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Reimagining Sex Education

WUNC | By Audrey Smith,
Anita Rao
Published April 10, 2022 at 4:45 PM EDT
� CORBIS

This week, host Anita Rao reimagines sex ed with a sex therapist, a professor of sociology and two young adults — each with a unique perspective on how to make sex ed more comprehensive, practical and inclusive.

Linden James is a high school student in Durham, North Carolina, and a youth advocate for various organizations including SafeBAE and iNSIDEoUT. Kyndia Motley, a high school senior from Jeffersonville, Indiana, is a member of Planned Parenthood’s Teen Council. Lisa Wade is an associate professor at Tulane University and the author of “American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus.” Lexx Brown-James is a sex therapist and the founder of the Institute for Sexuality and Intimacy.

Thank you to Lynn Smith, Jaisha Smalls, Nada Merghani and Jules Gardner for contributing voice notes to this episode.

Looking for sex ed resources as an adult? Lexx Brown-James recommends the following resources:

  • Sex Positive Families: Shame-free sex education resources, including a book, a podcast and sex education workshops.
  • Six-Minute Sex Ed: A podcast that provides the sex education you always wanted … in six minutes or less! 
  • Sex education books by Cory Silverburg.
  • Amaze.org, an online resource that takes the awkward out of sex ed!


Three Ways Teens would Reimagine Sex Education 

  1. Reimagined sex education would be youth-centered.


Linden James, a youth advocate for SafeBAE and iNSIDEoUT, says: “I think it would be beneficial to the entire state and to our peers if there were councils of youth from all different backgrounds and lived experiences informing counties and public school districts of what policies they should make.”

  1. Reimagined sex education would be consent-based.


Kyndia Motley, a member of Planned Parenthood’s Teen Council, says: “It's important to teach about healthy decision-making and self-love and consent and the protection in contraceptives — they all connect.”

  1. Reimagined sex education would be sex positive.

Linden James says: “In addition to being safe and comfortable, we should be encouraged and empowered to be the sexual beings that we are — not discouraged from being this way.”

Copyright 2022 North Carolina Public Radio. To see more, visit North Carolina Public Radio.

Audrey Smith
Anita Rao
Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
See stories by Anita Rao