Death, Sex & Money
Episodes
The Chaste Sexiness and Fantasy of Hallmark Holiday Rom-Coms
23 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When screenwriter Russell Hainline first moved to L.A., his goal was to write high-budget monster movies and thrillers. Then one day, he was prompted ...
Samin Nosrat’s Recipe for Self-Compassion
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After the blockbuster success of her first book, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, Samin Nosrat felt pressure to follow it up with something big. But when depres...
What Hearing Aids and Anger Management Still Miss
09 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The British poet Raymond Antrobus was six years old when his parents and doctors realized that his ears couldn’t recognize a whole range of sounds. ...
When Your Famous Dad Can Charm Anyone But Can't Pay the Bills
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah Amos says the best way to describe her childhood is as a “nepo-baby fever dream.” She grew up in a pink mansion in Hawaii where celebrities ...
“The Lord Is My Shepherd and He Knows I'm Gay”
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When the Metropolitan Community Church was founded in the late sixties, it was one of the first gay positive churches in America. When AIDS hit, it be...
Tig Notaro's Documentary About Her Friend's Death Is Also Really Funny
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Even though the documentary Tig Notaro produced won the Festival Favorite Award at Sundance, she did not spend the festival hobnobbing with industry t...
Money on the Mind: How to Budget for Aging Parents…and Yourself
15 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In a new, very special Death, Sex & Money and Slate Money crossover, Felix Salmon and Anna Sale are once again joined by Felix’s financial advisor A...
Raising A Country Musician Through Swagger and Psychosis
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Country musician Luke Bell had swagger, talent, and a career on the rise, opening for Willie Nelson and Dwight Yoakam. Then mental illness took over. ...
Money on the Mind: Prepping for Retirement Without Losing Your Mind
08 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In a new, very special Death, Sex & Money and Slate Money crossover, Felix Salmon and Anna Sale dig into the stressful world of financial advice and p...
After SNL, Ego Nwodim Has Her Weekends Back
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This September when SNL announced its season 51 cast, Ego Nwodim made the cut. Then, just days later, she announced on social media that she was leavi...
Money on the Mind: To Have Kids or Not to Have Kids
01 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In a new, very special Death, Sex & Money and Slate Money crossover, Felix Salmon and Anna Sale dig into the difficult decision of whether or not to h...
Her Boyfriend Was Killed in a Random NYC Attack. Right-Wing Trolls Mocked Her.
28 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the early-morning hours of October 2, 2023, progressive activist and organizer Ryan Carson was stabbed and killed by a stranger on a Brooklyn sidew...
How a Former Polygamist “Sister Wife” Learned to Love Monogamy
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Christine Brown Woolley grew up in Utah with a dad and two moms, in a polygamist community called the Apostolic United Brethren. When she became an ad...
Nick Offerman's Principled Hypocrisy
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the new movie Sovereign, actor Nick Offerman plays an extremist who doesn’t believe in the legitimacy of the Federal government. In real life, Ni...
A War Photographer on the Limits of Bearing Witness
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Peter van Agtmael went to Iraq in 2006 to embed with the U.S. military, he was 24 years old and confident that his pictures could help end an unj...
Why Job Hunting Feels So Grim Lately, Especially for Gen Z
30 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Anna learns about how frustrating it is to apply for jobs these days, especially for early-career folks, even those with college degrees. F...
From Brazilian Butt Lifts to Botox: Your Beauty Confessions
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past few months, we've been asking you to tell us stories about your beauty interventions. You told us about feeling caught between viewing a...
Private Equity Blew Up My Life
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Megan Greenwell was 34 she landed a coveted job in journalism as the editor-in-chief of the sports and culture blog, Deadspin. Just over a year l...
Why Filmmaker Jay Duplass Had to (Kind of) Break Up With His Brother
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After two decades of making movies with his younger brother Mark, Jay Duplass has gone solo. This week, he tells Anna about all the factors that led t...
