AM Davies, The president of YAS Work kindly agreed to an interview for the Sex Worker search blog.
In 2020, AM Davies started “Yes, a Stripper Podcast”. After a year of doing the podcast by themselves, they opened up the platform to other hosts, which include Onyx Sachi, Daisy Ducati and GiGi Holliday. Collectively, this crew, along with Makenzie Mizell, produced over 125 episodes in which all types of sex workers have been interviewed. It’s become a place for sex workers to come to to tell their stories.
To educate and entertain audiences with the stories of sex workers and shift public perception through podcasts, panels, media production, and consulting—ultimately driving action and allyship.
YAS Work envisions a world where sex workers are seen, heard, and respected—where their stories are told with dignity, their rights are protected, and their voices shape culture, policy, and public perception. Through unapologetic storytelling, transformative education, and strategic advocacy, YAS Work aims to build a future where sex work is de-stigmatized, decriminalized, and integrated into broader movements for social justice and equity.
You can follow YAS Work on Bluesky, Watch the YAS Podcast on Youtube, and go shopping for wearable pieces of artwork designed by current and former sex workers.
1.Your journey from stripper to activist and podcast presenter.
You worked as a stripper from 2002 to 2022 and later became deeply involved in organizing with Strippers United, media work with United Pole Artists, and now hosting the YAS Podcast. A similar timeline to me actually. I started escorting about 25 years ago with ads in the back of local newspapers. In person sex work has changed so much. Looking back over those two decades, what changes in the strip club industry stand out most to you, both positive and negative? And what issues affecting strippers feel most urgent today?
Thank you for this question, as the changes have been rapid and significant. In fact, the evolution of the strip club has been like a series of hot flashes, with the entire industry having to adapt and change with every decade as we become more dependent on technology over time. In my time, since the early 2000’s, I’ve seen the boom of social media, which has been one of the things that catalysed massive change in several ways. For one, it allowed us to talk more and learn from each other what we all were dealing with in our workplaces. We’ve been able to raise awareness of exploitation, and to teach people more about stigma and discrimination. Social media allowed strippers to stay connected to clients without giving out phone numbers and helped workers let people know where they would be and when. But what it also did was create a crutch for the club owners and managers. They know that workers are on social media and have relied heavily on that, coercing and pressuring dancers to post to get customers in, instead of paying for advertising. In some cases, clubs won’t hire dancers with small or no social media accounts.
Because of stigma and the idea that the strip club workplace is “supposed to be toxic”, the exploitation has run rampant. Because they have gone unchecked and not stood up to enough, they think they can, and they do, get away with the most egregious of terms with their workers, including charging exorbitant house fees, and in some places, charging workers when they call out for being sick or whatever they need to call out for. I’ve watched this type of treatment escalate over the last 20 years.
I think what is most urgent today is to come together and stand in solidarity for working conditions. The industry is shrinking, clubs are closing, a lot of clubs have been empty. We don’t want clubs to shutter, we don’t want to sue them for millions which then causes them financial troubles. We’d rather just have fair working conditions and find ways to work with management so business can prosper.
2. What would the perfect strip club look like?
In one recent YAS episode you spoke with representatives Margot and Sabeen from Fired Up Stilettos in New Zealand about labour rights and organizing in strip clubs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhuOSDwGMVA&t=11s New Zealand is rightly seen as a global leader in sex work thanks to decriminalization, but strip club working conditions still vary widely even there.
I found it so interesting to see this video alongside a very different look at the same industry in USA described by Vampiress. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfMvCmmKcNk and I really enjoyed your chat with Sam Sun from the East London Stripper Collective https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMA9m4wJXlo too with a very different perspective again from this side of the pond.
In your view, is there such a thing as a universal best practice model for strip clubs internationally, or are the solutions always country specific? If we imagine a hypothetical "perfect" club operating under ideal laws with ethical management, what would that actually look like from a dancer’s perspective?
I think strip clubs should celebrate the culture of their region. So, what is good for one club will not work for another, just like you probably noticed in the episode with Sam Sun. In the UK, they only accept coins as tips, so making it rain is not a thing.
