In this tribute to Andrea Gibson, we re-broadcast our original conversation from September of 2023. For so many of us who have been touched by Andrea’s work, their death is a deep wound, one that will stretch and expand our hearts in accordance with its depth.   

This captivating conversation explores how the denial of pleasure contributes to our own oppression, how radical honesty and kindness can transform our relationships, the importance of pleasure beyond sex, and how our pain and sorrow is a measurement of our pleasure and joy.

Sylvia and Ayana consider questions at the very foundation of our cultures. Winding through questions of patriarchy, religion, and violence, Ayana and Sylvia do not find singular answers, but rather a wisdom that arises from questioning the things that are deeply enmeshed in our culture.

Betty give listeners insight into what she calls “The Wheel of Consent,” and reminds us that access is a gift. No one is born with the knowledge of how to give and receive in the “perfect” way, rather we must learn and feel together.

Róisín offers both timely and timeless wisdom on what it means to live in a body that has experienced trauma. This is a conversation that bears witness to the deep terror and distress of the world and still charges forward with undying compassion and care of wild survival. 

As Andrea shares their journey connecting to the eternal, genderless “We,” they invite listeners to contemplate their identities beyond this life alone. As we let the need to know fall away, what miracles might reveal themselves to us? 

Zipporah reminds us that our bodies and their cycles are a part of nature, not separate from it. Honoring the seasons of life, of the earth, and of our bodily cycles, Sam highlights the importance of both fallow and fertile times with particular attention to how this manifests for those with wombs.

Kimberly discusses the depths of pleasure and the dimensions of healing, especially paying attention to the often untended somatic nature of sexual boundary repair and the complicated nature of what we bring into sexual relationships. 

Gabes lucidly describes the ways our individual health and well-being is dependent upon our connections and the structures of the societies in which we reside, bringing us into conversation about interdependence and the abundance that our communities can foster when we move beyond a scarcity mindset based in individualism and profit. 

Moving through the depths of empathy, pleasure, and presence, Francesca considers passion as a practice of gratitude to the world around us and offers us an escape from mindless distraction through the power of imagination and literature.

adrienne and Autumn discuss the joys of witnessing love in the face of despair, the accountability that comes with true love, and the growth and nourishment made possible through love, they impart deep wisdom about how to cherish this world for all it has given us. 

Alynda speaks on the complexities that come with wanting and needing to run away from oppressive systems while simultaneously confronting what is happening right in front of us, emphasizing the urgency of action and compassion as we work to end systems of detainment and punishment.

Claudia digs deep into food and the memories around it– from ancestral memory, to the way tastes for food are passed down through the womb. Claudia explains what it might mean to eat for the next seven generations, and how such future visions are tied to a greater decolonial project, as decolonizing the body and the landscape also means decolonizing the kitchen.

Dr. Osorio guides us into a fuller understanding of aloha by returning the commodified phrase to the more extensive understanding of aloha ‘āina, wherein the possibilities for other worlds are not only born but remembered and recalled from the long history of sovereign Hawai’i and traditional Hawaiian teachings and lifeways.

ALOK shares how challenging the gender binary is not only in service to our collective wellbeing but is a reverential offering in acknowledging our true celestial expansiveness that has been dimmed under binarism, heteronormativity, and colonialism.

Dr. TallBear and Ayana confront western science’s continued appropriation of Indigenous sexuality, ancestry, and creation while unearthing our universal desires for love and belonging.

In recognition of the tremendous intricacies of our experiences when it comes to our collective histories, forced severances, and the manipulation of trauma in our society, Prentis shares how embodiment is a resource that allows us to connect with the Earth, recognize grief as an entry point, and shape the impossible into possible.

Ella traces the powerful connection between our ability to go against mainstream capitalist ways of being and our capacity for deep connection with ourselves and each other. We interrogate how much of identity is our truth, and how much of it is the echoing trends of dominant culture.

brontë and Ayana explore topics including appropriating propaganda and memetics, reorienting ourselves away from the spectacle of terror, tending to erotic energy and sensual spaces, and the nuances around beauty and aesthetics in dominant culture.

Ayana and brontë delve into topics surrounding authentic expression, the distortion of feminine and masculine powers, beauty and aesthetics, queerness, dominatrix energy, and power as agency.