0:00

This week on Erotic Awakening,

0:02

16 years of podcasting, in

0:04

a review of 2024. Welcome

0:06

to Erotic Awakening, an exploration

0:08

of all things erotic. If you

0:10

are offended by adult topics

0:12

or prohibited by law, we recommend

0:14

you stop listening right now.

0:16

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0:18

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0:32

Hi Dawn, how are you

0:34

this fine day? Oh, a little

0:36

tired. Just writing this list of

0:38

what we've done in the last year.

0:41

It is no wonder we're both so

0:43

worn out. Isn't it a bit

0:45

late to be doing our yearly review?

0:47

It is February already. Well, yes,

0:49

it is February, but when

0:51

you see the list, you'll

0:53

understand why we are behind.

0:55

But also it's kind of

0:57

cool to do that

0:59

review on the anniversary

1:02

show. So 16 years of

1:04

doing this podcast,

1:06

I don't know how I feel about that. When

1:08

is the 16 -year official?

1:10

Official? I think it's like tomorrow. So

1:13

going over to the calendar,

1:15

looking at the calendar. And

1:17

Wednesday, February 12th. Okay,

1:20

very cool. Is the official anniversary.

1:22

We started in 2009. It's interesting

1:25

that when we started the podcast, I

1:27

would not be able to say

1:29

the following sentence, or the following sentence

1:31

would make no sense to anyone

1:33

in the world. I'm

1:35

currently asking chat GTP, how

1:37

many podcasts have been

1:40

around over 16 years?

1:43

Oh, I don't know that

1:45

I can name any. And

1:47

I actually advertise our podcast as

1:50

the longest running kink polyamory podcast.

1:52

But we're actually the

1:54

longest running kink podcast

1:56

that is still running and the

1:58

longest running. polyamory podcast

2:00

that is still running. The two

2:02

that were longer than us have

2:04

stopped recording and we're still going,

2:07

so 16 years. Do you have

2:09

anything, did it come up with

2:11

anything? It mentioned podcasts like This

2:13

American Life, The Daily Joe Show

2:15

with John Stewart, which is a

2:17

weird one that I didn't think

2:19

it would be around, and The

2:21

Moth Podcast, which is a storytelling

2:24

podcast, which I've listened to a

2:26

few times. So there are a

2:28

number of podcasts, but we are

2:30

in a rare company for sure.

2:32

Indeed, and we are a little

2:34

niche niche, which they do not

2:36

fall in. They are bigger podcasts

2:39

than we are, but we've been

2:41

able to stick around because of

2:43

our patron supporters. And at the

2:45

beginning, we didn't have patron supporters.

2:47

We had people emailing us going,

2:49

oh my God, we love your

2:51

show. And that kept us going,

2:53

right? So just a word of

2:56

it. But I wanted to actually,

2:58

I started thinking before we started

3:00

this show, people are used to

3:02

me starting sentences and then totally

3:04

turning them around. Right, turns. Anyway,

3:08

I started typing this morning what

3:10

it is we've done over the

3:12

last year and just to throw

3:14

some stuff out there, kind of

3:16

like a yearly review. What has

3:18

Dan and Dawn done over the

3:20

last year? And then I started

3:22

putting down some of the shows

3:25

that we've done over the last

3:27

year, right? So 16 years of

3:29

this show. Do you want to

3:31

hear what, and it's a review

3:33

of 2024. Do you want to

3:35

hear some of the things? I

3:37

want to start off actually, this

3:39

is me turning it on your

3:42

head. Okay. With the significant personal

3:44

changes that have happened in the

3:46

last year. Oh, I put those

3:48

in there too. There's a list

3:50

of like 15 things there that

3:52

we've done. Personal changes is on

3:54

there, but are you thinking of

3:56

like, I know there's been relationship

3:58

changes, there's been location changes. There's

4:01

been, gosh, I don't even know

4:03

how to. say it? Well let's not let's not foreshadow

4:05

let's start off with okay that I have left my full-time employment

4:07

of 21 years right and that

4:09

just happened fairly recently that and

4:11

that's been a big well it's

4:13

been a big adjustment for me

4:16

of course but it's been a big

4:18

adjustment for us one of the reasons

4:20

that we've been able to keep the

4:22

podcast going for so long is we

4:25

are, what is it, sponsored by? Not really,

4:27

but supplemented by the fact that I've got

4:29

this corporate job, which, you know, it kind

4:31

of just pays all the bills and we

4:33

don't have to worry about, oh my gosh,

4:36

our book sales are up or down, or

4:38

oh, patrons are up or down. And

4:40

we've been able to present for free.

