Tales of Taboo
by Ali Weiss
Tales of Taboo investigates, and celebrates, the stories we’re taught to keep quiet. Host Ali Weiss collects raw, honest, sometimes shocking anonymous confessions from her global audience and interviews public figures willing to speak candidly about their unconventional lives. Provocative, funny, and deeply empathetic, Tales of Taboo asks why we’re all so afraid to be different — and what might happen if we weren’t. Submit your own confession at [email protected], or follow Ali on Instagram & TikTok @aliweissworld.
Episodes
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Pain, Pleasure, Power (feat. Dominatrix Vea Vesper)
Vea Vesper is a professional Dominatrix who “creates safe spaces to play dangerous games.” She was the first woman in Russia to publicly come out as a Dom, blazing a trail for sex workers on social media in her home country. We dive deep into sex and dating culture in Russia vs America (hello...
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Big Life Change Confessions
Feel like blowing up your life? You’ve come to the right place. This week’s confessors range in age from 28 to 51 and reside in New York City, Los Angeles, Charlotte, San Diego, San Francisco, London, and the Netherlands. Each of them took enormous personal, professional, or physical risks in...
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Japanese HPV Therapy (feat. Kseniya Sovenko of NYC Rave Girls)
Kseniya Sovenko (@ksenyeah) is a former nationally ranked competitive ballroom dancer, writer, and the founder of NYC Rave Girls (@nyc.rave.girls). After being diagnosed with HPV, Kseniya discovered she had high-grade cervical dysplasia (CIN3), an advanced type of precancerous cells. She was...
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"Late" Marriage & Motherhood Confessions
What the f*ck is a "timeline?" This week’s global confessors (16:35) reside in England, Spain, California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Each got married — and in some cases had children — “late,” between the ages of 34 and 41. We hear from former party girls adjusting to quieter lives...
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Life Lessons From A Cannibal [Author] (feat. Chelsea G. Summers)
Chelsea G. Summers is the author of one of my all-time favorite novels, A Certain Hunger. The story follows a sexy, successful, and sociopathic middle aged food critic as she travels around the world sleeping with, murdering, and then EATING men who have wronged her. Even more iconic than the…
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Late(r) Education Confessions
It took me 10 years to graduate college. I mean, school sucks — when you’re a teenager, at least. It feels very different as an adult who actually chooses to be there. This week’s global confessors (8:55) reside in Southern California, Maryland, Hawaii, Ontario, London, Germany, and New Zealand....
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Life Lessons From A Dominatrix (feat. Colette Pervette)
Colette Pervette is a professional Dominatrix, writer, and PhD in Education from UC Berkeley. A self-proclaimed “Educatrix,” she’s also the founder of MistressClass: an online course merging psychology-centric lectures with technical BDSM training to teach aspiring Dommes the ropes (pun intended)...
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Living With Parents Confessions
Would moving home with your parents be a dream or a nightmare? Depends on which confessor you ask. This week’s stories (11:38) come from people between the ages of 31 to 45 residing throughout New York, California, and Oregon. Each of them is — or was until recently — living with their parents as...
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Divorce Confessions
I absolutely believe in marriage, but I also believe that marriage is inaccurately marketed as a one-stop solution for all of life’s problems. It’s no wonder why, as of 2024, about 43% of American marriages are said to end in divorce: we’re brainwashed! And yet, choosing to end a legally-bound...
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Single In 30s & 40s Confessions
I recently broke up with my boyfriend. Though extremely painful, I knew it was the correct decision - but I also wondered in my lower moments if, at 31, I was “too old” to start over again. I’ve never looked or felt better, but there’s cultural shame surrounding not having a partner after a…
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Affair Confessions
Affairs are by no means good or fair, but they rarely have malicious intent. More often, they’re about quelling the ways adult life can be lonely and disappointing. This week’s lustful anonymous confessors began their affairs in Paris nightclubs, Las Vegas strip clubs, and European hideaways; on...
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Modeling Industry Confessions
The Fashion episode was such a hit that I decided to revamp and re-release another set of industry-related confessions. With casting help from DeuxMoi, we're coming out from behind the scenes and exploring life in front of the camera as a model. I open the episode with my own Tales of Taboo about...
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Fashion Industry Confessions
Which famous designer refused to pay for $100,000 worth of samples? What major eyewear company has a Chief Financial Officer with no credentials besides being a party magician? Where does being over a size 6 and an A cup make you "fat?" What really happens behind the scenes at Fashion Week? I…
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Bisexuality Confessions
What do you think of when you think bisexuality? Promiscuous behavior? Polyamory? Lying, cheating spouses? Midlife crises? Burning Man? Or maybe you think of…nothing: perhaps the biggest misconception is that middle-of-the-spectrum sexual orientation doesn’t really exist. Au contraire, I believe...
