Our Better Half

Our guests this week are two accomplished sexuality professionals – Ms. Sue Goldstein and Dr. Irwin Goldstein. Sue and Irwin Goldstein have been titans in the field of sexology for some time now; they were there on May 14, 1998 when the first article on sildenafil (Viagra) was published with Irwin Goldstein as the first author. Ms. Sue Goldstein, a graduate of Brown University, is Sexuality Educator and Clinical Research Manager at San Diego Sexual Medicine (SDSM), responsible for sexual medicine educational programming and clinical research. She works with the SDSM team to develop clinical research projects, write protocols and oversee clinical trials. Ms. Goldstein co-authored When Sex Isn't Good to provide education and empowerment to women with sexual dysfunction. She is an associate editor of Textbook of Female Sexual Function and Dysfunction, and Female Sexual Pain Disorders, and author of multiple peer reviewed papers. Ms. Goldstein is past president of the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health (ISSWSH). She served on committees in the International Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM) and Sexual Medicine Society of North America (SMSNA). She is also a member of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT), the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP) and the International Society for Medical Shockwave Therapy. Ms. Goldstein, an ISSWSH Fellow, received the Distinguished Service Award from ISSWSH in 2017 as well as from SMSNA in 2017, and along with her husband, the Transformatory Team Award from ISSM in 2024. Dr. Irwin Goldstein has been involved with sexual dysfunction research since the late 1970s. He has authored more than 380 publications as well as multiple book chapters and edited 7 textbooks in the field. His interests include surgery for dyspareunia, sexual health management post cancer treatment, persistent genital arousal disorder/genital dysesthesia, physiologic investigation of sexual function, and diagnosis and treatment of sexual dysfunction in all genders. Dr. Goldstein is Director of Sexual Medicine at University of California San Diego East Campus, and sees patients in his private practice, San Diego Sexual Medicine. He is a Clinical Professor of Urology and Voluntary Clinical Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, & Reproductive Sciences at University of California San Diego. He is past Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Impotence Research, The Journal of Sexual Medicine, and Sexual Medicine Reviews. He is Past President of the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health (ISSWSH) and the Sexual Medicine Society of North America (SMSNA). He holds a degree in engineering from Brown University and received his medical degree from McGill University. The World Association for Sexual Health awarded the Gold Medal to Dr. Goldstein in 2009 in recognition of his lifelong contributions to the field, in 2012 he received the ISSWSH Award for Distinguished Service in Women's Sexual Health, in 2013 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the SMSNA, and in 2014 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM). He is happily married to his college sweetheart Sue, and together they have three children and five grandchildren. Listeners, if you would like to reach out to Ms. Sue Goldstein and/or Dr. Irwin Goldstein, check out the San Diego Sexual Medicine website! If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show! As always, thanks for listening!

Peggy J. Kleinplatz, Ph.D. is Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Director of the Optimal Sexual Experiences Research Team at the University of Ottawa. She is a clinical psychologist, Board Certified in Sex Education and is a Diplomate and Supervisor of Sex Therapy. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. She was awarded the Prix d'Excellence in 2000 for her teaching of Human Sexuality. She has a particular interest in sexual health among older people, disabled and marginalized populations. Kleinplatz has edited five books, notably New Directions in Sex Therapy: Innovations and Alternatives, (Routledge, 2nd Edition), winner of the AASECT 2013 Book Award, Sadomasochism: Powerful Pleasures with Dr. Charles Moser (2006) and Sexuality and Ageing (2015) with Dr. Walter Bouman. She is the author with A. Dana Ménard, Ph.D. of Magnificent Sex: Lessons from Extraordinary Lovers, winner of the Society for Sex Therapy and Research Consumer Book Award 2021. In 2015, Kleinplatz received the Professional Standard of Excellence Award from the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counsellors and Therapists. In 2021, Kleinplatz received a Distinguished Sexual and Gender Health Revolutionary Award from the Medical School of the University of Minnesota. Her clinical work focuses on eroticism and transformation. Her research, writing, teaching and clinical work have been intended to challenge, expand and diversify the field of sex therapy. Listeners, you can get in touch with Peggy and her team of researchers at Optimal Sexual Experiences and learn more about her bio and publications through the University of Ottawa! If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show! As always, thanks for listening!

