Free From Desire from Paradiso Media, is an official selection in the audio storytelling programme of the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival.
At the age of 35, Aline Laurent-Mayard has never been sexually or romantically attracted to anyone but is now a parent to a toddler named Jo.
Free From Desire documents the journey of self-discovery that led to acceptance and allowed Aline to pursue the dream of starting a family via artificial insemination.
The French-language version of the series previously launched in France to critical acclaim and led to Aline becoming the face of asexuality there. The series is a rare example of a documentary podcast produced simultaneously in two languages with a bilingual host, with editorial adjustments made to account for cultural nuances.
In this seven-episode series, Aline re-lives adolescence and early assumptions of eventually feeling the way everyone else does, followed by years of doubts and questions about what being asexual means.
Through a memoir-style, first-person perspective, Aline challenges the stereotypes of a person living in Paris – the City of Love – and engages experts, sociologists, acquaintances and friends in an examination of our society’s relationship to sex and traditional coupling.
“I hope Free From Desire will get people to think about what intimacy means to them, what they really want from a relationship, in what context they want sex and how often,” says Aline. “I hope people will start talking about sex before they have it, that they will have the sex talk with their partner over and over again, with no taboo or shame.”
Paradiso Media’s Yael Even Or and Suzanne Colin who produced the podcast added: “This show is for everyone. It’s fundamentally queer in that it questions the basic assumptions many of us hold about our sexuality and identity.
“It is also truly global, with a bi-lingual host, an international team, and guests from all over the world. We’re proud to put this unicorn out in the world.”
Aline Laurent-Mayard is a journalist, author, and podcaster who has written for publications such as Le Monde and Slate and has also published two books about gender in pop culture.
Welcome Baby is Aline’s second podcast, also produced by Paradiso Media, which recently launched in France and is about raising a child in a gender-open way.
Free From Desire premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York tomorrow, 7 June and will be available on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.
