Welcome to the 100th episode of The Performers Pod.
Created by Chelsea Poe in the wake of the infamous BBC article originally titled “Some lesbians are feeling pressured to have sex with trans women,” The Performers Pod was born from the need for performers to tell their own stories, on their own terms. After an interview Chelsea experienced as baiting and reductive one that attempted to conflate porn, dating, and anti-trans panic the resulting media storm, including Lily Cade’s violent manifesto and widespread backlash in the UK. That made one thing clear performers needed a space beyond the narrative being written about them.
Over the last five years and 100 episodes, more than 100,000 listeners have joined that conversation.
This milestone episode reflects on everything the podcast has carried Chelsea through winning Cam Performer of the Year on the same stage where she once felt humiliated as a 22 year old newcomer, auditioning for a lead role with A24, getting married, shooting her dream movie with Princess Donna, and becoming the first trans woman in a Public Disgrace-style scene. It also celebrates the unforgettable conversations that shaped the show including a nearly two-hour interview with Stoya, one of Chelsea’s biggest artistic inspirations, who announced her semi-retirement on the podcast.
Across 100 episodes The Performers Pod has explored porn history, labor, artistry, survival, and transformation across the world from Canada to Argentina, Germany to Australia, Japan to Texas. The show has featured performers from the 1980s who lived stealth as trans women, pioneers from the origins of camming in the 1990s and voices from the massive generational shift brought on by OnlyFans after the pandemic.
This episode is both a thank you and a turning point, a tribute to every performer who trusted the show with their story and to every listener who has been part of the journey.
Chelsea also announces her next project: a tenepisode series covering 130 years of porn history, from Paris in 1896 to AVN in Las Vegas in 2026. Featuring performers, academics, filmmakers, and other experts the series will trace porn’s story in a way rarely seen before through the people, politics, art, labor and cultural moments that make the industry so special
