In Episode 3 of YAS Podcast, AM Davies (they/them) sits down with Selena (they/them), a Los Angeles–based stripper, organizer, and co-host of Heaux in the Kneaux. The episode opens with AM reflecting on the importance of “baby strippers” and younger generations entering the industry with new awareness, education, and organizing energy. Rather than criticizing millennials, AM argues that unifying across generations is essential for reshaping a strip club industry currently facing economic decline and labor instability.
Selena shares their journey into stripping, including creating a financial plan to fund a year in Brazil after college. Their story challenges stereotypes about strippers as reckless or financially irresponsible, instead highlighting strategic saving, business acumen, and long-term planning. The conversation moves into labor politics in Los Angeles, focusing on AB5 and the ongoing debate around employee classification versus independent contractor status for strippers. Selena explains how clubs may manipulate implementation to discourage dancers from embracing employee protections like collective action and guaranteed wages.
The episode also explores stigma within the sex industry, generational divides among dancers, financial literacy, and the importance of documenting sex worker history. Selena discusses their podcast, Heaux in the Kneaux, which archives the lives, labor, and legacy of sex workers across disciplines, from strippers to full-service workers.
Closing with practical sales tips for dancers, Episode 3 blends labor analysis, personal storytelling, and industry strategy—emphasizing solidarity, financial empowerment, and the power of sex workers controlling their own narratives.
Read the full transcript