I first met Sam Benjamin back in 2009 at Audacia Ray’s Sex Worker Literati. He’s smart, charming, uses big words, has a great smile and knows how to write. His story at SWL (now the Red Umbrella Diaries) had me laughing really loud and hard. I wanted to get to know him better, but alas I was moving to LA, he had just moved to NY and so it goes. And now, I moved to SF and he’s living in LA, but I finally got a chance to sit down with him and chat it up.

This week’s podcast is not only about his wonderfully engaging and oft time hilarious memoir, American Gangbang: A Love Story, it’s also about his life as a go-go dancer, porn as art, condoms in porn, the best porn directors and performers in the world (think: Belladonna, John Leslie, Stagliano and more), and what it’s like for two of us..nice Jewish kids from the east coast, who got to working in the adult entertainment industry.

I had a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy listening too.

Listen on my site, or via itunes (I love how itunes edited the word g******g).

And if you’re in SF, Sam and Richard Pacheco will be talking porn TONIGHT, 8PM at the Center for Sex and Culture.

Buy American Gangbang: A Love Story