Marty Klein has been a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and a Certified Sex Therapist in Palo Alto, California for 42 years — over 40,000 sessions with individuals and couples. Marty is the author of seven books on sexuality, including Sexual Intelligence: What We Really Want from Sex and How to Get it; His Porn, Her Pain: Confronting America’s PornPanic with Honest Talk about Sex; Beyond Orgasm: Dare to be Honest About the Sex you Really Want; Ask Me Anything: Dr. Klein Answers the Sex Questions You’d Love to Ask; and America’s War on Sex: The Attack on Law, Lust and Liberty. Marty is an outspoken critic of many popular and clinical ideas about sexuality and emotional health. Wikipedia cites him as the foremost critic of the concept of sex addiction. He is a founding editor of the Journal of Porn Studies. And each year Marty gives expert testimony in various state and federal courts. A former instructor at Stanford Medical School, Marty’s humor, insights, and down-to-earth approach are regularly featured in the national media, such as the New York Times, the New Yorker, Nightline, NPR, and the Huffington Post.
Shermer and Klein discuss:
- How does one become a sex therapist?
-
reasons why people see Dr. Klein for therapy:
- “We fight all the time.”
- “I’m a sex addict.” or “I’m out of control sexually.”
- “I climax too fast.”
- “I can’t get or keep erections.”
- “I feel guilty or ashamed a lot.”
- “I don’t orgasm during sex.”
- “I think my spouse is cheating on me.” (or already has)
- “I watch too much porn” or ”He watches too much porn.”
- “I spend too much time at strip clubs, massage parlors, or with escorts.”
- “I think about sex all the time.”
- “We want more intimacy.”
- “I just can’t connect with anyone.”
- “I want to change my life, but can’t figure out how.”
- “My in-laws are ruining our marriage.”
- “After being divorced for 5 years, I’m scared to have sex again.”
- “I’m successful and I feel like a fraud.”
- “I just want someone to talk to.”
- Self-Help Sex books. Why are there no books called “How to Get Your Wife to Hug You a Little Bit More” or “How to Get Your Husband to Slow Down and Caress Your Hair and Love Doing It”?
- What is a sexual orientation? Why asexual is not an orientation. Does sexual orientation change over time?
- What constitutes sex abuse?
- infidelity
- monogamy
- polyamory
- trans
- homosexuality
- sex education: who should teach children and teens about sex: parents, schools, professional sex educators?
- the case against the sexual revolution
- sex addiction
- pornography: is there such a thing as healthy use?
- anti-pornography movement
- prostitution (the Nordic Model vs. the German Model vs. …?)
- obscenity and censorship
- pedophilia.
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This episode is sponsored by Wondrium:
This episode was released on February 7, 2023.
