Episode 18 Nova Caine
On this episode of YAS Podcast, AM Davies (they/them) sits down with Nova Caine (she/her), stripper, pole artist, U.S. Army veteran, and founder of Sex Academy, for a raw and powerful conversation about visibility, whorephobia, and reclaiming narrative.
AM opens by reflecting on being publicly called out by working strippers for tone-deaf commentary around online censorship. Instead of retreating, they chose to listen. Nova was one of the voices who stepped forward, and their connection grew from there.
Nova speaks candidly about experiencing “shadow banning” long before social media: in studios, relationships, and public spaces where simply saying “I’m a stripper” changes how people treat you. She and AM unpack the divide between strippers and pole dancers, discussing how stigma trickles down from influential leaders and how shame-based distancing ultimately harms everyone.
The conversation deepens as Nova shares her military injury – a femoral neck fracture that left her in chronic pain and told she might never walk properly again. Pole dancing and stripping became her self-directed physical therapy. Through movement, flexibility, and what she calls “ho yoga,” she breaks down scar tissue and maintains mobility. Stripping isn’t just work, it keeps her body functioning.
Nova also introduces Sex Academy, her pop-up studio concept teaching “Peel It Off,” “Not Yet Rated,” “Stripper Wind,” and “Moan It Like You Mean It”—classes focused on seduction, presence, and embodied power.
At its core, this episode is about pride, pain, sensual autonomy, and the unapologetic truth: stripping is sex work, and visibility is survival.
Read the full transcript