July 8, 2019
Sexuality Superheroes: Karen Kaz Lucas
Check out this week’s Sexuality Superhero! Meet Karen Kaz Lucas. Using her influence from her entertaining days, Kaz started The Spread podcast. Finding that sexual health resources were limited in Kenya, her goal was to create a safe digital space where sex education, sexual identities and inclusivity are thoroughly understood. Read her feature below.
How did you find yourself working in sexuality?
I stumbled into this field out of the important things, passion and need. In Kenya there is a huge gap in the sex education industry and so many people are operating from a point of fear. I am using predominantly digital spaces to help everyone recreate their own sexual stories and not based on those told to them from fundamentalist perspectives.
What is the best part of the job?
Learning. Everyday I get to learn something new. I am open to the endless possibilities and I get to meet and interact with so many people across the world and discuss how sex is relevant to them.
What is the most challenging part of the job?
I am constantly being questioned and often shamed about the work I do. It’s sometimes hard to try and explain to people how important sexuality is without them judging or believing that I will spend my life in jail.
What is your most important piece of advice that has the potential to revolutionize relationships?
It’s so simple. Communication is key. If the lines of communication are always open, then relationships with always be strong enough to weather the storm.
What do you do to decompress and take care of yourself given that you spend so much time helping and caring for others?
I try to take time off where I don’t respond to work emails or phone calls. Every so often I will take myself to the beach and just relax, get in extra sleeping hours and pamper myself with indulgent food and massages. It’s always hard to come back to work after that but it’s well worth it.
What do you want people to know about your work as a sex-positive podcaster?
I have diversified my craft as just a podcaster and made it so that I create safe spaces for people to be open about their sexuality. The work I do is diverse in itself and very educational. I want the spaces I create to make people feel safe enough to want to explore their sexuality.
Where can we learn more about your work?
My social media spaces: @thespreadpod on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook.
And the podcast: The Spread Podcast
Karen Kaz Lucas is an established leader in the Kenyan arts and culture ecosystem. Having begun her career in the early 2000s as a singer, she has gone on to run creative ventures and projects cutting across the performing arts, media production, digital marketing and innovative events that shape the industrial standard. Notably, her web-series project ‘Kenyan Woman’ provided a new perspective on what it means to be a successful woman in Kenya, therefore uplifting young women by demonstrating that women can define themselves beyond stereotypical boundaries.
Kaz has had a lifelong passion for changing the way sex education is taught to young people. Driven by this passion and enabled by her media experience, she started The Spread Podcast, a sex positive podcast that creates a safe space for people to understand their sexuality and learn to live confidently in awareness of their sexual identity.
