Our guest this time is Sarah Dahlston, the Senior Director of Education at Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio. She is a Certified Health Education Specialist and a Certified Sexuality Educator. We recorded this episode before the November, 2024 elections. In the first half of the interview Sarah offers her perspectives post-Dobbs on reproductive justice in a different political climate, then we shift focus to navigating sexuality with a chronic illness. Sarah and Rosara offer helpful ideas for timing, talking, and self-advocacy.

If you’d like to learn more about Sarah Dahlston, you can contact her here.

If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show!

As always, thanks for listening!

In this week’s episode we welcome Dr. Michele Angello, a leading expert in the field of gender diversity. Dr. Angello specializes in providing therapy for gender-variant and transgender individuals, including youth and adults, as well as those who identify as genderqueer. She offers both individual and group therapy, as well as family therapy.

Dr. Angello’s expertise has been recognized at local, national, and international conferences, where she has shared her work and experience on transgender youth and children with transitioning parents. She also facilitates several monthly support groups for transgender adults, youth, and their families.

As a sought-after speaker, Dr. Angello frequently presents on transgender youth issues to universities, corporations, and media outlets. Her appearances include notable shows like Larry King Live and the Tyra Banks Show, as well as various documentaries on transgender issues.

In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Angello is a trailblazer in academia, having developed the first graduate course in the U.S. focused on clinical issues within transgender communities. She holds a doctorate in human sexuality and a master’s degree in psychological services, and is a certified clinical sexologist.

Dr. Angello serves on the board of directors for the Main Line Youth Alliance and the Renaissance Transgender Association, and is an active member of several professional organizations, including the American College of Sexology and the American Psychological Association.

Go check out Dr. Michele Angello’s new book: On the Couch with Dr. Angello: A Guide to Raising and Supporting Transgender Youth, and if you would like to get in touch with her, you can contact her on her website!

If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show!

As always, thanks for listening!

As an older adult, if your doctor is not comfortable asking about your sexual health but you’ve got questions, this episode is just what you need. Our guest this time is Dr. Jennifer Vencill, an assistant professor, board certified clinical health psychologist, and AASECT certified sex therapist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She is passionate about answering patient questions and teaching her colleagues.

She is dually appointed in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, as well as the Division of General Internal Medicine, where she spends the bulk of her time providing integrated sexual health care and educating fellows, residents, and medical students about the importance of sexual and gender health.

Dr. Vencill’s research focuses on sexual health, health disparities and minority stress in marginalized sexual and gender communities, and mixed orientation relationships. She sits on the editorial board of The International Journal of Sexual Health and Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and is a past president of the Society for the Psychology of Women’s Section on Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns. Dr. Vencill received her PhD in Counseling Psychology from Texas Tech University and completed her postdoctoral training as the first Michael E. Metz fellow in Sexual Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Health.

Along with her co-author, Lauren Fogel Mersy, Dr. Vencill is co-author of the new book, Desire: An Inclusive Guide to Navigating Libido Differences in Relationships. You can reach her at the Mayo Clinic or on Instagram.

If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show!

As always, thanks for listening!

Join us for our first ever live recording at the Annual AASECT Conference in a fascinating discussion with our esteemed guest, De-Andrea Blaylock-Solar. She’s the first Black AASECT Certified Sex Therapist in St. Louis. We’re talking about sex, religion, exegesis, prostate cancer, embodied sexuality, widowhood, and a thing she calls Christian plus.

Resources we talked about on this episode include the Instagram account Unfit Christians and The Day God Saw Me As Black from D. Danyelle Thomas, Red Lip Theology: For Church Girls Who’ve Considered Tithing to the Beauty Supply Store When Sunday Morning Is Not Enough by Candice Marie Benbow, Sensual Faith: The Art of Coming Home to Your Body by Lyvonne Briggs, the Theater of War productions, and the Women of Color Sexual Health Network (WOCSHN).

You can reach De-Andrea directly at Sankofa Sex Therapy.

If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half and want to support our show, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

As always, thanks for listening!

Hey Listeners!

You may have guessed we are on our summer break. While we’re all trying to rest and recuperate and regenerate, we’re reverberating with great news!

What a season we had last year! So many great guests. So many things we learned. So many laughs. And a few tears, mostly of joy, because we won a coveted award. We won the AASECT award for best podcast of the year. What an honor and what a hoot to not only receive the award from our peers and our own organization, but we got to record an episode in front of a live audience (our first) at the AASECT conference in June. I won’t give away too much. You’ll hear more soon. It was fabulous!

