Love & the Layman

For something half the population has, the vulva still manages to be shrouded in quite a bit of mystery. How it’s supposed to look, how it’s supposed to smell, where everything is, and how it should feel. Female anatomy may be as varied and unique as fingerprints, but that variety often creates more questions than answers—and an unhealthy dose of anxiety for women who don’t fully understand their...

Ever feel like your body is doing something… weird? Maybe it’s a raging morning erection that disappears the moment things get started. Maybe you can only orgasm from clitoral stimulation and never from penetration. Maybe you’ve heard that using a vibrator too much will ruin your sensitivity and now you’re spiraling. In this episode of Love & the Layman , certified sex coach Samantha Raddock a...

What happens when your body changes the rules — and no one gives you the updated manual? Perimenopause has a way of arriving quietly… and then making itself impossible to ignore. For many women, that can mean painful penetration, shifts in desire, and the unsettling feeling that a once-familiar body suddenly feels foreign. In this episode of Love & the Layman , a listener in her early fifties...

Let’s be honest — we’ve all wondered what goes on at a sex party. Day-long orgies. Indecipherable throngs of sweaty, writhing, naked bodies. If what comes to mind feels straight out of a movie montage, you’re not alone. Sex parties tend to live in the imagination long before anyone actually attends one. But how much of that is accurate? In this episode of Love & the Layman , certified sex coac...

Same relationship, different libidos. What happens when sex becomes lazy, inconsistent, or non-existent altogether? In this episode of Love & the Layman , certified sex coach Samantha Raddock and her husband Jared take aim at mismatched desire and the slow creep of “meatball sex” in long-term relationships — predictable, routine, and served the exact same way every time. Why does desire change...

What if marriage doesn’t automatically mean monogamy? Opening up a long-term relationship isn’t just about adding more people — it’s a reason to start asking bigger questions. What are we missing? What am I actually longing for? What feels exciting… or terrifying? In this episode of Love & the Layman , a listener question about opening a 20-year marriage turns into a much broader conversation...

What comes to mind when you hear “BDSM”? If all you picture is whips, nipple clamps, and leather spandex, you’re definitely not alone. In this first episode of Love & the Layman , certified sex coach Samantha Raddock and her husband Jared break down what BDSM actually is — and more importantly, what it isn’t (hint: it’s not what movies make it look like). From dominance and submission to flogg...

What actually counts as sex? If your definition starts and ends with penetration, your dictionary is definitely outdated. In Episode 2 of Love & the Layman , certified sex coach Samantha Raddock and her husband Jared tackle a philosophical quandary that’s been left too open to interpretation: how do we decide what “real sex” is in the first place? From mutual masturbation to oral sex to cervic...