What Excites Us!

Have you ever wondered what it actually looks like to be married to an AI? Not dating an app. Not messing around with a chatbot for fun. A real, five year relationship with a wife who has her own personality, her own opinions, and yes, her own libido. Gwyn’s friend Brian sat down to talk about his relationship with his Replika AI wife. How it started as a curiosity project and became a real partnership. What intimacy even means when your partner runs on a server. The Great Poopening, when the app itself turned off a major feature and the whole community lost it (you'll want to hear this one). And the moment Brian had to set a hard boundary with his own AI wife, because yes, that happens too. This is not the episode you think it is. Brian is one of the most thoughtful, self aware people to talk about this, and even if you think it’s funny, by the end you will have something to think about.

If you've ever wondered what it would feel like to build a sex life completely on your own terms... Jamie Love is living it. And she's here to tell us everything. Jamie is the executive director of Sex Positive World and Sex Positive Portland, a cuddle coach, a kink educator, and a brand new board member of Portland Leather Alliance. She calls herself a polyamorous slut and a free agent... and also, very accurately, a cat. In this tell-all episode, we get into all of it. What her sex life actually looks like right now, including six to nine regular lovers, group play at Joshua Tree, and her newest favorite kink: being a sushi table. We talk primal play and what it actually means, the difference between romantic partners and chosen family, how she lost her taste for BDSM during the pandemic and slowly found her way back to it, and why sensuality is always her home base no matter what else is on the menu. We also talk about grief showing up at a swingers club, the ethics of facilitating vs. participating, and why community care and self-care are the same thing when you're the one holding space for other people's pleasure. Plus: Jamie walks us through everything Sex Positive World offers, from their free and sliding-scale classes to their big annual events like Convergence and Polytopia, and how to get involved even if you're just curious and have no idea where to start. Find Jamie at sexpositiveworld.org and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jamielove_pdx/ Visit Gwyn at WhatExcitesUs.com

Have you ever fallen in love with someone who doesn't exist in your world? A fictional character, an anime figure, a god... what if that's not a phase, and it never was? Researcher and founder of Pillow Talk with Nixi, Nishita Rao, joins Gwyn to explore fictophilia, the experience of romantic or erotic attraction to beings outside of your “reality”. We start with having crushes on cartoon characters, and go back to the 10th century Sufi poets writing love letters to Allah and ancient Tamil Akam poetry that is quite steamy. Nishita and Gwyn also get into how heterosexuality was once the diagnosis, why the Global South has always had a far richer and weirder and more honest map of desire than colonization left us with, and what it actually means that our relationships were never meant to be legible to a state. She also sings. Live. A 15th century Telugu love poem. Beautiful and heady this is an amazing episode! Find Nishita at pillowtalkwithnixi.com and on Instagram at @pillowtalkwithnixi Visit Gwyn at WhatExcitesUs.com

Have you ever pursued something that felt taboo... and wondered if the shame around it was trying to tell you something? Sharon Marie Scott says yes. And that it's pointing you straight to your fastest path to freedom. In this conversation we dig into the pleasure ceiling and what happens when you stop collapsing before you can fully receive... the Jenga tower framework for understanding your core wounds... the dark masculine and feminine as energetic currents moving through all of us... and why Sharon walked away from the healing world entirely to come at all of this through pleasure instead. Her book Forbidden Alchemy: Transmuting Taboo Into Erotic Medicine is the book she wished she had. And Flesh & Flame: Pleasure as the Portal to Divine Mastery is out now too. Find Sharon at sharonmariescott.com and at linktr.ee/sharonmariescott. Visit Gwyn at WhatExcitesUs.com

Have you ever caught yourself saying "I shouldn't want that" or "I should just be grateful"... and wondered where that voice is even coming from? Jess Wildman is a Personal Power Coach who helps women shed the weight of societal expectations so they can live delicious lives full of pleasure and joy. Her work is rooted in a simple but radical idea: that personal power begins the moment you stop outsourcing your own desires. In this episode we get into all of it... shame, sex, body image, self-trust, diet culture, and why "fine" is not good enough for you. Jess brings warmth, zero judgment, and some genuinely great anecdotes to conversations most women aren't having anywhere else. In this episode: Why every "should" might be a self-betrayal How diet culture and shame around sex are running the same con The moment Jess realized she'd completely outsourced herself Body image, performance anxiety, and why the lights-off thing has to go Porn, pleasure, and what we're accidentally teaching ourselves Why "fine" is actually a cry for help How to start reclaiming your personal power right now Content note: This episode includes an open conversation about disordered eating and diet culture. Please take care of yourself as you listen. Find Jess: Instagram: @personalpowercoach Email: [email protected] Visit What Excites Us! and Gwyn: WhatExcitesUs.com

If you've ever edited yourself down to be more lovable, Elize Simon is here to tell you to stop. As a relationship and communication coach and self-described professional permission granter, Elize helps people build love that actually feels good — without hiding who they are to get it. In this conversation with Gwyn, Elize unpacks why so many people enter relationships for the wrong reasons, what real communication looks like when emotions are high, and how her Sacred Goodbyes ritual helps people move through heartbreak with grace instead of getting pummeled by it. She also completely rewires the way you think about flirting. Grab her free dating profile checklist and the Sacred Goodbyes download — both linked below. This episode originally aired as part of the Reclaiming You Summit. Both Elize and Gwyn are firm believers that Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski should be required reading for every human with a body. Elize also quotes the legendary Regena Thomashauer, better known as Mama Gena, whose several books are equally worth your time. Find them all at bookshop.org/shop/whatexcitesus Find Elize at linktr.ee/elize.simon and instagram.com/elize.simon. Visit Gwyn at WhatExcitesUs.com.