Our guest this time is an old friend, Joan Price. Joan is an award-winning author, speaker, sexuality educator, advocate for ageless sexuality, and truly the inspiration behind much of what we do here at Our Better Half! She's written numerous books, did a great video with Jessica Drake just a few years ago, and just reissued her amazing book, Naked At Our Age, and it's better than ever! She reviews sex toys for older bodies and often laughingly says, "somebody's got to do it!" She speaks about senior sexuality all over the world. And she's 82! Joan has been on our show before, and we love her work. So, listeners, you are in for a treat as we catch up with one of our favorite people. Please join us in conversation with the inimitable Joan Price, sexuality educator extraordinaire! If you'd like to get in touch with Joan, you can visit her website, and check out her interview in the New York Times that Rosara is quoted in! If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show! As always, thanks for listening!

Our guest this week is Dr. Jenn Pollitt! Jenn Pollitt, PhD is the Assistant Director of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies and an Assistant Professor in the College of Liberal Arts at Temple University. She holds a PhD in Human Sexuality from Widener University. Dr. Pollitt currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, a national organization dedicated to advancing sexual freedom as a fundamental human right through policy, law and education. With over 15 years of experience as a sexuality educator, Dr. Pollitt has developed and taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses on topics including Men & Masculinities, Sexuality and Disability, Porn Literacy, Sexuality Education, and Pleasure. She has also created and facilitated trainings and curricula for professionals in nonprofit organizations, corporations, and labor unions—working with groups such as Lambda Legal, the American Medical Student Association, and Philadelphia's Men's Center for Growth and Change. Dr. Pollitt has developed the first comprehensive sexuality education course for law students, which launched this fall at Temple University's Beasley School of Law. Her work focuses on sexual and erotic agency, LGBTQIA+ rights, reproductive justice, and the intersections of sex, law, and policy. She also examines the influence of popular culture as one of the most powerful—and under-acknowledged—sources of informal sex education in the U.S. Dr. Pollitt's work and commentary have been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Slate, Psychology Today, HuffPost, Business Insider, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The 19th News, NPR, WHYY, and Doctor Radio. Listeners, you can find information about Dr. Pollitt and her publications here! If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show! As always, thanks for listening!

Our guest this week is Dr. Sara Nasserzadeh, PhD. Dr. Nasserzadeh is an award-winning author, TED speaker, and world-renowned relational expert. She holds a PhD in social psychology and specializes in sexual health and relationships at both macro and micro levels. Dr. Nasserzadeh has served as a senior cultural advisor for governments, UN agencies, academic institutions, and Fortune 500 companies. She has authored multiple articles, books, and book chapters. Her newest book, Love by Design: 6 Ingredients to Build a Lifetime of Love, was the recipient of the Vincent Clark Award from the California Association for Marriage and Family Therapists for significant advancement of the field. Using proven research, Dr. Nasserzadeh explains how six essential ingredients – attraction, respect, trust, a shared vision, compassion, and loving behaviors – are needed for any thriving relationship, from the bedroom to the boardroom. These ingredients can be explored with any audience to establish a unified language, shared values, and common aspirations. Dr. Nasserzadeh's work has been featured on NPR, the BBC, ABC, CNN, The New York Times, The Times, CNBC, and USA Today, among others. Dr. Nasserzadeh has been a board member of several professional organizations, including the California Psychological Association, the American Association for Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT), and the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS). She is widely recognized as a trailblazer in the field of relational science and has been honored by peers and esteemed institutions alike, including the British Council for her contributions to social impact; Pfizer Inc. with its Innovation of the Year Award during her tenure as global chair of the Customer Insights Council; the BBC World Service for Innovation of the Year for her groundbreaking sexuality education program; and AASECT with its Award for Professional Excellence. Clinically, she is an approved training provider, senior accredited member, and registered supervisor with AASECT, as well as a registered supervisor with the College of Sex and Relationship Therapists in the UK (COSRT). Since moving to California, she is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (AMFT) and a member of the California Association for Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT). To learn more about Dr. Sara Nasserzadeh, visit her website, join her online community, and follow her on Instagram. If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show! As always, thanks for listening!

