Dr. Lindsey Doe: You ready?

Matthew Gaydos: Yeah.

Dr. Doe: Let's talk about 2016. Sexplanations 2016: End of the Year Chat!

Matthew Gaydos: Woo!

-- Intro Cut Scene --

Dr. Doe: What did we learn?

Matthew: uh.... pfft. I dunno.

Dr. Doe: *laughing* Off to a great start!

Matthew: We learned how to travel together, and to work together remotely - somewhere that's not this office.

Dr. Doe: Which was amazingly successful. It might have been like one of the most functional travel experiences I've ever had in my life. Tell us in the comments where we should go next.

Matthew: What's the biggest thing you learned this year?

Dr. Doe: This might not be the biggest, but just looking at this one - when Hank Green came on and he did the episode about monogamy, just how natural it was for his brain to think that way.

Matthew: Right. And you're not wired that way.

Dr. Doe: And the same with you.

Matthew: Yes. Me and Hank are wired very much the same when it comes to monogamy. 

Dr. Doe: Like it doesn't seem as if it's something that you commit to. It's something that you are.

Matthew: Oh yeah, no no. When Hank was talking in that video, none of it sounded foreign to me. Like I was like "yeah" - 

Dr. Doe: I was like "wait, what?"-

Matthew: -I was just nodding along.

Dr. Doe: The Self-induced Abortions video was a great learning experience for me in terms of gauging the audience and deciding I'm going to be honest and present accurate information and then we'll... we're going to see how they do or don't push back. And you were all amazing.

Matthew: Yeah I think that's not necessarily something I've "learned" this year, but maybe I've learned it about the audience moreso this year is we... I think we've done a lot of videos this year that were maybe pushing some of those limits of like "how are people going to react? We don't really know until we make this thing exist." Whenever we tackle like something that's very stigmatized in culture and people react positively to it and they're like "Oh I'm so glad you guys did this." I'm like "yeah! Cool! Me too... now. Because I'm glad you guys can see it this way instead of just like the stereotypes that are out there."

Dr. Doe: Favorite video and why?

Matthew: One that I like a lot, but that is the most different from anything else you've done is the "Boner Stories" with Mike Falzone-

Dr. Doe: *clapping* yeah!

Matthew: - because I just smile the entire time I'm watching it. It was a very very enjoyable thing. But as far as like regular Sexplanations videos goes: the 150 Sex Acts one is maybe my favorite - not just because of content, but also because of the work I put into that one. It took a lot of hours and 300 layers of special effects, graphics, and all these fun things we shot on a green-screen. What's your favorite?

Dr. Doe: My favorite? Disney Princesses with Jon Cozart was really fun, just because it was something that I had never done on the channel before. Just like, playing around with ideas and free association- 

Matthew: Right. Which I feel like is something that, like you said, you don't do a lot. But we did that a lot in LA, just because of the way things were and I think a lot of the videos turned out really well.

Dr. Doe: Changes in culture this last year? In Sex Culture. Changes in the Sex Culture in 2016.

Matthew: I would say it's not necessarily a change in all of culture, but it's a change in how people have been consuming culture through the news and stuff. I think a big thing this year was like the transgender bathroom law thing.

Dr. Doe: Oh yeah.

Matthew: And we made a video about that.

Dr. Doe: Yeah

Matthew: and it was a new thing for some people to find out was even an issue.

Dr. Doe: yeah, same thing with Prop 60 and the legislation that was going to make adult performers wear condoms and how that... yeah, that was a shift in my culture.

Matthew: Some of those things are things that we knew about beforehand, and other people knew about before we did even, but like the masses - like everyone - like your mom hearing about a transgender bathroom bill and figuring out what that means and how that affects people I think is a big shift.

Dr: Doe: He doesn't mean my mom, he means "your mom".

Matthew: yes, the "collective moms."

Dr. Doe: Things we want to accomplish in the future?

Matthew: I'd like to do another trip sometime.

Dr. Doe: We're going to be in Boston in February.

Matthew: Yeah, we're going to be in Boston for Nerdcon, Nerdfighteria.

Dr. Doe: But it won't be as Sexplanations-esque, so maybe, where? A different continent?

Matthew: I think that'd be fun. Like going international. I haven't traveled much in my life.

Dr. Doe: *whispering* He doesn't have a passport.

Matthew: I don't have a passport yet. That's true. 

