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Asexuality on The Authority Smashing! Hour


swankivy

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David Jay and yours truly, swankivy, discussed asexuality as the topic of the night on an online radio show called The Authority Smashing! Hour.

Talk show host Zeno had us on the show to talk about asexuality for an hour, and I'm told this is just one show in a series that's been going on about sexuality in general. (I didn't hear other shows.)

You can hear it on a free Internet radio site called blogtalk. You can download the mp3 (about 9MB) or listen to it streaming at the site (though, be advised that a short commercial will always run first; don't let it scare you off).

Listen on the site:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/tash/2010/09/09/the-authority-smashing-hour

Or listen embedded:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/tash/2010/09/09/the-authority-smashing-hour.mp3

The conversation was lively, a bit academic at times, and engaging and enjoyable. Since The Authority Smashing! Hour is a radical political/social program, you may hear some references you're not familiar with hearing in relation to asexuality, but the parallels are clear when you listen.

Enjoy!

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Fantastic. So good to have a more involved dialog with a respectful host, that can then go much deeper than "Wow, you really don't want to have sex? Not even a little bit?" I want to distribute this.

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So good to have a more involved dialog with a respectful host, that can then go much deeper than "Wow, you really don't want to have sex? Not even a little bit?"

I agree. Actually, the host called me after the show to talk another hour about related issues, even though it wasn't for the show. He is indeed an open-minded, aware person, and yes, it's refreshing.

I want to distribute this.

Feel free to link it!

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Fantastic. So good to have a more involved dialog with a respectful host, that can then go much deeper than "Wow, you really don't want to have sex? Not even a little bit?" I want to distribute this.

And I can't find a way to download it. Help?

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And I can't find a way to download it. Help?

This should work?

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/tash/2010/09/09/the-authority-smashing-hour.mp3

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And I can't find a way to download it. Help?

This should work?

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/tash/2010/09/09/the-authority-smashing-hour.mp3

The link got broken on the page, but yes, this works if you add .mp3 into the link. Thanks!

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The link got broken on the page, but yes, this works if you add .mp3 into the link. Thanks!

Yeah, the mp3 file extension is indeed in the link I embedded above, and I didn't leave it out, but that is where the "code" marking chooses to break the line. There isn't anything I can do about that. If I just paste it in without using "code," it embeds it, as you see in my first post. Weird eh?

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I just got around to listening to this and it was fantastic. You both did an awesome job!

I agree with Trix, it is so wonderful to have a discussion like this with a host who isn't trying to represent "the other side of the story" with a sex therapist telling us we're broken, or who has some kind of weird axe to grind with telling us how broken we are.

Out of curiosity, would you mind if I made a transcript of the discussion? I can't be the only person on AVEN who parses visual information much better than auditory information, and I'd love it if more people had access to this conversation.

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Out of curiosity, would you mind if I made a transcript of the discussion?

I personally wouldn't mind, but in situations like this when it isn't the property of the participants but rather of the radio show, do you think it's necessary to get permission from them first?

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I honestly don't know, but to play it safe I'd rather have the permission of the people who own it. Do you know where I could contact them?

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Do you know where I could contact them?

As mentioned on the program, the host knows me, so I could actually ask him if ya want. ::prepares to send a Facebook message::

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Hey Sciatrix, turns out permission is granted:

Hi Ivy! They are more than welcome to make a transcript. I would like to ask for a copy when they do because we don't regularly make them,but my audio is not to my liking on that one and I'd like to maybe make a video with subtitles of the great conversation.

So, after it's made, let me know and I'll get him a link. Do you need any other info?

Good idea, also. Now hearing-impaired and deaf folks can experience this too.

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I can't be the only person on AVEN who parses visual information much better than auditory information

Me. Very much so.

I would love to have the transcript if you make it!

PS On a side note, I've wondered about this audio- versus visual processing of information. How is that for you? For myself, the visual and perhaps sensory input channels are so much louder than spoken words that it makes me hopeless at taking verbal directions. You might as well be speaking in a foreign language. I CAN process audio, but it takes some effort and isolation from other stimuli. I often have to close my eyes if I speak on the phone (and I don't generally like to use the phone). A lot of common spoken conversation moves too fast for me, and feels like a tiring torrent of words. Still, I usually pass as fully functional :) People don't notice the internal acrobatics that I do to keep up.

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Excellent, swankivy! It might take me some time--I'm going to visit my parents this weekend and I probably will not get anything done--but I'll PM you and then post it in this thread when I have it set up so that everyone can access it. :) I don't think I need any other info, if you can pass it on to them when I have it finished.

Trix: I just take a LOT of focus to process audio alone, especially for some reason with recorded audio. I do much better with real-life conversations, possibly because I tend to look at lips and possibly because I don't have to focus nearly as long on processing speech. I also mishear a lot, which again seems to be worse on the telephone or with recorded audio. It took me a long time to listen to the recording because I kept losing focus and missing bits of the dialogue, and then rewinding it and relistening to try to get all the information. Reading is just so much easier for me--I can read nonstop without getting tired at all or eyestrain for much longer, and my comprehension is considerably better with reading.

