Jun 22, 2022
Madam Fan Jones successfully ran Bangor, Maine’s most popular and longest running brothel called the Sky Blue House of Pleasure.
Jun 8, 2022
Who was Jezebel? How did her legacy become synonymous with loose, misfit, morally depraved, wicked women?
May 25, 2022
The Everleigh Sisters successfully ran the best brothel Chicago had ever seen from 1900 to 1911. Why did the mayor force them to shut down?
May 11, 2022
Stella Darby, beloved madam of Pendelton, Oregon, had a heart of gold. She is now remembered with a bronze statue and Underground Pendleton Tours.
Apr 27, 2022
The stigma of Mary Magdalene has endured throughout biblical times into the current era. How did she become aligned with sex workers?
Apr 13, 2022
Thanks to Boston’s “Big Dig,” artifacts from a 19th century brothel were unearthed, shedding light on the life of brothel owner Mrs. Lake.
Mar 30, 2022
Ella “Cattle Kate” Watson was a Western trailblazer. An independent and industrious woman, she sought to challenge gender norms to live life her own way.
Mar 16, 2022
Evidence of the oldest profession can be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome. Lycoris the Mime is among the oldest and most influential pros in history.
Mar 2, 2022
Hustler Dee Dee Ramone, bassist and founding member of the Ramones, pioneered punk rock and side hustled as a sex worker to pay for his heroin addiction.
Feb 16, 2022
With razor sharp wit and dogged determination, Belle Brezing claimed her space as Lexington, Kentucky’s most successful Madam.
Feb 2, 2022
The Oldest Profession Podcast: Maya Angelou – sex worker past matters, and to ignore her experience does a disservice to her legacy.
Jan 19, 2022
The Oldest Profession Podcast: Nevada brothels house the only legal prostitution in the US; then why the highest arrest rate per capita? Nevada brothels model doesn’t work.
Dec 27, 2021
Sharing sex work coming out stories; some are funny, some are sad, and they all remind us this holiday season that we are never alone.
Aug 9, 2021
thotscholar & The Scarlot Harlot: Perspectives on Language iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify What is gained or lost by the language we use to define ourselves and our community? Where does this language come from and who gets to use it? In this thought-provoking...
May 31, 2021
This episode of The Oldest Profession Podcast about International Whores’ Day (June 2) is hosted by Kaytlin Bailey and Ceyenne Doroshow.
Apr 30, 2021
A Special Tribute to Margo St. James iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Margo St. James, who founded the prostitutes’ rights organization COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) and later the St. James Infirmary, passed away on January 11, 2021. As a tribute to Margo, we...
Apr 1, 2021
Tina Horn on SfSx & We Too iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Tina Horn is a writer, teacher, and media-maker. She hosts and produces the long-running kink podcast Why Are People Into That?!. Her reporting on sexual subcultures and politics has appeared in Rolling...
Mar 4, 2021
Jack the Ripper’s Victims iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Late in the summer of 1888, a serial killer murdered at least five women in London’s East End. The press at the time was quick to paint his victims as prostitutes, punished for their promiscuity. This...
Feb 16, 2021
Annie Sprinkle & Beth Stephens: Remembering Margo St. James iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Margo St. James, who sparked the sex worker rights movement in the 1970’s, passed on January 11, 2021. James was a visionary who brought global advocates together to...
Jan 5, 2021
#OldProProject & Why January 25th Matters iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify On January 25th, 1917, 300 sex workers in San Francisco marched to protest the imminent closure of their brothels. #OldProProject is an annual event that builds towards this anniversary, and...
Dec 15, 2020
COMING OUT AS A SEX WORKER IN COLLABORATION WITH PEEPSHOW MEDIA iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify A collection of coming out stories from sex workers, in celebration of the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers on December 17th, and in solidarity with all...
