Rope Podcast

Fox and Mya interview @Jake_Wing about his view on the changing nature of the rope bondage scene, the influences he’s seen come and go, the Austin rope scene, and his most memorable experiences with rope. Listen to this interview to hear Jake’s thoughts on: * Dark rope versus friendly rope * Chinese Rope Bondage and how Jake was influenced by Bruce Lee * Eastern versus Western Rope Bondage and how they’ve mixed over time * Where rope fits in the wider BDSM community * What’s changed the most in rope bondage over time * Accessibility, consent and what the rope community needs to figure out next * The two most important things riggers need to pay attention to And much more! Jake’s been in the scene for many years, and ran a bondage website in the early days of the internet from 2000 with his wife. He’s taught at a number of venues, including Ropecraft, and is one of the team who run the Austin Rope Slingers, Texas, USA.

Fox and Mya had a busy week hosting three rope events in a week. They had a great time, but all wasn’t plain sailing - listen to this week’s episode to hear their discussion of what it’s like to put on rope events, what happened, and their practical suggestions on how you might put on a rope event yourself. In the episode they discuss: * What kinds of rope events are there, and how does the name affect the audience? * Why might you want to run rope events? * What are the benefits/challenges you might encounter? * Practicalities like logistics, cost, risk, liabilities, handling cancellations, legalities etc. * Tips to make your life easier as an event organizer * The fun versus work ratio And discover if it was all worth it for them!

Fox and Mya discuss what makes a good rope scene from the bottom’s point of view, considering the many aspects that could make a scene ‘good’ - whilst acknowledging bottoms are different and the mix that makes up good for one person might be different for another. Mya, as the bottom/bunny in the rope partnership, shares her own experience as a bottom as a practical case study (including what makes good sex in a rope scene), and shares the top few things that make a scene great for her. In addition they discuss: * The difference between process-orientated and outcome-orientated bottoms and why it’s important * Questions for tops to ask their bottoms to help them understand what a good scene might look like for them * How to make sure the scene is good for the bottom before the scene even starts * What a top might ask or look for to make sure the scene is going well for the bottom Click the links below to listen now! Note: We’re not ignoring tops and what makes a scene successful for them, we’ll cover this

We interview @Pyth01 and GuiltySmile, the founders of Singapore Rope Studio ‘0101 Studio’. The D/s couple studied at Anatomie studio in London for four years, and when they moved to Singapore, decided to open up their own space for rope jams and practice. Listen to this interview to hear about: * The challenges and rewards of setting up a new studio * Integrating into a rope community successfully * Attracting new people to rope * Visiting riggers and rope people * Silly rope! * The differences they’ve seen between European and South-East Asian rope communities And a lot more! If you’re flying through or visiting Singapore, they’d love to see you at Studio 1010. Let us know how it goes.

Fox and Mya often get asked by listeners how to come up with ideas for rope scenes. In this episode, they discuss how to find sources of inspiration for rope scenes, and Fox generates some ideas on the fly to show how you could do it. He discusses his own creative process for rope scenes, and the building blocks that he uses. The rope team share plenty of ideas to get your own creative juices flowing, and to make sure you never run out of new ways to do rope.

Fox and Mya discuss the marks on their bodies bottoms might get when doing rope bondage. They discuss: * Factors that might create marks on different bodies * The various kinds of marks you might get in rope bondage play * Mark envy * How we might cause marks intentionally and by mistake * How the bottom and the top might feel about the marks * How to treat the marks

Fox and Mya discuss the Hip Harness, a fundamental of suspension and usually one of the earliest suspension ties rope tops learn. It’s a very versatile tie that can be used in a large variety of ways. The episode includes discussion of shape, function, variations, difficulty level, safety and risk of the hip harness, what it feels like for the bottom, as well as some ways it can be used in suspensions or even floor work. Fox and Mya also discuss scenes where they have used the tie.

What to wear during your rope scenes might feel frivolous, but it can make a big difference to the tone of your scene. In this episode, Fox and Mya discuss factors both tops and bottoms might consider in their choices for scene clothing, including: * Safety * Comfort * The activities in the scene (including sexy times) * Why and when you might want to (or not want to) be naked * Clothes to enhance how you feel * ‘Dress up’ clothes

Mya and Fox share their philosophy that rope is a journey, not a destination - and you can always keep learning in your rope practice, no matter what your role, or your level of expertise. The rope partners discuss: * Why should we keep growing in our rope practice? * A ton of different areas where you can develop your practice - including several you might not have considered. How many can you tick off so far? * How learning ‘default world’ (or vanilla) skills can also help with your rope * Where you might pick up these skills, even if you’re not based in a big rope community And remember kinkies, Competence is Sexy!

