Smut With Standards: What We Talked About On First Dates and Soulmates
- May 12
- 3 min read
The Bothered Blog by Allison Whaley
May 2026
I had the best time sitting down with Meg Casebolt and Nikki McKnight on their podcast, First Dates & Soulmates—and if you missed it, you can listen to the full episode here. The episode is called Smut With Standards, and honestly? That title says it all. We talked about what makes short erotic fiction actually good, why curation matters more than ever right now, and the surprisingly powerful role that well-written erotica can play in people's lives. Below is a recap of our conversation highlights.
What Is Bothered Stories, Anyway?
For anyone new here: Bothered Stories is a home for short, high-heat fiction. We're not talking romance novels. We mean bingeable, beautifully written short stories, 20–35 minutes long, that you can slot in between books, read on your lunch break, or enjoy at the end of a long day.
We publish a new story every week, send a newsletter on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month, and have a searchable online library organized by trope, genre, and category. New members get a two-week free trial—no credit card required—at botheredstories.com.
What We Talked About
The "No Cringe" Promise
A big chunk of our conversation was about quality — and what separates Bothered Stories from the sea of free erotica online. We talked about how erotica can be cringe-inducing: overwrought word choices, passive voice, characters who exist only to have sex.
At Bothered Stories, our editorial guidelines are real and specific. Our stories require:
Character development—your protagonist will be different at the end of the story than they were at the beginning.
A plotline beyond the sex—the intimacy is integral to the story, not the story itself.
An ending that leaves you feeling good—not a happy ever after necessarily, but an “emotionally satisfying and optimistic” ending, a term Nikki coined that I love.
Word choices that don't make you wince—yes, we literally call out certain words in our guidelines.
Nikki made a great analogy: sex scenes in fiction work the same way action sequences do in film. The best ones move the plot and the characters forward. If they don't, you're bored.
Short Stories as a Safe Space to Explore
One of the most interesting threads in the conversation was about the freedom of short form. Because our stories aren't locked into the romance genre, authors have room to experiment — we have a story right now about a mafia man who breaks into a department store and falls for a mannequin who comes to life. (It's better than it sounds. It's much better than it sounds.)
We talked about how short stories can be:
A low-stakes way to try a new trope, genre, or type of relationship without committing to 400 pages.
A tool sex therapists actually recommend to couples—as a way to explore desires and open conversations without it feeling vulnerable or personal.
A mirror for readers figuring out who they are, like our story Snow Piled Up to the Clouds, which follows a young person's trans awakening.
Curation in a World Full of Slop
Meg made a point that really landed: as the market floods with AI-generated content and anyone-can-publish platforms, curation becomes more valuable, not less. When everything is free and plentiful, you need someone you trust to filter it for you.
At Bothered Stories, that's what we do:
Every story is human-written and human-edited (we don't accept AI submissions, full stop).
We tag content clearly at the top of every story so you know what you're getting.
We actively build a diverse library—queer content in every newsletter, stories by and about people of color, a wide range of relationship types and kinks.
The Broader Point: Smut Actually Matters
We talked about the role that well-written erotic fiction plays in people's lives—the woman who bookmarks her favorite sex scenes in novels to return to later, the couples who use smut as a conversation-starter, the reader who might stumble across a story at exactly the right moment and understand something new about themselves. Nikki ended the episode by dubbing Bothered Stories a “well written vibrator” and hey, I’m not mad about it.
And yes, we talked about why starting a smut company during politically turbulent times isn't ironic—it's intentional. Centering pleasure, diverse bodies, and joyful sexuality is its own kind of resistance.
Listen to the Full Episode
This recap only scratches the surface—Meg and Nikki are magnetic, and the conversation went to some hilarious places (“slick folds” and “bratwurst” were mentioned in the same sentence; we'll leave it at that).
And if you're ready to dive in, start your free two-week trial at botheredstories.com—no credit card required.
— Allison
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