"The idea that you could openly sell things that help women achieve orgasm is pretty new."

"Sex toys, most of them, are designed to help women achieve orgasm," says writer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Phil Harvey. "The idea that you could openly sell things that help women achieve orgasm is pretty new."

Harvey runs the adult-toy company Adam & Eve and is the head of DKT International, a nonprofit that promotes family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention in underdeveloped countries.

An ardent libertarian (and contributor to Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes Reason TV), Harvey is also the author of several books, including 2001's The Government vs. Erotica, which documented his precedent-setting legal battles with state and federal law enforcement over the right to sell adult materials to willing customers.

His new book is Show Time, a psychological thriller that follows a group of reality TV participants struggling to survive a brutal winter on a remote island in Lake Superior. By turns reminiscent of The Hunger Games, Survivor, and Lost, Show Time is a wry and gripping commentary on voyeurism, mass media, and self-destruction.

Harvey sat down recently with Nick Gillespie to discuss why sex and violence will always be integral to the arts and how Americans have become more comfortable in their pursuit of sensual pleasure.

About 14 minutes.

Interview by Nick Gillespie. Edited by Amanda Winkler.

Visit http://reason.com/reasontv for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason TV's YouTube channel to receive automatic notifications when new material goes live.

• Category

  News & Politics

[MrPatrickHenryCheryl]

>The only benefit that I want is cosmetic

It's not "freedom-killing" to stop you from causing unnecessary harm and permanent injury by wholly severing one someone's most sensitive body parts against their will, regardless of your personal taste. Why you're so fixated on the visual appeal of babies' genitals is beyond me.

[PattyC127]

Not care about you, no, they just didn't know any better.

[ttthttpd]

Women with vibrators -> Liberated, powerful, enlightened

Men with sex toys -> Pathetic, weak, stupid

Double standards can kiss my ass!

[fexurbis123]

Great interview, nevertheless.

[fexurbis123]

Look at Nick Gillespie slipping into feminist rhetoric. Disappointingly surprising.

[Lacocacolaman]

Well you do realize humans have no objective rights under atheism right!? and if humans do have rights I'd like to know where these objective rights come from? Not being rude but do you know the difference between subjective or Objective? I don't think you really know much about what your world view is. My question is if you believe in atheism then you should logically conclude that life has no true purpose and humans have no objective rights to anything so a baby is subjected to the parents.

[MrPatrickHenryCheryl]

I am, but it with all the red herrings like abortion and religion it seems like you're just trying to troll. Do you want to have a discussion or don't you?

[Lacocacolaman]

LOL, are you serious!? are you not an Atheist now?

[MrPatrickHenryCheryl]

Wanna stop with the presumptions and entry-level poe trolling so we can have a real discussion?

[Lacocacolaman]

well then you're not a logical Atheist(which in this case is a good thing.) In atheism babies have no rights and if you think they do have a right who gives babies their rights? if it's man then it's completely subjective and there is no truth to it just one mans opinion.