Episode Details

At 18, Kayden Kross walked into a strip club to save a pony from a meat auction. Twenty years later, she’s behind the camera, making films about the part of sex nobody can see.

Mehak sits down with Kayden, an award-winning writer and director and the founder of the studio Deeper, in a week when the Cornell case has left many of us angry and wondering why so few people seem surprised. Kayden explains why consent changes moment to moment, why a yes from five seconds ago doesn’t carry forward, and what the kink community gets right with its rule that a no can never become a yes mid-scene.

She traces her path from a Northern California megachurch to Penthouse, Vivid, and the director’s chair, and opens up about the end of her 14-year relationship with a fellow performer. She also explains why copying what you see in porn means performing for a ghost audience that isn’t even in the room.

They also get into why performers lose their second language once they’re aroused, what “fawning” really means, and the one thing that still makes her gag behind the camera after two decades.

This is a reminder that consent isn’t a box you check only once, and lying about why you’re in the room is the least attractive thing you can do.

Follow Kayden @thekaydendaily on Instagram, find her studio work at deeper.com, and visit gasplighting.com for details on the Gasplighting gallery event, October 15–17 in downtown LA.

Hosted by: Mehak @whathemehak on TikTok | @whathemehak_ on IG

Producer: Saadia Khan and Shei Yu | Content Writer: Mehak | Editorial Review: Saadia Khan | Sound Designer & Editor: Lou Raskin | Love-ly Theme Music: Lou Raskin | Other Music: Epidemic Sound | Cover Art Design: Josephine Chai | Executive Producer: Saadia Khan

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