Sex-Positive Parents, Crass Grandparents, and a Weird and Wonderful Childhood
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When comedy writer Tamara Yajia talks about her childhood, she’s sometimes unsure what tone to strike. Her new memoir Cry for Me Argentina: My Life ...
Your Moving Stories
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
They say moving is one of life’s most stressful events. We asked for your stories about why you’re doing it. Plus, Heidi Reinberg was priced out ...
The Internet Taught Me to Diet, Then Saved Me With Weightlifting
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Casey Johnston grew up in a family where being thin mattered. In college, the internet told her to eat 1,200 calories and do endless cardio if she wan...
He’ll Move Your Couch, and Keep Your Secrets
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Adonis Williams has been a mover in New York City for 20 years. He says he's moved about 3,500 people, and with each move, he catches a glimpse of a l...
How the Ultra-Rich Think…and What They Fear
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Evan Osnos has spent nearly his whole life observing the habits, values, and norms of the wealthy elite, from his childhood in suburban Connecticut to...
The Real-Life Willy Wonka Who Built Tony Hawk a Secret Desert Train
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
N.D. Austin is not an event planner. He designs experiences, which he says are supposed to leave you feeling transformed. He’s designed hundreds ove...
Seth Rogen Has Empathy and Disdain for Bad Hollywood Execs (Talk Easy)
25 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Actor-writer-director Seth Rogen discusses Hollywood's perpetual existential crisis, where art and commerce constantly battle for dominance. On the he...
The Elvis Impersonator That Married 75 People a Day
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Brendan Paul co-owns the Graceland Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, which claims to be the site of the world's first Elvis-themed wedding. Dressed in spar...
The Honeymoon That Ended in Immigration Detention
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Silvia Camila Muñoz and Bradley Bartell had been married for less than a year when ICE stopped them at the airport on the way back from their honeymo...
What Military Service During “Peacetime” is Really Like
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ray Christian joined the U.S. Army in 1978, as a way to get his life started. He became a paratrooper, an infantryman, and a drill sergeant. He also e...
Baywatch Made Me World Famous. My Stalker Stole My Privacy.
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Alexandra Paul always loved connecting with fans. She had many, from her breakout role in the 1983 horror film Christine to her years playing a lifegu...
Allison Williams on Botox, Privilege, and Gen Z’s Love of Marnie From ‘Girls’
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On June 11th, actress Allison Williams joined Anna live onstage at the Tribeca Festival in New York City for a conversation that was equal parts intro...
How Much Can Your Love Life Change in One Summer?
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2018, we followed eight listeners as they dated over the course of the summer. We heard about having sex for the first time, being ghosted, downloa...
Money Advice For This Weird Moment
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At a time when inflation, tariffs, and stock market fluctuations are creating confusion and financial strain, we’ve assembled an unlikely panel of e...
How a Matchmaking Job Inspired a Film About Dating's Secret Economy
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Long before Celine Song was nominated for an Academy Award for her directorial debut, Past Lives, she was a struggling playwright in New York City wit...
Betraying a Friendship to Get a Viral Story
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When blogger AJ Daulerio broke the Brett Favre sexting scandal in 2010, it became one of the biggest stories of his career. But it came at a cost: he ...
Why Chef José Andrés Googled ‘How to Be a Father’
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
José Andrés is at the helm of more than a dozen restaurants and is famous for the humanitarian work that his organization World Central Kitchen does...
Your IRL Dating Stories
13 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A man delivers an unforgettable pickup line. A woman asks her Uber driver out on a date. A rancher swears off men and then, years later, suddenly deve...
Isabel Allende on Grief, Ayahuasca, and Dating After 70
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Isabel Allende didn’t publish her first book until she was 39, after losing nearly everything in the wake of the Chilean military coup. More than fo...
The Patient and Cunning Work of Defending LGBTQ Rights with a Republican Supermajority
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In West Virginia, Republicans hold one of the largest supermajorities in the country, and it’s growing. Just 11 Democrats — down from 14 last year...
