you can find the link in her guest link below. As always, intro and outro music is provided by [Vince Conaway](www.vinceconaway.com)Special Guest: Seva.

Laura and her friend Olivia discuss Ambiamory, the ability to go between polyamory and monogamy as a matter of choice rather than orientation. (Giving full credit where credit is due, the term seems to have been coined by Page Turner of Poly.Land) Olivia is not out in all aspects of her life and all her projects as ambiamorous and pansexual, and so she isn't sharing her project links, but would love it if you donated to Planned Parenthood. My wonderful metamour Daniel Greenwolf provided a small statement on why Polyamory is an orientation for him and you can find links to all his projects and social media in his guest page below. As always, the blog is at www.readyforpolyamory.com and updates Monday/Wednesday/Friday. You can give at the P[atreon](www.Patreon.com/readyforpolyamory) and the [Ko-fi](www.ko-fi.com/readyforpolyamory) The intro and outro music is provided by the talented Vince Conaway who you can find at www.vinceconaway.comSpecial Guest: Daniel GreenWolf.