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Green Card Marriage Confessions
I open this week's episode with my own candid confessions about the challenges of my former long-distance relationship, and how that experience + watching 90 Day Fiance led me to become uncharacteristically judgmental of people in green card relationships. I'm so grateful for our anonymous...
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Age Gap Dating Confessions
Couples with large age gaps can cause polarizing reactions. On the one hand, age is a number and love is love - it knows no bounds or rules. Should one be lucky enough to find it, it’s always worth diving into head first, no? On the other, when one partner has lived considerably more life, is it...
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Ethical Non-Monogamy Confessions
Ethical Non-Monogamy and Polyamory are becoming increasingly popular relationship structures (or, at least, are now more commonly discussed), but they're controversial and deeply misunderstood. Most people see ENM as glorified cheating: an excuse to have one's cake and eat it too. The acronym…
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Boutique Fitness Confessions
Exercise gives many of us a sense of control, stability, and discipline. Boutique fitness, with its fancy methodologies and curated lights, scents, and sounds, capitalizes on another, more elusive (and highly monetizable) feeling: purpose. For up to $50 per class, we’re not only sold a vision of...
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High-End Hospitality Confessions
$10,000 bottles of wine! 15 hour workdays! All-night cocaine benders! Psychotic head chefs! It's Season 4 of Tales of Taboo! This week, we're exploring the high-octane world of high-end dining: the kinds of establishments that (literally) inspire books like Sweetbitter and movies like The Menu,...
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Dysfunctional Family Confessions (Happy Holidays)
There’s a narrative jammed down our throats year after year, incessantly, everywhere we go, that the holidays are supposed to be “the most wonderful time." Ironically, such a narrative often ends up reminding us (or forcing us to acknowledge) the things we do NOT have, and the ways in which life...
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Sex Club Confessions
What do you think of when you hear 'sex club'? Predatory men? Deviant behavior? An unhinged, unsanitary, Ancient Roman-style orgy? I would liken it more to highly participatory immersive theatre - a contained place to become a different person for the night, or the person you secretly wish you...
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Porn Star Confessions
What do you think of when you think ‘porn star’? Party girls with f*cked-up childhoods? Sexual trauma? Misogyny and abuse? This week’s contributors, both anonymous and on-the-record, dismantle those stereotypes HARD by creating and participating in adult content that empowers them, provides them...
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Teacher Confessions
What’s it REALLY like to manage a school shooting? Are students with special needs a "lost cause?" How does under-funding actually affect students and teachers? Are celebrity children as entitled as we think? Confession: I recorded the intro you're about to hear ages ago, before receiving any...
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Herpes Confessions
We’ve been led to believe Herpes is a “dirty” “STD” — only sluts get it, and when they do, any chance of having sex or finding love is ruined. This episode proves that idea could not be further from the truth. Our anonymous confessors share varying accounts of contracting HSV1 and HSV2, orally &...
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Troubled Teen Industry Confessions
The "Troubled Teen Industry” is an elusive, corrupted, for-profit network of schools, programs, rehabs, and residences meant for "unstable," "out of control," "promiscuous," and drug-addicted young people. Some of these programs are notorious for kidnappings, forced medication, even brainwashing;...
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Abortion Confessions
First-person accounts of abortion are very difficult to find, and most of the essays and anecdotes available are riddled in guilt and grief. They often resemble an apology letter to the world (or oneself), rather than an honest description of a controversial medical procedure. Secrecy, shame, and...
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Plastic Surgery Confessions
Plastic surgery is more commonplace than ever, yet remains deeply taboo. Very few people are willing to openly discuss the realities: what drives them to want it, the intense recovery process, and whether or not physical alterations actually change mental and emotional wellbeing long-term. This...
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Escort Confessions
Which famous Washington D.C. members-only club is secretly filled with sex workers? Which politicians under Trump regularly visited rub and tugs? Which drug-abusing hotel heir brought an escort to Miami just to watch Wheel of Fortune with him? I'm deeply annoyed by the conflation of all...
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Nightclub Bottle Waitress Confessions
Which professional soccer player shoved a $20 bill in a waitress’ mouth? Which famous actress with legal troubles had a waitress pretend to be her to evade the paparazzi? Which talent manager promised a waitress a spot on Love Island in exchange for sex? As someone who’s been clubbing for 13…
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Drug Dealer Confessions
Ever wonder what it’s really like to be a DRUG DEALER? This week’s anonymous confessors operate(d) throughout a variety of countries and circumstances. One lived in a house with 100 weed plants, and distributed to dispensaries in California before recreational legalization. Another sold Molly to...