Are Airline Pilots Allowed to Be Depressed?
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
To fly a plane, pilots must prove to the Federal Aviation Administration that they’re physically and mentally fit. But when it comes to mental healt...
How the ‘Subway Takes’ Guy Became His Own Nepo Baby
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kareem Rahma, host of the viral web series Subway Takes, says he’s been working since he was 14 and hasn’t really taken a break. In high school, h...
Scorpion Venom and Coffee Enemas Didn't Cure My Mother's Cancer
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At a time when skepticism about conventional medicine has become even more mainstream, we’re revisiting a story about the causes and effects of that...
Laughing About Hard Things
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Alongside life's darkest moments there often are moments of absurdity that make us laugh. In this episode, from a live San Francisco comedy festival...
A Middle-Aged Couple Made Porn to Spice Things Up. Then One of Them Got Fired.
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Joe Gow was fired from his position as chancellor and professor at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse, his superiors said it was due to “...
Life After Blowing It All Up: A Sugar Baby Story Revisited
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2020, we made an episode about a listener who cheated on his wife with sex workers and was going through a divorce. He told us the idea to go on th...
Call It ‘A Midlife Awakening’
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Anna talks to writer Ada Calhoun, author most recently of the novel Crush, about a married woman succumbing to extramarital temptation (she wrote it w...
From Uncertainty to Total Chaos, Your Stories About the New Trump Term
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Since the inauguration in January, we’ve been getting emails and voice recordings from people whose lives have been thrust into uncertainty due to c...
I Was Ready to Write About My Domestic Abuser—Then Lawyers Said No.
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When comedian Chelsea Devantez began writing her memoir, she knew exactly where to start: with a teenage relationship that spiraled into domestic viol...
Manhood: It’s Complicated
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Six and a half years ago, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, we asked our listeners how they think about manhood–how to be, what’s hard, where th...
After Sobriety, Chasing Goosebumps Instead of Highs
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When the poet and writer Kaveh Akbar likes something, he really likes it. As a high school student, he got hooked on poetry. In college, it was alcoho...
The “Chest-Clenching Fear” of My Ex-Husband’s Jan 6 Commutation
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2023, Anna and On The Media’s Micah Loewinger traveled to Montana to talk to Tasha Adams, the ex-wife of Stewart Rhodes, who founded the far-righ...
The Kind of Man a Bullied Boy Becomes
28 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Comedian Gary Gulman is used to dealing with bullies. He grew up with older brothers, who he describes as "aggressive" and “unenlightened,” and he...
‘Babygirl’ Director Wants Women Not to Suppress Their Beast
21 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Babygirl, the new erotic thriller starring Nicole Kidman, features an age-gap romance and a power imbalance. But according to the filmmaker Halina Rei...
Paid to Care: When Class, Power, and Caregiving Collide
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Delores moved to New York City from Jamaica nearly thirty years ago she didn’t know anyone. But soon she found a community of other nannies and...
Paid to Care: The Magic, and Mess, of Care Work
07 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Whether it's a nanny taking us to school or a home health aide helping us age in place, most of us will rely on paid caregivers at some point in our l...
Love Actually: Real Romance Stories From Mahershala Ali, Jane Fonda, and More
31 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For our last episode of 2024, we’re sharing a handful of stories about what love actually looks like, with all its flaws and complexities. The late ...
Should You Divulge a Disability in Your Dating Profile?
24 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Todd is looking for love, but he’s unsure about disclosing something in dating profiles: his multiple sclerosis. On Slate’s How To podcast, Todd g...
Chaz Ebert on Loss, Intuition and Her 'Cougar' Group Chat
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ten years ago, Chaz Ebert talked to us about grief and loss as she was mourning the 2013 death of her husband, movie critic Roger Ebert. Her deep sens...
Betting on America: Two Gamblers, One Presidential Election
10 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On election night, while many voters across the country were focused on who would win the presidency, a growing number of Americans were watching the ...
