No. 1 | Dr. Nicole Prause

For this moon’s report, PSYN’s Nancy Drew chats with Dr. Nicole Prause about where tech is (and isn’t) taking the female orgasm. (*Interview pulled from talks in 2017.)

Dr. Nicole Prause is a bad-ass psychophysiologist whose lab table is covered in dildos and vibrators. She founded the sexual biotechnology firm, Liberos LLC, and is the unofficial girl crush here at PSYN. You can currently binge her expertise on Netflix's new limited series, "The Principles of Pleasure." Which, we strongly advise you do.

“Orgasm itself is a physiological event that's reflexive. It's really kind of on/off in lots of ways, not that we can't use things to enhance it or make it easier or more pleasurable, but basically like once those contractions start, you can't stop them.”

For this New Moon in Aries, we're giving you an audio beam.

So tune in, relax, and learn what pleasure teach can do for you.

The Hott Take

Hey there, PSYN Circle! Nancy Drew here...

I met Dr. Nicole Prause while working on my graduate thesis back in 2017. Talks from way back when is where today’s interview is pulled.

As a journalism grad student, my emphasis was in human sexuality. That meant while my fellow cohorts were reporting on lead levels in city water and attending town hall meetings, I was spending my nights in BDSM dungeons doing profiles on dominatrixes, or writing up articles about the FDA changing the dimensions of the average condom size.

By the time I was ready to write my thesis, I was steeped in the world of sex. I set out to write an expose revealing the perfect vibration combo to trigger the ultimate orgasm. I was researching hertz, frequency and acceleration- I was buried in readings about the overall mechanics of a vibrator, and how women can best get off using today’s advance tech.

The thesis, as you can probably guess, took a dramatic turn within the first month of writing. Turns out, I was after the white whale of 'gasm-info. I quickly learned little to no research was available for me to distill the best way to hack the vulva and create an orgasm off the grid. Instead, I was hit with the realization that little to no research or funding was spent AT ALL on female sexuality, let alone pleasure.

Dr. Nicole Prause was patient with me while my dreams over advanced climax-tech were shattered, and she eased me in to the understanding that clinical research on women’s sexuality is typically only ever really publicly funded when it’s a negative (spinal cord issues, disease, alcoholism, deformities, etc.).

My thesis, along with the next 5 years of my life, switched gears to figuring out why society values male sexual pleasure so heavily over the female - and what repercussions that has on society.

The following PSYN articles will continue to highlight this disservice, as well as highlight the work of those trying to change it.

For the Full Moon on April 16, I’m talking to The Cannasexual!

Talk soon, PSYN Circle.

Stay pleasured, PSYN’s Nancy Drew