Everybody Should Be Visible

Host Daisy Ducati welcomes Carolina Are, a researcher at the London School of Economics and longtime advocate against social media censorship, to unpack how platforms decide who gets seen and who gets silenced. Carolina recounts joining forces with AM Davies to challenge Instagram’s shadow banning of pole dancers, helping launch the #EverybodyVisible campaign. She explains how vague moderation policies and automated enforcement disproportionately punish marginalized creators, while celebrities often get a free pass. The conversation exposes the human cost of content moderation, including the exploited workers tasked with policing the internet. Daisy also shares her own experiments with Instagram verification and gender settings, revealing just how little users understand about the rules governing their accounts. Carolina argues that meaningful reform requires transparency and accountability, not another round of bans.   All the Links: Carolina’s Instagram https://instagram.com/bloggeronpole Carolina’s Website https://bloggeronpole.com Donate to our work https://yaswork.org/donate YAS Work Instagram https://instagram.com/yasworkorg YAS Work BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/yaswork.bsky.social YAS Work Twitter https://x.com/YASWorkOrg YAS Work Youtube https://youtube.com/@YASWorkOrg YASStore.Shop https://yasstore.shop   All the Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to Yes Podcast and Its Mission 00:43 Carolina Are: Background and Connection to AM 02:44 The Impact of Shadow Banning on Creators 06:32 Understanding Shadow Banning and Censorship 10:19 The Challenges of Content Moderation 14:28 The Role of Human vs. AI Moderation 17:20 Future of Content Moderation and Legislative Changes 19:09 The Need for Transparency in Content Moderation 21:22 The Rise of Explicit Content on Social Media 24:15 Inequality in Content Moderation 26:06 The Impact of Verification on Moderation 28:05 Conspiracy Theories and Lack of Transparency 29:25 The Role of Social Media in Modern Life 31:55 The Importance of Community and Connection

Ballroom historian, storyteller, and producer Sydney Baloue joins NatsHoney to trace the histories that get left out, and the people who refuse to disappear from them. From ballroom’s deep ties to sex work to the erasure of trans men and masculine people, Sydney challenges respectability politics and asks who actually gets a seat at the table. They explore chosen family, Black culture, spirituality, and the importance of letting communities tell their own stories. Along the way, Sydney connects ballroom to generations of collective resistance and creativity, reminding us that liberation doesn’t happen through a single hero: it takes all hands on deck.   All the Links: Sydney’s Instagram https://instagram.com/sydneybaloue Sydney’s Website https://sydneybaloue.com Donate to our work https://yaswork.org/donate YAS Work Instagram https://instagram.com/yasworkorg YAS Work BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/yaswork.bsky.social YAS Work Twitter https://x.com/YASWorkOrg YAS Work Youtube https://youtube.com/@YASWorkOrg YASStore.Shop https://yasstore.shop   All the Chapters: 00:34 Introduction to YAS Podcast and Guest Sydney Baloue 02:57 International Horrors Day: Significance and Experience 10:29 The Role of a Ballroom Historian 21:49 Trans Visibility and Current Challenges 31:30 Power Dynamics in the LGBTQ Community 32:28 Visibility and Inclusion in the Trans Community 36:31 Documenting Trans History and Representation 49:54 Spirituality, Hoodoo, and Storytelling in Identity 01:00:17 Cultural Connections: Ballroom, Spirituality, and Resilience 01:01:08 The Alchemical Experience of the African American Journey 01:06:34 Creative Projects and the Pursuit of Storytelling 01:12:20 The Intersection of Ballroom Culture and Sex Work 01:19:24 Understanding Transphobia and Its Roots 01:22:59 Building Bridges and Community Engagement

