Award-winning journalist and filmmaker Sahar Zand is launching a new video podcast called Doing Sex.
The Vespucci-produced series takes a wide-angle look at sex – not just as a private act, but as a way to understand society, culture, politics and power.
Through a combination of deeply personal reflections and investigative conversations, Zand explores what sex reveals about the world we live in and the identities we carry.
Born and raised in Iran, where public discussion of sex was shrouded in silence and shame, Zand brings a personal urgency to the podcast. “I come from a sexually suppressed background,” she says. “Now, even though I’m in a long-term, loving partnership, my complicated relationship with sex still lingers. I’m finally ready to face it.”
Each episode features a wide range of international voices, including dominatrix Eva Oh, who once worked as a UN refugee advocate and now charges over $10,000 a day for her services; Catherine De Noire, a brothel manager and PhD student who offers an insider’s view of Europe’s legal sex industry; Mahmoud Baydoun, a queer Lebanese-Brazilian sexologist with an online following in the millions; and Fatou Badjie, a Gambian FGM survivor whose powerful journey centres on reclaiming her body and embracing pleasure.
The show blends investigative journalism, global storytelling and personal narrative to create something entirely original.
Zand asks honest and sometimes uncomfortable questions, exploring how people relate to sex, how it intersects with their identities, and how those relationships are shaped by geography, culture and history.
“We’d heard that Bourdain once developed a show about sex, but it never got off the ground,” said Vespucci co-founders Johnny Galvin and Daniel Turcan. “Sahar brings exactly the kind of ambition needed to explore stories like these.”
The first two episodes are released today, on 29 July, with new episodes released every Tuesday.
