Episodes

For the 117th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes another history-maker to the podcast: Maebe A. Girl, the first drag queen elected to public office in the U.S. She is currently a member of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, while also running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to represent California's 30th Congressional District. Maebe uses she/they pronouns and identifies as trans and gender fluid. In this episode, first, you'll hear the story Cou...

The 15-month effort to gain union recognition by dancers employed at the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in North Hollywood, California, ended in victory this week. For the 116th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes Velveeta, one of Star Garden's newly unionized strippers, to explain how this historic milestone came to be. On Monday, May 15th, lawyers representing the owners of the Star Garden withdrew all election challenges, agreed to recognize the union, and will mee...

For the 115th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes lawyer turned OnlyFans model Jazmen Jafar. Jazmen’s story has gone viral lately and is unique in that she comes from a strict Middle Eastern, Iranian-American household, and after law school, she abandoned the legal profession to become a full-time adult content creator. But it’s paid off because she now earns three times what she made practicing law! In this episode, we discuss Jazmen Jafar’s journey from being a...

For the 114th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes happily married swingers Dave and Victoria Arena for an episode all about non-monogamy — swinging, in specific. And I have the perfect guests because they’ve been happily married and active in the lifestyle for decades. I met Dave and Victoria through a screenwriting workshop. They actually wrote a pilot for a TV series inspired by their swinger lifestyle. In real life, it began as innocent pillow talk, but when Victori...

For the 113th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes Allison Moon, sex educator and author of "Girl Sex 101" and "Getting It: A Guide to Hot, Healthy Hookups and Shame-Free Sex." In this "Quickie" episode, we’re going to help you unlock how to pleasure vulva owners with simple hand and oral sex techniques. We discuss the importance of communication, understanding anatomy, and paying attention to your partner's body language and reactions. We also touch on the topic of ...

Are you a fan of adult entertainment? Then you've got to listen to one of my favorite podcasts: Holly Randall Unfiltered. In this sample from Holly's show, the iconic performer Adriana Chechick joins Holly for an interview that shows Adriana's MANY sides! You’ll hear about her upbringing in foster care, her honest reflections on career regrets, and why she finds gangbangs empowering. Adriana will surprise you with her brutally honest insight into a storied career that brought her so much fame......

For the 112th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes Zachary Zane, sex columnist for Men's Health and Cosmo and author of the upcoming Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto. Speaking of which, Zach is back on the podcast with an exciting announcement: His debut memoir is out in May, and you can preorder it now! On today's podcast, we get into polyamory and kink, assessing your sexual risk and the level you're comfortable with, the difference between bisexuality and pansexual...

For the 111th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes Myisha Battle, certified sex and dating coach and author of "This is Supposed to be Fun: How to Find Joy in Hooking Up, Settling Down, and Everything in Between." Myisha is passionate about helping people find pleasure and fulfillment in their intimate relationships, and today, we'll be discussing her new book and some of the insights she's gained through her work. In this episode, we dive into what sex and dating co...

For the 110th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes Dr. Greg, aka Dr. Gregory Paczkowski, co-founder of Mona Health, for a sexual health checkup. We discuss the embarrassing teenage experience that inspired Dr. Greg to start Mona Health, his online sexual healthcare platform. Dr. Greg also gives us a condom primer and offers best practices for emergency contraception, the preventative HIV drug PrEP, herpes treatment, and STI testing. For more from today's guest, Dr...

For the 109th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes the co-editors of the new anthology Gray Love: Stories About Dating and New Relationships After 60, Nan Bauer-Maglin & Daniel E. Hood—and spoiler alert: they don’t just “work well together,” they’re an IRL couple! Often the dating stories we hear are from younger people, but the quest for love and sex doesn’t have an expiration date—and depending on how things shake out, you might find yourself back on the dating sce...

For the 108th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak shares the story of a happy ending massage that completely changed her perspective on sex and pleasure. In October, Courtney wrote all about it for Cosmo and then included it as an audio essay in episode 103 with more from our Tokyo, Japan series. But in honor of Galentine's Day and Valentine's Day, we're dropping this audio essay on the feed as a standalone quickie. Enjoy! Here are the links to other episodes mentioned: ...

For the 107th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes historian and former Lusty Jayne Swift. Swift specializes in the history of sexuality, gender, and labor in the U.S., and she’s writing a book about the history of sex worker social movements in which the Lusty Lady features prominently. Currently, a strip club in North Hollywood called Star Garden is trying to unionize. But there’s a classic example of stripper unionization that’s THE case study often pointed to: St...

For the 106th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak interrupts the regularly scheduled sex programming for a special presentation of our Mind Trip series. For this 5th episode on psychedelics, we're revisiting the series with some updates. First, a refresher of the Mind Trip series thus far, then the director’s cut of a radio story Courtney reported for KCRW about ayahuasca in Southern California, and finally, an interview with documentarian and podcaster Giancarlo Canavesio o...

