Intimate Interactions

Every time I say chronic pain, I’m starting to feel like that TV ad where they talk about the dreaded gingivitis. It’s hard not to be serious when talking about chronic pain and how much it sucks - unless of course, you’re Billie.

Billie’s ability to hold onto dark and sarcastic humour is second to no one I know. We share some stories about pain and a pain management strategy. Billie briefly touches on periods and then we talk about her last major trip to the hospital. As a content warning, COVID is very briefly mentioned.

Decolonizing can mean many things. It rarely if ever gets used to mean making people move but instead about undoing the damage done by colonization also by the ideology of Colonialism.

But what does that have to do with fucking? Well, it impacts the way I navigate sex positive spaces as a non white person, and most definitely impacts the way my guest today, Lex Wilson navigates sex positive spaces as a Black, femme, non-binary person.

I won’t give too many spoilers though. It’s best to let Lex explain it in their own words. As a content warning, I do talk over Lex to add context for the audience at one point and while Lex is very kind and compassionate and doesn’t even mention it, I do come back to it towards the end of the session to point it out and make an apology (although it starts with an explanation which isn’t ideal for any apology). On the plus side, I’m noticing this stuff and getting progressively better at offering apologies and owning stuff I screw up. I’m also getting progressively better - I think - at not speaking over AFAB folks. This stuff is hard to unlearn but it’s very necessary work.

Kathy from the podcast Friends in Your Ears return to the show to talk about podcasting pros and cons. Why get into podcasting and what’s enjoyable about it?

Sex educator and Johns Hopkins harm reduction expert Lex Wilson is back! They talk about attending orgies, having group sex, experiencing intimacy, learning consent, and un-learning shame. We have some good conversations, and I share my story about double fisting a fellow sex educator.

Sex educator Lex Wilson is a non binary black human located in the capital of the United States where they do harm reduction work at Johns Hopkins. They also work as an anti-oppression educator focused on reducing shame and increasing education around sex, racism, ableism, misogyny, and many other forms of bigotry.

Today we talk about working from home and working in person ad well as tech anxiety and the other challenges of navigating the mid to, hopefully, late coronavirus pandemic of 2020.

We’ve all probably heard the phrase “new normal” multiple times with respect to COVID-19. It can be daunting, upsetting, and even panic inducing. Adapting to a new normal is something that many chronically ill or disabled folks already understand though. The knowledge is out there in how to care for yourself and how to support yourself and build connected networks of folks who can support one another.

Sapphire is exactly such a chronically ill person and we talk about grief and loss. Grieving is a tremendously important skill and hearing from someone who has had cancer before and who has cancer now and has lived as chronically ill seems appropriate.

Life sucks right now. All we can do is self care and remind each other how much we love each other.

Jazz Goldman is currently living in Mexico during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. They are saving rent money, getting more sun to help with mental health, and staying further away from folks than they could do in New York. So it’s having physical, mental, and financial health benefits. Of course, depression is still hard to kick for most of us during this pandemic; and it’s always hard to be a refugee even if you’re living more like an expat.

Content warning: we talk a fair amount about pandemic benefits

Kathy from the podcast Friends in Your Ears talks about why she got into podcasting. We had a fun diversion about small, fuzzy animals.

Accessing healthcare can be a challenge if you don’t have a condition that fits neatly into a box. You can be accused of being drug seeking, especially common if you’re a BIPOC person. Doctors often don’t know what to do with you and bounce you around to other professionals hoping they’ll figure it out instead. It’s helpful to have an advocate and super important to stay organized and be the coordinator between doctors and medical professionals. Sapphire shares their experience with the healthcare system as a person fighting cancer.

Welcome to the two and a half year celebration of Intimate Interactions. We’ve been around almost three years now! Wow! I couldn’t have imagined this. Thank you for all your support on Patreon!

We often think about friends and family during the cold and dark winter months, focusing on what we can control over what we can’t. We organize celebrations that hold rituals of significance for us. However this year instead of a history lesson on Winter Solstice, Yuletide, Christmas, Kwanza, or Chanukah, I decided to simply ask: how do dolphins mark important occasions? What does an orca celebration look like?

Now, my laptop started bluescreen looping and needed to be recycled so I bought a refurbished laptop which is currently stuck in a boot loop so I’m recording without my usual microphone. Thanks for your patience! Also, deepest apologies for being late on this one. I had intended to release it Christmas morning but got a severe and debilitating migraine that lasted a day and a half, so instead, I’m releasing it now ^.^

Enough of that though - let’s talk about Billie, our resident cetacean expert. She talks to us today about super pods, orca penis displays, and family reunions - and disturbingly, all three can happen at the same time - but I’ll let Billie fill us in on that one.