  This is a mini-sode about how The Bar Studio and Bee's Knees created a Community Shop that turns donated dance and workwear into affordable finds, with proceeds supporting YAS Work. The idea is simple, but the ripple effects are bigger: it helps students, supports sex workers, and gives the studio a tangible way to live its mission.    Looch and Sara Bee share how the shop works in person and online, why the model fits their community, and how it inspired adjacent projects like a quarterly newspaper and community-driven wrapping paper. Key topics In this episode: Looch, owner of The Bar Studio in Bellingham, Massachusetts, explains how the studio became the in-person home for the Community Shop. All proceeds go to YAS Work, making the shop a direct fundraising channel for sex worker stories and support. Sara Bee and Looch share: The shop started as a way to solve the problem of donated clothes piling up on the studio floor and to create a better, more intentional shopping experience. Timestamps 00:00 - Introducing The Community Shop and why it matters 01:44 - Looch introduces The Bar Studio and the in-person shop 01:59 - Sara Bee explains her role curating the shop and online collection 02:25 - How the Community Shop started as a solution to donated clothes piling up 03:24 - Sorting, steaming, tagging, and restocking donated items 03:51 - YAS Work as the nonprofit beneficiary 04:10 - What shoppers are saying: audition outfits and baby strippers finding value 04:39 - Monday restocks and the shop’s growing weekly following 05:13 - Online and in-person inventory are intentionally different 05:40 - Price points that make the shop accessible 06:08 - Why people love it: cute, cheap, and mission-driven 06:52 - Full-circle impact for community, sex workers, and YAS Work 08:13 - Living the mission through a shop that reflects the studio’s values 09:41 - Donations and interest spreading beyond the local studio 10:38 - Imagining Community Shops at more studios nationwide 11:21 - The quarterly newspaper and community-written articles 12:19 - Using old newspaper issues as wrapping paper for online orders 12:42 - The consignment model they chose not to use 13:04 - How the donation-bin idea came together fast 13:51 - Their nonstop idea-sharing workflow 14:20 - Where to find Looch and The Bar Studio 14:43 - Where to find Bee's Knees and what’s next for the brand 15:14 - Closing thoughts and sign-off  

The pole world is finally being forced to face the truth: if you want a stronger future for pole, you have to center sex workers, not sideline them. NatsHoney and AMD break down what they saw at Pole Convention East, where representation, history, and accountability were on full display.What starts as a recap of an electric event turns into a bigger conversation about who gets celebrated in pole spaces, who gets left out, and what it actually means to build a more honest industry. From disability and Latinx showcases to sex workers showing up everywhere, this episode keeps circling one question - who is pole really for?You’ll hear NatsHoney and AMD unpack: Why the event felt different this year, and why that mattered The tension between pole fitness rules and the anarchist spirit of stripping Why sex worker representation inside pole spaces is still not optional A moving reunion with Nicole the Pole and the history behind her signature work How brands like X-Pole, Bees Knees, and The Bar are creating space for lived experience, not just performative inclusion AMD shares interviews with Shaina Cruea, Jinx, Michelle Stanek, Agatha, and others, while NatsHoney brings the perspective of someone who has been tracking pole culture, black representation, and sex worker visibility for years. Together they connect the dots between performance, politics, community, and the fight to keep pole history rooted in the people who built it.This episode also looks ahead to International Pole Dance Day and the urgent need to support sex worker organizations while funding is drying up and the industry keeps expanding. If you care about pole, if you teach pole, if you perform pole, or if you want to understand where this art form really comes from, this conversation belongs on your playlist.Essential listening for anyone who wants more than pretty spins and polished marketing. This is about the people, the labor, the history, and the future of pole.Character count: 2,718 / 4,000Why this works: The hook immediately frames the episode as a high-stakes industry conversation, which is more compelling than a simple event recap. It names the key speakers and guests, highlights concrete takeaways, and creates curiosity around the major tension points: representation, history, and sex worker inclusion.   (00:00) Opening praise for the event and how visible representation changed the atmosphere (01:05) Why seeing sex workers everywhere made this year feel different (02:49) The divide pole culture tried to create between dancers and strippers (03:12) Too many rules, but why event structure still matters (04:23) Recording six interviews at the convention and the work behind them (05:19) A performance dedicated to sex workers and to NatsHoney (07:08) Setting up the format for reacting to each interview clip (13:12) Agatha’s performance, stage presence, and costume support from Sway (14:16) Introduction to the Nicole the Pole interview (19:09) NatsHoney on teaching Nicole a signature trick and Black representation in pole (22:54) Nicole the Pole’s broader visibility and industry hustle (23:23) Introduction to the Misha from Pole Poise interview (27:27) How Pole Poise was inspired by family, ancestors, and pole as fitness (28:26) Why most studios still do not teach pole history (29:17) Tracing pole history back to the late 1990s and early pioneers (31:01) Bees Knees, The Bar, and hiring strippers as instructors (34:54) Introduction to the Shaina Cruea interview and X-Pole’s education shift (43:05) Why lived experience matters more than performative education (45:32) Introduction to the Jinx interview (55:04) Whorephobia, exclusion, and the emotional damage of being pushed out (57:39) Jinx’s performance and the power of creative movement (61:31) The Community Shop as affordable gear support for strippers (62:27) Closing that segment and moving into Michelle Stanek (69:51) Meeting people where they are and why the goalpost keeps moving (73:50) Hope for a stronger bridge between pole dancers and sex workers (75:43) International Pole Dance Day and the call to fundraise for sex worker orgs (78:19) Thanks to International Pole Convention and the listeners   All the links: The Community Shop Donate to our work  ⁠YAS Work Instagram⁠ ⁠YAS Work BlueSky⁠ ⁠YAS Work Twitter⁠ ⁠YAS Work Youtube YASStore.Shop

