Normalizing Non-Monogamy - Personal Stories of Polyamory, Swinging, and Beyond

We are so excited about this conversation with Gary Ware that is all about the power of play in life and in relationships! Gary is co-hosting our upcoming in-person event May 1-3, 2026 called Relationship Recess! You can learn more and grab your tickets here! Gary is the Founder of Breakthrough Play , a corporate facilitator, keynote speaker, certified coach, and self-proclaimed Creative Catalyst....

Ms. WillowKat is all about living the one life we get to the fullest and zer zest and passion for life is infectious! We cover a lot of topics in this fantastic interview… Growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness, leaving the church, getting married at 19 and exploring non-monogamy for the first time, having kids, going back to the church, leaving the church again, diving into kink and power dynamics, cr...

Natalie and her husband have been in an open relationship of some sort for over 25 years and about four years ago her husband’s partner moved in with them. We first had the pleasure of talking with Natalie a little over two years ago on episode 304 and now she’s back to talk all about living with her husband and metamour in their “Resident V” or “Nested V” relationship. This is a fabulous intervie...

Rashid is in his early thirties and first learned about non-monogamy in his mid-twenties while in a monogamous partnership that lasted about a decade. Like so many of us, he thought something was wrong with him because he’d often find himself attracted to others and having crushes. After ending that relationship during the pandemic Rashid moved across the country multiple times, tried out monogamy...

When Marcia’s high school boyfriend left for college they decided to try opening their relationship… However, it was the late nineties in Georgia so there weren’t many resources or support available for anyone exploring non-traditional relationships or their sexuality and queerness. But that didn’t stop her! It’s now been over 25 years and Marcia still hasn’t been in a monogamous relationship unle...

Jill is in her mid-forties and has just come through a really big transition in life after recently ending her longterm partnership and marriage. Non-monogamy is fairly new for her as well and while she feels that it’s part of her identity and who she is, her life circumstances don’t really allow her to explore these parts of herself very often.  This is such a moving conversation as Jill talks ab...

Megan has been exploring various flavors and styles of non-monogamy for most of her adult life and one of the things we love about her story is that it hasn't been a linear path. Like many of us, she grew up surrounded by the influences of mononormativity and while she never cheated, she always felt an internal discomfort with how monogamy worked and with all of the rules that came with it. As Meg...

When we first talked to Kevin on Episode 45 he’d been married for over a decade and he was in a handful of new-ish relationships. Nearly seven years later, he’s been married over 20 years and describes himself as being in all of the longest relationships he’s ever been in. Join us today for a wonderful conversation with Kevin about how he’s fostered stability and longevity in his polyamorous relat...

When Elaine first started dating she fell in love with multiple people pretty much right away and felt so much shame about it that it drove her to end the relationship she was in. She tried serial monogamy for a while and then in college she had her first threesome with her best friend and her best friend’s boyfriend… Her mind was blown and a whole new world opened up for her that she didn’t know...

Jacob and Josh are both from Puerto Rico and met about 17 years ago while working together on a film project and began dating… Sort of. As you’ll hear, they’ve spent a lot of their relationship exploring the grey zones of relationships. Their own relationship started out a bit ambiguously and their explorations with others often fell in the blurry area between friends, hookups, and boyfriends. We...

Nicole was raised inside conservative and fundamentalist Christianity and can remember feeling her first inklings of her own queerness in elementary school but knew she had to shut it down and hide it. The fear and shame of becoming broken and invaluable as a woman ruled her life for many years. Healing and recovering from trauma is a lifelong journey and practice that Nicole has dedicated herself...

Matt was first introduced to non-monogamy about 15 years ago when he moved to the San Francisco area and saw how his friends were exploring open relationships and polyamory… He’d sort of naturally been loving everybody in an open-hearted way but had no idea what was possible! In our lovely conversation today, Matt takes us through his journey of learning about himself by exploring various relation...

