Coming Together for Sexual Health

Coming Together for Sexual Health is a podcast for providers and advocates passionate about health equity and inclusive care. We unpack both the how and the why of improving sexual and reproductive health. From root structural problems to improvements in clinical care, we keep the attention on people most impacted by STIs, HIV, and emerging infectious diseases.

We are powered by leading sexual health trainers at UCSF’s California Prevention Training Center. Join our sex-positive conversations with expert clinicians, public health leaders, and community members wherever you get your podcasts.

Comments, questions, interview ideas? Contact us!

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Podcast Episode

S4 E8 Intimacy Starts with I: Women, Self-Love, and HIV with Michelle Lopez
S4 E8 Intimacy Starts with I: Women, Self-Love, and HIV with Michelle Lopez CW: Mention of abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, incest, molestation At 24 years old, in the early 90’s, Michelle Lopez was riding a train in New York with her newborn baby and saw an advertisement that spoke to her. It said, “If […]

Podcast Episode

S4 E7 Dan Savage on the Magic Question “What are you into?” & Dr. Ina Park on How Providers Can Help
S4 E7 Dan Savage on the Magic Question “What are you into?” & Dr. Ina Park on How Providers Can Help Dan Savage is a sex-advice columnist and podcaster, and Ina Park is a sex positive STI researcher, physician, and author. The two come together in this episode to discuss desire, pleasure, and how to communicate about what feels good with partners and providers. Dan delves into discovering kinks, pleasure as we age, and trying new things alone […]

Podcast Episode

S4 E6 Family Planning as Gender Affirming Care with Trans and Nonbinary Patients
Director of Gender-Affirming Care for UC Davis Health, Miles Harris, FNP-BC, advocates for the integration of gender-affirming care with primary care and family planning. He shares that “so much of gender affirming care is not about hormones” and that “it is often so easy as a health care provider to do the thing that someone needs that changes their life.”

Podcast Episode

S4 E3: America’s War on Drugs and Harm Reduction Around the World with Tanagra Melgarejo Pulido
Tanagra Melgarejo Pulido from the National Harm Reduction Coalition speaks with host Tammy Tae about harm reduction around the world, the role race plays in the criminalization of drug use, and what the future holds for safer drug use policies and programs. She explains how harm reduction began with “communities of people who used drugs looking at each other, say[ing] wait a minute, … ‘We love each other, we care for each other. We need to build power and we need to work together” with an importance placed on looking at the social determinants of health and the impact of colonization, not only with capitalism but with racism, the War on Drugs in Black and brown communities that are in…

Podcast Episode

S4 E2: Harm Reduction by Heart with Braunz Courtney
Host Tammy Kremer sits down with Braunz Courtney to speak on how he practiced strategies of harm reduction at the age of 11 before he knew what the term meant. He went from dancing shirtless to raise awareness of the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in queer Black communities to serving as the Executive Director of the HIV Education Prevention Project of Alameda County. He touches upon the importance of organizations that understand the lived experiences of the populations they serve.

Podcast Episode

S4 E1: Narcan Queen Kochina Rude on Drag and Harm Reduction
S4 E1: Narcan Queen Kochina Rude on Drag and Harm Reduction CW: Opioid Overdose, Molestation  Welcome to our mini-series on Harm Reduction! Host Tammy Kremer sits down with drag queen Kochina Rude to share how she uses her performances to educate the LGBTQ+ community about Naloxone administration, safer partying, and overdose prevention. At her show “Princess,” cohosted with […]

Podcast Episode

S3 E14: Monkeypox: Where are We Now? with Dr. Peter Chin-Hong
In this week’s episode, host Tammy Kremer chats with UCSF infectious disease specialist Dr. Peter Chin-Hong about the current state of the monkeypox/mpox outbreak: how this outbreak reflects contemporary health inequities, how stigma can be a barrier to people accessing treatment, and how lessons learned from past public health crises shaped the clinical and community mpox response

Podcast Episode

S3 E12: Four Decades of Sexual Health: History of the CAPTC
Guest host Dana Cropper, current director of the California Prevention Training Center, sits down with two former CAPTC directors, Gail Bolan, MD, and Alice Gandelman, to discuss the founding of the CAPTC and the organization’s work in supporting sexual healthcare providers over the last 33 years