As for the hypothetical “perfect” club… I mean, I don’t know about everyone else, but I have a vision. First, it would be gender inclusive. It would not discriminate based on age, race or body size or ability. Hiring practices would be based on talent or potential talent, creativity, social skills, stage presence. Workers of all kinds would go through safety training, including a handbook about the workplace, management would have had experience in the sex trade. Dancers get paid to work like everyone else, plus keep all their tips and dance money. The club would make money on memberships, alcohol, other drinks, snacks, food, merchandise. Dancers have a say in the decisions made at the club. As it is right now, these bigger clubs make so much money that some of them can afford to be sued millions of dollars and keep going. They do however, start to raise house fees when they have to payout large settlement fees. They could instead, do the right thing and not be so greedy. My ideal club situation doesn’t make the owner(s) filthy rich, but they would live very comfortably..
3. Translating sex work realities for different audiences
One thing I noticed watching several YAS Podcast episodes is that you are very deliberate about, and highly skilled at, making conversations accessible. You often pause and ask guests to explain industry jargon or concepts so non sex workers can follow along.
Your audience includes sex workers, allies, activists, educators, policymakers, and the general public. How do you balance speaking authentically to the community while also making the conversation understandable to people outside it? Do you have a sense of which audiences you most hope are actually listening?
Yes, I do have a sense of who I hope is listening. I feel like people who want to know more about sex work and the issues are listening. I feel like sex workers who are on the fringe of advocacy (or full on in) are listening. And I know that pole dancers and civilians have been listening. Based on things I’ve picked up on, I also believe that sex worker enthusiasts are listening, meaning fans of sex workers. I think that really started happening when Daisy got serious on the podcast. She’s done such a good job over the years of entertaining and educating her audience even outside of the podcast. They really admire her and listen when she speaks.
When I’m hosting, the podcast is like my own private party, where no one is judging the conversation and all kinds of people are in the circle. We're all listening together. My goal is to earn trust with sex workers while helping civilians understand the realities of this work.
4. Understanding other sectors of sex work
I moderate the r/sexworkers and r/sexworkersonly subreddits, and something I have become very aware of is how different each sector of sex work can be and yet how much we do have in common and how valuable community can be when we are united. As a male escort in the UK I sometimes feel like I am reasonably knowledgeable about my own corner of the industry. But when it comes to stripping, I am probably somewhere in the "Valley of Despair" stage of the Dunning Kruger curve. Maybe I know enough to realise how little I actually know.
What are some of the biggest misconceptions people from other parts of the sex industry have about stripping and strip club culture? And more broadly, what do you see as the benefits of greater unity across the industry and stronger solidarity between different kinds of sex workers?
I feel like there are misconceptions about what strippers do and don’t do under the umbrella of sex work. Some people have argued that stripping is not sex work. The thing is, stripping can be all kinds of things, down to what happens in the club and what some do outside of the club. We also deal with whorearchy, which goes both ways. In one way, if you are more of a whore than others, you may be judged. The other way, if you are not as big of a whore but identify as a whore, you may be judged as “not whore enough”. At the end of the day, we all deal with discrimination and judgement from normal society. I propose that we stick together, no matter the size of one’s whoredom. The benefits of solidarity are perhaps better mental health situations? We would have less drama between each other? We could stand with each other against harmful workplaces. There are whorearchy issues that happen within the club, dancer against dancer, and the resentment towards each other keeps them from agreeing on most things. That is what management wants.
5. What have we missed?
You often end YAS Podcast interviews by asking guests something along the lines of "What have we missed?" or "What do you most want people to know?"
So I would like to ask you the same question. What is the most important thing about stripping, sex worker organizing, or the excellent work YAS is doing that you wish more people, especially the public and policymakers, understood and any calls to action you'd like to include?
Thank you for asking! What I’d like most for people to know about me personally, is several years ago, I made a commitment to sex workers, to do what I could to support them, given I had lost my foot. I had a strong urge to give back because of the privilege I operated under for a long time in the industry. That is why I do this work now, and is why we add hosts and voices to YAS Work. My vision has been to create this platform for others to speak more, for me to speak less, as times goes on. We are in the process of developing a network now, where other sex workers will have their own shows. This has been years in the making!
Thank you so much for these very thoughtful questions. It’s been a pleasure answering them!