Pleasure-Seeking
Pleasure-Seeking
Beauty, Sex, and The Substance
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Beauty, Sex, and The Substance

For episode 1, beauty critic Jessica DeFino joins me to discuss The Substance, the relationship between Botox & sex, and our personal experiences with self-image, identity & desire

Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of having my own podcast. Just kidding! But I have been working on this for awhile, and I’m excited to share it with you, not only because it will clarify how to pronounce my last name (So-heat Pay-sha) but because the best part of my job is having thought-provoking conversations with the people I admire. Like this newsletter, the Pleasure-Seeking podcast will explore what we want and why we want it, using pop culture and personal experience as a gateway to discuss how desire shapes our lives. Expect intimate interviews with intriguing guests, Q&A-style sex and relationship advice, and candid chats about how sexuality and modern culture intersect.

To support my work and bump up the podcast frequency, become a paid subscriber! It’s just $6/month, but it makes a big difference for me.


In our first episode, I interview

, an award-winning journalist who’s been called “the woman the beauty industry fears” for her work unpacking the psychological and societal impact of beauty culture. I’ve been a fan of Jessica’s work for years, so it was super fun to chat with her about The Substance, a film that continues to live rent-free in my head. We also analyze the relationship between Botox and sex, how the internet changed beauty culture, and how self-image has shaped our experiences with dating and romance—plus, how the male gaze has been replaced by “the sale gaze,” the future of Hollywood, extreme beauty trends like the “morning shed” videos circulating on TikTok, and whether looksmaxxing can ever be “empowering.”

You can get more of Jessica's insights by subscribing to The Review of Beauty, her weekly newsletter on beauty culture.

People, places, and things we mentioned: Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom, Everyone Is Botoxed & No One Is Horny by Jessica DeFino, Everyone Is Beautiful and No One Is Horny by RS Benedict, Annihilation of the selfie by Haley Nahman, and the works of Bell Hooks and Audre Lorde (broadly speaking.) Plus The Hole Debate, where my fellow sex writer Magdalene Taylor debated the politics of labiaplasty.

You can expect new podcast episodes once a month for now. If enough people upgrade their subscriptions to support my work for $6/month or $60/year, I’ll be able to bump the frequency up to once a week and start producing video content.

Hope you enjoy!

xoxo
Camille

The podcast is illustrated by Molly Crabapple, with music by Sinning.

Discussion about this podcast

Pleasure-Seeking
Pleasure-Seeking
The Pleasure-Seeking podcast explores what we want and why we want it, using pop culture and personal experience as entry points to discuss how desire shapes our lives. Expect intimate interviews with intriguing guests, Q&A-style sex and relationship advice, and thought-provoking conversations about how sexuality and modern culture intersect. Hosted by Camille Sojit Pejcha, a journalist whose insights on sexuality and culture have been published in The New York Times and other leading outlets.
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Camille Sojit Pejcha