Dec 2, 2020
Lilith iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Lilith: The First Woman and First Feminist The story of Eve tempting Adam in the Garden of Eden is a patriarchal fairy tale that most of us learn at an early age. But Eve wasn’t the first wife or the first woman. Her predecessor,...
Nov 4, 2020
Marsha P. Johnson & Sylvia Rivera iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify The category is… revolutionary love. Revolutionary women, civil rights pioneers, drag queens, freedom fighters. Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were the vanguard of the modern LGBTQ Rights...
Nov 3, 2020
Melania Trump iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Melania Trump (1970 – ) is the 45th First Lady of the United States, model, and old pro. Born to tax evaders in Slovenia, Melania is the second First Lady born outside of the United States (the first, born in England,...
Sep 1, 2020
Victoria Woodhull iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Soothsayer, suffragette, stockbroker, sex worker, candidate for President of the United States, and even “Mrs. Satan,” Victoria Clafin Woodhull has been called many names and lived a vibrant, controversial life....
Jul 11, 2019
Lou Graham iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify At a time where full service sex workers in Seattle euphemistically called themselves seamstresses, Madam Lou Graham was so rich that she served as an alternative to banks, giving loans to business propositions deemed too risky...
Apr 30, 2019
Cardi B iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify The most famous sex worker of today’s music industry, Cardi B unabashedly flaunts and celebrates her past as a stripper in her songs, music videos, and social...
Apr 10, 2019
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Best known for is commercial paintings of the moulin rouge, French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was also a john who (literally) lived in brothels. As a tenant and client, Toulouse-Lautrec created compelling...
Apr 3, 2019
Ching Shih iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Ching Shih went from working as a full service sex worker on a floating brothel in Canton to becoming the one of the most successful pirate captains in the history of the...
Mar 7, 2019
Marilyn Monroe iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify In 1949, Marilyn Monroe, struggling to make ends meet as an actress, got paid $50 to pose nude for a calendar. She worked as a pinup and — according to some — as a prostitute before becoming an internationally recognized sex...
Feb 28, 2019
Anais Nin iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Anaïs Nin was one of the first prominent modern western women known to explore and take part in erotic...
Feb 21, 2019
Tlazōlteōtl iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify This Mesoamerican Goddess was the deity of vice, filth, purification, steam baths, lust, fertility, adulterers and — you guessed it — sex workers. Tlazōlteōtl symbolically castrated priests in elaborate rituals, and pardoned her...
Feb 11, 2019
Aileen Wuornos iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Infamous misandrist and queer icon Aileen Wuornos killed seven men while working as a hitch hiking sex worker in Florida. To say that her life was defined by hardship would be an understatement. She started exchanging sex for...
Dec 24, 2018
Holiday Special: Coming Out Stories iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify A very special episode of compiled heartbreaking and heartwarming coming out stories from Coyote Fawn, Allie Oops, and many...
Dec 14, 2018
International Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers Guest Hosted by Ceyenne Doroshow iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify In this special episode to commemorate the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers on December 17th, Ceyenne Doroshow interviews long time...
Nov 18, 2018
Stormy Daniels iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Stormy Daniels is a self made woman and sex worker who had the audacity to tell her own story. The uneventful sex she had with Donald Trump might be the least interesting part of this incredible woman’s...
Sep 18, 2018
Big Nosed Kate iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Mary Katherine Horony-Cummings, also known as “Big Nosed Kate,” worked as a full service sex worker and eventually became the wife and companion of Old West gunfighter Doc...
Sep 7, 2018
Sylvester Stallone iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Unbeknownst to most, six years before writing and starring in Rocky, Sylvester Stallone was the lead in a soft core porn film. In this episode, Kaytlin takes a deep dive into Stallone’s past and analyzes the...
Aug 21, 2018
Bettie Page iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Part two of our “Reformed Whores” series. Bettie Page, one of the most iconic pin-ups and bondage models of the twentieth century, had an on-and-off again relationship with Evangelical Christianity. While her...