For the 105th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak got the Cliovana orgasm-enhancing treatment, and I’m going to tell you all about it! We’re going to get into what this treatment is, how it works, how much it costs (full disclosure: my service was comped), and whether or not it’s worth it. First, Dr. Christopher Asandra talks me through my first treatment. Then I speak with a couple of other doctors — Dr. Caroline Colin and Dr. Amir Marashi (aka “The Vagina Whisperer”) — abo...

For the 104th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes Samantha Cole — senior editor of Motherboard, Vice's tech outlet — for a super nostalgic conversation about her new book, How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex: An Unexpected History. Samantha’s the senior editor of Motherboard, Vice’s tech outlet, and her journalism in the sex/gender/tech space definitely informed the comprehensive overview she was able to deliver. In this episode, we swap early ...

For the 103rd episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak revisits the Tokyo series, which culminated in a happy ending massage that completely changed her perspective on sex and pleasure. Courtney shares the full details of that experience — an audio version of her essay published in Cosmo last month — which will probably give you some yoni fever of your own. But first, she's going to give you the Cliff’s Notes of our Tokyo, Japan series about gender equality, LGBTQ rights, and the...

For the 102nd episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes three women who not only harnessed the opportunity in their breakups but turned it into their life's work: Amy Chan of Breakup Bootcamp, Kendra Allen of Break Up Bestie, and Gabrielle Stone of Eat, Pray, #FML. If you've recently been dumped or are struggling to get over a past relationship, this episode is for you! This is the ultimate breakup recovery guide to help you not just survive but thrive after your breakup....

Private Parts Unknown is a podcast exploring sex, love, relationships, gender, and seductive subcultures around the world. Join host Courtney Kocak and expert guests for hilarious, sex-positive conversations — destigmatizing everything from abortion to Ashley Madison, polyamory to PMDD, sex work to Shibari, and more. Travel series include Helsinki, Finland; Mexico City, Mexico; and Tokyo, Japan. Let’s be friends on social media! Follow the show on Instagram @privatepartsunknown and Twitter @p...

For the 101st episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes Alexander Cheves — sex writer, sex worker, sex educator, and author of My Love is a Beast: Confessions — for a primer on fisting. In addition to fisting 101 tips, Alex shares his experiences coming out, living with HIV in a post-PrEP world (vs. in the 80s or even ten years ago), becoming a sex worker, becoming a sex writer, and writing his memoir My Love is a Beast: Confessions. We also discuss tips for exploring kin...

For the 100th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes Lola Jean, sex educator, headmistress of 7 Days of Domination (for aspiring pro doms/dommes), and world record holder for volume squirting! We discuss Lola's sexual revolutions, her experience working at a dungeon, going independent as a dominatrix and fetish wrestler, tips for exploring kink, how she discovered she could squirt, how she became a two-time world-record-setting squirter, the two different types of squi...

For the 99th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak shares how the abortion debate has become a truly national issue as its begun popping up at Southern California City Council meetings. This first happened over the summer in San Clemente, and more recently in Temecula. Courtney takes you inside a recent Temecula City Council to show you how it all went down. ***BUY A PRO-ABORTION SHIRT TO HELP SUPPORT OUR "ABORTION IN POST-ROE AMERICA" REPORTING TRIP (use code PRIVATE to save ...

For the 98th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes Orna Donath, an Israeli sociologist, author, and feminist activist who wrote the book Regretting Motherhood based on her research. We talk about ambivalence vs. regret, the difference in how the genders are socialized around parenthood, the external pressures women face to become mothers, how she conducted her study, and more. For more Orna Donath: Buy Orna's book Regretting Motherhood: A Study ***BUY A PRO-ABORTION ...

For the 97th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes Hallie Lieberman, author of Buzz: The Stimulating History of the Sex Toy, to talk us through the highlight reel of sex toy history. Hallie literally has a Ph.D. in sex toys, so she's the perfect guide. We discuss how sex toys were illegal in Texas until 2008 (and scary indicators that sex-related laws are regressing!), the Kinsey Institute, Japanese shunga, Anthony Comstock and his terrible legacy of sexual suppressio...

For the 96th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes Jaclyn Friedman, founder and executive director of EducateUS: SIECUS In Action, to talk about sex ed in the U.S. — and why it's vital that we do better. Jaclyn is a long-time feminist activist. She's also the author of Unscrewed: Women, Sex, Power, and How to Stop Letting the System Screw Us All and What You Really Really Want: The Smart Girl's Shame-Free Guide to Sex and Safety. In this episode, Jaclyn shares her mis...