Tales of Taboo

Tales of Taboo

Tales of Taboo is an ANONYMOUS confessions show investigating - and celebrating - what happens behind closed doors. Performer & writer Ali Weiss dissolves the boundaries between host and audience by creating episodes around THEIR unique experiences. Her listeners tell juicy, unadulterated stories about public scandals and private struggles, liberation and oppression, and the various ways they’ve navigated the darker corners of the human experience. Follow Ali on Instagram, Twitter & TikTok @aliweissworld, or submit a confession at confessions@aliweissworld.com.

Episodes

September 25, 2023 77 mins

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 LOVE clothes. I love theatrics. I love escapism. What I do not love is when some people suffer greatly to compensate for others’ gr...

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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 that we’re ALL a little gay - some of us have just chosen, or found the freedom, to explore it.


In honor of Bisexuality Awareness We...

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August 7, 2023 61 mins

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 this week's confessors, who successfully expanded and changed my mind by calling and writing in with accounts of their international engagements &...

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June 26, 2023 53 mins

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 kosher to subject a less experienced and often more impressionable partner to their baggage? Is desiring a younger woman implicative of so...

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May 8, 2023 65 mins

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 often conjures images of suburban swingers, wild sex parties in Bushwick or San Francisco, Burning Man, and, like, sister wives, and ...

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April 26, 2023 72 mins

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 our best body, but also our best self. We’re asked to set intentions, repeat affirming mantras, and see squatting and sprinting as a chanc...

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April 17, 2023 80 mins

$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, where reservations are impossible and Chef is spelled with a capital C.

I kick us off by telling MY most absurd tales as a diner i...

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It's the last episode of Season 3! Can you believe?! What an honor to end it by interviewing one of the most brilliant and unique individuals I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. According to his professional bio, Adrian Dannatt is an actor, editor, curator, writer, artist and obituarist. I'd rather just call him a Bon Vivant: a collector of experiences, art, and people. He's also perhaps the only person on the planet less afraid...
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January 3, 2023 74 mins
I recorded this episode back in the spring of 2022. I felt so inspired by, at peace with, and safe in my new relationship (which I was then 6 months into) that I spontaneously felt compelled to talk about dating in my 20s, and candidly analyze many of the mistakes, failures, and instances of hurt that led to attracting healthy love at 28. That relationship has since come to an end, but my 'non-toxic dating' era has not - I am perma...
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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 has disappointed us or not met our expectations. This is especially true when it comes to family members, who are placed at the center of ...
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December 12, 2022 58 mins
When Whitney Port agreed come on the pod, 13 year old me - and late 20s me, tbh - pinched herself. An objective icon of the 2000s/2010s, Whitney was one of the only women on reality TV who built a wildly successful brand off of poise, elegance, and intellect - things that don't traditionally equate to great ratings within narrative nonfiction. Not the overt and degenerate type of taboo we've come to expect on this show, perhaps, bu...
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December 5, 2022 57 mins
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 could be. With a definitive start and end and (often) a price tag, the transactional element allows for very real physical, emotional, even ...
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November 28, 2022 68 mins
Jason Moody (https://twitter.com/JasonMoodyxxx) is an adult film star I met at the PornHub Awards afterparty in 2018. It's been a long time since I initially released our interview on my old podcast Health Is Hell (I die at the way we talk about this "new platform called OnlyFans!"), but Jason's worldview and wisdom are just as poignant as ever. Join us as we laugh and flirt our way through his life story - leaving Israel at 15, jo...
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November 21, 2022 53 mins
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 with bodily autonomy...and makes them very wealthy. We’ll hear from Marykate Moss (formerly Mackenzie, IG & Twitter: @marykate_moss), a H...
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November 14, 2022 61 mins
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 submissions (NOT a usual occurrence but alas, I had taken my Concerta and was feeling extra productive). I thought I'd be curating a lighthea...
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I have a confession to make: I’ve never watched Vanderpump Rules. (Shock, horror, I know.) But Katie Maloney and I met when I was a guest on her podcast (listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/youre-gonna-love-me-with-katie-maloney/id1516710301?i=1000559075815) and hit it off right away. Then, I started seeing endless stories about her divorce from longtime partner (and fellow OG cast member) Tom Schwartz, and interview...
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October 31, 2022 75 mins
Welcome to Season 3, my Degenerate Angels! It’s SO good to be back - and thanks to casting help from @deuxmoi, with a vengeance. This week, we’re telling ALL about the Modeling Industry. Our contributors are or were signed in LA, London, Miami, Milan, New York, Paris, Seattle, and Texas, and represented by well-known agencies such as One Management, Genetics, Heffner, Next, Select, and Women (plus some others I’ve been asked not to...
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It'd be weird not to feel at least a little unsteady in the current state of our world, but suffering from anxiety as an illness is a lot different than just 'feeling anxious'. I've crumbled under the weight of that illness for many years, and decided to open up about it. Then, in a quest for some answers and direction after emerging from my most recent panic spiral, I bring in the lovely Anna Toonk (Instagram: @annatoonk) to do my...
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What is it like to become a celebrity overnight? How does it feel to have an entire nation pick you apart? Is the fame & glamorous lifestyle reality TV affords worth all of the pain? Anyone who watches Love Island knows Megan Barton-Hanson. Inarguably the star (and villain) of Season 4, Meg has spent years as the obsession of UK tabloids, who can't stop talking about her surgery-altered appearance, wildly successful OnlyFans, and s...
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June 6, 2022 47 mins
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 & genitally. From one-off Hinge dates to serious boyfriends to family members kissing their faces as children, no two stories are the same ...
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