Our guest this time is Stephen Duclos, and his interest in aging is partly because he has been doing social change work for decades and sees aging as just one more civil rights horizon. He's also interested in aging because he's a sex therapist, and he sees all sex as queer sex when it comes to aging adults. Stephen has been working as a therapist and counselor since 1972. He currently holds licenses and national certifications in Sex Therapy (as a CST), Couples and Family Therapy (LMFT), Mental Health Counseling (LMHC), and Rehabilitation Counseling (CRC). Stephen is an Approved Supervisor with the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapists (AAMFT), and AASECT (the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists). He is also a member of the American Family Therapy Academy. In 2012, he received the Patricia Schiller award from AASECT for his work on Fathers, Adolescent Daughters, and Sexuality. And in 2022, he was featured in a cover story in the NY Times Magazine about sex over 70. Jane first met Stephen at an AASECT conference and was immediately struck by his candor, and they have been teaching social workers and students of sex therapy ever since. He is always up for a new challenge and is one of the most thoughtful clinicians she knows. He has been a teacher and supervisor of therapists as an adjunct faculty member of UMass/Boston and is a principal faculty member in the Sex Therapy Training program at South Shore Sexual Health Center. He has also taught at Boston Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. He is vitally interested in intimacy, aging, fathers and daughters, and long-term sexual relationships. Stephen has also been involved in civil rights work for more than 50 years. From registering voters for the Boston Election Commission in 1967, to helping establish the second Independent Living Center in the US for people with disabilities in the 1970s, to establishing biracial councils in the Boston Public Schools during desegregation through the late 1980s, to supporting liberation for the queer community, civil rights has been part of his ongoing, lifelong community work. His interest in aging comes in large part from his commitment to being a therapist, seeing older clients, and threading the aging process in the tapestry of his own life. He is fierce, tender, brilliant, and a great teacher and learner. He wanted to expand his teaching practice by working with a sex educator, and Jane was so pleased that he invited her in because she loves teaching with him, always learning something new, as we did in this conversation. Listeners, if you'd like to learn more about Stephen and his work, you can find more information here. If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show! As always, thanks for listening!

Please join us for an enlivening conversation with Dr. Cynthia Graham, an esteemed editor, researcher, and educator. She has done so much research on older adults and amid a negative focus on aging, she has found in her research that sex can actually get better with age. Her research focuses on sexual health among older adults, male condom use, hormonal contraceptives, women's sexuality, women's sexual pleasure, and sexual problems. We discussed her current research along with Dr. Justin Lehmiller on older women and masturbation and whether it might improve some symptoms of menopause. She is the editor of the Journal of Sex Research and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Gender studies at Indiana University and a senior scientist at the Kinsey Institute. In the wake of NIH and other funding cutbacks in scientific research, she talks about the need to continue to do sexuality research and continuing to find alternative avenues to fund and publish this critical work. Listeners, if you're interested in Dr. Cynthia Graham's research, click here. If you're interested in Dr. Patricia Barthalow Koch's article we discussed on body image and aging, click here. And if you'd like to read the statement Dr. Graham and her colleagues wrote about the attacks on scientific research, click here. If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show! As always, thanks for listening!

