How Sex Scenes in Film Can Reshape Real Intimacy, With Intimacy Coordinator Ita O’Brien

Welcome to Intelligence Squared, where great minds meet. I'm senior producer Mia Sorenti. How has the way we depict sex on screen changed the way we think about intimacy off it? And in an age of AI companions and increasingly digital relationships, what does genuine human connection look like? On today's episode, Eter O'Brien,

The UK's leading intimacy coordinator joins Olivia Petter, journalist, author and broadcaster, to discuss O'Brien's new book, Intimacy, and how her work has transformed the portrayal of sex on screen while opening up wider conversations about consent, trust, and physical connection. Let's join our host, Olivia Petter, now with more. Hello everyone, my name is Olivia Petter. I am a journalist and author, and I am thrilled to be here with Intelligence Squared to speak to the wonderful Ita O'Brien, the pioneering intimacy coordinator behind some of the most groundbreaking pieces of pop culture we've seen. I'm talking about I may destroy you, sex education, and normal people shows that completely revolutionized the way that we talk about and think about sex and intimacy on screen.

And that was down to eaters completely revolutionary, like I said, work. You know, this wasn't something that people were doing very long ago. It's still a very recent creation, a very recent, very necessary creation. And now she has written a book, Intimacy, A Field Guide to Finding Connection and Feeling Your Deep Desires. So I am thrilled to be talking to Ita about it today.

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