Women Like Sex | Ep. 15: Transcending Gender

Women Like Sex: Life After Death Cramps

Kate Downey explains how living with menstrual “death cramps” for decades led her to pick up a mic and record her journey to a successful diagnosis, in the investigative podcast CRAMPED. As well as some of the new science she’s learned about the female reproductive systems, our problematic medical system, and sexist crash test dummies and countertops.

Women Like Sex | Ep. 15: Transcending Gender

As walking sociologists, who better than our trans peers can teach us just how much of a cultural construct gender is? That’s exactly what my friend Professor Queerstrokes does here, with one of the world’s greatest laughs to boot. We discuss how gender tropes constrict, confuse and hurt us all; how to be the best ally to trans people; and how men supported his transition much more than the women in his life.

Women Like Sex Ep. 14: You Cannot Lose What You Do Not Have

Of all the myths we're busting, virginity is among the biggest, and most persistent. It’s a social construct with no biological or medical definitions, yet heavy religious, personal and social baggage. Historian Anke Bernau and sociologist Laura Carpenter help us unpack the millennia-old obsession with female (yet rarely ever male) sexual purity and its consequences.

Women Like Sex | Ep. 13: Cabbage, Crazy Victorians & Cuneiform Sex

What do cabbage and Stalin’s mustache have in common? How did the Mesopotamians view sex? Were the Victorians even more repressed than we think? Award-winning author, historian and podcaster Dr. Kate Lister answers these questions and more with crackling wit and insight, and an enviable Yorkshire brogue.

Women Like Sex | Ep. 12: A Little Shift Goes A Long Way

Gender violence expert Tiffany Brec and I discuss how accurate, inclusive sex ed reduces harm; why she’s now teaching leadership skills too; what to do when someone calls a man a girl in your presence; and what Tiffany’s wife does to ward off shady men.