Episode 67: Maggie McNeill & Mistress Matisse

Maggie McNeill and Mistress Matisse are two of the most prominent leaders of the emergent sex-worker rights movement. Maggie McNeill is the author of the indispensable Honest Courtesan blog, and Mistress Matisse is a former columnist for the Seattle-based alternative newspaper The Stranger and is the creator of Velvet Swing, a cannabis-infused sex lube.

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Episode 66: Daniel Bessner

Daniel Bessner is the Anne H. H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Assistant Professor in American Foreign Policy in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington and the author of Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual.

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Episode 65: Conner Habib

Conner Habib has performed in nearly 200 gay adult films. But he also founded a punk rock record label, studied organismic and evolutionary biology and creative writing in graduate school, taught college English courses, worked as a sex workers' rights activist, and published essays in dozens of print and online publications, including The Stranger, Vice, Salon, and Slate. He hosts the web series Against Everyone with Conner Habib, featuring lectures and conversations about sex, the occult, and philosophy.

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Episode 64: Michael Brooks

Episode 62: Emily Horowitz

Emily Horowitz is a professor of sociology and criminal justice at St. Francis College (Brooklyn, NY). She also directs the Institute for Peace and Justice, and founded and co-directs the post-prison college program. She is the author of Protecting Our Kids? How Sex Offender Laws Are Failing Us.

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Episode 60: Kevin Williamson

Kevin Williamson is an author and journalist who was fired from his position at The Atlantic shortly after his hiring. According to the magazine's editor, Williamson was let go because language he had used in the past was "callous and violent" and "runs contrary to The Atlantic’s tradition of respectful, well-reasoned debate, and to the values of our workplace." Williamson was previously deputy managing editor and roving correspondent for National Review.

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Episode 59: Nancy Rommelmann

Nancy Rommelmann is a journalist and the author of To the Bridge: A True Story of Motherhood and Murder. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times Magazine, and the LA Weekly, among other publications.

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Episode 58: James Sullivan

James Sullivan works at a jewelry store in Texas. He's also one of my favorite philosophers. James is the host of James and the Giant Podcast.

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Episode 56: Shayne Lee

Shayne Lee is a professor of sociology at the University of Houston and the author of four books: Tyler Perry's America: Inside His Films; Erotic Revolutionaries: Black Women, Sexuality and Popular Culture; Holy Mavericks: Evangelical Innovators and the Spiritual Marketplace; and T.D. Jakes: America's New Preacher. He has appeared as a guest on CNN, ABC, and Fox, while also providing commentary in the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Atlantic, Huffington Post, U.S.A. Today, CNN.com, Christian Science Monitor, and numerous other periodicals.

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Episode 55: Heidi Matthews

Heidi Matthews is an assistant professor of international law at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. Her recent work on the #MeToo movement and women's sexual agency has caused considerable controversy in all the best ways. 

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Episode 53: Swami Prem Niren (a.k.a. Philip Toelkes)

Swami Prem Niren, also known as Philip Toelkes, was the chief counsel for the Rajneesh spiritual organization and for its leader, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, also known as Osho. Niren is featured in the Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country, which covers the dramatic conflict in the 1980s between the Rajneesh community in Oregon and local, state, and federal governments. Niren now works as a counselor at his own practice, Niren Conscious Coaching. He is working on a book about his time with Osho. 

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Episode 52: Kliph Nesteroff

Kliph Nesteroff is the author of The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels & The History of American Comedy. His work has appeared in Vice, The New York Times, CNN, LA Weekly, and the National Post. He also worked as a stand-up comic for many years and he is the chief curator of George Carlin's personal archive.

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Episode 51: C. Derick Varn

C. Derick Varn is a poet, book editor, podcaster, and public school teacher in Utah. He previously taught in private education in South Korea, Mexico, and Egypt. He is also the author of the new book of poetry, Apocalyptics. 

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Episode 50: Nadine Strossen

Nadine Strossen is the John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law at New York Law School. She was the president of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1991 to 2008, and has written, taught, and advocated extensively in the areas of constitutional law and civil liberties. Her newest book, HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship, is now available for sale and in Audible format performed by Nadine herself!

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Episode 49: Marvin Mutch

Episode 48: Dar Williams

Dar Williams is a musician and author. The New Yorker has described her as "one of America's very best singer-songwriters." Her latest album is the self-produced and critically acclaimed Emerald, and her new book, What I Found in a Thousand Towns, combines anthropological field work she conducted as a touring musician with scholarly research on the renaissance of American towns and small cities.

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