Coming Together for Sexual Health

CW: S exual T rauma   Psychotherapist Sam Kendakur talks with host Tammy Kremer about the intersections of sexual health and mental health. Listen in for nuanced conversations about the gray areas and messiness of consent; how to piece apart our own understandings of sexual pleasure, desire, and attraction; the impacts of stigma on sexual and gender identity and those who choose non-monogamou...

Dr. Mai Fleming sits down with host Tammy Kremer to discuss what she sees as the provider’s role in supporting patients, now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. They review the multitude of situations in which a pregnancy is not optimal and how abortion stigma is one of the biggest barriers to medically safe abortion. At the core of her work, Dr. Fleming seeks to ensure her patients are empowere...

Stephan Ferris, a Bay Area activist lawyer, received one of the first 40 reported diagnoses of Monkeypox after attending a Pride celebration in San Francisco, California. Here, Ferris sits down with host, Tammy Kremer, and Dr. Akanksha Vaidya, a clinical fellow responding to the health crisis, to share his experience and discuss the need for improving treatment accessibility and provider education...

CW: Suicide, Suicidal Ideation   Courtney Brame, the founder of Something Positive for Positive People (SPFPP) , sits down with guest host Dr. Ina Park to discuss the ongoing need to foster spaces that destigmatize STI diagnoses. In the ninth year of his HSV-2 diagnosis, Courtney speaks on navigating life with the virus and what drove him to connect with people struggling with mental health i...

CW: Racism, Genocide, Violence Dante King, author of The 400-Year Holocaust: White America’s Legal, Psychopathic, and Sociopathic Black Genocide - and the Revolt Against Critical Race Theory , sits down with guest host Duran Rutledge, CAPTC's Capacity Building and Technical Assistance Trainer, to reflect on what it means to be a Black person in a country where the colonial legacy of anti-Blackness...

Becca Schwartz, LCSW, speaks about Team Lily, a pregnancy clinic for people experiencing significant barriers to care located at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. We focus on trauma-informed care: how past trauma can show up for patients in the medical setting, ways providers can practice trauma-informed care, and how these issues present and are addressed in San Francisco and at Team Lil...

We speak with Terrance Wilder and Nikole Trainor , two people who were intimately involved in PrEP Supports, a campaign launched by the San Francisco Department of Public Health in 2018. PrEP Supports was a community-engaged campaign that specifically focused on PrEP access and education in Black communities in San Francisco.   Download the transcript of this episode .  Resources:  ...

This special episode features Dr. Ina Park discussing monkeypox: what it is, what's the hype, and how worried (hint: not very) she is about the spread. Follow Dr. Ina Park on Instagram and Twitter . Download the transcript of the episode here . Resources: CDC Strange Bedfellows: Adventures in the Science, History, and Surprising Secrets of STDs .   Turn on notifications to never miss an episo...

Jen Jackson, Disease Intervention Specialist and Harm Reductionist, walks us through the history of harm reduction, the principles that guide the movement, and gives us some personal examples of disease intervention and harm reduction values in action. Listen in to learn how theories of harm reduction apply in myriad settings, and how a foundation in these theories is essential to providing effect...

CW: Ableism Download the transcript of this episode. Follow Andrew Gurza on  Instagram . Resources:   Disability After Dark Hot, Wet, and Shaking: How I Learned to Talk about Sex by Kaleigh Trace   Purchase or financially support The Joystick: The World’s First Accessible Sex Toy by Get Bump’n   Turn on notifications to never miss an episode of Coming Together for Sexual Health...

We speak with Dr. Rosalyn Plotzker about her work with UCSF’s ANCRE Center, the world’s first clinic devoted to anal cancer prevention. Anal cancer incidence is on the rise despite it being associated with HPV, a highly preventable (and extremely common!) virus. Roz takes us through her work with the clinic, anal cancer screening and risk factors, and debunks many of the stereotypes and stigmas su...

If you work in sexual health, you have probably had the experience of becoming the "sexpert" for your friends and family. We have gathered some (but by no means all!) of the questions Dr. Rosalyn Plotzker has received from her various circles to try and demystify at least some of these aspects of sexual health.  Turn on notifications to never miss an episode of Coming Together for Sexual Heal...