From Social Work to Improv to the Best Show on HBO
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When actor and performer Jeff Hiller first tried improv comedy, he was instantly amazing at it. Jeff is an excellent listener. He’s also accommodati...
Why I Chose Estrangement
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When is it time to go no contact? In this episode, we talk to four listeners who have recently become estranged from loved ones. This episode was ori...
How a Betrayed Spouse Became an Infidelity Expert
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Therapist Lauren LaRusso has spent the past few years learning everything she can about infidelity–why people have affairs, how to cope with an unfa...
Will He Still Love Me When I'm Off Ozempic?
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2021, we released an episode called The Weight of Love, where listeners shared stories about weight, body size, and how those factors affect their ...
A Celebration (and Critique) of American Freedom
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From an early age, Alynda Segarra saw the people they loved grind it out in an American system that offered them little reward. Their father, a musici...
The Making and Unmaking of a Productivity Perfectionist
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, author and podcaster Kendra Adachi explains how she took perfectionism and strict time-management way too far and was forced to radically c...
Haley Joel Osment Is Not Your Typical Former Child Star
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When he was 11 years old, actor Haley Joel Osment was nominated for an Oscar. His resume was already long and impressive, but his role as Cole Sear in...
Search Engine: When Is It Time to Stop Drinking?
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Anna talks to PJ Vogt, host of the podcast Search Engine, about his distinct writing and interviewing style. Then we share one of our favorite episode...
My Father Planned His Death. I Didn’t Stop Him.
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One day on his morning Uber route, Jason Armstrong got an email from his father. The message: at 85, he'd decided to end his life by stopping eating a...
My Secret Life as a Hoarder
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Elizabeth* has a secret life as a hoarder. None of her colleagues or family members know that her apartment is filled to the brim with garbage bags, d...
Bob the Drag Queen says Polyamory is Expensive
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you lived in Columbus, Georgia in the 90s, you might remember a queer club called Sensations. But Bob the Drag Queen knew Sensations by day, not ni...
Martha Wainwright on Post-Divorce Confidence and ‘Folk Tits’
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Martha Wainwright was born into a world of music and folk fame, with songwriter parents Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle and brother Rufus. I...
One Man’s Meticulous Quest to Cure Grief
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After Cody Delistraty’s mom died in his early 20s he decided to turn his grief into a research project with one central question: can grief be cured...
The Weight of Love
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Your stories about how navigating weight and body size inside a relationship has sometimes made your partnerships stronger…and sometimes broken them...
Two Friends, at 35 and 95, Confront Loss and Find Hope
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Climate activists Jess Serrante and Joanna Macy are 60 years apart. They’re also close friends who’ve been sharing stories and commiserating about...
Life and Death Inside the Playboy Mansion
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Crystal met Hugh Hefner when she was 21 and he was 81. They spent 10 years together at the Playboy mansion before he died and she became a widow. In t...
Miranda July’s Perimenopausal Thriller
13 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Miranda July entered her early forties, she noticed a grim feeling emerge. “It wasn't coming from me,” she said, “I guess it came from this...
A Former Debt Collector's Unpaid Bills
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Angela first started working at a debt collection agency, she says she barely understood what her job was. "I was so completely awestruck that pe...
Olympic Legend Greg Louganis on Outliving and Outperforming Expectations
30 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
During the 1988 Summer Olympics, diver Greg Louganis was competing under extreme pressure. In the preliminary round, he split his head open on the div...
What’s Missing From the Overdose Crisis Conversation
23 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From a young age, James T. Morrison used drugs to help him feel better. He started with pills that were prescribed to him–medications like Xanax and...
The Mayor of the Most Controversial City in the U.S.
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
San Francisco mayor London Breed grew up learning again and again about the dangers of drugs and addiction. She lived in public housing in the city in...
