Cindy Scharkey
155 episodes listed below
Warm sex education without the shame.
Permission for Pleasure treats sexual health as something people can learn, revisit, and talk about with care. Cindy Sharkey guides conversations on pleasure, trauma, long-term intimacy, orgasm, body change, and everyday health with a steady, practical tone.
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Permission for Pleasure is a sexual wellness show with a steady, teaching-first shape. Cindy Sharkey approaches intimate subjects as learnable rather than mysterious. The show’s center is women’s pleasure, but its range is wider than a single category. Episodes move through orgasm education, multi-orgasmic capacity, slow pleasure, long-term desire, flirting, and the daily habits that help couples keep talking. It is practical. It is also careful with shame. Conversations about addiction, trauma, sober sex, purity culture, pornography, and body image are framed with attention to how people actually heal, relearn, and communicate. The show often starts with a plain question, then opens that question into a larger pattern. A discussion of orgasm becomes a lesson in misinformation, pressure, and bodily self-knowledge. A conversation about long-term couples becomes a look at resilience, aging, risk, safety, and the need to revisit assumptions with a partner. A bone health episode widens the frame again, treating strength, flexibility, protein, plants, and aging as part of feeling well in a body. Guests do much of the explanatory work, while Sharkey keeps the conversation grounded and accessible. The tone is sex-positive without being showy. It can be explicit in subject matter, but its editorial function is education rather than provocation. Solo episodes add a lighter format, including bedroom questions meant to spark conversation and play. The strongest throughline is permission: permission to learn late, ask plainly, change over time, and notice pleasure in small moments. Listeners looking for a polished advice show may find it more conversational than packaged. That is part of its usefulness. It feels like a knowledgeable guide making room for complex private questions to become ordinary, spoken, and workable.
Made for: Permission for Pleasure is for adults seeking clear, sex-positive education around women’s pleasure, relationship intimacy, body change, and shame. It especially suits listeners who prefer practical guidance delivered with warmth rather than shock value.
What sets it apart: The show connects sexual wellness to recovery, aging, communication, health, and everyday pleasure instead of treating intimacy as a narrow performance topic. Its strength is translation: clinical or emotionally loaded ideas become plain language and real scenarios.
A podcast to educate and equip women with the information and confidence they need to express, experience and enjoy their sexuality. Cindy Scharkey RN, BSN, brings her 35+ years of experience as a healthcare professional to open the doors to healthy conversations about sex. This is a community where you can listen and learn to give yourself permission for pleasure. Visit www.cindyscharkey.com for educational blogs and newsletter.
Cindy Scharkey makes awkward bedroom questions feel discussable, practical, and considerably less lonely.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A careful look at relearning desire after sobriety and trauma.
The episode handles recovery, trauma, and intimacy with patience. It stays with the awkward middle of relearning attraction, desire, and intent instead of pushing toward a neat finish, and it is plain about how sobriety can change the script.
A warm, practical look at how desire can evolve in a lasting relationship.
Permission for Pleasure keeps its focus on long running couples and treats intimacy as something that changes with time. Cindy Sharkey and Dr.
A plainspoken bone-health conversation that keeps the science close to daily life.
Bone health is treated as a system here, not a single nutrient problem. The discussion links bones to immune function, hormones, blood, and muscle, then keeps circling back to the everyday choices that shape all of it.
A practical conversation about naming desire and making it easier to discuss.
Permission for Pleasure follows a conversation about erotic personas and eroticism with Nicholas Vallada, and it treats desire as something partners can name and discuss instead of leaving it vague.
Candid disability sexuality support, handled humanely.
Plainspoken intimacy for long-term couples.
Cindy Sharkey interviews psychotherapist and sex therapist Carly Mountain about her book Untamed Pleasure, Unleash Your True Erotic Nature.
Licensed therapist Jen Hershey tells host Cindy Sharkey that self-care can work as "re-mothering," in which a future self from five or ten years ahead asks what you need and cares for you.
Sharkey opens with a content note for listeners who may be activated by substance use or sexual trauma.
This episode provides education and tips on multi-orgasmic women, discussing their capacity for multiple orgasms in a single sexual session.
Cindy Sharkey starts with a direct question about how couples can re-eroticize a relationship when both people still need autonomy.
Cindy Sharkey opens with a holiday greeting and a warm entry into a conversation about bone health.
Host Cindy Scharkey introduces a 'Would You Rather' game with 20 questions to spark fun and curiosity about sex, encouraging listeners to explore their desires with themselves or a partner.
Host Cindy Scharkey interviews Erica Smith about the impact of purity culture on men and their partners, covering shame, pornography, and body image.
Host Cindy Scharkey interviews sex therapist Dr.
Host Cindy Scharkey interviews Euphemia Russell about slow pleasure and exploring one's pleasure spectrum.
Cindy Sharkey welcomes Nicholas Vallada to talk about erotic personas and eroticism.
Host Cindy Scharkey interviews entrepreneur Michael Morrison about her 'Girls Girl List' of sexual wellness and pleasure products, discussing their personal journeys and the role of upbringing in understanding sexuality.
Host Cindy Scharkey interviews therapist Caitlin Harrison about religious trauma, sex, and perfectionism recovery.
Cindy Scharkey interviews Dr.
Host Cindy Scharkey discusses sexual initiation with guests Vanessa and Xander Marin, exploring common mistakes and better approaches.
This episode explores how mental load affects women's sexual desire and features an interview with relationship expert Dr.
Cindy Scharkey discusses positive relationships with Dr.
Host Cindy Scharkey shares an interview from the Special Needs Mom podcast about sensuality and reconnecting to yourself.