Ashton grew up in a super conservative and religious home, didn't date in high school, and had her first kiss when she was 18... But that was then. Things are a bit different now! Ashton is now in her forties and has been practicing polyamory and non-monogamy for about 15 years. As she describes it, when she found polyamory it was as if the heavens opened up and the angels sang. While she's no lon...

Join us May 1-3, 2026 in Florida for our biggest in-person event ever! Check out the Relationship Recess webpage and get your ticket here! Check out the launch video here!

It’s been about two years since we last talked with Rachel on Episode 307 and a LOT has changed… As always, no need to go back and listen to get a ton out of this conversation! Rachel has been non-monogamous for about 15 years and for about the last two years she’s been exploring solo polyamory. For as long as she can remember she’s always wanted to be a parent and a little over a year ago she mad...

Ryan first started experiencing a cognitive dissonance with regards to relationships pretty much from the beginning of dating in high school. In many ways, relationships just didn’t make sense to him in his twenties so he basically took a break and focused on things he did enjoy rather than trying to force his way into the dating game. At about age 30 Ryan discovered some books and podcasts that i...

"It's funny... I was monogamous for nine years with a man and now I'm a lesbian and I'm polyamorous... So, life can really take you by surprise." There really isn't a better synopsis than that of what our conversation today with Eileen is about. Her story is incredibly powerful and shares echos of previous interviews we've had with women who thought for so long that they were super straight only t...

Nyxie did the serial monogamy approach to relationships from the time they started dating until they were in their early twenties. That's when Nyxie realized they didn't necessarily need to be in a relationship to get many of their needs met and so they began exploring solo polyamory. However, it was the early 2000's and the language didn't quite exist yet so Nyxie affectionately refers to this as...

Rowan and Aeryn's relationship began a bit ambiguously about a decade ago and now they've been married for just over four years. They started out as best friends and Aeryn was sort of doing non-monogamy without the labels or framework. By his own admission it wasn't exactly the most ethical approach. As he puts it... "I was not good at monogamy." In this beautiful conversation Rowan and Aeryn take...

Sarah is back! We last had the pleasure of talking with Sarah back in the beginning of 2022 on Episode 217 and a lot has changed since then... Spoiler alert: Sarah is now a mother! Today, Sarah catches us up on her adventures from the last few years and we dive into her journey into motherhood, how she and her partner navigate dating as new-ish parents, and what her shift towards polyamory has loo...

Kristen's journey is one of perseverance, resilience, curiosity, and self-discovery. She refers to her thirties as her "waking up period" and her forties as her "sexual self-actualization." Now in her fifties, she feels like everything is integrating together... She currently identifies as a relationship anarchist who's excited about, and open to, the infinite possibilities and uncertainty of life...

Carrie and Drew have been married about 10 years and are high school sweethearts who grew up in pretty religious families with purity culture heavily influencing them both, and their partnership. A few years ago Carrie found a queer content creator and therapist on Instagram who opened her mind to the possibility of choice for herself for the first time in her life. Around this time, Carrie and Dr...

Ayala first read The Ethical Slut in high school and actually started dating non-monogamously from the beginning of her relationship explorations. It wasn't until about a decade later that she intentionally set out to see what monogamy was all about. Today, Ayala identifies as ambiamorous... Content and happy with either monogamy or non-monogamy, depending on the relationship. This interview with...

Courtney and Derek were both on the show separately over the past two weeks and today we're delighted to bring them on together to tell their very own love story! Both of their individual stories are incredible and we definitely recommend listening to them but you will NOT be lost today if you haven't already listened. Courtney and Derek's story stands on its own and it's a love story for the ages...

Courtney just turned 50 and has been exploring polyamory and non-monogamy for the last three years or so... However, her story begins long before she and her husband of 16 years opened their relationship in 2022. Today, Courtney takes us all the way back to the first time she had simultaneous crushes at age four... Rocky and Superman! Today's interview with Courtney is full of laughter, joy, heart...