Jul 29, 2018
Linda Lovelace & Andrea Dworkin iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Part one of our “Reformed Whores” series. This episode focuses on two powerhouses of the “Porn Wars.” Linda Lovelace starred in Deep Throat, the 1972 blockbuster success that...
Jul 8, 2018
Congressional Election Blues iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify In this special episode, Kaytlin talks about losing the NY12 Democratic Primary and next steps in the fight for sex worker...
Jun 23, 2018
Julie D’Aubigny iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Julie D’Aubigny fought, fucked and sang her way through 17th century France. Her list of accomplishments: she seduced aristocratic men and women, did some grave robbing, and burned a nunnery. A bisexual...
Jun 12, 2018
Gypsy Rose Lee with guest host Jacq The Stripper iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Special guest Jacq the Stripper joins Kaytlin Bailey to talk about American icon and patron saint of strippers, Gypsy Rose Lee. Gypsy was born into a multi generational family of scrappy...
May 20, 2018
Valerie Solonas iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Best known for attempting to shoot Andy Warhol, Valerie Solanas’ SCUM manifesto became a rallying cry for a generation of feminist thinkers. Valerie was a vagrant working as a panhandler, full service sex worker and...
May 7, 2018
Maggie Meller iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify French courtesan Marguerite Marie Alibert, otherwise known as Maggie Meller, was the lover of Edward the VII. After her affair with the British prince, she married a rich, snotty and young Egyptian aristocrat, whom she killed...
May 7, 2018
Dorian Corey iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Hosts Kaytlin Bailey and Wendi Starling are joined by the incomparably fabulous Ceyenne Doroshow to unwrap the tumultuously tantalizing life of Dorian Corey. As documented in the film Paris Is Burning, Dorian Corey was one of...
Apr 23, 2018
Elizabeth Moryng iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify A 13th Century madame who tricked the system, Elizabeth Moryng serviced the religious clergy under the guise of operating an embroidery business. Elizabeth Moryng was a hustler who knew how to weave up a good cover...
Apr 15, 2018
Sharmus Outlaw With guest host Melissa Sontag Broudo iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Hosts Kaytlin Bailey and Wendi Starling are joined by Melissa Sontag Broudo, founder of The Sharmus Outlaw Advocacy and Rights Institute (SOAR Institute). They talk a little shop and...
Apr 8, 2018
Timarchus iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Timarchus was a sex worker in his youth and was later shunned and outcast by his fellow politicians in ancient Greece. In this episode, Kaytlin Bailey and Wendi Starling also go over some updates on which companies have started...
Apr 2, 2018
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify After being mis-gendered and housed with male inmates, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy became one of the key negotiators in the Attica Prison Riots in 1971 and went on to work as an advocate for trans women’s rights within...
Mar 25, 2018
Flawless Sabrina iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Flawless Sabrina mothered and mentored countless young trans women in the New York City ballroom scene and thrived as an inspirational beacon of light and love. Flawless Sabrina was arrested over a hundred times for simply...
Mar 18, 2018
Georgina Beyer iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Georgina Beyer went from survival sex worker to radio host, and ultimately took her place as the first trans politician in New Zealand as the Mayor of Carterton and Wairarapa MP. Prepare to be inspired by the life and barrier...
Mar 11, 2018
FOSTA / SESTA iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Both FOSTA and SESTA were introduced as bills to stop sex trafficking. Because sex workers know legislators fail to distinguish adult, consensual sex work from trafficking, they knew these laws would do just that and make sex...
Feb 25, 2018
Jenna Jameson iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify An absolute legend in the adult film world, Jenna Jameson is one of the most well known porn stars who took her success in the sex industry and started an...
Feb 11, 2018
Yoshiwara iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Yoshiwara was the infamous red light district in 17th century Edo, current day Tokyo, Japan. The original hoe-topia, if you...
