Skinny Dippers Club is on a Year-Long Mission Scouting for a Global Field Guide to Naturism. We’re Gonna Bring You With Us As We Do Research for the First Edition!
All podcast episodes are sponsored by The Global Naturist Alliance. The Global Naturist Alliance is a non-profit aimed at setting the standards for mission, vision, and values for the naturist community worldwide.
Our series will start as a year-long global journey – one episode per week.
There’s a ton of health benefits to running around naked in nature. The part of our brain that’s hyper-engaged in modern life deactivates a little when you’re outside.
“Until I started finding other people on Instagram talking about the tie between going to a Hot Springs or Hiking Nude, or becoming more one with nature and disconnecting enough to start the restorative process to become whole again… because sometimes when I’ve had PTSD symptoms, I don’t feel whole. So, it’s been really cool. A couple of things. One is just feeling like I’m healing myself into finding a community of other individuals who have had traumatic experiences and connecting with them and finding ways that we can celebrate survivorship together.“
Jeremy,
SDC
What am I supposed to bring? Can I stare? What do dudes do if they get a boner? (Which is like the no.1 question that gets asked.)
But more importantly – maybe you are a naturist and don’t know it! I didn’t.
As a kid, I remember it being hot in the summer and me being mad that the boys in the neighborhood could take off their shirts but I couldn’t. And then there was my dad relentlessly telling me to put clothes on because I was always cold. (Or maybe I just felt more comfortable in various states of undress?)
Either way, when I finally got up the courage as an adult to take a Skinny Dip sans bathing suit it was one of the most freeing experiences I’ve ever had.
When I tell people what I do for a living and how I live about 90% of the time I hear that you or your partners like to run around the house naked or without pants on. Some even have special areas in the backyard to hang out in naked.
Guess what? You just might be a nudist.
Welcome to the club! Dive in – that water’s warm:)
Our podcast wasn’t supposed to be released for another month but we recorded this episode and just felt like it needed to get out in the world.
PART OF THE REASON WE ARE STARTING A NON-PROFIT IS BECAUSE we haven’t seen Equity and Social Justice in our organizations on a global level.
The goal of the Global Naturist Alliance is to set the mission vision and values of the naturist community worldwide – The idea being we have representatives of all countries coming together to set the standards of what our movement is all about.
“But check this out. So we walk into the place where you check in and I look to the left and I about died. It’s an entire wall of movie stars who have stayed there, including, but not limited to Matthew McConaughey and Cardi B.”
I think the biggest take-away from this episode is that people feel more inclined to be curious and try something new if they feel safe in their environment.
In today’s podcast I take you on an edible infused trip with me to nude vacation spots in Southern California. It’s juicy AF. Join me!
We just got off a two-hour conversation with Hector Martinez who is a huge naturist advocate in Mexico and was president of the Mexican Naturist Federation.
We told him how we have a stigma problem in the U S that revolves around the nudist and we talked to Hector about this. It starts with our largest organization being racist and homophobic in the States. They share porn photos in their newsletter and on their social media feed. That’s a problem.
We want people to be able to enjoy this way of living and I think it gets really skewed by these places that don’t have their shit together. That’s why we’re talking about the intentional nudist community and what works and what doesn’t.
Part of why we wanted to do this podcast is because not many people get the opportunity to live this way and experience it. We have seen where nudist parks are largely volunteer-driven and have worked.
But I don’t think that that’s a sustainable business model.
Nude Scout: Jeremy’s Journey with PTSD
Being a Naturist is learning how to be yourself while connecting with nature.
“I’ve been discovering along the way, people that actually recognize that you can learn and grow and change and develop and that you can use the experience of running around naked to better yourself. And it’s not some creepy experience.”
A few years back I was able to attend one of the most epic events of my life: Nudestock.
I’ve always loved the 60’s (the sex drugs and rock ‘n roll part) so when we had the opportunity to hit up our local nudist park and attend this epic event I was all in.
I stocked up on edibles on my way and laid in the grass for three days high AF listening to live bands.
We’ve talked before about the positive effects that running around naked can have on you whether it’s positive mental health, an increase in body positivity, or just simply the lack of laundry and clothing purchasing making an impact on the environment.
But I think the most profound effects that I have seen are in the community built around this practice.
Part of the wonderful side of nude vacations and events is that you get to be socially naked with your community. When everyone’s goal is the same: to have a respectful and good time; everyone wins.
When I think about why we do what we do with Skinny Dippers Club and the Global Naturist Alliance, it actually has little to do with being a nudist and everything to do with community.
Naturism, for me, is where environmentalism, social nudism, and feminism collide.
Jeremy and I met in Portland, Oregon. I was raised in the inner city as a church liberal, and he was raised in the ‘burbs as the kid of cops. Law and Order – the whole nine yards. He got shunned for listening to black jams while I was praised for learning the Roger Rabbit on the playground.
Despite childhoods that couldn’t be farther apart (his classmates shot tin cans on their lunch hour, mine hotboxed in my ’73 bug), we both had a passion for making our community stronger, more diverse, and to feel empowered.
