Tales of Taboo

I absolutely believe in marriage, but I also believe that marriage is inaccurately marketed as a one-stop solution for all of life’s problems. It’s no wonder why, as of 2024, about 43% of American marriages are said to end in divorce: we’re brainwashed! And yet, choosing to end a legally-bound relationship is still seen as a "failure."This week’s anonymous confessors were all married and split by the age of 35. Their roads to divorce vary from the interference of religious parents, bisexuality, affairs, accidental pregnancies, drug addictions, and domestic abuse, to a FAKE death! However, their initial decisions to wed mostly stemmed from the same motivations: thinking (or being told) that marriage was “necessary” at that point in their life, or feeling lonely and insecure, and believing a contractual life partner would be a remedy. ~Tales of Taboo is produced and narrated by Ali Weiss. Share your own confession - or love letters and hate mail - at [email protected]. Follow Ali on Instagram & TikTok @aliweissworld. Audio production by Chris Stathopolous and WTF Media. Theme song by Chris Stathopolous. Cover photo by Erika Flynn. Cover art by Kristen Montenegro. If you love the show, please take a moment to leave a rating and review - it's immensely helpful for expanding our network of anonymous confessors. Thank you!

Kseniya Sovenko is a former nationally ranked competitive ballroom dancer, writer, and the founder of ⁠NYC Rave Girls⁠. After being diagnosed with HPV, Kseniya discovered she had high-grade cervical dysplasia (CIN3), an advanced type of precancerous cells on her cervix. She was offered only one option for treatment, called a LEEP - or Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedure - but read many reports that the procedure offered inconsistent results and bad side effects. So, in the middle of 2020's global lockdown, Kseniya traveled to Japan on a medical Visa to receive Photodynamic Therapy. Her story is equal parts wild, informative, and deeply inspiring. I hope you enjoy learning from her as much as I did.~Tales of Taboo is produced and narrated by Ali Weiss. Share your own confession - or love letters and hate mail - at [email protected]. Follow Ali on Instagram & TikTok @aliweissworld. Audio production by Chris Stathopolous and WTF Media. Theme song by Chris Stathopolous. Cover photo by Erika Flynn. Cover art by Kristen Montenegro. If you love the show, please take a moment to leave a rating and review - it's immensely helpful for expanding our network of anonymous confessors around the world. Thank you!

I recently broke up with my boyfriend. Though extremely painful, I knew it was the correct decision - but I also wondered in my lower moments if, at 31, I was “too old” to start over again. I’ve never looked or felt better, but there’s cultural shame surrounding not having a partner after a certain age. A massive amount of power and freedom of choice comes with being single, and many solo people in their 30s and 40s are NOT miserable. We just don’t hear about it. Let’s change that.This week’s anonymous confessors are straight, gay, bi, and gender nonconforming men and women residing in New York, LA, London, New Zealand, & Paris. They’re between the ages of 31 and 54 and either are currently single, or found their partner “later in life.” On the coupled side, we hear from two women who met their husbands in their 40s after 20+ years (!) of being unpartnered, and a 39 year old former party princess who met her husband on Raya at 36. On the single side, both halves of a straight couple that broke up after nearly a decade together dish on the novelty of riding solo for the first time at 30; a queer man explains why straight people need to stop obsessing over monogamy; an American in Europe enjoys her freedom to take road trips with hot strangers she meets at parties; a non-binary contributor in their 40s feels this is the first time they can be their authentic self on dating apps; and a 35 year old escort wonders if earning her own “fuck you” money has made her too comfortable with independence.Our contributors all acknowledge that a ‘single person bias’ is built into Western society: life is marketed to seem ‘impossible’ to navigate alone. But the sense of self-worth, knowledge of personal boundaries, sex, money, and total freedom that come from being single “later in life” prove that’s not actually true. ~Tales of Taboo is produced and narrated by Ali Weiss. Share your own confession - or love letters and hate mail - at [email protected]. Follow Ali on Instagram & TikTok @aliweissworld. Audio production by Chris Stathopolous and WTF Media. Theme song by Chris Stathopolous. Cover photo by Erika Flynn. Cover art by Kristen Montenegro. If you love the show, please take a moment to leave a rating and review - it's immensely helpful for expanding our network of anonymous confessors around the world. Thank you!