Dr. Doe: Homework for next year. Getting a passport.

Matthew: What was your homework last year?

Dr. Doe: My homework last year was to make a condom puppet.

Matthew: And?

Dr. Doe: And my mom is coming tonight and we're going to make a condom puppet.

Matthew: So you're one of those kids who studies for the final the night before. To be fair, my homework last year was to watch Mirrormask.

Dr. Doe: yeah?

Matthew: And I have a copy that I borrowed from someone yesterday...

Dr. Doe: *laughing* we're terrible.

Matthew: ... and I have not watched it yet.

Dr. Doe: It's not the end of the year yet.

Matthew: It's true, we could technically both get our assignments done before the end of the year.

Dr. Doe: Oh yes. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr... you will see our homework done. Most challenging moments of 2016?

Matthew: 150 Sex Acts video. Figuring out the LA trip, I would say. Like actually being there ended up being pretty smooth sailing, once we were there and everything was scheduled, but up until like 2 days before we got there, a lot of it was not finalized.

Dr. Doe: Matthew is a planner.

Matthew: Yeah, I'm very much a planner, and need things like preferably like six weeks out, I want to know exactly what is happening. And this was like two days before I'm getting on a plane and not knowing what I'm going to be doing when I get there.

Dr. Doe: We had a great time!

Matthew: Yeah, it worked out fine! It just made me real nervous.

Dr. Doe: So, most challenging moments for me of this year... I would say... oh, I know, the one where I rhymed the whole video!

Matthew: Oh. Yeah!

Dr. Doe: That was a new type of challenge. It felt so good to go to a different part of my brain that I had never used before.

Matthew: I was very impressed.

Dr. Doe: Oh, thank you!

Matthew: It was, uh... you had told me "I'm going to do like a rhyming De. Seuss video." And I was like ".... okay?"

Dr: Doe: Ahhh! don't do it!

Matthew: and then like, like a week later or something like that, you sent me the script and I started reading it and I was like "this is amazing!" and I like started reading it out loud to my office mate and was like "listen to this!"  

Dr. Doe: Last question - what are you curious about right now? Related to sexuality.

Matthew: We did a video about like... the pubes video? I think about body hair in general. I'm very curious about like what started the trend of "and now we do this, and now we don't do that, and now no one does this, and everyone, nobody, regardless of gender, does this." Such hard and fast rules that get set in society with certain things that when you take five minutes, if somebody asked you to defend any of them, you'd be like "I got... I got nothing."

Dr. Doe: *laughing* yeah. right?

Matthew: Like if you're like "I like women who shave their armpits." And somebody was like "all right, explain to me why." and you're like "uhhhhh, mmmf"

Dr. Doe: Because it's more feminine.

Matthew: Exactly.

Dr. Doe: Why?

Matthew: But why is it feminine?

Dr. Doe: I'm curious why women cross their legs.

Matthew: Like right now?

Dr. Doe: Well yeah, I'm crossing my legs, but yeah - why do we do that?

Matthew: I think it's a, like a taught modesty thing. Like...

Dr. Doe: See? Crossed!

Matthew: Yeah. Modesty.

Both: *laughing*

Dr. Doe: But I want to go back to the moment in time when we decided "oh, you should buckle that closed!" Or why we maintain that.

Matthew: What else?

Dr. Doe: That's it.

Matthew: That's it?

Dr. Doe: Stay Curious!

Matthew: Stay Curious!

Dr. Doe: *laughing*

Matthew: Nailed it. Don't need another take. We nailed it.


-- Post Credits --

Matthew: Would you like different kinds of merch, or more t-shirt and...

Dr. Doe: Just more of the things.

Matthew: Like different sayings and posters and-

Dr. Doe: Yeah. Yeah.

Matthew: - and fun... There's probably a lot of people out there who make cool fan art and stuff that could easily be turned into merch.

Dr. Doe: Let's make more merch!

Matthew: Yeah!

Dr. Doe: 2017! The year of the merch! T-shirts! Posters! Sex Toys! Let's make it happen! Okay!

Siri: I don't know what that means.

Matthew: Oh hey, Siri.

Dr. Doe: *laughing*

Siri: If you like, I can search the web for panther sex toys.

Matthew: Siri thinks we said panther sex toys.

Dr. Doe: Siri thinks we're talking to her, which is even more of a concern!