Fox and Mya have built several permanent spaces for rope both together and individually since they started doing rope, with and without hard points. They’ve also created many temporary places to do rope on their travels, and have visited the studios or spaces of many others. In this episode, they discuss the space where you do your rope, and some of the factors you might want to consider when putting your own rope space together. In this episode hear them discuss: * The purpose/s you might want the room to serve * The kind of feel you might want your space to have, and a number of ways you might achieve this * Some things to watch out for, such as hazards * A few practical things to make sure your space has, or doesn’t have * How you might create a temporary space * Some of the rope spaces they’ve visited and the features they had

Fox and Mya discuss a less-commonly explored topic, around the hows, whys and whats of emotions in rope. They share thoughts about: *Why we have emotions in rope, from a psychological and physiological perspective *What happens when these emotions come up - when we do want them, and when we don’t *Examples from their own scenes of the range of emotions rope can explore *The difficult of explaining feelings in rope *The challenge of a mismatch of feelings in rope, and Fox’s interesting and useful idea of how to channel sexual emotions in rope as a top when you’re bottom wants only non-sexual rope *The question they suggest you add to your negotiation to ensure you’re on the same page as your rope partner emotionally during the scene

Fox and Mya discuss single rope suspensions (where a single rope takes all your body weight and you fly from that one rope). They discuss: *Types of single rope suspensions *The benefits and where and when you might want to use them *The risks and the challenges *The perspective on these ties from the rope top from Fox *The perspective on these ties from the rope bottom from Mya *The single rope suspension that Fox loves and Mya is starting to like more…

We interview associate Professor of Sociology and kinkster Dr Julie Fennell shares with us why she thinks people need to care more about rope bottoming, especially given the challenges of some of the issues in the rope community today. Listen to this fascinating interview to hear about: * Rope escape games * Why she shifted her energy from mostly rope bottoming to mostly rope topping   * Skill versus talent in rope bottoming * How she did an unusual (and dangerous?!) quest for a year to gather ideas for a rope bottoming curriculum in * Some of the skills she believes rope bottoms benefit from, and some examples of exercises she can suggest that can help them  * The difference between concrete and soft skills in rope bottoming   And a lot more!

For many bottoms, one top sounds good, but TWO sounds even better - and tops can often feel the same about bottoms (ahem!). In this episode, listener and Patreon supporter @Happy_Tortoise, and his partner Dragon ask Fox and Mya to share some of their favourite multi-player scenes, and they talk through some of their learnings and most fun experiences when they’ve been playing together with another bottom (or two!) Fox and Mya discuss combinations of: • Two bottoms - one top • Two tops - one bottom • A top - a middle - a bottom • A top - a bottom - a switch • And more! They also discuss their learnings from this kind of scene, and the factors that make them more complex that you might need to manage if you decide to play in this sexyfun way.

Another one of our rope erotica pieces. Mya’s turn to read one of her rope stories, which contains rope for restraint, orgasm control and predicament, impact and ass play. So far, the rope erotica pieces are some of our most popular episodes, so we hope you enjoy this sexy story from us!

We interview @Kinky_Engineer, a kinky educator who has been practicing elements of BDSM and kinky play his whole adult life. His personal play style draws on a professional and martial arts background, and is imbued with a strong focus on safety, Risk Aware Consensual Kink and a joy of playing near the edges. We interviewed him about his experience as an engineer designing and creating kink gear and equipment. Essentially, what’s useful for doing rope bondage - besides rope?! He tells us: * How growing up on a farm makes you kinky! * His Western bondage versus Japanese bondage experiences * Why he prefers a suspension ring to carabiners and how that led him to design a better suspension ring * The best cutting tool to buy * His very surprising choice to answer ‘if you could only have one piece of non-rope gear in your kit, what would it be? * Where suspension equipment tends to fail most, and how to prevent this * How best to check hard points in a new venue to you

Fox and Mya rope tourist in their own town! Some highly experienced Japanese and other international rope bondage enthusiasts come to Bangkok, and your podcast hosts were lucky enough to be invited to an event with them run by the Thai community. Fox and Mya attended a public event at a new dungeon opening up who hosted a rope salon, and then a private event with a lot of rope - and they share their personal experiences (whilst noting they really did feel like tourists this time as they had no idea what was happening for most of the time during the events!). (And Mya shares she still has no idea which part of Bangkok Fox actually took her to the event!) Hear from them about: * What they think is the difference between a Rope Salon and a Rope Jam (listener comments invited!) * The incredible new RedRoom Dungeon they visited, with fantastic furniture and other equipment (Mya liked the cages especially, Fox more the giant anal toys) * Which animal the majority of the latex masks in the dungeon were of * The t

Mya has been both a naughty and a nice bunny and has been working with Fox to bring you a Christmas present - new bonus material from our interviewees this year, where they tell us about some of the favourite scenes. We share our thoughts on the themes that come out, and the lessons and ideas that we can all put into our scenes even if we’re not as experienced as the illustrious interviewees. The episode includes: @Raiju telling us how she tied up, beat and humiliated a germophobe in rope - and the catharsis that experience brought @Belle- telling us about two very different scenes that pushed her to new levels of intensity @ChristianRed telling us about his favourite takedown rope and forced exhibitionism scene (includes neck rope, yay!) @-EM- telling us how one of his rope/drowning scenes might have saved his bottom’s life @IpCookieMonster talks about the most powerful, intense rope scene of her life - one that took several days to decompress from and included sex and rope magic

We interview associate Professor of Sociology and kinkster Dr Julie Fennell exploring her background into rope and kink, and her research on rope subculture, one of her key areas of interest. She tells us about: Her first rope scene * The tie that actually got her into rope (despite her having tied several times before) * Why she doesn’t feel she fits into ‘ropeworld’ * Circus Bondage and how contrarty to many people’s opinions, performance can still be connective * ‘Expectations’ in rope and how she likes to mess with them * What her research has taught her about rope subculture * How sex and rope connect in American shibari Listen now for a fascinating insight into rope subculture!

Fox and Mya discuss the Strappado. Originally a torture method, the rope community adopted the position for a tie. The episode includes discussion of shape, function, variations, difficulty level, safety and risk, what it feels like for the bottom, as well as some ways it can be used in floor work or suspensions. They also discuss two example scenes where they have used the tie.