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Addict Confessions
More often than not, addiction is dramatically portrayed in the media as a chaotic but chic side effect of wealth and power, or an inevitable circumstance of poverty. It’s not always black and white or economically driven, though: addiction is everywhere, nondiscriminatory, constantly...
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Nannies for the Wealthy Confessions
When casting last season’s ‘employees of the wealthy’ episode with DeuxMoi, I received multiple submissions from nannies. As a caretaker, you hold a very unique and often complicated view of being both an employee and a surrogate family member; I’m thrilled to share their stories to kick off…
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Eating Disorder Confessions
What do you think when you hear "eating disorder?" Probably 'bored rich white women obsessed with being skinny'. But anorexia & bulimia are way more than just striving to be beautiful - and they can also affect people from any background. Mostly, they're about control. In the throes of the lonely...
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SOLO: My Time at Barstool Sports
Before Alex Cooper, Sofia Franklyn, and Call Her Daddy, before Ellie Schnitt and Brianna LaPaglia (Chickenfry), before Ria Ciuffo & Fran Mariano had their show Chicks In The Office, there was one chick in the Barstool Sports offices...and it was me. In 2016/17, at 23, I was the only female...
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Paranormal Confessions
Happy Halloween - my favorite time of year! To celebrate, this week we've got a fascinating collection of anonymous stories about our listeners' spooky, WILD encounters with the Paranormal. Ghosts, UFOs, suspicious rotating orbs, lanky men in black top hats (the Babadook?) - you name it, you'll...
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Raver & EDM Scene Confessions
I did artist interviews at a camping music festival last month, and it was the first time I’ve ever attended a multi-day rave. Truthfully? It freaked me out. I went to Ultra Music Festival in Miami for 2 years in high school and plenty of concerts and after hours parties since. But the older I…
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Sorority Confessions
You heard my story, so now it's your turn: SORORITY CONFESSIONS. And they’re WAY juicier than mine. First, we have written submissions (3:16), from the former Vice President of Recruitment from my sorority (!) dishing SO MUCH tea about how Rush really works and her blocked attempts at…
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SOLO: [Getting Kicked Out Of] My Sorority
THE RUMORS ARE TRUE. I, Princess of Taboo, professional rule breaker, and champion of individualism, am a former member of Alpha Phi: the hottest, blondest, whitest sorority on my California college campus. Even more shocking? I absolutely loved it. That is, until I got kicked out. For my first...
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Sugar Baby Confessions
What leads people to pay, and accept money, for physical and emotional intimacy? Are Sugar Babies sex workers, or are they just girlfriends of rich men who get “spoiled” as part of the courtship? Our Babies met their Daddies on websites and in workplaces and backyards. One was involved with a...
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Ask An Escort (with Vivienne Cole)
Vivienne Cole is an independent New York-based escort. She's also hilarious, refreshingly honest, and a great friend. Join us as Viv answers YOUR burning questions about sex work, seduction, and self-worth, and dishes on everything from unusual client fetishes to the complicated nature of...
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Death & Grief Confessions
The only topic more taboo than money or sex is death. It's inevitable for all of us, yet nobody wants to talk about it - even behind closed doors. The fact that so few of us know how to confront it in a healthy way is shocking. I asked listeners who have lost a close family member or friend to...
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Growing Up Wealthy Confessions
Especially in our current climate, few topics trigger as strong (and polarizing) of a reaction as money; and the only thing more triggering than earned money is family money which someone’s born into. That's why we're going to talk about it. Despite its inarguable ability to provide comfort…
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Working for the Wealthy Confessions
The Swarovski private chef! Personal assistants to the owner of the Bucks and the Bronfmans! A Polo groom for royals! OH MY! Every wonder about the habits of people rich and powerful enough to actually make real change (or just, like, go to space)? Me too, so with the help of Deuxmoi, I found…
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SoulCycle Confessions
Thanks to the help of @deuxmoi and all of my amazing contributors, I’ve collected a ton of scalding hot, third degree burn-worthy tea on SoulCycle. I start by reading email letters from two ‘famous’ former instructors. One details tons of employee drug usage (including during class!), instructor...
About this show
Tales of Taboo investigates, and celebrates, the stories we’re taught to keep quiet. Host Ali Weiss collects raw, honest, sometimes shocking anonymous confessions from her global audience and interviews public figures willing to speak candidly about their unconventional lives. Provocative, funny, and deeply empathetic, Tales of Taboo asks why we’re all so afraid to be different — and what might happen if we weren’t. Submit your own confession at [email protected], or follow Ali on Instagram & TikTok @aliweissworld.
Hosted by
Ali Weiss
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