Coming Together for Sexual Health

Background:

Coming Together for Sexual Health is a podcast for providers and advocates passionate about health equity and inclusive care. We unpack both the how and the why of improving sexual and reproductive health. From root structural problems to improvements in clinical care, we keep the attention on people most impacted by STIs, HIV, and emerging infectious diseases. Our sex-positive conversations with expert clinicians, public health leaders, and community members are available on all major podcast platforms.

Program background:

The podcast is produced by the California Prevention Training Center (CAPTC) at the University of California, San Francisco. Originally funded in 1989 as a clinical STD training center, the CAPTC now provides an array of capacity-building services and technical assistance. Since 2021, Coming Together for Sexual Health has published 31 episodes over three seasons. Season 4, dropping in May 2023, will include four 3-episode series, including series on harm reduction, family planning, and pleasure. The podcast is produced and hosted by Tammy Kremer with support from CAPTC staff. As part of our new internship program, two interns per semester help produce the podcast. We employ an external editor and hired an illustrator to create images that reflect the diversity of the communities we serve.

Evaluation Methods and Results:

Our podcast episodes have been listened to 3,500 times across all major podcast platforms. We have distributed the podcast through CAPTC’s website, newsletters, Twitter, and LinkedIn and a dedicated Instagram account for the podcast. We also share through partners who are guests on the podcast and/or who do work that relates to episode topics. The episode “See All of Me: Transgender Health and Medical Mistrust” included two speakers from a conference with the same name. We distributed through the organizations that cosponsored that event. The episode “Centering Pleasure, Problems, and Pride in Sexual Health Care” was produced and distributed with our partners at the National Coalition for Sexual Health. We did a series of three episodes on mpox. Because we already had an established platform, we were able to do our first episode at the very beginning of the outbreak, and then published a follow-up every few months. We had two high-profile speakers. These episodes received some of the most listens.

We incorporate community input at many levels of production. In addition to staff participation, we created an advisory board with partners from a variety of organizations who have provided valuable input on topic and speaker ideas.

Conclusions:

Including partners, staff, and advisory board members in decision making has created greater investment in the podcast and support for distribution. Based on feedback from the advisory board, mini-series around one topic can help our listeners learn more about specific issues. Addressing timely, news-worthy topics and bringing on high profile speakers can increase our reach.

Implications for research and/or practice:

Podcasting can be an effective way to disseminate information to public health providers and staff. It does take significant staff time and resources, though it can be scaled according to resources available.