The other great news is we got picked up for Season 10! Yes that’s right we will be back with a whole new season in September with Jane, Sabitha, Rosara, and Jayleen. And our wonderful sponsors. And a whole slew of new and captivating discussions and guests.

Talk to you soon!

If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half and want to support our show, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

As always, thanks for listening!

Join us for a fast-moving and fun conversation with Sabitha, Rosara, and Jane as we talk about sexual fantasies as we age. What are sexual fantasies? How are they useful? What’s the difference between masturbatory and relational fantasies? Sabitha offered some great resources for our listeners: any of Nancy Friday’s books (though they are a bit heteronormative), Jack Morin’s book, The Erotic Mind, and Justin Lehmiller’s book, Tell Me What You Want.

If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half and want to support our show, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

As always, thanks for listening!

In honor of Mother’s Day, Jane, Rosara, and Sabitha are talking about mothering, the havoc it wreaks with our lives, the discoveries, and impacts on our sexuality. They also wonder aloud about daughtering, especially as their parents age. Join us for a look into the lives of our co-hosts. And let us know your thoughts.

If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half and want to support our show, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

As always, thanks for listening!

Our guest this time is Mx. Sizzle, a trailblazing Persian and Kurdish hard femme who serves as a sexual health, BDSM, and kink educator. They hold a bachelor’s degree from New College of Florida and a master's degree in public health from the University of Florida, with a focus on queer and transgender health. As the founder of "A Different Kind of Different, LLC," they create safe spaces for sexuality exploration and empowerment that prioritize equity and justice. Mx. Sizzle’s nationally acclaimed workshops and unwavering dedication to amplifying marginalized voices have a profound and positive impact on society. Their pursuit of a PhD in Clinical Sexology is a testament to their commitment to education and inclusivity, while inspiring others to join the movement of decolonizing sex education.

Learn more about Mx. Sizzle on their website: mxsizzle.com, and check out these great articles on kink and sexual health!

In other news… Our Better Half won the 2024 AASECT Podcast Award! We are thrilled to have received this award from AASECT and we are so grateful for you all listening and supporting our podcast.

If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half and want to support our show, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

As always, thanks for listening!

Our guest this time is Kathy Labriola, a nurse, counselor, and hypnotherapist in Berkeley, California. She has provided affordable mental health services to alternative communities for the past 30 years. Kathy is the author of four books on consensual non-monogamy including her latest, Polyamorous Elders: Aging in Open Relationships.

She is extra crunchy, rides a bike, lives in a housing cooperative, grows organic vegetables, raises chickens, and has been a card-carrying bisexual and polyamorist for 50 years.

If you want to learn more about Kathy Labriola and her writing, check out her website at www.kathylabriola.com!

If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half and want to support our show, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

As always, thanks for listening!

Our guest this time is the wonderful Dr. Israel Martinez, a certified sex therapist and coach with a group practice that specializes in therapy with the LGBTQ+, ethically non-monogamous, and kink/BDSM communities. He is the author of the book Helping Gay Men Find Love: Tips for Guys on Dating and Beginning a Healthy Relationship, has been published in the book Social Workers: Finding Real Solutions to Real Problems, and created and curates www.queermentalhealthhelp.com. He also supervises and trains other therapists to more ethically and effectively treat clients within gender, sexual, and relationship diversity. Dr. Martinez is clinically licensed in NY and NJ. He lives in NJ with his husband, Matt, and their cat, Mijo. You can reach him at www.LGBTtherapyNJ.com.

If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half and want to support our show, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

As always, thanks for listening!

Tushabe Wa Tushabe, an Assistant Professor at Widener University in The Center for Human Sexuality Studies, graduated from St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, in Indiana, earned a Master's in women's studies from Texas Women's University, and received a Ph.D. in Decolonial African Epistemologie from Binghamton University.

Tushabe's research interests focus on decolonial and indigenous knowledges and practices, and sexualities through languages. When not in the classroom, writing, or mentoring students, Tushabe can be found enjoying the outdoors, especially waterfalls, mountains, and hiking. When Tushabe is with family, they enjoy listening to the young and the elders in the community tell stories they grew up hearing from their elders.

If you would like to learn more about Tushabe’s work, you can check it out HERE!

If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show!

As always, thanks for listening!