Welcome back to season 6 of Tales of Taboo. I’ve missed you.  Affairs are by no means good or fair, but they rarely have malicious intent. More often, they’re about quelling the ways adult life can be lonely and disappointing. This week’s lustful anonymous confessors began their affairs in Paris nightclubs, Las Vegas strip clubs, and European hideaways; on Seeking Arrangements and Ashley Madison; at work, via email, and though the phone. They fell for their clients, coworkers, bosses - even doctors! While the physical circumstances vary greatly, our storytellers all admit to strikingly similar emotional motivations: trauma, abuse, sexual rejection, unhappy marriages, insecurity, the loss of love. And the words they use to describe the way their paramours made them feel are the same, too: ‘sexy’, ‘pretty’, ‘desired’, ‘chosen’, ‘adventurous’, ‘appreciated’, ‘valuable’, ‘validated’, ‘liked’, ‘loved’. I mean, how many times do we get presented with an all-encompassing romantic attraction that makes us really feel something? That isn’t circumstantial, or a void filler, or in pursuit of domestic stability? Where it’s just this inexplicable, chemical heat?  I’m not saying it’s right. I’m just saying it’s complicated. ~ Tales of Taboo is produced and narrated by Ali Weiss. Share your own confession - or love letters and hate mail - at [email protected]. Follow Ali on Instagram & TikTok @aliweissworld. Audio production by Chris Stathopolous and WTF Media. Theme song by Chris Stathopolous. Cover photo by Erika Flynn. Cover art by Kristen Montenegro. If you love the show, please take a moment to leave a rating and review - it's immensely helpful for expanding our network of anonymous confessors around the world. Thank you!

Some reviews on Apple Podcasts suggest y’all are sick of hearing me talk about myself and quite frankly, I am too! So, we are concluding the solo season an episode shy of the 10 I initially intended to make :) To wrap things up, I spend this final week reflecting on my so-called “Year of Rest and Relaxation,” or the year I ran my savings down to 0 dollars, learned how to separate my self-worth from work, came to terms with my ADHD, took a cold, hard look at my Pretty Privilege, re-evaluated my over-active social life, and divorced myself from limiting expectations within romantic relationships.  I decided to start recording alone at 30 while feeling like a directionless failure; now, I’m newly 31 and a smarter, softer, more grounded and - dare I say it? - adult version of myself. I’m SO glad I decided to go on this ride publicly, and am grateful for every single one of you who strapped in next to me and said “let’s do this.” Now - back to anonymous confessions! ~ Magic Mind is an amazing replacement for both coffee and Adderall (either prescription or not), and has completely changed my relationship to caffeine. Go to ⁠⁠⁠https://www.magicmind.com/talesoftaboo⁠⁠⁠ and for the next 10 days, get up to 50% off your first subscription and 20% off a one-time purchase with my code TABOO. ~ Physique 57 literally transformed my body in only 8 classes. Use my code TABOO to save $10 on your On Demand monthly membership - plus you can start with a 14-day FREE trial. Code applied automatically at checkout. Click here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ondemand.physique57.com/orders/customer_info?o=80200&d=TABOO⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  ~ Love letters? Hate mail? Share your thoughts at [email protected]. Follow Ali on Instagram & TikTok @aliweissworld. Tales of Taboo is produced and narrated by Ali Weiss. Audio production by Wolf Taylor, Aamir Augustine, and Angelito Casal at WTF Media. Theme song by Chris Stathopolous. Cover photo by Erika Flynn. Cover art by Kristen Montenegro. "Degenerate" sweatshirts & G-Strings are available on Ali's Instagram via DM. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/talesoftaboo/support