We continue our conversation with Dr. Paul Nash, Associate Professor in Gerontology at USC. In Part 2 of this discussion about ageism, host Duran Rutledge and Paul dive into the harmful stigma surrounding sex and aging, particularly for people at the intersections of various identities and life experiences.  Turn on notifications to never miss an episode of Coming Together for Sexual Health....

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Paul Nash, Associate Professor in Gerontology at USC. His research spans over a decade and focuses on ageism, discrimination, sexual health, and the built environment.  He partners with several non-profit organizations on his research into HIV and aging as well as ageism and intergenerational communication. Paul currently serves as a Commissioner on the Los A...

We talk with anti-racist activist, Dante King. He’s worked with organizations like the San Francisco Metropolitan transportation agency and the San Francisco Department of Public Health to cultivate environments that are anti-racist and inclusive. He discusses how capitalism reinforces racism, the creation of anti-blackness through policy, and the systems and structures that have led to white supr...

"Sex positivity" has become quite a buzzy phrase in sexual health and advocacy spaces in the last decade. But what does that actually mean in practice? Today we will talk with JaDawn Wright of the Pacific Aids Education training Center, about just that. JaDawn is the Deputy Director of the organization and a long-term trainer in the world of sexual health. She tells us why creating healthcare expe...

Ana Delgado, CNM, is a Clinical Professor in the UC San Francisco Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, San Francisco General Hospital Division. She acts as the Assistant Director of Inpatient Obstetrics and Co-Director for Anti-Racism, Equity, Inclusion, and Structural Change. She talks with us about racial inequities in healthcare, how structural racism permeates every...

Dr. Aisha Mays is a Family Physician who focuses on Adolescent Medicine. She is the Founder and Medical Director of the Dream Youth Clinic of Roots Community Health Center, in Oakland, California -- a youth-led, youth-engaged adolescent clinic co-located within Oakland’s two youth shelters. Dr. Mays’ work centers on adolescent reproductive health, reproductive justice for highly vulnerable youth,...

Dana Cropper recently took the helm of the California Prevention Training Center as its new Director after Alice Gandelman's retirement. She previously served as Director of Education at HealthHIV. We talk with Dana about her new position, why Oprah and Sojourner Truth are two of her heroes, and why she thinks to reduce stigma, we must each engage in deep and ongoing self-reflection “about how we...

On Jan 21, 2021, the FDA approved Cabenuva, the first once-monthly injectable HIV treatment for adults. Dr. Kelly Johnson, a fellow in infectious diseases and in sexually transmitted diseases at the University of California, San Francisco, explains the implications of this new treatment and how it affects the 1.2 million Americans living with HIV. Dr Johnson is a physician focused on HIV at San Fr...

Dr. Monica Gandhi is an infectious disease physician and professor of medicine at UCSF, and the Medical Director of the Ward 86 clinic. She talks about the efficacy of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine (that was submitted to the FDA for Emergency Use Authorization on 2/8/2021), and theorizes as to when we may return to some normalcy. Turn on notifications to never miss an episode of Coming Together fo...

In Dr. Ina Park's new book, Strange Bedfellows, she helps readers understand the broad impact of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), while removing the unfair stigma. She speaks with us about the writing process, tackling sex ed with her own kids, and how stigma impacts mental and physical health. Turn on notifications to never miss an episode of Coming Together for Sexual Health. Follow Comin...

Congenital syphilis (CS) is up 900% in California since 2012. UC San Francisco's Dr. Rosalyn Plotzker speaks with us about CS prevention and treatment and about the complex issues contributing to the spike, such as systemic racism. Turn on notifications to never miss an episode of Coming Together for Sexual Health. Follow Coming Together for Sexual Health on Instagram and Twitter .     &...

Dr George Rutherford, Professor of Epidemiology at UC San Francisco, talks with us about COVID-19, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and why anti-microbial resistance is the next public health threat. Turn on notifications to never miss an episode of Coming Together for Sexual Health. Follow Coming Together for Sexual Health on Instagram and Twitter .    

We continue our discussion with Lidia Carlton, Director of Community Education at Planned Parenthood Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley, about the CA Healthy Youth Act and how it's changing sex ed. She tells us why some parents are pushing back against gender diversity discussions, and why sex ed is a natural place to teach about race and ableism. Turn on notifications to never miss an episode of Com...