YAS Podcast

Ballroom historian, storyteller, and producer Sydney Baloue joins NatsHoney to trace the histories that get left out, and the people who refuse to disappear from them. From ballroom’s deep ties to sex work to the erasure of trans men and masculine people, Sydney challenges respectability politics and asks who actually gets a seat at the table. They explore chosen family, Black culture, spirituality, and the importance of letting communities tell their own stories. Along the way, Sydney connects ballroom to generations of collective resistance and creativity, reminding us that liberation doesn’t happen through a single hero: it takes all hands on deck. All the Links: Sydney’s Instagram https://instagram.com/sydneybaloue Sydney’s Website https://sydneybaloue.com Donate to our work https://yaswork.org/donate YAS Work Instagram https://instagram.com/yasworkorg YAS Work BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/yaswork.bsky.social YAS Work Twitter https://x.com/YASWorkOrg YAS Work Youtube https://youtube.com/@YASWorkOrg YASStore.Shop https://yasstore.shop All the Chapters: 00:34 Introduction to YAS Podcast and Guest Sydney Baloue 02:57 International Horrors Day: Significance and Experience 10:29 The Role of a Ballroom Historian 21:49 Trans Visibility and Current Challenges 31:30 Power Dynamics in the LGBTQ Community 32:28 Visibility and Inclusion in the Trans Community 36:31 Documenting Trans History and Representation 49:54 Spirituality, Hoodoo, and Storytelling in Identity 01:00:17 Cultural Connections: Ballroom, Spirituality, and Resilience 01:01:08 The Alchemical Experience of the African American Journey 01:06:34 Creative Projects and the Pursuit of Storytelling 01:12:20 The Intersection of Ballroom Culture and Sex Work 01:19:24 Understanding Transphobia and Its Roots 01:22:59 Building Bridges and Community Engagement

This is a mini-sode about how The Bar Studio and Bee's Knees created a Community Shop that turns donated dance and workwear into affordable finds, with proceeds supporting YAS Work. The idea is simple, but the ripple effects are bigger: it helps students, supports sex workers, and gives the studio a tangible way to live its mission. Looch and Sara Bee share how the shop works in person and online, why the model fits their community, and how it inspired adjacent projects like a quarterly newspaper and community-driven wrapping paper. Key topics In this episode: Looch, owner of The Bar Studio in Bellingham, Massachusetts, explains how the studio became the in-person home for the Community Shop. All proceeds go to YAS Work, making the shop a direct fundraising channel for sex worker stories and support. Sara Bee and Looch share: The shop started as a way to solve the problem of donated clothes piling up on the studio floor and to create a better, more intentional shopping experience. Timestamps 00:00 - Introducing The Community Shop and why it matters01:44 - Looch introduces The Bar Studio and the in-person shop01:59 - Sara Bee explains her role curating the shop and online collection02:25 - How the Community Shop started as a solution to donated clothes piling up03:24 - Sorting, steaming, tagging, and restocking donated items03:51 - YAS Work as the nonprofit beneficiary04:10 - What shoppers are saying: audition outfits and baby strippers finding value04:39 - Monday restocks and the shop’s growing weekly following05:13 - Online and in-person inventory are intentionally different05:40 - Price points that make the shop accessible06:08 - Why people love it: cute, cheap, and mission-driven06:52 - Full-circle impact for community, sex workers, and YAS Work08:13 - Living the mission through a shop that reflects the studio’s values09:41 - Donations and interest spreading beyond the local studio10:38 - Imagining Community Shops at more studios nationwide11:21 - The quarterly newspaper and community-written articles12:19 - Using old newspaper issues as wrapping paper for online orders12:42 - The consignment model they chose not to use13:04 - How the donation-bin idea came together fast13:51 - Their nonstop idea-sharing workflow14:20 - Where to find Looch and The Bar Studio14:43 - Where to find Bee's Knees and what’s next for the brand15:14 - Closing thoughts and sign-off

