Colette Pervette is a professional Dominatrix, writer, and PhD in Education from UC Berkeley. A self-proclaimed “Educatrix,” she’s also the founder of MistressClass: an online course merging psychology-centric lectures with technical BDSM training to teach aspiring Dommes the ropes (pun intended) while helping them step into their highest power and purpose.

We discuss her teacher origin story of being outed to her Asian immigrant parents; the life-altering potential of honesty, in and out of the dungeon; why masks and personas actually aren't 'inauthentic' but tools for radical self-expression; and how physical and emotional pain shouldn't be avoided, but rather seen as an exciting - and important - test of boundaries. We also get into the rumors about her "sex cult" and the craziest acts she's ever subjected her Submissives to.

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Share your own story at confessions@aliweissworld.com. If you love the show, please take a moment to leave a rating & review: it’s immensely helpful for expanding our community of confessors!

Tales of Taboo is produced and hosted by Ali Weiss. Follow Ali on Instagram & TikTok @aliweissworld. Sound mixing by Cedric Wilson. Theme song by Chris Stathopolous. Cover photo by Erika Flynn. Cover art by Kristen Montenegro.

Would moving home with your parents be a dream or a nightmare? Depends on which confessor you ask.

This week’s stories (11:38) come from people between the ages of 31 to 45 residing throughout New York, California, and Oregon. Each of them is — or was until recently — living with their parents as an adult. I was too, until I was 28.

While the cost of living crisis played a major role in their decisions to move home, medical conditions, career changes, and relationship status factored in too. Some describe the experience as comforting and deeply healing; others admit it’s been infantilizing or emotionally complicated. But nearly all agree that multigenerational living offers benefits beyond saving money: community, relief from isolation, love, and the time and space to pursue hobbies, creative ambitions, and more meaningful ways of existing.

Most of all, it’s encouraged them to reconsider America’s traditional definition of “adulthood” — and question whether independence, productivity, and constant striving are really the only markers of a successful life.

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Share your own story at confessions@aliweissworld.com. If you love the show, please take a moment to leave a rating & review: it’s immensely helpful for expanding our community of confessors!

Tales of Taboo is produced and hosted by Ali Weiss. Follow Ali on Instagram & TikTok @aliweissworld. Sound mixing by Cedric Wilson. Theme song by Chris Stathopolous. Cover photo by Erika Flynn. Cover art by Kristen Montenegro.

I absolutely believe in marriage, but I also believe that marriage is inaccurately marketed as a one-stop solution for all of life’s problems. It’s no wonder why, as of 2024, about 43% of American marriages are said to end in divorce: we’re brainwashed! And yet, choosing to end a legally-bound relationship is still seen as a "failure."

This week’s anonymous confessors were all married and split by the age of 35. Their roads to divorce vary from the interference of religious parents, bisexuality, affairs, accidental pregnancies, drug addictions, and domestic abuse, to a FAKE death! However, their initial decisions to wed mostly stemmed from the same motivations: thinking (or being told) that marriage was “necessary” at that point in their life, or feeling lonely and insecure, and believing a contractual life partner would be a remedy.

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Tales of Taboo is produced and narrated by Ali Weiss. Share your own confession - or love letters and hate mail - at confessions@aliweissworld.com. Follow Ali on Instagram & TikTok @aliweissworld. Audio production by Chris Stathopolous and WTF Media. Theme song by Chris Stathopolous. Cover photo by Erika Flynn. Cover art by Kristen Montenegro. If you love the show, please take a moment to leave a rating and review - it's immensely helpful for expanding our network of anonymous confessors. Thank you!