60 acast.com Let Us Survive: An Oral History of Sex Worker Movements Before and After FOSTA-SESTA https://shows.acast.com/let-us-survive en Hacking//Hustling, 2026 oral history,FOSTA,SESTA,sex work,American history,grassroots Hacking//Hustling Collective from the Hacking//Hustling Collective The community response to the United States bills known as FOSTA-SESTA represents a sea change in American sex worker organizing. Supposedly, these bills were intended by their Congressional authors to change how the internet is regulated in order to make the country safer for victims of sex trafficking. 


We’ll talk plenty over the course of this podcast series about how that was supposed to work, and why it hasn’t. 


Let Us Survive, an oral history project by sex workers for everyone, covers a decade of American sex worker justice movements, roughly 2013 to 2023. It also gazes towards the future: of the industry, and of our labor organizing.  


This podcast does something that US Congress didn’t do: we listen to sex worker voices. Voices along the Choice-Circumstance-Coercion spectrum. We explore how sex workers use technology to keep ourselves safe, to build community and culture, to not only survive but thrive. We listen to our fellow sex workers and survivors as we talk about our movements, how we’ve responded to FOSTA-SESTA and other policies. How we feel about federal raids on internet platforms like RentBoy and Backpage. How we feel about the Communications Decency Act and freedom of speech. What we believe reproductive justice activists and others can learn from sex worker organizing. Why we’re fighting for the decriminalization of sex work, and how that will only be the beginning of the changes we need to see. 


“Sex worker” as defined by the Hacking//Hustling collective is: A political, unifying, umbrella term for people who sell sex — or performances, materials, or services associated with sex acts — in exchange for resources. 


So over the course of four episodes, you’ll be hearing the voices of full service workers, strippers, pro-doms, cam models, pornographers, and more. People who work in hotels and on the street, in clubs and in their homes. People who sell digital content online, and people who use the internet to market their services. 


Workers, survivors, activists, and allies from all over the United States who have built solidarity and collapsed binaries. 


People whose political identity as sex workers intersects with other identities both marginalized and privileged, as experts in harm reduction and tech privacy, as lawyers, as advocates, as parents, as drug users, as doulas, as bloggers, and so much more.


Let Us Survive interviews Lakeesha Harris of Chicago Volunteer Doulas; Desiree Collins of the Colorado Entertainer Coalition; Jared Trujillo of CUNY Law School; Chibundo Egwuatu of HIPS (Honoring Individual Power and Strength) in DC, Elizabeth Ricks of the Trans Life Care Program at Chicago House; Melissa Gira Grant, author of Playing the Whore, Marla Cruz, a sex worker and writer from Texas, Caty Simon of Whose Corner Is it Anyway in Massachusetts; Kate D’Adamo of Reframe Health and Justice, and M of APAC (Adult Performer Advocacy Committee) in Los Angeles, along with Danielle Blunt, Red, and zara raven of Hacking//Hustling.


This podcast was hosted, produced, written, recorded, and edited by Tina Horn and Mickey Mod, with additional production support from Christopher Holloway.


To learn about this project, other research by Hacking//Hustling, and more about the past, present, and future of sex worker movements, please visit HackingHustling.org. 


These interviews were conducted in 2023. Some facts and perspectives may have evolved since then.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

]]> The community response to the United States bills known as FOSTA-SESTA represents a sea change in American sex worker organizing. Supposedly, these bills were intended by their Congressional authors to change how the internet is regulated in order to make the country safer for victims of sex trafficking. 


We’ll talk plenty over the course of this podcast series about how that was supposed to work, and why it hasn’t. 


Let Us Survive, an oral history project by sex workers for everyone, covers a decade of American sex worker justice movements, roughly 2013 to 2023. It also gazes towards the future: of the industry, and of our labor organizing.  


This podcast does something that US Congress didn’t do: we listen to sex worker voices. Voices along the Choice-Circumstance-Coercion spectrum. We explore how sex workers use technology to keep ourselves safe, to build community and culture, to not only survive but thrive. We listen to our fellow sex workers and survivors as we talk about our movements, how we’ve responded to FOSTA-SESTA and other policies. How we feel about federal raids on internet platforms like RentBoy and Backpage. How we feel about the Communications Decency Act and freedom of speech. What we believe reproductive justice activists and others can learn from sex worker organizing. Why we’re fighting for the decriminalization of sex work, and how that will only be the beginning of the changes we need to see. 


“Sex worker” as defined by the Hacking//Hustling collective is: A political, unifying, umbrella term for people who sell sex — or performances, materials, or services associated with sex acts — in exchange for resources. 