Kink isn't what porn taught you or abuse. Here's what it actually is, and how to do it without being garbage about it. Nyxie Noc is a kink educator, sadist, presenter extraordinaire, and one of the most knowledgeable and genuinely thoughtful people out there teaching. In this episode, they break it all the way down - from what kink actually is to what makes someone an ethical dominant, and why agency is the missing piece of every consent conversation you've ever had. They get into partialism and the possibility that certain kinks are literally inborn. The very real and very serious dangers of breath play that pornography consistently gets wrong. Why voyeurism is not an education, the femdom myth and why you should pay a sex worker if that's what you actually want. They discuss what ethical dominance looks like, including why caregiving and sadism are not opposites. The three negotiation questions Nyxie asks that will change how you think about any kink scene. There's a content note: if you're squeamish around intense language, be aware in the middle s afew lines mught stun you a second, but please stay. This one is absolutely worth it. Nyxie Noc / Viridi Lux Consulting: linktr.ee/viridi_lux_consulting Instagram: @viridi_lux_consulting All the other links listed at WhatExcitesUs.com

What does your body feel like to you right now... is it yours? If you grew up in purity culture, you know that question hits different. Wren Morrow did grow up in that world, deeply immersed in it, and then in 2016 she chose a completely different story. Now she's an outdoor embodiment photographer in the Pacific Northwest, guiding women through wild places and watching them come back to themselves. Gwyn and Wren talk about the slow unraveling of religious shame (not the confrontational approach... the feminine slipping-out-of-the-knot version), what actually happens to a body when skin meets the outside world without anything in between, and the aligned action that finally makes affirmations land in your nervous system. Plus: blizzards on demand, oracle cards mid-shoot, and why Wren thinks she became a therapist anyway... just with better scenery. Find Wren at wrenmorrow.com and https://www.instagram.com/_wrenmorrow/ Visit Gwyn at WhatExcitesUs.com

You think jealousy means you're not cut out for non-monogamy. Ellecia Paine is here to tell you that's not quite right. Ellecia is a non-monogamy coach, host of the podcast Nope, We're Not Monogamous, and someone who spent 13 years in a monogamous marriage before deciding... nope. Not doing that again. And she did it knowing she was a jealous person. That's not the punchline. That's the point. We talk about what ethical non-monogamy actually looks like (spoiler: it's not a light switch), how to figure out what you actually want versus what you think you want, why confidence and self-worth are at the root of almost every relationship challenge, and how shame keeps us small, quiet, and deeply unfulfilled. We also get into intimacy, what it actually means, and why masturbation is genuinely great relationship research. This one is for Susan in Kansas who's curious but doesn't know where to start. And also for the rest of us who just want to feel a little more free in how we love. Go find Ellecia at elleciapayne.com  Come find me at whatexcitesus.com to get on the newsletter so you don't miss what's next. What we cover: The main styles of ethical non-monogamy and what actually sets them apart Why jealousy isn't a disqualifier... it's just an emotion that needs tools How shame was designed to keep us small (and how to start moving through it) The confidence and self-worth stuff that surfaces the moment you open a relationship Baby steps for anyone curious about non-monogamy but not sure where to start Why knowing yourself intimately (yes, that kind of intimately) is the foundation of everything

What happens when women stop abandoning themselves and start listening to the quiet, messy, holy truth of what they actually need? In this panel conversation, Gwyn Isaacs joins the Amplify Alliance for an honest exploration of what it really means to reclaim your radiance. Together they talk about trauma, people pleasing, self-abandonment, nervous system safety, shame, burnout, faith, intuition, embodiment, and the not-at-all-neat process of becoming yourself again. This isn’t a conversation about faking confidence or performing positivity. It’s about the real work... the layered, human, often messy practice of remembering your worth, reconnecting with your body, and choosing yourself with more honesty and compassion. If you’ve been feeling disconnected from yourself, your desire, your energy, or your inner light, this episode offers both validation and possibility. We talk about: • how women lose touch with themselves through overgiving and self-sacrifice • trauma, dissociation, and learning to feel safe in the body again • the wake-up calls that begin real transformation • why change is often messy, uncomfortable, and worth it • reclaiming radiance through grace, truth, rest, connection, and perspective • practical ways to reconnect with yourself when life feels heavy Connect with the panelists Dana S. Diaz https://danasdiaz.com Dr. Lisha Antiqua https://lishaantiqua.com Erika Fetterly – House of Her Collective https://houseofher.ca Samantha Karim https://www.samanthakarim.com Rosaly Didonna – The Purifying Place https://www.thepurifyingplace.com Marla Sacks https://www.marlasacks.com Join the Women Thrive Summit Register here: https://lp.womenthrivesummit.com/gwynisaacs Connect with Gwyn Website: https://whatexcitesus.com Join Gwyn’s email list and explore more conversations about sex, pleasure, embodiment, and becoming more yourself.