"Competence porn" is an indistinct genre of media that showcases people doing their jobs (loosely defined) exceptionally well, often using niche skills or uncommon expertise. You've no doubt seen it in documentaries, in short-form video, and even in a courtroom procedural or medical drama.

What is it that's so appealing about competence porn? And why call it "porn?" And what can it tell us about what's missing from our work? This episode gets into all of that. But first, I gotta tell you about the day I became a boulderer.

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Footnotes:

Read the written version of this episode.
"My Summer of Strategic Incompetence" by Kate Manne
Free Solo (2018 film)
"Competence Porn is Comforting" by Rachel Ayers in Reactor
LFG (2021 film)
"The Uses of the Erotic" by Audre Lorde
Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks
The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord

(00:00) - Desperately Seeking Embodied Competence
(20:00) - Credits

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The Spectacle of Competence

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