4:42

So you've had the corporate job of

4:44

21 years. I've had on and off.

4:47

corporate jobs that have supplemented, you

4:49

know, over the years, not currently.

4:51

I've been focusing on the books

4:53

and the podcasts and the zooms

4:56

and all that type of stuff.

4:58

But yeah, you just you just

5:00

left your corporate job. So things

5:02

are changing as in we're going

5:04

to have to come off the

5:06

road. And we're going to have to

5:08

live small. So we have found a

5:11

place to live small and we are

5:13

going to do that. And not only

5:15

that change, but We're going to, there's

5:17

just some things we're going to have

5:19

to do financially to make this work.

5:21

Yeah, absolutely. We're making some adjustments. You

5:23

know, nobody out there is surprised by

5:25

hearing, oh my gosh, you lost your

5:28

job, you're making financial changes. Well, that's

5:30

of course normal, right? The obvious ones,

5:32

do we really need FLEX and HBO

5:34

and Amazon Prime? You know, those are

5:36

the obvious ones that come to mind,

5:38

but like you said, we've been living

5:40

on the road for the past couple

5:43

of the past couple of years. And

5:45

instead we've decided here's a nice little

5:47

spot in the corner of nowhere Arizona

5:49

where the cost of living is fantastic.

5:51

And we said, let's just sit here for

5:53

the next eight or nine months and figure

5:56

out what we're going to do next. Exactly.

5:58

So though we do have things in. Emotion

6:00

which I would like to talk about the

6:02

thing that concerns me though Is that

6:04

we're going to stay here for the next

6:06

at least over the summer? We have

6:08

things all organized with that, but we're also

6:10

going to be in hot hot temperature

6:12

So we're going to be flipping how we

6:14

sleep how we work So

6:17

that we are not out during the hot

6:19

part of the day The interesting thing is

6:21

the reason that we will be living cheap

6:23

is because we are in an area where

6:25

if you're familiar with The concept of snowboarding

6:28

right it's an area where during the winter

6:30

time. It is super warm relatively speaking I

6:32

mean, it's mid -February right now, and I'm

6:34

running around in shorts and In

6:37

the summertime it gets atrociously hot

6:39

what normal people do is they

6:41

come here in the winter and

6:43

they leave and go somewhere Well,

6:45

no, we're so we're living opposite

6:47

snowbird which makes things really inexpensive

6:49

But it does give us

6:51

environmental challenges indeed so adventure We'll

6:54

see how that goes, but along

6:56

with that we are also I

6:58

Keep wanting to say we're moving

7:00

in one of your partners, but

7:02

that's not how this is going

7:04

Correct Sean is going to be

7:06

part of the household But

7:09

that is not her moving

7:11

in with us. That is the

7:13

three of us Combining

7:15

a house. I like the

7:17

way you have it here

7:19

What we're doing is instead

7:21

of trying to fit her

7:23

into the RV or us

7:25

jump into her existing abode

7:27

We're creating something brand new

7:29

right so, you know, we're kind

7:31

of like walking away from

7:33

Maybe it's the wrong verbiage as

7:35

well, but things are changing

7:37

things are changing We've been living

7:39

kind of separately for the

7:42

last few months as in I've

7:44

been in the RV Sean

7:46

is in a park model and

7:48

you kind of float between us

7:50

right but for the summer That

7:53

feels kind of odd because you're

7:55

not gonna want to go between

7:57

us during a hundred and twenty

7:59

degree date So we have decided how

8:01

to combine a small household and

8:04

we'll see how that works, right?

8:06

Adventure. We don't know how that's

8:08

going to work, but we are

8:10

combining a lot of things. Yeah,

8:13

it is really, as long time

8:15

listeners know, we are the authors

8:17

of the Polyamery Toolkit and we've

8:20

done a ton of teaching about

8:22

Polyamery. So for us, it is

8:24

kind of an evolution, although we've

8:26

lived in three sums before, or

8:29

three people households, is a better

8:31

way to say it. We haven't

8:33

lived in something like this situation,

8:36

where it's just a different attitude

8:38

to it. In our previous setups,

8:40

it was, well, Dan really likes

8:42

this partner. So Dan's two partners

8:45

are going to live with Dan.

