Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, February 18th, 1984, hearings are set to begin at the New York State Liquor Authority

about the nightclub Chippendales.

Chippendales, if you know the name name it was of course the male exotic

dancing franchise that took off in the late 70s and early 80s at this point it was

successful enough that it had a club in New York City that Chippinoes Club at First Avenue and 61st Street. Now this hearing was ostensibly about a

liquor license but it was really as you will see about this new phenomenon of male strippers and all the puritanical freakouts and sexual mores that come with that.

And this episode of this podcast you're listening to right now is ostensibly about political history, but it's actually going to be about this very cool thing that our very own Nicole Hammer is involved in.

So first I will say hello, Nicole Hammer of Columbia.

Hi there.

Hello Jody.

And Kelly Carter Jackson is here with us as

well of Wellesley hello Kelly. Hey there. And yes Nicki this is your

this is your show here figuratively and literally because we're hooking this to the release of this really great

podcast series called Welcome to your Fantasy that is out now on Spotify. You've been working on it for a long time and

it's a multi-part series about the history of Chippendale so first off

congratulations everyone should go listen thank you yes it's been a two-year

journey with male strippers which is not the worst companion on this journey of life.

But it is nice to finally share them with the world.

The series, we should say, is hosted by Natalia Petrasilla, who's also your co-host on another broadcast past

presence it all ties together so you know I want to talk about the whole series

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