Hello, everyone. It's another beautiful day in the apocalypse. Welcome back to your weekly hit of

black market medicine, or as I sometimes like to say, a profound spiritual awakening in the form

of an average white woman's podcast called Tales of Taboo. My name is Ali Weiss for those of you who are new here.

I am a downtown New York Z-List actress, writer, professional conversationalist who is obsessed

with all people, experiences, careers, and ideas outside the bounds of what society considers

traditionally acceptable or accessible or quote unquote

normal. So each week I invite my audience and their friends and sometimes even their friends of friends

to share their unconventional life stories behind the shield of complete anonymity. So the result of that is

half actually important investigative journalism and half fluffy daytime television.

And producing it is the absolute honor of my life. This week, we are talking about high-end escorts. And I feel really strongly about this,

because I absolutely despise this widespread idea that every woman who openly pursues a career

in the sex industry must be deeply damaged and traumatized, either sexually or emotionally.

Like it's this idea that only a woman who lacks respect for herself would monetize her sexuality.

And look, of course this can be a motivating factor.

Of course, women with damaged self-esteem make

controversial decisions regarding sex. But it's really not that different from the way that women who

are sexually and emotionally traumatized choose to pursue careers as models or actresses or housewives of rich,

but like absentee or even abusive men. Monetizing sexuality to overcome trauma is everywhere

if you know what to look for. It's just that in the sex industry, it's overt and sometimes literal, rather than the way

that it's implied in entertainment and advertising.

And what I'm excited for you to hear from this week's anonymous, actually with one non-anonymous

contributor, is that many of these women became escorts for the same reason that people decide to

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