In this episode of YAS Podcast, AM Davies (they/them) sits down with international pole instructor and stripper Jordan Kensley (she/her) for a wide-ranging conversation about direct communication, whorephobia, labor rights, and the global evolution of pole culture.
The episode opens with a reflection on how direct women are often perceived as rude or aggressive, when they’re often just clear, efficient, and results-oriented. Jordan shares how growing up around horses shaped her blunt communication stylewhere timing, clarity, and immediate feedback matter—and how that approach can clash in communities where people are socialized to soften their words.
From there, the conversation moves into Jordan’s travel-heavy life teaching pole workshops around the world, including recent experiences in Brazil and upcoming international tours. AM and Jordan discuss the cultural differences they’ve noticed in performance spaces, audience support, and the way people interpret tone, especially across language barriers.
The conversation also tackles whorephobia head-on, including the ongoing tension in the pole world around acknowledging stripper origins. Jordan offers a rapid-fire historical framework linking sex work, religion, politics, and stigma, while AM emphasizes how cultural erasure shows up today through “polite” narratives that separate pole dancing from stripping.
Later, they dig into AB5, worker misclassification, wage theft in strip clubs, and why enforcement, not the law itself, is often the biggest failure point. They close with stripper tips on saving money, avoiding workplace drama, and using subtle sales psychology to increase dance revenue.