So, y'know, selfish reasons for running up the transcript--if I do it I can refer back to bits I find particularly interesting and then maybe think about them more. :)

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So, y'know, selfish reasons for running up the transcript--if I do it I can refer back to bits I find particularly interesting and then maybe think about them more. :)

Selfish and great community service.

I tend to look at moving lips too, now that you mention it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm about 75% through the podcast, and a stylistic question occurred to me. Would it be better to record the text as I hear it, or as it would be written if the same discussion had been conducted through a text medium?

What I mean is that when we speak, we often use placeholder words like "like," or "uh," or "y'know." We also use repetition a lot more often than we do in writing. This has the effect of giving listeners a chance to process and speakers a chance to think about what they're saying, but it does tend to come across rather strangely in text because we're not accustomed to writing that way.

So, given that this will be my second transcript ever, I thought I'd ask what the preferences of people who would like to read it would be, assuming there are any. If I remove anything, I would only be removing these placeholder words and repeated words, not anything that has content or changing speech. I'm also listening very closely to the podcast to make sure I get word choice right as well as word order. (That's a big part of why this is taking so long, as well as the fact that I take some time time to process auditory data and have a hard time typing and listening at the same time.) And going back over it multiple times per section of dialogue so that I can check my work against the recording.

So... opinions? And Swankivy, if you see this, could you forward this question to the radio host?

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So, given that this will be my second transcript ever, I thought I'd ask what the preferences of people who would like to read it would be, assuming there are any. If I remove anything, I would only be removing these placeholder words and repeated words, not anything that has content or changing speech. I'm also listening very closely to the podcast to make sure I get word choice right as well as word order.

I think it's best to remove the placeholder words and repeated words as necessary. I think adding those for flavor is really only understood properly in speech, or as the dialogue in a novel or something.

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Yeah, that was the side I was leaning towards, too. Especially since it can be a pain to read and it's a pain to transcribe them.

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Yeah, that was the side I was leaning towards, too. Especially since it can be a pain to read and it's a pain to transcribe them.

Yes. One wants to get the point across, not muddle it up for sake of perfect accuracy. :) Good choice!

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I just got around to listening to this and it was fantastic. You both did an awesome job!

I agree with Trix, it is so wonderful to have a discussion like this with a host who isn't trying to represent "the other side of the story" with a sex therapist telling us we're broken, or who has some kind of weird axe to grind with telling us how broken we are.

Out of curiosity, would you mind if I made a transcript of the discussion? I can't be the only person on AVEN who parses visual information much better than auditory information, and I'd love it if more people had access to this conversation.

I agree with this. I had a quick skim-listen and it seems to be one of the better-made podcasts out there. Some podcasters deal with subjects in an intelligent and thought-provoking way that I think some of us in real radio (lower-case R's!) could take a few cues from. We're often a bit safe and unquestioning in our treatment of subjects, and I'd quite like to hear some more of this kind of thing.

Back onto the topic, I had a bit of a rant about this the other day after I read a thread about an asexual man who appeared on Trisha. If we aren't careful, greater media exposure could simply lead to asexuality becoming fodder for this sort of prurient TV gossip show, like the aforementioned Trisha or Jeremy Kyle. We'll be just another part of the freak show to be wheeled out occasionally and gawped at by the sort of people who watch this stuff. They don't deal with the topic with any sort of sensitivity - it's more "look at the broken person and then watch these adverts for payday loans". There's this sort of visibility, and then there's the sort of visibility that will lead to greater understanding - and I think we need to differentiate between the two.

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I had a bit of a rant about this the other day after I read a thread about an asexual man who appeared on Trisha. If we aren't careful, greater media exposure could simply lead to asexuality becoming fodder for this sort of prurient TV gossip show

My goodness, what happened there?

And yes to your sentiment. I was once contacted to participate in a media spot on asexuality that turned out to be highly suspicious (well, I have been contacted multiple times and followed through, but I'm just speaking about this particular time). The media person seemed nice enough at first, but kept asking me very odd questions about other people in my family or my friends who could participate, and she seemed VERY interested in the fact that my sister was getting married. Her ideas were along the lines of "Well let's film your sister and your mom preparing for her wedding, and then juxtapose that with your mom's feelings about how you'll never get married," etc. I was like ". . . Um, that's not happening, and there's no conflict there. My mom isn't urging me to get married." There was some weird conversation after that about how she couldn't just "film me sitting in front of my computer" and just kinda not doing anything, and that her job as a media person was to find a way to visually tell my story. She stopped talking to me completely when I told her there WAS no conflict, no "story," no way to make a controversy out of my life. Because, ultimately, filming someone not having sex isn't very exciting. The POINT is that my life is pretty much like anyone else's except that it doesn't include sexuality, and if you're going to try to MANUFACTURE conflict from that, it is not going to be authentic. Yeah, I don't think I want to participate in something so sensationalistic. . . .

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh my god, I'm finally done!

The transcript can be accessed here in all it gigantic glory.

I've been meaning to listen to this for ages, but hadn't found time, so the transcript is much appreciated - it was a great read.

Thanks for your efforts, Sciatrix! :cake:

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