Shades of Pleasure Podcast

About Shades of Pleasure Podcast

Podcast dedicated to the variations within relationships, with a special focus on non-monogamy, hosted by Moushumi Ghose, Melissa LeSane, Wayne LeSane and Kelly Jones, four American sexologists from Los Angeles Sex Therapy pleasureforthemasses.substack.com (https://pleasureforthemasses.substack.com/s/shades-of-pleasure-podcast?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Shades of Pleasure Hosts Mou, Melissa, Kelly, Wayne

Category

education · health & fitness

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

12 May 2024

Latest episode

29 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

30 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   29 Jun 2026

   29- The Cost of Silence

   Welcome to Episode 29 of Shades of Pleasure, where Mou, Melissa, Wayne, and Kelly, four sex and relationship professionals, explore the harm caused by silence and complicity in the face of oppression. What keeps people from speaking up for human rights? Why are so many afraid of losing credibility, followers, opportunities, or influence by challenging systems of oppression? These are the questions we wrestle with in this conversation. Oppression is cyclical. Oppressed people can go on to oppress others. Harm that is never examined often becomes harm that is repeated. We are all taught stories about how people are “supposed” to live, love, express themselves, and build relationships. While each of us has the right to make our own choices, dominant cultural narratives, particularly those rooted in conservative religious ideology and colonial systems, have caused profound harm for many communities. These narratives continue to reinforce objectification, exploitation, victim blaming, and the stigmatization of people who exist outside of what society has labeled as “normal.” Black, Brown, Indigenous, queer, immigrant, disabled, and other marginalized communities continue to bear the weight of these systems every day. The impacts of colonization are deeply personal. They are ancestral, relational, embodied, and often passed from one generation to the next. They shape the way we move through the world, relate to one another, experience intimacy, and understand ourselves. Without intentional reflection and repair, these wounds can create ongoing cycles of trauma and retraumatization. Healing professions are not immune from these dynamics. Therapy, academia, and medicine have long histories intertwined with racism, colonialism, and systems of exclusion. At the same time, therapy remains inaccessible for many people because of financial barriers, cultural stigma, geography, and the emotional demands placed on both clients and practitioners. So, what does it actually mean to decolonize our healing spaces, our relationships, our bodies, and our minds? What does it mean to truly “do the work?” Does healing have to happen in therapy, or are there other pathways to liberation, community, accountability, and repair? As Pride Month reminds us, decolonization is not only about unlearning. It is also about reclaiming. It is about visibility in the face of erasure, celebration in the face of shame, and joy in the face of oppression. Tune in to the full episode below: https://pleasureforthemasses.substack.com/s/shades-of-pleasure-podcast This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pleasureforthemasses.substack.com (https://pleasureforthemasses.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

2. 

   4 Jun 2026

   28- Is Burnout Our New Normal?

   Welcome to Episode 28 of Shades of Pleasure Podcast, where Mou, Melissa, Wayne, and Kelly—four sex and relationship professionals—get real about life, love, intimacy, and nonmonogamy. In this episode, the crew explores the intersections of systemic, social, and relational burnout. The political, economic, and social climate is oppressive and heavy. Additionally, it’s easy to burnout in the work that we do. For therapists, coaches, healers, and helping professionals, that weight is often compounded by the emotional labor required to support others through their own struggles. Traditional therapeutic and coaching models are not always sustainable. Practitioners are constantly navigating questions of capacity, boundaries, autonomy, and what it means to show up for clients while also caring for themselves. There can also be an unspoken expectation that therapists, coaches, and spiritual practitioners absorb or carry some of the emotional burden of the work, creating additional strain and fatigue. But burnout is not limited to helping professionals. Many people are experiencing chronic exhaustion, sleep disruption, doom scrolling, heightened stress, and a growing sense of overwhelm. Health and well-being often require more diligence, intention, and energy than people have available. Under the weight of oppression and ongoing uncertainty, even basic expectations can feel immobilizing. Burnout can also show up in our relationships. It may look like increased reactivity, feeling on edge, reduced capacity for conflict resolution, emotional withdrawal, or difficulty accessing intimacy and connection. Some people shut down and isolate. Others overextend themselves in an attempt to keep everything together. Many find themselves wondering how they got so far from themselves in the first place. From personal trauma to systemic oppression, from socialization to the realities of marginalized identities, burnout is rarely just an individual experience. It is often personal, relational, and systemic all at once. For many people, burnout has become the new normal. And navigating it alone is not always possible. Tune in to the full episode below. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pleasureforthemasses.substack.com (https://pleasureforthemasses.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

3. 

   21 May 2026

   27- Dismantling Compulsory Sexuality in the Therapy Room

   Welcome to Episode 27 of Shades of Pleasure Podcast, where Mou, Melissa, Wayne, and Kelly—four sex and relationship professionals—get real about life, love, intimacy, and consensual nonmonogamy. In this episode, the crew unpacks the impact of compulsory sexuality in the therapy room. Compulsory sexuality is the pervasive belief that sex is universally desired, inherently necessary, and expected as part of being human. As Sherronda Brown writes, it is the assumption that people are obligated to participate in sex at some point in life, and that something must be “wrong” with those who do not. Many clients enter therapy distressed about differences in desire, often identifying “low desire” as the problem. But what happens when clinicians themselves are operating from a framework rooted in compulsory sexuality? Too often, practitioners inadvertently cause harm by pathologizing clients, excluding asexuality from the conversation, or offering prescriptive interventions designed to “fix” the lower-desire partner rather than understand them. This becomes especially harmful when asexuality and the full spectrum of sexuality are erased from the conversations and clinical frameworks altogether. Additionally, compulsory sexuality is so deeply embedded in our culture, people with low or no desire frequently internalize shame and the belief that they are broken, defective, or incapable of intimacy, which couldn’t be further from the truth. The truth is that clients are the experts on their experiences. Low desire or asexuality isn’t about a lack—a lack of desire, intimacy, or pleasure. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Asexuality is a spectrum, and affirming care requires practitioners to move beyond assumptions about what relationships, sexuality, and fulfillment are “supposed” to look like, and meet clients where they’re at. When we decenter compulsory sexuality, we create more space for authenticity, connection, pleasure, and relational possibilities beyond narrow societal expectations. Curious to learn more about asexuality, low desire, and how affirming practitioners can deconstruct compulsory sexuality in clinical practice? Tune into the full episode below! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pleasureforthemasses.substack.com (https://pleasureforthemasses.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

Contact Shades of Pleasure Podcast

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.