8:47

Although in one definition you could

8:49

say that's what we're doing here,

8:52

it's not really what we're building.

8:54

It's more of a non. It's

8:56

a combined household. Yes, great. Let's go,

8:58

that's right. Because I see you trying to

9:01

figure out words and there's not really words

9:03

for it, right? When we talk about Karen

9:05

and living with Karen, it was two households.

9:07

under one roof. Under one roof combined with

9:10

a door that the dog could run between

9:12

each side of the house in, right? And

9:14

this one is just going to be different.

9:17

So it is combined household. That's the goal.

9:19

Yeah. And Don, you may not know this,

9:21

but what we are doing on this, this

9:23

is going to be a two-part show. Today

9:26

we're going to talk about all the stuff

9:28

that we, the more personal stuff like we've

9:30

been talking about so far. And then our

9:32

next episode, just how much stuff the podcast

9:35

itself and erotic awakening itself is done. I

9:37

didn't know if you knew that. I did

9:39

not know that. I'm still writing things down

9:41

timeline like I do, because I'm in the

9:44

logical brain right now. Because one of the

9:46

things that we are doing, we're focused on

9:48

right now and have been focused on, we've

9:50

always been focused on, matter of fact, even

9:53

on our discourse. channel there

9:55

is a area for

9:57

fitness and health for

9:59

people that are exercising

10:02

or changing their diet

10:04

that kind of thing

10:06

take care of their

10:09

physical bodies well not

10:11

only I and I know where

10:13

you're going with this I think but

10:15

I also want to throw in there

10:17

not only are we paying attention to

10:19

our physical bodies but our mental health

10:21

mm -hmm and we did a deep dive

10:23

on that just starting a year ago

10:25

it's hard to believe it's only been

10:27

a year that we've started the deep

10:29

dive with new things for our

10:31

mental health right but let's go

10:33

into the physical because you're right

10:35

one of the reasons for staying

10:37

in this little corner piece of

10:39

Arizona is for our physical health

10:42

because we're down here with friends

10:44

who also concentrate on their physical

10:46

health not only that absolutely that's a

10:48

big aspect of it and that's

10:50

exactly why this is a show

10:52

that is going to be broken

10:54

into two parts because in 10

10:56

minutes I'm leaving for one of

10:58

the three or

11:00

four physical health

11:02

things I'm doing today and

11:06

one of the things about living

11:09

we made this choice we're going

11:11

to live somewhere totally different for

11:13

us instead of place that has a

11:15

big king community a lot of

11:17

presenting opportunities big airport so we

11:19

can fly to our gigs we

11:21

said let's live somewhere where the

11:23

focus is there's not a lot to

11:25

do except for spend a year

11:27

focused on the physical health and

11:29

really make that change that we

11:31

always talk about like oh one

11:33

day I'm going to get healthy nope

11:36

it's this year yeah but you

11:38

know and you say that but

11:40

we are so focused on physical

11:42

health we do that wherever we

11:44

travel to we like we we

11:46

do all the things we make

11:48

sure to get your push -ups in

11:50

every day all that type of

11:52

stuff but being here with friends that

11:54

also focus on that like you

11:56

said they teach classes so we're getting

11:58

ready to go to classes that

12:00

they teach at one of the RV

12:02

parks. And you've probably already done your

12:04

push -ups for today, or you may do

12:06

them later. We do stretches. We're doing

12:09

water to Bada. We're doing a lot

12:11

of things with a lot of focus

12:13

on that. We won't be able to

12:15

hike. It's going to be too freaking

12:17

hot. There's going to be rattlesnakes and

12:19

scorpions and some weird fucking thing called

12:21

sun spiders. I never want to see

12:23

one of those. I saw a picture

12:25

and about freaked me out. I never

12:27

want to see one of those in

12:30

person. So yeah, we're going to be

12:32

down here doing that. But lots of

12:34

indoor stuff. And we recognize everybody has

12:36

different physical abilities and opportunities. And

12:39

you know, we're certainly not

12:41

trying to whatever you would call

12:43

physically shame anyone who doesn't

12:45

have. Oh no, this is just

12:48

our focus. It's but for

12:50

us, it's one of the benefits

12:52

of leaving this corporate job

12:54

of many years is I can

12:56

finally take these exercise classes

12:59

I've been thinking about and finally

13:01

take care of some of

13:03

the niggling issues with my body

13:05

that oh, one day I'll

13:07

get this fixed up. You know,

13:10

well, now is the day.