The pole world is finally being forced to face the truth: if you want a stronger future for pole, you have to center sex workers, not sideline them. NatsHoney and AMD break down what they saw at Pole Convention East, where representation, history, and accountability were on full display.What starts as a recap of an electric event turns into a bigger conversation about who gets celebrated in pole spaces, who gets left out, and what it actually means to build a more honest industry. From disability and Latinx showcases to sex workers showing up everywhere, this episode keeps circling one question - who is pole really for?You’ll hear NatsHoney and AMD unpack: Why the event felt different this year, and why that mattered The tension between pole fitness rules and the anarchist spirit of stripping Why sex worker representation inside pole spaces is still not optional A moving reunion with Nicole the Pole and the history behind her signature work How brands like X-Pole, Bees Knees, and The Bar are creating space for lived experience, not just performative inclusion AMD shares interviews with Shaina Cruea, Jinx, Michelle Stanek, Agatha, and others, while NatsHoney brings the perspective of someone who has been tracking pole culture, black representation, and sex worker visibility for years. Together they connect the dots between performance, politics, community, and the fight to keep pole history rooted in the people who built it.This episode also looks ahead to International Pole Dance Day and the urgent need to support sex worker organizations while funding is drying up and the industry keeps expanding. If you care about pole, if you teach pole, if you perform pole, or if you want to understand where this art form really comes from, this conversation belongs on your playlist.Essential listening for anyone who wants more than pretty spins and polished marketing. This is about the people, the labor, the history, and the future of pole.Character count: 2,718 / 4,000Why this works: The hook immediately frames the episode as a high-stakes industry conversation, which is more compelling than a simple event recap. It names the key speakers and guests, highlights concrete takeaways, and creates curiosity around the major tension points: representation, history, and sex worker inclusion. (00:00) Opening praise for the event and how visible representation changed the atmosphere (01:05) Why seeing sex workers everywhere made this year feel different (02:49) The divide pole culture tried to create between dancers and strippers (03:12) Too many rules, but why event structure still matters (04:23) Recording six interviews at the convention and the work behind them (05:19) A performance dedicated to sex workers and to NatsHoney (07:08) Setting up the format for reacting to each interview clip (13:12) Agatha’s performance, stage presence, and costume support from Sway (14:16) Introduction to the Nicole the Pole interview (19:09) NatsHoney on teaching Nicole a signature trick and Black representation in pole (22:54) Nicole the Pole’s broader visibility and industry hustle (23:23) Introduction to the Misha from Pole Poise interview (27:27) How Pole Poise was inspired by family, ancestors, and pole as fitness (28:26) Why most studios still do not teach pole history (29:17) Tracing pole history back to the late 1990s and early pioneers (31:01) Bees Knees, The Bar, and hiring strippers as instructors (34:54) Introduction to the Shaina Cruea interview and X-Pole’s education shift (43:05) Why lived experience matters more than performative education (45:32) Introduction to the Jinx interview (55:04) Whorephobia, exclusion, and the emotional damage of being pushed out (57:39) Jinx’s performance and the power of creative movement (61:31) The Community Shop as affordable gear support for strippers (62:27) Closing that segment and moving into Michelle Stanek (69:51) Meeting people where they are and why the goalpost keeps moving (73:50) Hope

Host AM Davies welcomes artist and sex worker, Stephanie "Monty" Montgomery, to discuss the billboard she hand-painted after surviving workplace assault and being failed by club management and police. Monty traces how rage transformed her art from carefully marketable work into a weapon for public accountability, guided by the mantra “vengeance for me, justice for them.” Their conversation moves through childhood grief, forced positivity, Los Angeles grime, Texas conservatism, and the exhausting work of unlearning systems built on patriarchy and control. Monty also shares how her story became the animated short Monster Slayer, which has screened at 18 festivals and connected with survivors through their shared experiences of violence. She explains why sex work never makes someone responsible for assault and previews her companion art book, created to document the film’s illustrations and creative process. All the Links: Monty’s Instagram https://instagram.com/montymonsterslayer Donate to our work https://yaswork.org/donate/ YAS Work Instagram https://instagram.com/yasworkorg YAS Work BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/yaswork.bsky.social YAS Work Twitter https://x.com/YASWorkOrg YAS Work Youtube https://youtube.com/@YASWorkOrg YASStore.Shop https://yasstore.shop All the Chapters: 00:00 - Violence and Solidarity 01:26 - Introduce Monty 04:49 - The Billboard 13:36 - Artist Background 16:17 - Mental Health 19:04 - Life in Los Angeles 22:10 - Texas Culture 24:25 - The End of Conservatism 25:57 - Me Too 31:10 - Unlearning 39:04 - Monster Slayer Film 45:32 - Reception 49:45 - Where to Find Monty

On YAS Podcast, host Daisy Ducati interviews Dr. Mireille Miller-Young (UC Santa Barbara), author of A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography, about researching Black women’s labor, representation, and sexual agency in adult media. Miller-Young discusses identifying in solidarity with sex workers, academic stigma and career pushback, and how sex workers cared for her during fieldwork as she sought to disrupt extractive research traditions. She explains developing a “Black feminist pornographic gaze,” critiques anti-porn feminism’s shallow analysis and alignment with criminalization, and connects policies like the Nordic model and FOSTA-SESTA to increased danger and deplatforming. The conversation also addresses racialized policing of massage parlors, censorship and surveillance in academia, and her argument that Black women navigate both exploitation and agency through “erotic sovereignty,” urging listeners to avoid stigma and center sex workers’ voices. All the Chapters 00:00 Conference Backlash 00:39 Podcast Welcome 02:00 Pronouns Solidarity 04:34 Care From Workers 07:07 Awards And Motherhood 09:00 Research Origins 11:47 Labor Roots Story 14:48 Archive Hunt 16:31 Pornographic Gaze 20:52 Policy And Policing 23:29 FOSTA SESTA Fallout 26:23 Surveillance Creep 28:20 AI Sex Project 30:23 Academic Silencing 32:52 Fear of Wokeism 33:29 CRT and Property 34:50 Education Under Attack 36:11 News Burnout Break 36:53 Support the Podcast 37:24 Book Exploitation and Agency 37:51 Feminist Sex Wars 38:28 Queer Porn Counterculture 42:36 Respectability Backlash 48:49 Erotic Sovereignty Theory 50:04 Money Sex Fame 51:33 Sex Work History Choices 01:00:19 Stigma Media Literacy 01:03:04 Sexual Radical Future 01:05:16 Closing and Where to Find All the links Dr. Mireille Website Donate to our work ⁠YAS Work Instagram⁠ ⁠YAS Work BlueSky⁠ ⁠YAS Work Twitter⁠ ⁠YAS Work Youtube YASStore.Shop