Pour a glass of wine and get comfortable. Pleasure & Pain is going After Dark.

In the first installment of Pleasure & Pain After Dark, Tameika Chambers-Pope and Dawn Thomas-Banks turn down the lights and open up an honest, funny and deeply personal conversation about sex, sexuality, intimacy and the complicated journey toward understanding pleasure on your own terms.

The conversation begins with an unforgettable visit to The Kink Cafe, but quickly moves beyond the novelty of the experience and into something much deeper: What were women actually taught about sex growing up? When did pleasure become part of the conversation? How do you become comfortable with your body, learn what you want and eventually find the confidence to communicate it?

Tameika and Dawn reflect on the messages they received about sex as young women, the pressure to view intimacy through the lens of pleasing a partner, and the ways those beliefs have evolved with experience. They talk candidly about body confidence, finding your voice, sexual compatibility, “body count,” fantasy versus reality, the influence of media and the shame that can still surround female sexuality.

And through it all, one principle keeps emerging: pleasure isn't supposed to be a performance.

It's personal.

It's something you have a right to understand, communicate and experience for yourself.

This is Pleasure & Pain like you haven't seen it before.

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome to Pleasure & Pain After Dark

02:25 Pleasure & Pain Moments

09:14 Let's Talk About Sex

09:47 Our Trip to The Kink Cafe

22:38 Where Did We Learn About Sex?

26:01 When Pleasure Became Part of the Conversation

32:17 Finding Your Voice

42:24 Does "Body Count" Matter?

45:00 Desire, Attraction & What Turns Us On

52:00 Sex, Intimacy & Knowing What You Want

56:46 Pleasure vs. Performance

57:41 What We'd Tell Our Daughters About Sex

1:02:00 The Pleasure Questions

1:06:36 What Does Intimacy Really Mean?

1:07:13 A Toast to After Dark

1:08:01 Get Us to Oprah