The Mystery Box Show is a sex-positive live storytelling event based in Portland, Oregon. Our goal is to normalize the way our culture talks about sex,” says Executive Producer Reba Sparrow. “We do this by finding the universal emotions in a story so the story is relatable to everyone.” Finding these universal emotions is how a straight white male (for example) might find connection and empathy with a non-gender-conforming kinky sub, or how a butch lesbian boi (sic) might see themselves in the most vanilla of church-going soccer moms. Reba Sparrow and her partner, Eric Scheur, have been curating The Mystery Box Show since 2012. They work closely with their storytellers to coach and develop their stories from a simple two-sentence e-mail pitch into a fully-realized story. They have seen first-hand the power that these stories can have to erase shame and create empathy when the topic of sex is treated neither as taboo nor exploitative, but simply human.