We fought coal trains moving through our city – he as the Mayor me as the local blogger Rachel Maddowing my way around town. I helped pass bond measures with well-placed social media posts, and my PR efforts helped fund LGBTQ candidates on a national level.
Then we went to China.
We went on a diplomatic mission under the program then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had spearheaded. It is a prestigious, competitive EcoPartnerships program of the U.S. Department of State.
During the summit, three U.S. cities and their Chinese counterparts formalized EcoPartnerships. EcoPartnerships are cooperative relationships between Chinese and U.S. entities that work jointly to promote economic growth, energy security, and environmental sustainability.
We saw rusty rivers, air pollution dropping from the sky like snow, and I stopped wearing underwear. (Have you ever tried to pee in a hole in the ground while in First Lady attire? It’s a nightmare.) It was here that we really came to understand the urgency of taking care of the earth and its inhabitants.
As a lifelong entrepreneur with ADHD, I get burnt out often. On one of these occasions, Jeremy quickly convinced me to go with him to a boutique nudist hotel in Palm Springs instead of delivering the Alt Summit speech I was supposed to give. With little energy to fight it, I said yes.
I didn’t get the nudist thing. He had already visited our local nudist place on several occasions, and I even left our home from time to time so that he could have naked hangs with friends. (Totally thought this was weird too.)
What’s weirder is that I’ve always hung out naked at home. Every time I’d clean the house, I would do it without clothes because I just thought dirtying clothing to clean the house made no sense. And when I could work out at home, I just wore a sports bra because again, why would I deliberately do something that would cause me to do more laundry? And obviously, working from home is and was always pants-less.
But being naked with anyone other than who I was sleeping with? No thanks.
When we walked into the nudist hotel for the first time, I felt assaulted by the front desk dude who was bare-ass naked when we arrived. “Jeremy, isn’t there some transition time? Like, you just walk into PENIS-Ville?” I was not impressed.
As the days of my stay wore on, I was struck by how cool the people were. I kept showing up day after day in my bikini while everyone smiled and tried to make me feel as comfortable as possible while I hid behind my sunglasses and book in the lounge chair. Jeremy, on the other hand, was busy being mister socially naked in the pool with everyone. I was intrigued.
Had this not been my first experience with nudism, I’m not sure I would have jumped in. I honestly think that it being a clothing-optional resort made all the difference. By day three or four, I realized that the only one that cared about my body was me and that taking a naked dip in the pool sounded pretty spectacular. Besides, why did Jeremy get to have all the fun? With enough weed-infused muddy buddies, anything is possible.
I tell you guys that I started Skinny Dippers because of the pandemic, but that’s not entirely true. I started it after meeting so many awesome naturists at all of the places we’ve visited. I wanted to hang out with you guys and not just when I could go on vacation to a nudist place.
Then, when Jeremy and I moved to a nudist park, we started seeing how it really looks. In the off-season.The politics of it all. In colonies. And our mission expanded.
Naturism, for me, is about community. Nudists are some of the coolest people I’ve ever met. And like any community, they can also be some of the worst people I’ve ever met.
This is why we proudly display a rainbow in our logo. This logo is meant to be a bit of a block home. A sign that if you are new to naturism and you see someone with our logo, they are a safe person. They believe everyone is equal, and they will make you feel like you belong. They will protect you if anything goes awry because sometimes it does not matter how careful you are being or how much research you’ve done. Shit happens.
Because of the discourse we have seen on a global scale revolving around those that lead the naturism movement, we have launched a non-profit aimed at setting the standards for mission, vision, and values for the naturist community worldwide.
I have never felt so comfortable in my skin since taking the plunge into naturism. I’ve never felt so body-positive. And now I want everyone to join me. Thank you for being here.
Mandy Z.
Skinny Dippers club is a non-landed club for naturists and nudists. Our mission is to connect nudists using digital media in a way that revolutionizes our community.
In our community, you’ll always have a place to hang out nude with someone, whatever nude is to you.
With every part of your story it just becomes more amazing. I’ve always wanted to visit a China too…but anyway:
Naturism for me is being in nature in a natural state. As far back as I can remember clothes were something that you ‘had to do’ around people – but I always felt more comfortable without them. Didn’t know about nude beaches or resorts and when I found out about them knew I had to go – though it wasn’t until moving to Jersey I was finally able to go. It’s the best and most natural feeling in the world. Skinnydippers opened up the notion of it tying into environmentalism and feminism/other causes which really are par for the course. I think the term ‘social nudism’ is almost redundant because nudists and naturists tend to be outgoing and social by nature – which surprised me in the beginning but makes sense when you understand it.
I LOVE this! And yes, so true – naturists/nudists are social by nature even if they are introverts. I was actually reading the definition of naturism yesterday by The Naturist Society and they imply feminism without actually using the word. Stoked you picked up on that ?
Do you have an RSS link for the podcast so I can add it my preferred Podcast App? I loathe spotify
Indeed! https://naturistpodcast.libsyn.com/rss
Thanks! Added to Pocketcasts!
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