FAM EP. 43 Zachary Zane

What does it actually take to write honestly about sex, shame, and identity?

In this episode, we sit down with Zachary Zane — Brooklyn-based author, sex columnist, and one of the most prominent voices in modern queer culture. His memoir Boy Slut: A Memoir and Manifesto was a 2024 Lambda Literary Award finalist, blurbed by Dan Savage as one of the best sex writers working today. He's written for the New York Times, Rolling Stone, GQ, Men's Health, and Cosmopolitan — and he never planned to be a writer at all.

We get into his childhood OCD, the bisexual visibility movement, accidentally going viral, writing with humor about taboo topics, and why shame only survives in isolation.

In this episode:
00:00 — Intro
04:00 — OCD, sexual shame, and growing up in a "sex positive" family
10:00 — What bisexual visibility actually gets right (and wrong)
14:00 — Going viral by accident and becoming a writer
18:00 — Using humor as a craft tool — and when it backfires
24:00 — Building a movement (while battling imposter syndrome)
29:00 — The first step to letting go of shame

📖 Boy Slut: A Memoir and Manifesto → https://bookshop.org/p/books/boyslut-a-memoir-and-manifesto-zachary-zane/b84737203b150376?ean=9781419764714&next=t&

✍️ The Boi Slut Zine (submit your work!) → https://zacharyzane.substack.com/p/boyslut-size-submissions-guidelines

📲 Follow Zachary → https://www.instagram.com/zacharyzane

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