13:12

So that's that's what we're focusing

13:14

on for year 16 of

13:16

the podcast. Well, actually, year inserts

13:18

ages for human being. Our

13:20

ages. So I know we're getting

13:23

ready to leave, but this

13:25

is supposed to be also a

13:27

review of maybe some of

13:29

the shows. No. Can I? Can

13:31

I? No. Okay, so I

13:34

was going to say that I

13:36

was going to say those

13:38

and keep this show focused on

13:40

stuff. Okay, well, then can

13:42

I mention one more thing? And

13:45

I know you really want

13:47

to run. So but and we

13:49

are so busy people. I

13:51

am. I'm sorry that I've had

13:53

to repost. I mentioned it

13:56

as I grabbed in. I grabbed

13:58

into the archive last week

14:00

and pulled something out by the

14:02

rabbit ears. So, you know,

14:04

just deep dive. But we'd really

14:07

wanted to give you guys

14:09

something today. The other thing that

14:11

we've been focusing on is

14:13

our mental health and helping other people with

14:15

their mental health like we do. And since the truck accident

14:17

that happened a year and a half ago and being on

14:20

the road and COVID and, you know, losing bat and losing

14:22

friends and all this stuff, my world was daily anxiety. And

14:24

I don't think you actually understood what that anxiety felt like

14:26

because I was just living with it at that point. It

14:28

was just a daily overlap. That is how my life was.

14:31

And then you developed some anxiety and you came to And

14:33

you're like, is this what your life is like? And I'm

14:35

like, yeah, you're like, oh, no, no, this is not good.

14:37

So a year ago, we had actually decided to get into

14:39

hypnosis. And we've been following the

14:41

path with that. And a lot

14:44

of what we've been doing recently

14:46

is self hypnosis and working with

14:48

other people and learning skills and

14:51

all this stuff. And it's layering

14:53

on everything else that we do,

14:56

the mentoring, the spiritual stuff, the

14:58

everything. and through your help with

15:00

helping me with hypnosis I have

15:03

cleared that anxiety. So my mental

15:05

health stuff is like so amazing

15:07

right now I've actually got instead

15:09

of fear about all these

15:11

changes that are going on

15:14

with us I actually have

15:16

a sense of curiosity. I have

15:18

not felt that in a very

15:20

long time. So this is kind

15:22

of amazing. So not just the

15:24

physical stuff that we're doing and

15:26

going to be concentrating on, but

15:28

our mental health as well. And

15:30

I'm just, I'm having a blast

15:32

with that and love that we

15:34

can share those tools with other

15:36

people because that's something we're going

15:38

to be talking about as well,

15:40

is what are your next steps

15:42

after your corporate job? And

15:44

we've often. Talked about maybe

15:47

not these words that we

15:49

are heart-centered healers But hypnotherapy

15:52

has been a wonderful opportunity

15:54

for us to take the decades of

15:56

tools we already have and give it

15:59

a nice little bow ties,

16:01

so to speak, in a way

16:03

to assist other people, as well as,

16:05

of course, with ourselves. Indeed.

