The Francesca Luca Show

Hey everyone, and welcome to the very first episode of What The Hell?!, my new monthly segment where I dive deeper into life’s most interesting and often controversial questions, cutting out the crap and getting to the heart of the real answers. 

My guest is Dr. Edward Fernandes, aka Dr. Ziggy, a social psychologist and sexologist who’s made a career out of researching and working with people who embrace these alternative lifestyles. If you’ve ever found yourself confused about terms like open relationships, polyamory and swinging, you’re not alone. Dr. Ziggy will help us learn more about the history, evolution and growing acceptance of non-monogamy, and why it can actually increase trust and transparency in relationships. I bet you know at least one person who would find this topic fascinating - please pass it along, and don’t forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!

What would you do if your mother lied to you about who your father was? David Tereshchuk is a journalist whose decades-long investigative career, both in Britain and the United States, has involved prying answers out of both victims and perpetrators of war and TV interviews with Tony Blair, Hugo Chavez, Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan. His fearless reporting never let on that he was carrying a secret - that he didn’t know who his father was. It wasn’t until David was in his fifties that his mother came clean and told him she had been raped at the age of 15 by a Catholic priest. But a total lack of evidence proving her claim suggested she may have been lying. David set out to discover the truth in his new memoir, A Question of Paternity. I bet you know someone who would find his story fascinating - please share it with them, and don’t forget to subscribe on Spotify and Apple Podcasts!

We all experience fear, but what if we could stop being controlled by fear and make it work for us? Award-winning author and destiny coach Ariel Vox was not even two years old when she and her mother were in a car accident that left her mother in a coma for months. As a result, every decision she made during the first 40 years of her life was defined by fear. Then, she decided to stop being controlled by fear and leverage it into a successful career. Ariel found a way to “turn fear into fierce,” building a business that sold for seven figures after just two years. I bet you have a friend or two who is struggling with fear in some way and would love to hear some inspiration, so please pass on this episode, and don’t forget to subscribe.

How do you keep living after your husband decides to stop? 

Award-winning journalist Rachel Zimmerman, who’s been writing about health and medicine for more than twenty years and worked as a health reporter for WBUR, Boston’s NPR News station. Rachel’s first husband, Seth, died by suicide in 2014. A devoted father to two young daughters, Seth was a robotics professor at MIT with no history of mental illness. Rachel tried to make sense of unimaginable tragedy by turning to her reporter’s instincts, believing that answers to her many questions would bring her closure. While she found many of those answers, she realized she would never find the most important one - why her husband took his life. Her journey to this acceptance is chronicled in her new memoir, “Us, After".

“Marijuana – is it the ultimate Trojan horse? Have we been sold a bill of goods: that pot is harmless, that it’s medicine, that it’s freedom. Have we been duped? My guest, Dr. Raymond Wiggins claims that the dark side of marijuana is real. Yet we’re more obsessed than ever. Let’s blow the smoke away and confront the inconvenient truths about pot. Dr. Wiggins will share their raw, unfiltered stories – and the science that reveals the shocking reality. “So, are you ready to face the high cost of getting high?

Have you looked at your partner and thought, “I love you, but I miss having my own place!” Award-winning journalist and author Vicki Larson, who set out to answer that question for couples everywhere has just released LATitude, How You Can Make a Live Apart Together Work. She rejects the classic narratives about female marriage roles and aging as a woman, and believes the traditional “nuclear family” is definitely not for everyone. Happy families come in all forms, and embracing new ones can be a valuable addition to society. Vicki will talk to us about how the “live apart together (LAT)” relationship can help a loving couple thrive. If this topic isn’t your jam, pass it on to someone who might love it! Please consider writing a review, subscribe and share The Francesca Luca Show with someone you know would appreciate it. You can find Francesca on Instagram and Facebook.

Georgia Ede is a food fanatic, but not in the way most people might think. “I find foods fascinating—what they are, how they view the world, what motivates them, and how they behave in our bodies,” she says. Her interest in nutrition began in her early 40’s after discovering a diet that alleviated some perplexing health problems. Today, she is internationally recognized as an expert in nutrition and psychiatry. Her newest book delves deeply into these topics, offering insights and practical advice for achieving better mental and physical health through nutrition. She joins us to share her journey and to explain her the complex connections between diet and mental health.

Please consider writing a review, subscribe and share The Francesca Luca Show with someone you know would appreciate it. You can find Francesca on Instagram and Facebook.

In early childhood Marsha Means was sexually abused several times. This factor set up the stage of her life, and like a character in a play, she lived out her role automatically. It also shaped how she thought, acted, and felt about herself, about men, and about the meaning of male/female relationships as she grew up. It would take forty years and much hard work to un-knot the tangled strands that life spun out during those growing experiences. Now a sexual addiction counselor, listen to her as she shares how she has helped countless sex addicts change their lives.

Please consider writing a review, subscribe and share The Francesca Luca Show with someone you know would appreciate it. You can find Francesca on Instagram and Facebook.

Stephanie Schorow takes us on a walk on the wild side of Boston. We visit the largest and most notorious adult entertainment districts in the nation, with a controversial scene at every corner; organized crime, exotic dancers, bad boys, hit men, hoodlums, and more.We enter these worlds through Stephanie’s works such as "Inside the Combat Zone: The Stripped Down Story of Boston's Most Notorious Neighborhood," and "The Boston Mob Guide:Hit Men, Hoodlums, and Hideouts."

Please consider writing a review, subscribe and share The Francesca Luca Show with someone you know would appreciate it. You can find Francesca on Instagram and Facebook.

In the 1950's, Dale Stanten's mother established a home-based business as a prostitute to remedy her husband's inability to provide for his family. At just six years old, she was answering the front door for johns. Kids were forbidden to play with her and even the girl scouts asked her to leave. Her father barely functioned. Her lesbian sister "came out", was thrown into a convent and later committed to a mental hospital for observation. Exposed to Dale's mother's multiple "boyfriends", she did not grow up in your typical dysfunctional family.

Please consider writing a review, subscribe and share The Francesca Luca Show with someone you know would appreciate it. You can find Francesca on Instagram and Facebook.

[powerpress]