So over the course of four episodes, you’ll be hearing the voices of full service workers, strippers, pro-doms, cam models, pornographers, and more. People who work in hotels and on the street, in clubs and in their homes. People who sell digital content online, and people who use the internet to market their services. 


Workers, survivors, activists, and allies from all over the United States who have built solidarity and collapsed binaries. 


People whose political identity as sex workers intersects with other identities both marginalized and privileged, as experts in harm reduction and tech privacy, as lawyers, as advocates, as parents, as drug users, as doulas, as bloggers, and so much more.


Let Us Survive interviews Lakeesha Harris of Chicago Volunteer Doulas; Desiree Collins of the Colorado Entertainer Coalition; Jared Trujillo of CUNY Law School; Chibundo Egwuatu of HIPS (Honoring Individual Power and Strength) in DC, Elizabeth Ricks of the Trans Life Care Program at Chicago House; Melissa Gira Grant, author of Playing the Whore, Marla Cruz, a sex worker and writer from Texas, Caty Simon of Whose Corner Is it Anyway in Massachusetts; Kate D’Adamo of Reframe Health and Justice, and M of APAC (Adult Performer Advocacy Committee) in Los Angeles, along with Danielle Blunt, Red, and zara raven of Hacking//Hustling.


This podcast was hosted, produced, written, recorded, and edited by Tina Horn and Mickey Mod, with additional production support from Christopher Holloway.


To learn about this project, other research by Hacking//Hustling, and more about the past, present, and future of sex worker movements, please visit HackingHustling.org. 


These interviews were conducted in 2023. Some facts and perspectives may have evolved since then.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

]]> true Hacking//Hustling Collective info+6a456476f63987c537a8466b@mg-eu.acast.com 6a456476f63987c537a8466b let-us-survive-an-oral-history-of-sex-worker-movements-befor episodic https://assets.pippa.io/shows/6a456476f63987c537a8466b/1783452182665-1b6071da-94b4-4c71-83d1-cd323d7b0ced.jpeg https://shows.acast.com/let-us-survive Let Us Survive: An Oral History of Sex Worker Movements Before and After FOSTA-SESTA 1. Sex Worker Organizing Before FOSTA-SESTA 1. Sex Worker Organizing Before FOSTA-SESTA Mon, 13 Jul 2026 22:00:00 GMT 44:54 6a45669775e7a3e9613d6cae true https://shows.acast.com/let-us-survive-an-oral-history-of-sex-worker-movements-befor/episodes/1-sex-worker-organizing-before-fosta-sesta 6a45669775e7a3e9613d6cae 6a456476f63987c537a8466b 1-sex-worker-organizing-before-fosta-sesta by the Hacking//Hustling Collective full 1 “SESTA-FOSTA meant that these were no longer singular, discreet events. This was going to now become a trend in federal law that threatened our access to cheap, low threshold advertising as independent workers. In the context of that, it was so hard to have any more faith. It was so hard to not see these constant ‘How to's’ to be anything less than like the flailing of the few, of like the small swaths of sex workers who are privileged enough to be able to survive the latest blow. SESTA-FOSTA meant that the blows were never ending. They would never stop. Sorry, I don't mean to paint such a bleak picture, but that's what it felt like to me at the time. I feel like we were always bracing ourselves for the next individual blow. And I feel like we were always watchful for the broad language in anti-trafficking legislation that wasn't actually attuned to the needs of trafficking survivors that could possibly be used against us. But I don't think we understood or I don't think every sex worker on the street or even every common sex worker in the movement, understood that this would be the ultimate end, you know, of those two trends. Maybe we understood in theory, but those of us who had been just privileged enough to be able to maneuver and keep our scant livelihoods, we thought, ‘Well, I survived the last one, I can survive the next one.’ You can't really imagine something like SESTA FOSTA is coming up in the future because then you can't keep going.” — Caty Simon of Whose Corner Is It Anyway in Massachusetts


Right from the start, activists knew that if the bill package known as FOSTA-SESTA became law, it would be devastating for sex workers. And that it would basically do nothing to protect victims and survivors of forced sexual labor. In fact, it would make us all less safe.


In our opening episode, we explore the landscape of online sex work and the activists fighting against stigma and criminalization. We detail the federal raids on advertising websites such as RentBoy, and how sex worker rights movements saw the FOSTA fallout coming.


