The Knight Life’s second episode, broadcast on Oct. 25, featured another part of The Listening Machine’s series on San Diegans’ experiences with COVID-19, as well as the third episode of Sex & Sexuality, which deals with maintaining authenticity in relationships.

In The Listening Machine, a call-in show produced by Jakob McWhinney, listeners heard from a woman struggling with feelings of isolation brought on by over a year and a half of pandemic-induced social distancing. 

Socializing was a vital part of her life, and COVID-19 took that away. But now that things are loosening up, she said she faces a different challenge — recovering the social skills she feels she’s lost and figuring out how to put herself back out there. 

“I know that’s gonna be a difficult one to conquer,” she said, “but one that I will because I think people really need the social contacts. And the Zoom and everything else, the cell phones, do not take the place of social contacts and physical contacts.”

Listeners also heard from an essential worker who, despite the spread of COVID-19, still had to clock in every day. He took all the precautions — masks, sanitizer, gloves — but even then he felt exposed and psychologically worn down by the reality of working through a pandemic.

On Sex & Sexuality, host Marlena Harvey talked with counselor Tristan Hartley from San Diego City College’s Mental Health Counseling about authenticity in the bedroom, healthy communication with your partner and setting boundaries.

The discussion was based on group meetings that were safe spaces for students to speak openly about topics relating to sex and sexuality.

Led by Hartley, students discussed deconstructing who they are and the roles assigned to them, what it means to show up authentically in their lives and in the bedroom, and how communication plays a key role in all of that.

“Communication and authenticity literally go hand in hand on the same frequency,” Hartley said.

Harvey agreed, saying that so many of us struggle with communication in our relationships.

She added, “It all comes back down to those two words that are so ingrained into our heads: shame and judgment.”