The Podcast
Podcast Open Wide Say Ah offers frank conversations about sex, and no topic is taboo.
Host Lauren Loubser also known as Lekker Lollas, hosts a queer podcast about sexual education and sexual health.
Open Wide Say Ah was launched in 2020 when Loubser realised that there were many conversations that people were too reticent to have with friends, partners, parents or at school.
Some of the themes explored so far have included kinks, sex toys, the website OnlyFans and sexual healing. More serious topics are also delved into like, ‘Taking sexual space in the ableist world’ and ‘Is there space in faith to be you?’ where the guest is a queer Muslim man.
Loubser said she wanted the podcast to be raucous and untamed, where conversations would freely flow. She was approached by comedian and podcast producer Simmi Areff to form part of the POC Podcasts group.
“Together we realised that important conversations about sex education are missing from schools and for adults,” she said.
She added: “I told him I am happy to speak about that but I want to make it very queer and fun. I knew I wanted it to be an adult version, not only a PG version.”
The name of the podcast, Open Wide Say Ah, played the idea of a medical connotation, Loubser said.
“People’s connections with the term ‘open wide say ah’ is not automatically sexual, but it can be.”
The host said she initially started the podcast for people who were having conversations around sex and who were intrigued about the possibilities.
“It was for people who wanted to explore sex and what sex can look like. Now, the target market has shifted and grown in spaces where people are not having conversations around sex or not that interested in it,” she said.
She added: “As soon as people listen to the podcast they now have lightbulb moments about things they identify within their sex life.”
Loubser said the people who first reached out to her about the podcast were traditional conservative people.
“They'd say this is amazing because it’s the first time they heard about it and that it opened their minds,” she said.
Loubser is an actress and filmmaker who previously worked as a sex educator at schools, and with adults.
She also runs an organisation called Femme Projects (Freedom of Education Motivates Empowerment) which renders programmes at schools around consent, sexual health and reproductive health.
Loubser said she had to warn her mom, Marcel Loubser, about the podcast.
“I told her it was about sexual health and education - which is not what I was originally doing,” she said.
“She was fine but I told my whole family not to listen to it. I overshare when I talk and I want to be able to do so freely.”
Loubser said she never feared the vulnerability that came with addressing sex and its various segues.
“I want to share and for people to learn from an honest place.”
People had minimal sexual education at school so Loubser thought the idea for a frank podcast on sex would benefit listeners. .
“The curriculum covers so little and there is no training for teachers around bodily autonomy, the way sexual organs work and signs of an STI. Teachers get shy so they don’t teach it,” she said.
She added: “Teachers and principals think the more we talk about sex, the more we condone sexual behaviour. I think it’s important to talk about all things sex and to figure out your body.”
“Without the facts or information about sex, you are thrown in the deep end and start experimenting with no knowledge of what you’re doing.”