The Good Sex Project

Shame thrives in silence, and nowhere more than in the territory of sex and sexuality. This final episode makes the case for why talking about the taboo isn't just cathartic but quietly radical: a way of dissolving isolation, dismantling shame, and discovering you were never as alone as you thought. We reflect on what happens when people finally say the thing out loud: in therapy, to a friend, on a podcast.

Twenty years ago, Dr. Peggy Kleinplatz had a seven-and-a-half-month waiting list of couples stuck in the same story: one partner wants sex, the other doesn't, and both feel broken. So she stopped studying what goes wrong and started studying what goes right - interviewing people having the best sex of their lives to find out what it's actually made of.The answer breaks down into eight components, and technique isn't one of them. In this bonus episode, Dr. Kleinplatz - Professor at the University of Ottawa and co-author of Magnificent Sex - talks with Melody about why "natural and spontaneous" is a myth, and why the couples who never fight might be the ones most at risk.

What separates good sex from sex that’s genuinely transformative? This episode starts with a challenge: one couple's New Year’s resolution to pursue 365 orgasms (for her) in a year, and what that commitment unlocked for them about pleasure, communication, and each other. Then we go deeper with Dr. Peggy Kleinplatz, whose landmark research into "magnificent sex" found that the best lovers aren't who you'd expect - and that what makes sex extraordinary has almost nothing to do with technique. An episode about what we're actually reaching for when we reach for more.

Comedian and actress Brynley Stent (Shortland Street, Taskmaster, 7 Days) joins Melody Thomas for a candid, funny chat about love, singledom, and why finding "the one" doesn't magically fix everything. They talk about the vulnerability of putting a relationship on camera, the pressure of visas and biological clocks, and why friendship might matter just as much as romance.Content note: frank discussion of sex and dating, some swearing.

Five writers. Five letters to their libido. Equal parts filthy, funny, and unexpectedly profound - a bonus episode to balance out this week's heavier one.This is a bonus episode with a different shape: five writers - Nadine Hura, Sam, Joseph Trinidad, Emily Writes and Melody - read the letters they wrote to their libido for TGSP's live launch event. Inspired by Jessie Casson's Letter to My Libido project, these are funny and tender pieces of writing about desire, identity, faith, grief and reclaiming your own body.

Sexual trauma doesn't end when the event does. Its effects ripple forward - into how we see ourselves, how we move through intimacy, how we flinch or freeze or dissociate in moments that are supposed to feel safe. This episode explores the long aftermath of sexual trauma: the ways it reshapes identity, trust, and the body's relationship to pleasure, sometimes for years or decades. We speak with Jimanekia Eborn, sexual assault and trauma expert, who brings both clinical insight and deep personal honesty to the question of what survival actually looks like and what it takes to move beyond it. This isn't an episode about victimhood. It's about the slow, nonlinear, often surprising work of reclaiming yourself.