#789 Sexual Shame - Dr. Nicole McNichols
Mental Illness Happy Hour
Paul Gilmartin
4.8 • 6.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2026
⏱️ 133 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dr. Nicole McNichols is an internationally renowned human sexuality professor, author, and speaker whose college course, The Diversity of Human Sexuality, is the most popular in the history of the University of Washington. She and Paul discuss the importance of communication when it comes to sex and the imperative of tossing shame out the window when it comes to what turns you on.
More about Dr Nicole McNichols
Check out her new book You Could Be Having Better S-x (Simon Element, Feb. 3, 2026)
Check out her website Dr. Nicole McNichols
Follow her on (Instagram and TikTok)
This episode is sponsored Quince. Go to www.Quince.com/mental for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too.
This episode is sponsored by Alma. Search their directory of over 20,000 therapists with different specialities, life experiences, and identities, and 99% of them take insurance. Go to www.HelloAlma.com/happyhour
This episode is sponsored by The Jordan Harbinger Show. Learn more about the world, improve your critical thinking skills and be entertained! Listen or subscribe here:
- jordanharbinger.com/subscribe
- Apple Podcasts: jordanharbinger.com/itunes
- Spotify: jordanharbinger.com/spotify
Here are the two episodes Paul recommended.
And
If you’re interested in seeing or buying the furniture that Paul designs and makes follow his IG @ShapedFurniture or visit the website www.shapedfurniture.com
WAYS TO HELP THE MIHH PODCAST
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts (or whatever player you use). It costs nothing. It’s extremely helpful to have your subscription set to download all episodes automatically. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mental-illness-happy-hour/id427377900?mt=2
Spread the word via social media. It costs nothing.
Our website is www.mentalpod.com our FB is www.Facebook.com/mentalpod and our Twitter and Instagram are both @Mentalpod
Become a much-needed Patreon monthly-donor (with occasional rewards) for as little as $1/month at www.Patreon.com/mentalpod
Become a one-time or monthly donor via PayPal at https://mentalpod.com/donate
You can also donate via Zelle (make payment to mentalpod@gmail.com)
To donate via Venmo make payment to @Mentalpod
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Episode 789 with my guest, Dr. Nicole McNichols. My name's Paul Gilmartin and welcome, if you're new. |
| 0:09.0 | This is a place for honesty about all the battles in our heads from medically diagnosed conditions, past traumas, and sexual dysfunction to everyday compulsive negative thinking. |
| 0:19.5 | And the show's not meant to be a substitute for |
| 0:21.8 | professional mental counseling i'm not a therapist you have been warned i mean this whole show |
| 0:28.5 | could be a a trigger warning especially the surveys that people fill out anonymously they get |
| 0:34.9 | they get pretty heavy sometimes and And speaking of that, this is a survey filled out |
| 0:43.9 | by a woman who calls herself Bobby Mickey, and she writes about last week's podcast. That survey |
| 0:50.4 | on the Bosnian soldiers raping a four-year-old to death will haunt me. |
| 0:56.0 | I'm not sure if I think it was okay of you to add them to the pod. |
| 1:00.7 | They shook my whole week. |
| 1:02.3 | The images disturbed me while being romantic with my boyfriend. |
| 1:08.1 | One part of me feels it was way too gruesome to be on the show. Another feels |
| 1:13.6 | it's a story worth telling. While writing this, I'm landing on that. On that, I support your decision |
| 1:20.2 | on reading them out loud. But they will haunt me and perhaps that is what they should. We should all be told about the worst of evil |
| 1:29.6 | and an aim to work against it happening again and again and again. |
| 1:34.9 | Thank you so much for that. |
| 1:36.5 | I did also go back and forth on whether or not to read that. |
| 1:40.6 | And obviously, I ultimately did decide that that is the stuff that the podcast should cover. |
| 1:51.0 | It's one of the reasons why I started the podcast, 14, 15. |
| 1:56.2 | Yeah, God, we're, we are about 20 days away from the anniversary. |
| 2:03.9 | We started this in late March of 2011, and I started it with the intention of having |
| 2:10.9 | conversations that wouldn't be censored, that go the places, that we go to in some of my support groups um |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Paul Gilmartin, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Paul Gilmartin and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.