The Good Sex Project

By Popsock Media

A podcast about good sex, good relationships and how to have them. Follow creator and host Melody Thomas as she meets everyday New Zealanders, who speak with striking openness and vulnerability abo

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FAQs about The Good Sex Project:

How many episodes does The Good Sex Project have?

The podcast currently has 47 episodes available.

The Good Sex Project episodes:

July 09, 2026 Gender Attitudes in Aotearoa with Dr Rebecca Stringer
New Zealand's Gender Attitudes Survey shows a sharp rise, particularly among young men, in adherence to rape myths and the belief that gender equality has gone too far. Rebecca Stringer, associate professor in gender studies at Otago University, joins Melody to make sense this troubling trend, and unpacks why this isn't as new as it feels (hello, 90s political correctness backlash), what's different this time around (the monetisation of misogyny by people with real skin in the game), and why disenfranchised young men are directing their very legitimate economic anxieties in entirely the wrong direction. They also get into what it takes to counter far-right rhetoric in the classroom, and how the left might actually win some of these guys back.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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43min
July 07, 2026 Gap Year
Divide your age by two and add seven. It's the rule nobody made up officially, yet somehow everyone knows it. But where did it come from - and does it actually mean anything? This episode pulls apart the age-gap conversation: when a difference in years is genuinely a red flag, when it's simply nobody's business, and how the calculus has shifted across generations and cultures. We look at the power dynamics that can quietly distort relationships with significant age differences, speak with a couple who have navigated the raised eyebrows and the real challenges, and ask what we're actually worried about when we worry about age gaps - and whether those concerns are always applied consistently, or only in certain directions.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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46min
July 02, 2026 The Angel in the Algorithm - Madelaine Thomas on protecting your intimate images
Madelaine Thomas had her intimate images leaked without consent while working as a dominatrix - and couldn't find any technology that would have helped her identify the culprit. So she built it. A bonus conversation about Image Angel, deepfakes, the shame that lingers even when you did nothing wrong, and funding an anti-abuse startup with sex work.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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23min
June 30, 2026 Skin In The Game
Sex work is often called the world's oldest profession. It’s survived moral panics, technological leaps, a global pandemic, and endless political debate. This episode looks at the state of sex work in Aotearoa New Zealand - one of the few countries where it's fully decriminalised - and asks whether legal protection translates to real safety, dignity, and wellbeing. We hear from workers about the realities of the mahi: the parts that are misunderstood, the parts that are genuinely hard, and the disruption to old models of working. And we examine how stigma, even in a decriminalised environment, continues to shape workers' access to housing, healthcare, and community - and what it takes to live a full life when your work is still, for many, unspeakable.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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43min
June 25, 2026 Bella DePaulo - Single at Heart
Social Psychologist and author Bella DePaulo is 72, single by choice, and has spent decades proving that single life isn't a consolation prize. In this conversation she shares the research on why married people aren't actually happier, how single people get quietly punished, and why "growing old alone" is her fantasy, not her fear.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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36min
June 23, 2026 The Waiting Room
From Bridget Jones to #SoloGlowUp, the story of singleness has had a rebrand. But is it liberation - or just a better-looking waiting room?

Melody Thomas meets two people sitting with that question. Beth is 42, an extrovert, and someone who loves hard - sometimes too hard. After a five-year relationship that slowly stripped away her sense of self, she's reassessing what she actually wants from a partnership. Then there's Scott - non-binary, gay, and seven years into single life. Not always lonely, but not untouched by it either. Comparison creeps in. So does the ache of going without touch.

And threaded through both stories: the question of whether our structures - social, legal, cultural - are quietly penalising people for being on their own. Psychologist Bella DePaulo has a name for that. She calls it singlism. And she has an entirely different way of thinking about love.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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46min
June 18, 2026 Tom Scott on navigating heartbreak and growth through music
Tom Scott - musician, father, and one of Aotearoa's most compelling voices - joins Melody for a wide-ranging conversation about love, loss, and what it actually takes to change. Tom's album Anitya is the jumping-off point: a record split between the wreckage of a decade-long relationship and the unexpected arrival of new love. But the conversation quickly goes deeper, touching on addiction and sobriety, the cycles of trauma we inherit from our parents, what real accountability looks like (hint: it starts at the bottom of the well), and why yearning is severely underrated.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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36min
June 16, 2026 Things Fell Apart
What makes some relationships survive betrayal while others collapse over something small?
John and Anna built a life over fifteen years together - then nearly lost it all. Not in one moment, but slowly: new parenthood, creeping distance, alcohol, silence, and eventually repeated infidelity. This episode follows their story through the idea of rupture and repair - the quiet, unglamorous work of mending a relationship not all at once, but crack by crack. What does it take to stay, when leaving would be easier?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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48min
June 12, 2026 Digital Dangers - The New Rules, with Netsafe's Sean Lyons
You don't have to do anything to become a victim of image-based sexual abuse. AI can now fabricate intimate images from a single photo - and the shame, fear, and coercion that follow are just as real as if it had actually happened. Melody talks to Netsafe's Sean Lyons about deepfakes, sextortion, nudify apps, and the organised crime networks behind them. Essential listening - especially if you have kids online.

Make a submission to the deepfake digital harm and exploitation bill here
Get in touch with Netsafe here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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27min
June 11, 2026 Sex Bots & Data Dilemmas with Dr Rebecca Saunders
Your data knows who you're attracted to. Your apps are learning how you love. And somewhere, an AI is waiting to be your perfect partner. Dr Rebecca Saunders talks to Melody about sex bots, relationship mediators, and the very human desires fuelling a very profitable industry.

Dr Rebecca Saunders' Book Bodies of Work can be bought here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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39min

FAQs about The Good Sex Project:

How many episodes does The Good Sex Project have?

The podcast currently has 47 episodes available.