We are so happy to invite you to a wonderful conversation with Dr. Elliott Kronenfeld who is interested in building relationships on curiosity and intention across the lifespan. Dr. Kronenfeld's books, Couples by Intention: Crafting and Cultivating Relationships that Matter! and Unspoken Loss: Men, Infidelity, and Disenfranchised Grief are widely available. We spoke with him about so much. If your curiosity is piqued, here are a few links: Disenfranchised Grief by Doka and Women, breast cancer survivorship, sexual losses, and disenfranchised grief – a treatment model for clinicians by Pillai-Friedman and Ashline. Listeners, if you'd like to get in touch with Dr. Eliot Kronenfeld, you can find more about him here. You can also follow him on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Bluesky! If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show! As always, thanks for listening!

Great news - we got picked up for another season of Our Better Half! Stay tuned for another year of insightful conversations featuring top experts in the field of sexuality and aging. If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show! As always, thanks for listening!

Our guest this time is Dr. Margaret Nichols. Dr. Nichols, Ph.D., is a psychologist, AASECT certified sex therapy supervisor, founder, and first Executive Director of the Institute for Personal Growth, a psychotherapy organization in New Jersey specializing in clinical work with the sex, relationship, and gender diverse community. She is the author of The Modern Clinician's Guide to Working with LGBTQ+ Clients: The Inclusive Psychotherapist. Dr. Nichols is an international speaker and author of many articles on LGBTQ sexuality, transgender youth, kink, and consensual nonmonogamy, as well as the co-director of Modern Sex Therapy Institutes' Transgender Mental Health certification program. Dr. Nichols has been licensed since 1981 and trained as a sex therapist since 1983. In 1983, she founded the Institute for Personal Growth, and in 1985, she helped found and served as the first Executive Director of the Hyacinth AIDS Foundation, New Jersey's largest HIV social service agency. Since she sold IPG in 2018, Dr. Nichols has maintained a small private psychotherapy practice and a roster of sex therapy supervisees across the country. Resources on ways to support trans and non-binary people: Supporting transgender people in your life - Advocates for trans equality How to be an ally to trans and non-binary people - Trevor Project How to be an ally to trans and non-binary people - George Mason LGBTQ+ center Dr. Margie Nichols' TED talk If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show! As always, thanks for listening!

Join a few of our co-hosts for a light, lovely, humorous, and educational romp through some challenges of ageism and how they combat ageism through sexual pleasure. If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show! As always, thanks for listening!

Our guests this time are the dynamic duo, mother/daughter team of The Buehler Institute, Dr. Stephanie Buehler and Anneka Buehler. Stephanie Buehler, MPW, PsyD, CST-S, IF, is a licensed psychologist, AASECT-certified sex Therapist and Supervisor, and Fellow of the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health. She is the President of The Buehler Institute and LearnSexTherapy.com, which provides APA, AASECT, NBCC, and California BRN-approved inclusive continuing education in sex therapy and sexuality counseling. In addition to pelvic pain disorders and using the sexological ecosystemic approach she developed, Dr. Buehler has written about and lectured on the intersection of sexuality and sexual identity, thriving after breast and prostate cancer; neurodivergent sexuality and relationships; post-trauma recovery of sexual function and pleasure; counseling for couples; infertility, pregnancy, and post-partum issues; and menopause and other lifespan concerns affecting women. She provides AASECT individual and group supervision and case consultation to therapists. She is the author of several books, including the third edition of What Every Mental Health Provider Needs to Know about Sex. Anneka Buehler, MEd, is a recent graduate of George Mason University with a master's degree in counseling. She is the Vice President of The Buehler Institute and is a true multi-tasker responsible for directing day-to-day operations, marketing and social media, and content development. Ms. Buehler is an intern at a group practice that serves DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Her areas of concentration include working with neurodiverse clients, trauma, pelvic pain, and kink, and she has extensive experience with the LGBTQ+ population. If you want to catch up on other shows, just visit our website and please subscribe! We love our listeners and welcome your feedback, so if you love Our Better Half, please give us a 5-star rating and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. It really helps support our show! As always, thanks for listening!