It's our most VISUALLY STUNNING episode yet, with a guest whose coming out story spans Maine, Scotland, and Alaska! Eileen Hanley (Crazy Hot: The Podcast) always thought/knew she was bisexual, but internalized biphobia and an eight-year relationship with her boyfriend made her feel like she'd somehow be "lying" if she came out. She tells us about her deliciously awkward first sexual experience with a woman, and explains why EVERYONE is crazy hot! Also, we come up with a fun new nickname for Lauren's boobs!

Coming Out with Lauren & Nicole

Episode 170: Eileen Hanley

SURPRISE! It's our annual National Coming Out Day minisode! More and more, we hear folks in our community say that they're "tired" of coming out stories, and would rather see queer people "just living their lives." While we definitely want to see that, too, we not-so-surprisingly think that coming out stories are still ESSENTIAL! We get to the heart of why we so strongly believe this, in addition to talking about celebrities who came out this past year, and some lesser-known coming out moments in media!

Episode 169: Coming Out Day '21!

We have a mind-expanding conversation with aroace lesbian and mental health advocate, Rebecca Ashley! Rebecca uses the label of "lesbian" in addition to identifying as asexual/aromantic, and one of the first things we discuss is the ostensible contradiction between those terms. Rebecca does an incredible job of shedding light on alllllll the different kinds of attraction *beyond* just sexual and romantic; plus, we dig into squishes vs. crushes, alternate types of life partnerships, and The Golden Girls!

Episode 168: Rebecca Ashley

Fawzia Mirza (Her Story; Signature Move) started out as an actor, but soon realized that the roles available to queer, Muslim, South Asian women were not exactly...plentiful. So she began writing her own work, with the goal of centering folks who are all too often just "friends of the center story." We discuss the pressure put on queer female relationships to be EVERYTHING, and the difficulty of having your entire queer identity tied to your very first partner. Also, Fawzia's "Summer of Lesbianism!"  

Episode 167: Fawzia Mirza

We're closing out Bi Visibility Week with a special ep featuring not one, but *two* of Nicole's BFFs from college! Not only are Nicole, Katie, and Lorelei all bisexual, they're also all in long-term relationships with cis men. They discuss the inherent conflict between passing privilege and erasure, the significance of losing your virginity to a woman when you're a bi woman, and bi myths they'd like to bust. We also talk "bisexual awakening movies," and celebrity couples to whom we'd say a hard YES, PLEASE!

Episode 166: Bi Besties!

We're joined by one of our all-time FAVORITE facilitators at the L.A. LGBT Center, Maggie Tielker! For the past eighteen months, Lauren and Maggie have been Zoom-facilitating together nearly every Monday night. But at age twenty-seven, Maggie herself went through the Center's Women's Coming Out Workshop! Maggie shares her suspiciously feminine childhood crushes (Hanson, Jared Leto...you get it), the pressure of the "relationship escalator," and her experience with VERY DIRECT queer elders! @maggietielker

Episode 165: Maggie Tielker

We cover some entirely new ground this week in a fantastic conversation with disability advocate AJ Detwiler! AJ lives at the intersection of queer, female, and disabled, but many of her dating experiences have sadly revealed our community to be...less "body-positive" than we'd like to imagine. AJ discusses the pressure she feels to prove her physical autonomy in relationships, and we talk about the huge moment of sexy disabled visibility that occurred just this past weekend on The L Word! @zoominrainbow

Episode 164: AJ Detwiler

Comedian and author Sophie Santos literally wrote a memoir about her coming out story, so needless to say she knows it well! Sophie was the only girl in her middle school's tackle football league, but pulled a super-femme 180 the moment she got her period ("I am now a swan"). She muses on the "copious" amount of men she slept with while in an Alabama sorority to try to convince herself she was into dudes (spoiler: she wasn't), the summer at Wellesley that changed her life, and whether or not she's "futch."

Episode 163: Sophie Santos

We dyke out with Melody Kamali, comedian and co-host of one of our favorite podcasts, Dyking Out! Melody shares the pivotal moment she had with *that* scene in True Lies, talks about getting "heterocurious" in her early 20s, and discusses the flack she's gotten for claiming the word "dyke" as someone who identifies as bi/pan. Plus, we get pumped about queer Persian representation in The L Word and beyond, and muse over what straight girls masturbate to! Let us know, straight listeners!! @melodykamali

Episode 162: Melody Kamali

The podcast hits an important milestone when we talk to our first EX-NUN! Kelli Dunham dropped out of Bible college in the late '80s and went to Haiti to volunteer at a school. However, she ended up volunteering at a Haitian missionary instead, which ultimately led her to join the Missionaries of Charity, an especially strict order (even by Catholic standards!). Now a comedian, Kelli regales us with stories of her former life, including the steps that convents take to discourage "nun-on-nun action."

Episode 161: Kelli Dunham

Hey. Hi. How're you doing? Feeling a bit stressed? Maybe a tad overwhelmed? Wow, that's so crazy; us, too! Haha!! HahahahAHAHAHA!!!! With everything that's been going on...everywhere, we thought we'd take the opportunity to do a li'l mental health check-in: just the two of us, sitting in our respective closets, getting candid about how we've been feeling lately. We both come out about some big mental health decisions we've recently made in our own lives, talk Simone Biles, and more. You're doing great :)

Episode 160: Mental Health Check-In!

We have a powerful conversation with Julie Rodgers, author of "Outlove: A Queer Christian Survival Story," who is featured in the just-released Netflix documentary Pray Away. Shortly after coming out at the age of 16, Julie's mother took her to meet with someone from Living Hope Ministries. What followed were weekly conversion therapy sessions for the next eight years. Julie discusses the irony of finding queer community in a conversion group, her current relationship to faith, her wife and cats, and more!

Episode 159: Julie Rodgers

We get *candid* about what turns us on in this week's episode with Nikki Levy, creator and host of the Don't Tell My Mother! podcast and live show! Nikki's story begins with a split-second moment in eighth grade that changed everything, then continues down a long and winding road that includes a first kiss with a girl named "Fish," and a threesome with a future rabbi. ARE YOU SUFFICIENTLY TEASED?? Also, how Nikki's mom went from total denial to regularly calling into her daughter's queer af podcast!

Episode 158: Nikki Levy

We absolutely adore speaker, author, and host Raga Olga D'silva, whose warmth and positivity will literally BLEED THROUGH YOUR HEADPHONES! Raga discusses the surprising way in which sexuality and gender are thought of in patriarchal Indian culture, and the impact that has had on her. She also talks about realizing she was a lesbian when she was married with two young children, her close-knit community's reaction, and the important distinction of martyrdom vs. nurturing. Plus: Bollywood! @totallyoutnow

Episode 157: Raga Olga D'silva

For the first time ever, we're having a guest back on to give us an update about their evolution, and the hot takes are FLYING! A lot has changed since Daisy Eagan (Episode 5) was on the pod during this *exact* same week in 2018: for one thing, Daisy still identifies as queer, but she's recently embraced the term "non-binary female." She's also become a doula, and her relationship status is...unexpectedly different. Daisy brings us up to speed, as we tackle some hot-button issues within the community!

Episode 156: Daisy Eagan, REDUX!

Lauren is gay! Nicole is bi! Coming Out with Lauren & Nicole is a weekly podcast where pals Lauren Flans and Nicole Pacent have queer folks from all walks of life tell the tales of how they came out to friends, family, and the world at large. Because who doesn't love a coming out story?! #comingoutpod #findricki

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Coming Out with Lauren & Nicole

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