Pillow Talking
Pillow Talking is the storytelling podcast of real-life bedroom conversations. Narrated and produced by Violeta Balhas, these first-person stories reveal the many facets of intimacy and relationships – including our own. Find out more and submit your story at https://pillowtalkingproject.com/
Episodes
25 episodes
20: Water in the desert
In these four stories, the pillow talkers cross deserts of emotional and sexual intimacy; of abuse; of neglect and resentment; and… an actual literal desert, not quite Lawrence of Arabia style. These conversations all happened in the intimacy o...
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Season 2
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Episode 20
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37:36
19: I remember
Remembering is an act of storytelling. And if remembering is an act of storytelling, what are the stories we tell each other about the us? Are they stories of love? Stories of war? Stories of the mundane? These stories are all about re...
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Season 2
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Episode 19
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30:46
18: Twenty-one
On the twenty-first episode of Pillow Talking, we do a little celebrating by revising some favourite stories: favourites of yours, and favourites of Violeta's. Ranging in theme from the heartfelt, to the heart wrenching, to the cringey, the sto...
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Season 2
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Episode 18
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1:09:05
Holiday bonus: Epiphany
Our traditions aren't just about keeping customs alive: they're about recapturing something. Maybe a feeling. Or a hope. Or a value. And sometimes, when the stars – or maybe a single, bright star – align, what we recapture can help us find more...
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Season 2
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9:32
17: Sanctuary
Our bedroom sanctuaries are places where we can feel safe. Share our dreams with a special other and come up with new dreams for both. Embrace vulnerability and share our deepest thoughts, feelings, and secrets. These bedroom conversations remi...
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Season 2
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Episode 17
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37:35
16: Who do you think you are?
It’s one thing to ponder your identity while looking in the mirror, but another thing altogether to ponder it while looking into your partner’s eyes. Who are you with that person? Who are you to that person? Who are you af...
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Season 2
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Episode 16
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33:40
15: Suddenly, strangers
Imagine the person you are most intimate with, the one you have entrusted with your vulnerability, suddenly acting like a complete stranger. Join me for four stories about times when the other became a stranger, disappearing in the flesh or emo...
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Season 2
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Episode 15
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29:39
14: Blue
These bedroom conversations are on the theme of Blue: a colour that can be sad or peaceful, cool or deep, innocent or world-weary, as wide as the sky or as focused as someone’s eyes.
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Season 2
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Episode 14
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34:13
13: An unguarded moment
Welcome to Season 2 of Pillow Talking! These 6 stories – kicking off with a bumper episode – all feature unguarded moments: times when people were completely open and raw and real. Sometimes by choice, sometimes by a complete lack of choice, an...
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Season 2
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Episode 13
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56:56
BONUS EPISODE: Love letters
New beginnings, revisiting the past, stories, and Joe Strummer: it’s all about the stories we tell ourselves.
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Season 1
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11:21
BONUS EPISODE: A message from Story Street/Hey, Boo
This isn’t the in-between season bonus I had in mind, and it won’t be what you’re expecting, either. But it’s important, so I trust you’ll stick with me as I get the most personal I've ever got on Pillow Talking.
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Season 1
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22:04
12: A bag of mixed lollies
On the last episode of Season 1 of Pillow Talking, no theme, just an assortment. And because life is like a bag of mixed lollies, each story is its own little surprise. There’s five in all, ranging from the impossible sweetness of first love, t...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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27:35
11: Ritual
These four bedroom conversations show that rituals aren’t necessarily mindless habits: they can be mindful, or facilitate mindfulness. And sometimes the mindfulness can bring realisations about the relationship – for better or worse.
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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31:40
10: Far away... so close!
Distance can even make relationships seem more real, the feelings more intense – and the pillow talking follows.
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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33:00
9: That... is ill advised
You and your ill-advised relationships, or ill-advised things you do: do you care what people think?
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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40:03
BONUS EPISODE: Welcome to my cataclysm
In which I explain what happened a couple days ago and miraculously refrain from crying or throwing up. WARNING: Contains a capella singing and references to farting.
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Season 1
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17:30
8: The third person
The third person can be a real person – invited or uninvited – and it can also be the spectre of someone who is absent yet somehow there, casting a shadow or influencing what we do, say or feel. These stories feature that third person: so...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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25:33
7: It's the wrong time, and the wrong place
It’s something that people often say when a relationship fails: “It was just the wrong time”. But is there such a thing as the wrong time, or is it an excuse? And does the wrong time always bring heartache, or can it also bring gifts?
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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24:25
6: Red
What does the color red mean to you? This episode features red both as a color and a symbol: it’s there in rich velvet and sexy lingerie, and also as a warning, and in heat and anger. The conversations in these stories all happened in the intim...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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26:46
5: Not the person I thought I knew
People change because they have either undergone a change or because they seem different to us, like when they are suddenly revealed to us in new and unexpected ways. And sometimes, like in these four stories, this happens in the bedro...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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27:49
4: Reading in bed
For many of us, reading was the first relationship we ever took to bed, often way before we took another human. So what happens when reading and our intimate relationships come together in the bedroom?Featuring some special guests: insa...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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27:18
3: Kissy boys
Is it more socially acceptable for men to share a bed when they're gay, or when they're straight? This episode explores men's need for affection and what it means both inside and outside the bedroom.Read the show notes and submit your s...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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32:06
2: That’s not what I was expecting
The bedroom tends to be a place of expectedness. Perhaps this is what makes the unexpected, when it happens in the bedroom, so striking – and sometimes, like in one of these featured stories, devastating. Read the show notes and su...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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21:13