16:08

And, as you mentioned, right, not

16:10

only the stress that you've been

16:12

going through that I've been going

16:14

through, but, you know, for people

16:16

who listen to the podcast that

16:18

live in the United States, the

16:21

whole thing is pretty stressful. No

16:23

shit. If you are, regardless, I'm

16:25

not going to get too deep

16:27

into this aspect, regardless of how

16:29

you voted in that last election

16:31

and how you feel about the

16:33

results, the, I think that you

16:35

would agree that both sides, that

16:37

there's a lot of anxiety producing

16:39

content to, and there always

16:41

has been, right? That's what the

16:44

media does there. If you

16:46

launch any generic website, it's the

16:48

10 reasons why you need

16:50

bombs shelter and these five viruses

16:52

are going to kill you

16:54

this year and whatever it is,

16:56

there's and, of course, some

16:59

of these are very legitimate concerns

17:01

for, as we have been

17:03

in the alternative community for many

17:05

years, if you are, well,

17:08

if you're a human, but specifically,

17:10

laws against trans people, laws against,

17:12

as we move deeper and deeper

17:14

into people needing to go underground

17:16

or feeling that they need to go

17:18

underground, again, without getting too deep

17:20

into it, a lot of people

17:22

feeling a lot of anxiety right

17:24

now and absolutely. So I've stepped

17:26

back and I said, well, I

17:28

can't really fix the election

17:30

or change it. And what

17:32

I can do is help people

17:34

with anxiety. And I've got a

17:37

direction to do that in

17:39

with the corporate job being shut

17:42

down. I've started to work

17:44

on and you're going to

17:46

hear more about this shortly.

17:48

A new nonprofit that specifically

17:50

targets and comes to the

17:53

aid of us, us in

17:55

the alternative community, in the

17:57

King community, marginalized community, helping.

18:00

deal with issues around stress, anxiety, as

18:02

well as the bevy of information we

18:04

have around the sexuality issues and all

18:06

that kind of stuff. It's called Echoes

18:09

Within and it is super close to

18:11

being ready for a full scale kickoff

18:13

and you will hear more about that

18:15

on the podcast. But that's where a

18:18

lot of where another place we're putting

18:20

energy into right now. Absolutely. So, and

18:22

like I said, next week, I really

18:24

want to go over what we've done

18:27

in the last year, and you'll see

18:29

how busy we are, and then we're

18:31

going to shift some of that focus,

18:34

like you said, to the hypnotherapy and

18:36

helping people out with their anxiety and,

18:38

you know, stuff like that. Then we

18:40

also have other books. projects on the

18:43

list. Oh yeah. So much stuff we

18:45

want to do. Anyway, if you want

18:47

to talk to us about any of

18:49

the stuff that we've mentioned, echoes within,

18:52

anxiety, you know, our new projects or

18:54

anything like that, we do still have

18:56

some big places that we are going

18:59

to in 2025. So you can check

19:01

us out, come talk to us when

19:03

we are at Intrig, in Indy in

19:05

February, or Kiki College in Chicago in

19:08

March, or Sizzertail Leather Conference in Tulsa

19:10

in June. Keep up with all of

19:12

our events, book news discounts and more

19:14

via the erotic awakening newsletter. And get

19:17

your E. A shout out like Mike

19:19

in Germany or in Hong Kong. Head

19:21

over to erotic awakening.com and subscribe today.

19:23

Real quick, Don, I wanted to mention

19:26

that wonderful picture that K is for

19:28

Kinky's sense of their cat reading the

19:30

Polyamery Tool Kit. I didn't know cats

19:33

could do that, but that one sure

19:35

did. I didn't either, but they said

19:37

that Echo, their little kitty cat, highly

19:39

recommends the book. Fantastic. A few tentacles

19:42

I want to throw out there and

19:44

then we are going to wrap this

19:46

show up so that we can go

19:48

pump you up, pump you up and

19:51

sweat our asses off for the next

19:53

two hours. So pirate on Instagram loves

19:55

to send me stuff and sent me

19:58

some fan art that they are very

20:00

intrigued with and beautiful stuff. And then

20:02

Minataris sent me, it's a crocheted one-eyed

20:04

tentacle monster blanket. Very cool. So fascinating,

20:07

that was really cool. And then

20:09

Peachey's been sending me pictures, so

20:11

long-time listeners, all three of these.

20:14

Thank you guys very much. I

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love, I love when you send

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me stuff like that. Be a part

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Find all the goodies at patron.com slash

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Rate us on Apple Podcast Spotify

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over ever you listen. Or just

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tell your friends. Join the conversation

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You're free to reach out to

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us. We love talking to you.

21:01

Contact us with questions, podcast comments, or

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just to say, I. We are Dana Dawn

21:05

on Fetlife, erotic awakening on

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Instagram, or just email us at

21:10

Dana Dawn at erotic awakening.com. Bye,

21:12

Dan. Bye, Dan. Pump you up.