Jan 30, 2018
Der Pranger iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Der Pranger was a German communist publication written by whores for whores in an attempt to establish fair treatment and laws benefiting sex workers and their patrons. The original “Dickpedia,” if you...
Jan 21, 2018
Salon Kitty iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Salon Kitty was minding her business running a brothel in Berlin when the Nazis came along and threatened to throw her into a concentration camp unless she cooperated with them as an undercover Nazi spy prostitute. In this...
Jan 14, 2018
Operation Midnight Climax iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Hear all about how the US government took full advantage of sex workers by forcefully enlisting handfuls them to aid in administering LSD tests on their unsuspecting clients, a.k.a. Operation Midnight...
Jan 8, 2018
Yu Husuan-Chi iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Yu Husuan-Chi was one of the most famous poets of the late Tang Dynasty. Yu Husuan-Chi had a reputation of being sexually adventurous, and is thought to be China’s first openly bisexual historical...
Dec 31, 2017
Heidi Fleiss iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Heidi Fleiss ran an upscale prostitution ring based in Los Angeles, California in the 1990s and was known as the “Hollywood...
Dec 24, 2017
Santa Claus (Nicholas of Myra) iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify You may know him as Santa Claus or Old Saint Nick, but Nicholas of Myra has an essentially untold history of relationships with sex workers that children’s books and churches decided to leave...
Dec 17, 2017
Wu Zeitan iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify From an impoverished child to concubine of a powerful Emperor, to her ultimate destiny as a powerful Empress, Wu Zeitan really knew how to run...
Dec 10, 2017
Lulu White iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Lulu White was the most famed madam in the Storyville district of New Orleans known as the “Diamond Queen” for her love of extravagant jewelry. Much of her early life remains a mystery, but she was born in Selma, Alabama in 1868,...
Dec 3, 2017
Sex Worker Witch Hunt iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Sex Worker Witch Hunt: Accusing women of witchcraft and condemning them to death was just one of the sadistic methods in the systematic disempowerment of women. But have those seemingly archaic practices and patterns...
Nov 27, 2017
Joanna of Naples iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Queen of Naples, Countess of Provence, and Princess of Achaea… the epic story of Joanna of Naples lives up to the hype of all of her...
Nov 19, 2017
Anna Nicole Smith iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Anna Nicole Smith was labeled a white trash gold digger throughout her career, all for capitalizing on her sexuality and good looks. Some women can “have it all,” but that sure pisses some other people...
Nov 12, 2017
Phryne iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Phryne, a nickname meaning “little toad,” was a renowned courtesan in Athens at the height of the civilization’s power in ancient Greece, around the 4th century B.C.E. She rose to prominence during a period where priestesses and...
Nov 5, 2017
Lizzie Lape Legendary Ohio Madam Lizzie Lape owned not one, but multiple brothels at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. iTunes | Stitcher |...
Oct 30, 2017
Mary Jones iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Mary Jones (1803 – Unknown) was a New York old pro and hustler who was given the name Peter Sewally at birth. Mary Jones was of African descent and much of her early life is lost to the archive, but newspaper records indicate...
Oct 22, 2017
Harriet Hicks & The Contagious Diseases Act iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Harriet Hicks is one of the few documented cases of harassment and abuse of women by the government. Harriet Hicks worked as a prostitute during inception of the Contagious Diseases Act (CDA)...
Oct 15, 2017
Ah Toy iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify A historic whore who essentially ran the sex industry in San Francisco during the Gold Rush, Ah Toy was a sought after Chinese prostitute and madam who came to America and dominated the booming sex work industry at the...
Sep 15, 2017
Veronica Franco iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify Courtesan Veronica Franco endured public shaming that attempted to strip away her status as a prolific poet and author in the 16th Century in Venice,...
Sep 15, 2017
Ishtar iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify The goddess of romantic love and fertility, Ishtar was worshipped through the bodies of church-sanctioned prostitutes who were trained in the arts of sexual...