Welcome to strangers from KZW and Radiotopia. I'm Leah Tao. And summer's coming to an end soon. My son starts kindergarten tomorrow, come to real school for the first time. And it's bringing, you know, end of summer back to school, back to work, and daily grind vibes for me.

And it also brings questions of what my son's future will be.

What will he be good at?

Or have a hard time with?

Will he have a job he likes?

And will it be something I can't even imagine?

Like all parents, I want him to have a healthy, happy, full life.

But what does that look like exactly? What are the many forms it might take? Today's guest

describes her work as a path for her clients to such a life, healthy, happy, and full,

and she does something pretty unusual for a living. This story is not the kind of epic drama

you're often here on the show, but it raised some big questions for me. It took me on an interesting journey,

and it'll give you a peek into the uncommon work Kendra Holiday does with strangers.

The first session, everyone's nervous. So I start with showing them me from my head down to my waist. Then I take my shirt off

and I take my bra off and I talk to them about my breasts and I tell them about how I breastfed

for a year and how my breasts are very sensitive and then I turn it over to them. They talk about

their hair loss or different things they're self-conscious about or

things that they like about themselves and they undress to the waist. And then it's my turn and I go

from the waist down. This is the most important part because no one gets to see people's genitals

very much. We're always in the dark or we're covered up

or we're always really coy and shy about it.

So I get right on the bed

and I've spread my legs and I show them my parts.

...