Host AM Davies welcomes artist and sex worker, Stephanie "Monty" Montgomery, to discuss the billboard she hand-painted after surviving workplace assault and being failed by club management and police. Monty traces how rage transformed her art from carefully marketable work into a weapon for public accountability, guided by the mantra “vengeance for me, justice for them.” Their conversation moves through childhood grief, forced positivity, Los Angeles grime, Texas conservatism, and the exhausting work of unlearning systems built on patriarchy and control. Monty also shares how her story became the animated short Monster Slayer, which has screened at 18 festivals and connected with survivors through their shared experiences of violence. She explains why sex work never makes someone responsible for assault and previews her companion art book, created to document the film’s illustrations and creative process.   All the Links: Monty’s Instagram https://instagram.com/montymonsterslayer Donate to our work https://yaswork.org/donate/ YAS Work Instagram https://instagram.com/yasworkorg YAS Work BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/yaswork.bsky.social YAS Work Twitter https://x.com/YASWorkOrg YAS Work Youtube https://youtube.com/@YASWorkOrg YASStore.Shop https://yasstore.shop   All the Chapters: 00:00 - Violence and Solidarity 01:26 - Introduce Monty 04:49 - The Billboard 13:36 - Artist Background 16:17 - Mental Health 19:04 - Life in Los Angeles 22:10 - Texas Culture 24:25 - The End of Conservatism 25:57 - Me Too 31:10 -  Unlearning 39:04 - Monster Slayer Film 45:32 - Reception 49:45 - Where to Find Monty

On YAS Podcast, host Daisy Ducati interviews Dr. Mireille Miller-Young (UC Santa Barbara), author of A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography, about researching Black women’s labor, representation, and sexual agency in adult media. Miller-Young discusses identifying in solidarity with sex workers, academic stigma and career pushback, and how sex workers cared for her during fieldwork as she sought to disrupt extractive research traditions. She explains developing a “Black feminist pornographic gaze,” critiques anti-porn feminism’s shallow analysis and alignment with criminalization, and connects policies like the Nordic model and FOSTA-SESTA to increased danger and deplatforming. The conversation also addresses racialized policing of massage parlors, censorship and surveillance in academia, and her argument that Black women navigate both exploitation and agency through “erotic sovereignty,” urging listeners to avoid stigma and center sex workers’ voices.   All the Chapters   00:00 Conference Backlash 00:39 Podcast Welcome 02:00 Pronouns Solidarity 04:34 Care From Workers 07:07 Awards And Motherhood 09:00 Research Origins 11:47 Labor Roots Story 14:48 Archive Hunt 16:31 Pornographic Gaze 20:52 Policy And Policing 23:29 FOSTA SESTA Fallout 26:23 Surveillance Creep 28:20 AI Sex Project 30:23 Academic Silencing 32:52 Fear of Wokeism 33:29 CRT and Property 34:50 Education Under Attack 36:11 News Burnout Break 36:53 Support the Podcast 37:24 Book Exploitation and Agency 37:51 Feminist Sex Wars 38:28 Queer Porn Counterculture 42:36 Respectability Backlash 48:49 Erotic Sovereignty Theory 50:04 Money Sex Fame 51:33 Sex Work History Choices 01:00:19 Stigma Media Literacy 01:03:04 Sexual Radical Future 01:05:16 Closing and Where to Find   All the links   Dr. Mireille Website Donate to our work  ⁠YAS Work Instagram⁠ ⁠YAS Work BlueSky⁠ ⁠YAS Work Twitter⁠ ⁠YAS Work Youtube YASStore.Shop

