Comedian and science nerd Sarah Adelman joins Emma to talk sperm banks, big dick energy, anxiety, gossip, the placebo effect, and all the bizarre ways our brains shape reality.

Sex therapist Shavon Gaddy joins Emma for a very funny, very frank conversation that starts exactly where you'd expect — Emma's newly diagnosed weak inner sphincter and the fiber-supplement redemption arc that came with it — and somehow gets genuinely useful from there. They break down the actual difference between anxiety and depression, and between "being depressed" and a depressive disorder, plus why they don't hand out major diagnoses to 12-year-olds.

They also get into the Madonna/whore issue in a long-term relationship (you can be a sweet pea AND a whore), the real difference between a kink and a fetish, why you should never yuck someone's yum, and a deep and committed exploration of the piggyback fetish.

Comedian Alex Kumin joins Emma for a conversation that goes 0 to 100 in the best way — funny, tender, and ultimately inspiring. Alex tells the story of finally meeting her longtime therapist in person, sobbing in her arms, and then falling into a three-week breakdown that turned out to be exactly the release she needed — decades of pushed-down feelings finally moving through her. (Content heads-up: they discuss surviving childhood sexual trauma, cancer, and survival in general.)

They also get into the difference between CBT and DBT and holding two opposing truths at once, the fantasy of a "flatlined" middle-of-the-road existence vs. real equanimity, crying as release rather than something to medicate away, and learning to sit with feelings and say "I'm safe" now in a way you couldn't at 6, 21, or 35.

Elle Orlando is back — and this time she and I are doing a book club. Two dyslexic comedians who hadn't cracked a book in years both tore through Lena Dunham's memoir, and they get into everything it stirred up: feeling compassion for their 24-year-old selves, the wild Klonopin doses in the book, and how getting off Klonopin made Emma feel like she hadn't known herself in years.

They also dig into where the "school system got my ass," being alternative thinkers displaced from the Midwest, being lifelong people-pleasers (and why this book felt like exposure therapy), the terror of asking for what you need before you've "made it," and learning guitar as healthy dopamine. Plus the mortifying gift of a mom who relates a little too personally to everything.

Plus the usual Am I the Asshole to close it out.

Solo one this week. I get into the week that gave me a little breakdown, the mantra that pulled me out of it, my favorite neuroscientist who identifies as a dolphin, and why I spike my matcha with Celsius.

Comedian Onika McLean joins for a hilarious conversation that opens with a full-blown rant about trying to "ground" in a New York City park that's been overrun by transplants and their so-called emotional support animals. Onika breaks down the real service these dogs provide, the rescue dogs dragging their new Minnesota owners around Bed-Stuy, and why she's been reduced to standing in a basin of Epsom salt at home just to relax.

From there, we get into everything we try because TikTok told us to, chasing morning sunlight while fighting the urge to grab our phones, nervous systems and stomach issues, and the theory that a forehead kiss is just someone trying to steal your brain power.

Comedian Oscar Aydin joins for an unhinged, very gay, very funny conversation between two friends with zero filter — capped off by a gay-slang lightning round where they rank each other with words like slay, shade, chosen family, and butch queen. Along the way: Emma announcing she got "rear-ended" and Oscar needing to know which kind, the fantasy always beating the reality (see: dressing up for the cable technician), and the amateur porn couple Emma followed so long she felt genuinely happy when they moved into a nicer house.

They also get into the comedy of porn comment sections, reclaiming the word "queer" and Emma's mom's total confusion about it, and whether Larry David would survive as a gay man.

Comedian and actress Brittany Schmitt joins Emma for a raw, funny conversation that starts with the eerie feeling that your phone knows your love life better than you do. Mid-breakup, Brittany's feed filled up with reels describing her exact situation — and she breaks down the meme that finally got her off the wrong train. They get into self-righteous anger as a drug, the interior designers who stole $25K, why saying "I'll never" paints a target on your back, and rerouting your brain the way athletes do.

Comedian Eva Evans joins for a sharp, funny conversation about saying the wrong thing online and the people waiting to punish you for it. Eva breaks down what happened when a follower told her a word she'd grown up hearing as a compliment in Jamaica was actually rooted in an ethnic slur — and how posting the apology publicly, hoping to help other people learn, turned into the thing she regrets most.

They get into the self-righteousness of "how did you not know that," the impossibility of code-switching without getting dragged for it (see: calling a Jamaican TRN a "social security number"), why outrage outperforms everything else in the algorithm, and how to protect your peace when the comments never stop. Plus: Eva's three-year process writing a joke about dating a trans guy that would actually land, leaving Christianity, getting into crystals, stress that shows up in your body, Jamaican beauty standards vs. American self-doubt, and the Bob Marley mix-up that turned Emma bright red on stage.

Plus an Am I the Asshole about a friend who sold a concert ticket after the buyer wouldn't pay up.

Comedian, actress, and TED talker Jaye McBride joins Emma for a funny and surprisingly tender conversation about growing up trans before there was even a word for it. Jaye opens with the childhood moment of seeing a trans person on TV — that flash of "that's me" — followed by her father's worst-possible reaction. They get into coming out as trans in 2007, how Pride has changed over two decades, the theory that the most rigidly conservative people are hiding the most, losing religion, neurodivergence, celebrity crushes, and the racism baked into how the NFL treated Black quarterbacks.