Come lie down with us! Welcome to the very first episode of horizontal with lila. Horizontal is the podcast of intimate conversations about sex, love, and relationships that's entirely recorded while lying down. I invite you to eavesdrop on stories that might seem almost too personal for you to hear, which is, of course, exactly why I want you to hear them. Many episodes are recorded in bed at my home, Hacienda Villa, a sex-positive intentional community in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Sex-positive = dispelling the shame surrounding sex through sexual education, open dialogue, and the celebration of all genders and sexual orientations, and all relationship structures and sexual acts between consenting adults. Intentional community = living together on purpose in accordance with common ideals, in order to offer everyone roots and wings. I've been inspired, humbled, unburdened, seen, and thoroughly schooled by the everyday conversations we have in this house, and I thought it was a shame that we were the only people who got to hear them. Hacienda's mission is to bring sex-positive culture to the world. This is my part. In this episode... In this episode, I lie down with my housemate Mirelle. Mirelle is a sensual nurturer - sometimes nicknamed the Mama of the Villa, at other times the MVP, and a member of what she calls the Villa Dream Team, a group of my housemates, or, Villans, who provide a kind of fantasy fulfillment service, curating scenes and initiating people into sensations, kinks, settings, configurations, and stories that they've previously only dreamed of. She is profoundly and happily polyamorous - she has many relationships, many loves. She's a bisexual woman, an outstanding cook, a connoisseur of delight, and somehow manages to lovingly sustain an incredibly intricate and extensive web of partners and lovers, with such tender attentiveness to the way people wish to be loved, that I feel deeply impressed by the way that she relates. I think Mirelle could teach a multi-part course on intimacy. This episode was recorded in my loft bed at the Villa, on a snow day. We talk about the word "slut," love languages, overcoming shame, feeding your delight, intimacy, polyamory, comets, fantasies, and fear - mine. Come lie down with us, and you'll wish your head was on the pillow next to Mirelle. More horizontality, please: To become a patron of the horizontal arts, support me on Patreon, a website for crowdsourcing patronage! Patronage allows artists like me to buy equipment, schedule recording tours, and devote my time to creating more horizontal goodness, for you! Becoming my patron has delicious perks, ranging from exclusive photos and behind-the-scenes video content, to handwritten postcards, spring cleaning phone calls, and creative input on future episodes! You can become a patron for $1 a month on up, and the rewards just get more sumptuous. patreon.com/horizontalwithlila To subscribe to the horizontal blog, for the shownotes, horizontal musings and sensual photos, head to https://horizontalwithlila.com Just pictures? Instagram @horizontalwithlila Without whom, it would not be possible: Badass theme music by Alan Markley, on Instagram as @plasticcannons Saucy cover art by Shana Shay (hire her!) on 99designs Mixing and mastering magic and sorcery by Owen Muir of Self Disclosure productions, on Twitter as @psychdisclosure