Host AM Davies welcomes Mari de Luna (she/they/ella), a sex worker, to discuss how stigma, criminalization, and deplatforming compound external and internal stressors for people in the industry and why community is vital for safety, mental health, and resource access—especially for those with intersecting identities such as immigrants and neurodivergent people. Mari shares her experience of family estrangement, lessons about mutual aid, and the importance of vetting support networks, including tools like pod mapping and safety planning. She describes her background with autism, CPTSD, ADHD, burnout, addiction, and four years of sober-ish living, and explains her work through Stilettos for Survival and neurosomatic intelligence, offering body-based practices for nervous system regulation. Mari previews collaborations on sober-ish eroticism and an upcoming workshop integrating somatics with anti-oppressive financial tools. All the links: Stilettos 4 Survival Donate to our work  ⁠YAS Work Instagram⁠ ⁠YAS Work BlueSky⁠ ⁠YAS Work Twitter⁠ ⁠YAS Work Youtube YASStore.Shop All the chapters: 00:00 Stress And Vitality 00:43 Show Intro And Mission 01:36 Meet Mari De Luna 02:49 Finding Community 04:20 Mutual Aid Necessity 06:38 Intersectionality And Safety 09:06 Power With Not Over 11:07 Deconstructing Hierarchy 14:05 Synchronicity And Intuition 15:53 Sex Work Emotional Intelligence 18:11 Ancestors And Legacy 19:38 Isolation And Pod Mapping 23:27 Mari Work And Training 23:58 Neurodivergence to Sobriety 26:31 Somatic Practices Explained 27:49 Lavender Grounding Demo 29:40 Workshops and Collaborations 33:19 Regulation for Modern Stress 36:44 Community Survival Framework 40:23 Spanish Message to Comrades 42:28 Why Community Matters 44:44 Stilettos for Survival Mission 46:06 Closing and Credits  

In this YAS Podcast episode, host AM Davies joins NatsHoney (president of Strippers United, vice president of YAS Work), Selena (writer and Strippers United wellness director), and filmmaker Julia to mark International Sex Workers’ Rights Day and the international community release of their documentary short, For the Love of Strippers. They discuss the film’s collaborative approach, why sex workers are often excluded from creative control in documentaries, and how limited funding shaped the project. The conversation covers pandemic-era organizing, SESTA/FOSTA, AB5, worsening club conditions that pushed Nats and Selena out of dancing, and the need to distinguish consensual sex work from trafficking narratives. They close with calls for visibility, community screenings, donations, and public advocacy against stigma. All the links: Strippers United Culture House Donate to our work  ⁠YAS Work Instagram⁠ ⁠YAS Work BlueSky⁠ ⁠YAS Work Twitter⁠ ⁠YAS Work Youtube YASStore.Shop All the chapters: 00:00 Beyond the Stereotype 00:21 Welcome to YAS Podcast 01:13 Meet the Guests 02:39 Why Today Matters 03:42 Making the Film Together 08:09 What the Film Covers 09:09 Trust and Motivation 12:51 Funding and Motherhood 14:31 Who Funds These Stories 19:12 DIY Podcasting in the Pandemic 20:46 Pushed Out of Clubs 21:34 AB5 Crackdowns 23:47 Devils Bargain Exploitation 25:05 Why Civilians Must Watch 26:25 Stigma Deconstruction 30:46 How to Support Sex Workers 34:07 Trafficking vs Consent 40:08 Fun Credits and Updates 43:11 Rollout and Screenings 45:58 Closing and Credits

