Why post-workout may be the ideal time to listen
True crime podcasts have met their match: a new wave of erotic audio stories. Though all genders can listen, the genre also touches on an essential component of female sexuality. A review printed in Archives of Sexual Behavior confirmed that women use their imagination to kickstart arousal. "Written erotica is a really common turn-on, but other people are more aurally stimulated,” says Rosara Torrisi, Ph.D., director of the Long Island Institute of Sex Therapy in New York. “And [apps and podcasts are] amazing for that.”
Consider tuning in to one when you get home post-workout. A sweaty, endorphin-boosting cardio session often already heightens sexual desire, likely due to the increase of sympathetic nervous system activity, says Torrisi. “You’re physically activated, and it’s relatively easy to convert that high from exercise into a sexual one,” she says.
Here are three examples of the trend.
Dipsea
“Après Ski,” the tale of a woman’s hookup with a hot stranger on the slopes, is one of the narratives featured on this female-founded app that boasts more than 150 short stories. The design is sleek, cool, and discreet, and the narrators and characters are of all races, genders, and sexual orientations. Unlike old school romance novels, the protagonists’ lives are grounded in the realities of millennial life in 2019 (brunch and dating apps, for example) in an organic way. Even The New Yorker approves.
Bawdy Storytelling
Like an erotic, humorous version of The Moth, this podcast captures live recordings from Bawdy’s nationwide storytelling events, which feature real folks (and an eclectic mix of authors, comedians, sex educators, and actors). They tell stories about sexual encounters, gender, and even body image, onstage to an emotionally supportive crowd. Forbes calls it "sexy and silly while still being thought-provoking."
Quinn
This site, founded by Caroline Spiegel (sister of Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel), features both written and audio erotica all graded with a “fire rating” from one to five to judge a story’s hotness. “Quinn’s overall goal, our grand mission, is to be an intimacy guide for the new generation,” Spiegel told The Guardian. It accepts user-submitted tales, you can filter by tags (like “romance” and “accent”), and there’s a category of “POV” audio: a voice narrating what they're doing to the listener.