Confessions of a Nashville Power Couple

During the 1988 Summer Olympics, diver Greg Louganis was competing under extreme pressure. In the preliminary round, he split his head open on the diving board, got stitched up, and decided to stay in the competition. He was also carrying a secret that only a few people knew: six months before the Olympics began, Greg learned that he was HIV positive.  Despite those obstacles, Greg went on to win gold in both the 3-meter springboard and 10-meter platform events, thrilling viewers and cementing himself as one of the best divers of all time. With the 2024 Games underway, Greg joins Anna to reflect on his odds-defying victories, and he explains how olympic training prepared him for life's challenges outside the pool.  Podcast production by Cameron Drews Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus. And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is deathsexmoney@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

30 Jul 202441min

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 Klonopin–but he soon moved on to basically whatever he could get his hands on. In this episode, James discusses his experience with substance use disorder, housing instability, and the criminal justice system. At a time when public officials and policy experts are debating ways to address the overdose crisis in the U.S., James discusses what humane drug policies could look like and how we as a society need to completely change the way we talk about drug use. We first learned about James’ story from an essay he wrote in Slate titled One More Day. If you’d like to check out some of our previous episodes about substance use and recover, here’s a short list:  I Can't Fix It: A First Responder on Heroin I Felt Like the Story Had To Change: Life After Heroin How Jeff Daniels Got Sober, Again Falling In Love...With Heroin Margo Price After Cheating and Drinking NOTE: We want to mention that this episode mentions suicide and self harm. If you or someone you love is struggling, please call 988, the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Podcast production by Cameron Drews Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus. And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is deathsexmoney@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

23 Jul 202449min

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 the 1980’s and saw friends and family members in her community get hooked, get sick, and sometimes pass away. Fast forward to now, and San Francisco is seeing sky-high overdose numbers (though they’re down a bit from last year), and the city has earned a reputation for being in disarray. Mayor London Breed faces a tough reelection campaign this fall, and this week on the show, she talks about the many different measures she and her administration are taking to address San Francisco’s problems, and she shares some of the important life experiences that have informed her approach.  Podcast production by Anna Sale. Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus. And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is deathsexmoney@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

16 Jul 202452min

Carvell Wallace’s brilliant new memoir Another Word for Love has been rightfully praised for its passages about childhood trauma, about apologies and forgiveness, and about the healing power of love. But the book also features some important lessons about sex, consent, and the ways popular culture can send the wrong messages about both of those things. This week on the show, Carvell digs into those lessons and the experiences that changed him forever, including his first encounters with Shakespeare and his trip to an unforgettable sex party. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus. And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is deathsexmoney@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

9 Jul 202452min

Since the #MeToo movement, the presence of intimacy coordinators have become more common on movie and TV sets. In this episode, Elle McAlpine the intimacy coordinator for many projects including Poor Things and Baby Reindeer, talks about what her job entails, from choreographing the perfect orgasm to navigating tricky workplace dynamics. Podcast production by Zoe Azulay Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus. And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is deathsexmoney@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2 Jul 202442min

Anna talks to Dr. Orna Guralnik, the psychoanalyst from Showtime’s Couples Therapy, and then to Kara Swisher, the pugnacious tech journalist and podcast host, about the art of the interview, and how they get people to open up to them.  Kara Swisher’s new book is Burn Book: A Tech Love Story, and you can read her 1989 Washington Post article here. This episode is from a live conversation, earlier this month, at the Tribeca Festival. It was produced by Slate’s Katie Rayford and Alexandra Cohl and Tribeca Festival’s Davy Gardner, with help from Zoe Azulay and Cameron Drews. Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus. And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is deathsexmoney@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

25 Jun 20241h 14min

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. It was a major accomplishment, but Mark was miserable. “The week after Sundance was probably one of the worst weeks of my life because I realized I hit the top of the mountain. The top of the mountain didn't make me happy. So now what am I going to do?” In this episode, filmmaker Mark Duplass talks about managing depression, what it’s like to have a creative partnership with his brother, and how they talk about making and spending money. “If I didn't have Jay as a partner, I would make a hundred mediocre movies a year, and if he didn't have me, he would die with two thirds of the greatest film ever made, not finished.” Read: With Hollywood shedding jobs, here is help for coping with the slowdown Podcast production by Andrew Dunn Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus. And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is deathsexmoney@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

18 Jun 202453min

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 degree. Sometimes he’s able to push through his social anxiety, to put on a tough face. But other times his body won’t give him a chance to feel at ease – it seizes up, and in Christopher’s case that means not being able to pee even when he really, really has to.   “Imagine you’re unable to perform a basic function like move your hand or your leg,” Christopher said, “You're standing, in my case, in front of a urinal or wherever the bathroom is, and it just doesn't happen.” In this episode, Christopher talks to producer Zoe Azulay about “paruresis,” more colloquially known as shy bladder syndrome, how it’s been disruptive to his life, how he thinks it's connected to class anxiety, and how it’s gotten better.  Christopher Zara’s memoir is called Uneducated: A Memoir of Flunking Out, Falling Apart, and Finding My Worth Podcast production by Zoe Azulay Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus. And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is deathsexmoney@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

11 Jun 202444min