Sex Parties and Shakespeare With Carvell Wallace
09 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Carvell Wallace’s brilliant new memoir Another Word for Love has been rightfully praised for its passages about childhood trauma, about apologies an...
Baby Reindeer’s Intimacy Coordinator on Sex and Trauma on Screen
02 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Since the #MeToo movement, the presence of intimacy coordinators have become more common on movie and TV sets. In this episode, Elle McAlpine the inti...
Kara Swisher and Orna Guralnik on How to Get People Talking
25 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Anna talks to Dr. Orna Guralnik, the psychoanalyst from Showtime’s Couples Therapy, and then to Kara Swisher, the pugnacious tech journalist and pod...
Mark Duplass on Making Money, Mental Health and Midlife
18 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Duplass’s first big dream came true when he was 28: a movie he wrote and directed with his brother, Jay, got into The Sundance Film Festival. I...
My Shy Bladder
11 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher Zara didn’t finish high school, and can sometimes feel like an outsider working in a field where it’s more common to have a college de...
I Was Afraid of Losing Myself to Motherhood. I Found Myself Instead.
04 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Elissa Strauss always knew she wanted to be a mother, but she also knew she didn’t want motherhood to take over her personality. After all, she had...
Why You’re Not Having Sex
28 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The dating app Bumble recently declared in advertisements that “a vow of celibacy is not the answer.” The ad campaign, which was met with a swift ...
Bonus: After the Interview, Our Guest Had Some Questions
24 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In our episode with Jim Harris, we talked about how a spinal cord injury left him partially paralyzed, and then how 8 months into his recovery he rega...
The Night Magic Mushrooms and Jam Bands Helped Me Walk Again
21 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Before going on a kite-skiing trip to the Chilean mountains, Jim Harris and his longtime girlfriend broke up. She wanted to settle down, and he wanted...
My Eating Disorder Turned Into an Obsession With Money
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Vivian’s eating disorder started in college. She meticulously tracked calories and the number on the scale. Once she graduated she became less rigid...
'Tom' Felt So Alone Not Being Able To Drive. We Made An Introduction.
10 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We first heard from a listener we’re calling Tom in an episode about life transitions. He told us he had recently gotten his driving license revoked...
Filling the Health Care Gap (and Filling Lips!) in Appalachia
07 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nurse practitioners Teresa Owens Tyson and Paula Hill-Collins have saved countless lives in rural Appalachia. They operate a mobile clinic called The ...
You’re at a Crossroads. We’re Here to Help.
30 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
To make this episode we asked you, our listeners, if you had any questions about a big life transition you were preparing for where you needed some ad...
A Tarot Reader Explains Why Intuition is So Tricky
23 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this year, when the future of Death, Sex & Money was up in the air, Anna Sale consulted Rebecca Auman, a tarot reader and self-described witch...
A Sociopath's Guide to Death, Sex, and Money
16 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Patric Gagne says being a sociopath is like having an emotional learning disability. In this episode, she talks about the good and the bad of having l...
From Indie Rockers to Full-Time Caregivers
09 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When musician Johnny Solomon hit rock bottom, he turned to his mom for help. Then, as his mother’s health declined, he and his wife (and bandmate) M...
I Was In Debt. Then My Sister Offered Me $16,000.
02 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2021, we talked to a listener that we’re calling Tessa, who found themselves in $19,000 worth of credit card debt. When Tessa’s sister offered ...
The Very Hot Marriage of Niecy Nash and Jessica Betts
26 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we’re revisiting our conversation with (now Emmy-winning) actor Niecy Nash and her wife, singer-songwriter Jessica Betts. They discuss th...
A Former Pro Climber On Enduring Chronic Illness
19 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we get an update from Mason Earle, a former professional rock climber who we spoke to back in 2021. Mason had been diagnosed with ME/CFS, c...
Who’s Driving Your Uber?
12 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we’re revisiting an episode about the transitional lives of Uber drivers. Anna and then-producer Katie Bishop hitched multiple rides in t...