Ep 416 - Rachel: Round 2

Ep 416 - Rachel: Round 2

Author: Emma and Fin October 29, 2025 Duration: 1:11:11
It’s been about two years since we last talked with Rachel on Episode 307 and a LOT has changed… As always, no need to go back and listen to get a ton out of this conversation! Rachel has been non-monogamous for about 15 years and for about the last two years she’s been exploring solo polyamory. For as long as she can remember she’s always wanted to be a parent and a little over a year ago she made the decision to have a child using a donor without having a co-parent… Or, as she calls it: Rogue Mom. In our conversation today Rachel talks about the challenges of being a woman in her thirties watching her biological clock tick down as she tries to build a career and life that society deems adequate for raising kids. However, Rachel's life and career don't need to meet society's expectations and standards because what truly matters is that they meet her own. Rachel takes us through her decision to go rogue and everything she had to go through to make it actually happen. She also shares with us how she’s built an incredible support team around her made up of family, friends, professionals, and her community. This is such a beautiful conversation full of love and joy as Rachel shares her excitement around becoming a Rogue Mom just a few months from when recorded this. There’s even a surprise or two hidden in here! Enjoy! A bit more about Rachel taken straight from her website: Rachel Lark is a writer, composer, and performer known for her incisive and catchy anthems about taboo topics. Lark’s music has been heralded for blending heartfelt lyrics with biting political satire, fearless authenticity, and raunchy wit. She is the creator of Coming Soon: A New Rock Musical which sold out its two week run in San Francisco and earned the highest rating from the San Francisco Chronicle. She was named one of the most powerful LGBTQ voices of San Francisco by SF Magazine and Salon Magazine called her “the poster girl for period sex.” Lark’s work empowers people to chase connection, pleasure and political action by inviting audiences into a shared cathartic experience of mutual recognition and dissatisfaction with the status quo. Her razor-sharp perspective invites anyone (even those with opposing views) to dream up a better world. Please check out all of Rachel’s work on her website and support her on Patreon! Check out the full show notes here. Join the most amazing community of open-minded humans on the planet!   Click here to order your very own NNM shirt! $10 Off - Online STI Testing

Emma and Fin have spent more than fifteen years navigating the landscape of non-monogamy together, and their conversations extend far beyond their own marriage. In their Normalizing Non-Monogamy-Personal Stories of Polyamory, Swinging, and Beyond podcast, they create a space for the kinds of honest, nuanced discussions that often happen only behind closed doors. Each episode is built around a conversation with someone from across the vast spectrums of gender, sexuality, and relationship structure. While you’ll hear from many people who identify as polyamorous or within the swinging community, a significant number of their guests share stories that defy easy categorization-they’ve crafted unique, personal dynamics that work specifically for them. The result is a collection of genuine narratives that highlight the practical realities, emotional complexities, and profound joys found in these varied ways of loving and connecting. By focusing on individual experiences rather than abstract theory, this podcast moves the topic from the realm of taboo into everyday life. Listening feels like sitting in on a thoughtful, compassionate, and sometimes surprisingly ordinary chat between people who are simply figuring out what brings them fulfillment. Emma and Fin’s long-term perspective as a couple provides a steady, relatable foundation for these explorations, making the entire series feel grounded and accessible whether you’re deeply familiar with these concepts or just curiously learning.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Normalizing Non-Monogamy -  Personal Stories of Polyamory, Swinging, and Beyond
Podcast Episodes
Ep 422 - Kevin: Round 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:25
When we first talked to Kevin on Episode 45 he’d been married for over a decade and he was in a handful of new-ish relationships. Nearly seven years later, he’s been married over 20 years and describes himself as being i…
Ep 421 - Elaine [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:25:53
When Elaine first started dating she fell in love with multiple people pretty much right away and felt so much shame about it that it drove her to end the relationship she was in. She tried serial monogamy for a while an…
Ep 420 - Jacob + Josh [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:19:06
Jacob and Josh are both from Puerto Rico and met about 17 years ago while working together on a film project and began dating… Sort of. As you’ll hear, they’ve spent a lot of their relationship exploring the grey zones o…
Ep 419 - Nicole (Modern Anarchy) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:32:30
Nicole was raised inside conservative and fundamentalist Christianity and can remember feeling her first inklings of her own queerness in elementary school but knew she had to shut it down and hide it. The fear and shame…
Ep 418 - Matt [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:22:09
Matt was first introduced to non-monogamy about 15 years ago when he moved to the San Francisco area and saw how his friends were exploring open relationships and polyamory… He’d sort of naturally been loving everybody i…
Ep 417 - Ashton [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:20:26
Ashton grew up in a super conservative and religious home, didn't date in high school, and had her first kiss when she was 18... But that was then. Things are a bit different now! Ashton is now in her forties and has bee…
Big Event Announcement! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 5:10
Join us May 1-3, 2026 in Florida for our biggest in-person event ever! Check out the Relationship Recess webpage and get your ticket here! Check out the launch video here!
Ep 415 - Ryan [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:10:57
Ryan first started experiencing a cognitive dissonance with regards to relationships pretty much from the beginning of dating in high school. In many ways, relationships just didn’t make sense to him in his twenties so h…
Ep 414 - Eileen [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:09:32
"It's funny... I was monogamous for nine years with a man and now I'm a lesbian and I'm polyamorous... So, life can really take you by surprise." There really isn't a better synopsis than that of what our conversation to…