Press & Media

Features:

Articles I’ve written:

    • One Nation, Indivisible with Andrew Seidel - Sex, Purity Culture, and Christian Nationalism with Erica Smith.

    • Focus on Your Own Family - Breaking Free from Purity Culture.

    • Sex After with Amy Marcs - Sex After Purity Culture Part 2 with Mattie Jo Cowsert and Erica Smith.

    • Hello Deconstructionists - Purity Culture Recovery with Erica Smith.

    • Preacher Boys - Erica Smith, The Sex Educator Taking on Purity Culture.

    • Sexvangelicals - Ask A Sex Therapist: How Do I Have My First Orgasm? with Erica Smith.

    • Sexvangelicals- Ask A Sex Therapist: What Do I Need to Consider When I Have Sex for the First Time?

    • The Bible for Normal People - on the harmful effects of purity culture and empowering adults who want to create a new sexual ethic for themselves.

    • Lesbian Peep Show- Purity Culture Dropouts with Erica Smith.

    • First Thirst with Siri Dahl - Erica Smith’s sex education feat. Disney’s Robin Hood.

    • Becoming Unstoppable - what real sex ed should teach about consent, pleasure, and empowerment with Erica Smith.

    • Going There - Erica Smith, the creator of the Purity Culture Dropout™ program and author of My Sexual Values Workbook speaks to her experience working with clients traumatized by church and religious teachings on purity and what the healing process looks like.

    • This is (Not) About Your Body - on sex education for folks leaving high control religion. This episode deals with purity culture and its impact.

    • Kids or Child Free- how conservative religious values influence and enforce broader societal ideas about gender, sexuality, and the importance of having children. Also Erica's choice to be childfree and the joyful life she has built without kids. 

    • Your Therapist Needs Therapy - about how growing up in purity culture is harmful, how the religious right is hypocritical, and why comprehensive sex ed is so important.

    • The Divorcing Religion Podcast - Erica on the need for programs tailored to those recovering from purity culture indoctrination.

    • Thereafter - on sex education recovering from purity culture.

    • Nights at the Round Table Part 1 and Nights at the Round Table Part 2 - on the negative effects that purity culture has on our sexual liberation. In the name of religion and what we've been taught by societal norms, have we lost the beauty and innocence of the Godly sexual experience?

    • Sunday School Dropouts - about sex, comprehensive sex education and resources for those who seek information after abstinence only or purity culture “sex education.”

    • Good Girls Get Divorced - on purity culture and the sex education you never got.

    • Men, Sex & Pleasure with Cam Fraser - on purity culture and sex education, religious beliefs and anti-pornography, SWERFs and Christian extremists, and porn literacy.

    • IT’S FINE. with Rachel Varkey - on the common blockers to having healthy sex and debunking common misconceptions from purity culture.

    • Let It Matter - on defining sexual values and ethics for ourselves and the Five Circles of Sexuality.

    • Appodlachia - on sex and purity culture in Appalachia.

    • Cults, Magic & Misinformation - purity culture and "hysteria" as a sexist disease.

    • Cult of Christianity - on sex and purity culture within the Christian faith.

    • Where Do We Go From Here? - on why sex education is more than preventing negative health outcomes, masturbation, sex toys and sex shops.

    • Pastor With No Answers - on female sexuality, sexual behavior, casual sex and hook-ups, porn, kink, and much more.

    • Cheers to Leaving! - on porn and “porn addiction.”

    • The Unity Project - on feminism, queerness, being a riot girl, and proper sex education.

    • Sex Party FM with Dustin - the dangers of purity culture, what it feels to free people from it, changing Penn State University with the “Sex Faire,” and how racism changed abortion views.

    • Mary’s Cup of Tea - on abortion, purity culture, and how to talk to people about sex.

    • Birth Story - on sex, sexuality, sex in pregnancy and postpartum, initiating after babies, and how to talk to your kids about sex.

    • Asking For Myself - on purity culture, religion, and sexuality.

    • Pastor With No Answers - on human sexuality, the benefits of regular masturbation and challenging the objectification of women.

    • Honeydew Me- on what purity culture is, how it impacts our sex lives, and concrete steps for quitting.

    • Bad in Bed- on the adverse effects of growing up with purity culture, how it specifically effects queer people, as well as advice on how to identify and unlearn its harmful messaging.

    • Profane Faith - on sex and sex education

    • Happily Together - on why we’re so afraid to talk about sex, the purity movement and purity culture, porn and sexual education.

    • Sex Ed with Tim - on disrupting what you believe sex should and shouldn't be, and purity culture.

    • Health: It’s Personal - on sexual health, sexuality and how purity culture impacts all of us every day.

    • Woman Being - on porn and purity culture

    • A Tiny Revolution - on purity culture and how we can all heal from our sexual shame..

    • Waking Parent - on choosing or not choosing parenthood.

    • ShrinkChicks - on recovering from the effects of purity culture, dress codes in schools, abstinence only sex education and how abortion became a central part of American politics.

    • Deconstruct - on rewriting your Purity Culture History.

    • Unchurchable Podcast- Navigating sex and reclaiming sexuality post purity culture.

    • After Adult- on purity culture, navigating sexual health, sexual shame, porn as sex ed, and the state of sex education in schools.

    • Conjuring up Courage Shohreh Davoodi - on sexuality myths, purity culture, and healing

    • Conjuring Up Courage with Shohreh Davoodi- Pride Panel 2020.

    • Rewilding with Taylor Gage- on healing from purity culture and how it relates to diet culture.

    • God is Grey- on the five circles of sexuality, and abortion among Christians.

    • Parenting Forward with Cindy Wang Brandt- on parenting after purity culture.

    • Queer Ambition- answering sex questions.

    • Sexy Biz Babe- Recovering from purity culture.

  • Erica Smith is an award winning sexuality educator and consultant with 25 years of experience. She developed the Purity Culture Dropout™️ Program to help people learn all of the sex education that they missed growing up in purity culture- sex ed that is accurate, queer inclusive, trauma informed, compassionate, and comprehensive. She has since worked with hundreds of people to help them learn about healthy sexuality after high control religion and was named one of the Most Influential LGBTQ+ Leaders in 2025 by The Philadelphia Gay News. Throughout her career, she has provided comprehensive sex education and advocacy to young women and LGBTQ+ youth in Philadelphia’s juvenile justice system, worked in abortion care, and supported HIV positive youth, transgender adolescents, and their families. Erica is the author of The Purity Culture Recovery Guide: The Shame-Free Sex Ed You Deserve.

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