In the first episode of 2026, host AM Davies introduces listeners to the revamped YAS Podcast, featuring a special compilation of interviews from the AVN Expo in Las Vegas. The episode highlights the experiences and insights of various adult performers and industry veterans including Kaiia Eve, Lala Ivey, Aiden Starr, AJ Fresh, Shay Fox, Summer Hart, Tef Wesley and representatives from Decriminalize Sex Work. Discussions cover the challenges and evolving dynamics within the sex work industry, the impacts of legislation like SESTA/FOSTA, the role of social media, and the importance of community support. The episode emphasizes the resilience and professionalism of sex workers and concludes with a call for continued advocacy and understanding.  Links to everyone below chapter list.    00:00 Welcome to YAS Podcast 00:33 First Episode of 2026: Snowed Out and Slow Start 02:00 AVN Expo 2026: Meeting Daisy Ducati 04:17 Interview Highlights: Kaiia Eve 08:16 Interview Highlights: Lala Ivy 12:53 Interview Highlights: Aiden Starr 22:18 Interview Highlights: AJ Fresh 28:19 Interview Highlights: Shay Fox 28:54 Returning to the Industry: Changes and Reflections 29:24 The Impact of Fan Access and OnlyFans 30:28 Industry Challenges and Legal Changes 31:14 Mainstream Media and the Adult Industry 33:10 Interview with Summer Hart: Age Verification and Industry Impact 39:31 Decriminalize Sex Work: Advocacy and Challenges 46:18 Interview with Tef Wesley: Myths and Realities of Porn Performers 52:34 Conclusion and Final Thoughts   Kaiie Eve Lala Ivey Aiden Starr AJ Fresh Shay Fox Summer Hart Decriminalize Sex Work Tef Wesley Donate to our work ⁠YAS Work Instagram⁠ ⁠YAS Work BlueSky⁠ ⁠YAS Work Twitter⁠ ⁠YAS Work Youtube YASStore.Shop  

In this episode of YAS Podcast, hosts AM Davies and NatsHoney, discuss the latest developments in the strip club industry, focusing on RCI Hospitality Holdings. They address the multiple allegations against RCI, including tax fraud, bribery, and a current misclassification lawsuit affecting employees and shareholders alike. The conversation features insights from dancers at RCI-owned clubs in Colorado and highlights the broader implications for the industry. With multiple lawsuits and increased house fees, there's an urgent need for transparency, better labor practices, and a reevaluation of worker classifications. The episode emphasizes the significance of community allyship and the ongoing struggle for workers' rights within the industry. 00:00 Welcome to YAS Podcast 00:44 Reflecting on the Year 2026 02:14 Investigating RCI Hospitality Holdings 03:52 Employee Misclassification and Legal Troubles 09:18 Voices from the Clubs 19:23 The Impact of House Fees 23:09 Independent Contractors vs. Employees 27:12 Dress Code Dilemmas 28:04 Panel Updates and Announcements 28:33 Independent Contractor vs Employee Debate 29:27 Misclassification and Labor Rights 30:44 Tipping Culture and Management Expectations 31:55 Young Dancers and Industry Challenges 33:48 RCI Lawsuits and Investor Concerns 41:43 Denver Labor Investigation 46:07 Future of the Industry and Worker Rights 55:44 Closing Thoughts and Call to Action Links: NY Attorney General Press Release RCI's Official Response Investor Scrutiny CNBC News Story Denver Strip Clubs Steal Wages Wage Theft in the Adult Entertainment Industry Donate to our work  ⁠YAS Work Instagram⁠ ⁠YAS Work BlueSky⁠ ⁠YAS Work Twitter⁠ ⁠YAS Work Youtube YASStore.Shop