Let Us Survive interviews Lakeesha Harris of Chicago Volunteer Doulas; Desiree Collins of the Colorado Entertainer Coalition; Jared Trujillo of CUNY Law School; Chibundo Egwuatu of HIPS (Honoring Individual Power and Strength) in DC, Elizabeth Ricks of the Trans Life Care Program at Chicago House; Melissa Gira Grant, author of Playing the Whore, Marla Cruz, a sex worker and writer from Texas, Caty Simon of Whose Corner Is it Anyway in Massachusetts; Kate D’Adamo of Reframe Health and Justice, and M of APAC (Adult Performer Advocacy Committee) in Los Angeles, along with Danielle Blunt, Red, and zara raven of Hacking//Hustling.


This podcast was hosted, produced, written, recorded, and edited by Tina Horn and Mickey Mod, with additional production support from Christopher Holloway.


Let Us Survive, an oral history project by sex workers for everyone, covers a decade of American sex worker justice movements, roughly 2013 to 2023. It also gazes towards the future: of the industry, and of our labor organizing.  


To learn about this project, other research by Hacking//Hustling, and more about the past, present, and future of sex worker movements, please visit HackingHustling.org. 


These interviews were conducted in 2023. Some facts and perspectives may have evolved since then.



Let Us Survive podcast was hosted, produced, written, recorded, and edited by Tina Horn and Mickey Mod, with additional production support from Christopher Holloway.


To learn about this project, other research by Hacking//Hustling, and more about the past, present, and future of sex worker movements, please visit HackingHustling.org. 


These interviews were conducted in 2023. Some facts and perspectives may have evolved since then.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

]]> “SESTA-FOSTA meant that these were no longer singular, discreet events. This was going to now become a trend in federal law that threatened our access to cheap, low threshold advertising as independent workers. In the context of that, it was so hard to have any more faith. It was so hard to not see these constant ‘How to's’ to be anything less than like the flailing of the few, of like the small swaths of sex workers who are privileged enough to be able to survive the latest blow. SESTA-FOSTA meant that the blows were never ending. They would never stop. Sorry, I don't mean to paint such a bleak picture, but that's what it felt like to me at the time. I feel like we were always bracing ourselves for the next individual blow. And I feel like we were always watchful for the broad language in anti-trafficking legislation that wasn't actually attuned to the needs of trafficking survivors that could possibly be used against us. But I don't think we understood or I don't think every sex worker on the street or even every common sex worker in the movement, understood that this would be the ultimate end, you know, of those two trends. Maybe we understood in theory, but those of us who had been just privileged enough to be able to maneuver and keep our scant livelihoods, we thought, ‘Well, I survived the last one, I can survive the next one.’ You can't really imagine something like SESTA FOSTA is coming up in the future because then you can't keep going.” — Caty Simon of Whose Corner Is It Anyway in Massachusetts


Right from the start, activists knew that if the bill package known as FOSTA-SESTA became law, it would be devastating for sex workers. And that it would basically do nothing to protect victims and survivors of forced sexual labor. In fact, it would make us all less safe.


In our opening episode, we explore the landscape of online sex work and the activists fighting against stigma and criminalization. We detail the federal raids on advertising websites such as RentBoy, and how sex worker rights movements saw the FOSTA fallout coming.


Let Us Survive interviews Lakeesha Harris of Chicago Volunteer Doulas; Desiree Collins of the Colorado Entertainer Coalition; Jared Trujillo of CUNY Law School; Chibundo Egwuatu of HIPS (Honoring Individual Power and Strength) in DC, Elizabeth Ricks of the Trans Life Care Program at Chicago House; Melissa Gira Grant, author of Playing the Whore, Marla Cruz, a sex worker and writer from Texas, Caty Simon of Whose Corner Is it Anyway in Massachusetts; Kate D’Adamo of Reframe Health and Justice, and M of APAC (Adult Performer Advocacy Committee) in Los Angeles, along with Danielle Blunt, Red, and zara raven of Hacking//Hustling.


This podcast was hosted, produced, written, recorded, and edited by Tina Horn and Mickey Mod, with additional production support from Christopher Holloway.


Let Us Survive, an oral history project by sex workers for everyone, covers a decade of American sex worker justice movements, roughly 2013 to 2023. It also gazes towards the future: of the industry, and of our labor organizing.  


To learn about this project, other research by Hacking//Hustling, and more about the past, present, and future of sex worker movements, please visit HackingHustling.org. 


These interviews were conducted in 2023. Some facts and perspectives may have evolved since then.



Let Us Survive podcast was hosted, produced, written, recorded, and edited by Tina Horn and Mickey Mod, with additional production support from Christopher Holloway.


To learn about this project, other research by Hacking//Hustling, and more about the past, present, and future of sex worker movements, please visit HackingHustling.org. 


These interviews were conducted in 2023. Some facts and perspectives may have evolved since then.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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