Introducing Stiffed: Good Girls Walk Into a Porn Magazine

New York City, 1973. Bob Guccione, founder of the men’s magazine Penthouse, is about to drop his latest project, and it’s not quite what anyone is expecting. Enter Viva, an erotic magazine for women published by a porn king but staffed by – drumroll – a bunch of feminist writers and editors. Viva features groundbreaking full-frontal male nudes, writing by feminist icons like Betty Friedan, and profiles of literary legends like Maya Angelou. Its cover stars include Bianca Jagger and Shelley Duvall. Anna Wintour is even Viva’s fashion editor at one point. But what is originally conceived as a high-end, progressive, sexual utopia for women... doesn’t quite turn out that way. This is the first episode of Stiffed, an eight-part series from Crooked Media and iHeart Media. If you like what you hear, you can listen and follow Stiffed wherever you get your podcasts.