Susan Block, Ph.D.
Biography

Part philosopher, part sex symbol, part humorist, and part-time horny housewife, Dr. Susan Block is a world-renowned sex educator, as well as the host of HBO's "Radio Sex TV," a best-selling author, award-winning essayist, filmmaker, radio and cable TV host, syndicated columnist, creator of the best-selling "Dr. Susan Block Video Encyclopedia of Sex & Fetishes," author of "The 10 Commandments of Pleasure" (St. Martin's Press), proprietress of Dr. Suzy's Speakeasy, director of the Speakeasy Gallery (the only permanent erotic art collection in Southern California) and the Dr. Susan Block Institute for the Erotic Arts & Sciences. She also operates an award-winning 2,000-page website (drsusanblock.com, plus an Internet radio/TV station at radiosuzy1.com), and she is a dedicated sex therapist in private practice.

Dr. Block's academic background has been both rigorous and diverse. In high school, she was editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, president of the Philadelphia Model United Nations, star of the high school play, captain of the Debating Team, winner of several American history awards, including the DAR, a member of the National Honor Society, and won admission to all the Ivy League colleges, choosing to enter Yale University.

In the summer of her junior year, she traveled through Israel, studying ancient and modern Middle Eastern culture and Kabbalah, and working on a kibbutz outside Jerusalem. Little did she know that her studies in world history and comparative religion would provide a background for her eventual career as a sex educator. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale with Distinction in Theater Studies, where she was privileged to work with Robert Brustein, Meryl Streep, the late great Honey Cones, Nikos Psacharapolous and members of the Firesign Theater, among others. At the age of 20, she traveled through India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan, studying Yoga, Kama Sutra, Tantra and other aspects of Asian culture. She spent the summer of her junior year at Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, studying poetry with Alan Ginsburg, William Burroughs and Gregory Corso at the Jack Keroac School of Disembodied Poetics, and Tibetan-style Tantric Sex with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

After graduating from Yale in 1977, she worked as a "City Mime" for the New Haven City Council, taught "troubled" teens to express themselves through theater, studied with R.G. Davis and other members of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and toured with New England Commedia, performing commedia d'elle arte-style adaptations of Tartuffe plays. She also practiced Zen Buddhism and Kundalini Yoga.

In 1980, she moved to California, and continued her studies at UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University and More University, traveled through Europe performing commedia and studying history, theater, art and philosophy at various institutes, including the University of Padova and the Sorbonne, and obtained her doctorate in Philosophy from Pacific Western University in 1991. During this time, she worked as a freelance writer, penning features for such publications as the New Haven Advocate, Connecticut Magazine, San Francisco Magazine, the Bay Guardian, the Berkeley Monthly, the LA Weekly and Los Angeles Magazine.

Her first book, Advertising for Love (Morrow: 1984) became the definitive book on personal ads, and her second book, Being a Woman (Random House: 1988) which she wrote with psychologist Dr. Toni Grant, became a best-seller. She also published several short stories, including three in Pleasures, Erotic Interludes, and Erotic Escapades, edited by psychologist Dr. Lonnie Barbach.

During this time, she also read her poetry in many venues throughout California, and organized several LA city-wide poetry events with legendary poet/performance artist Bob Flannigan and popular LA poet Wanda Coleman, among others. She also climbed to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge with the legendary Suicide Club of San Francisco. Around this time (the mid-80s), she also started her private therapy practice, in which she counseled individual men and women, as well as couples and groups in matters of love, work and sexuality, according to her philosophy of "ethical hedonism."

She also got into radio. After launching her first radio show on KIEV, sponsored by the LA Weekly, she met her Prince, Maximillian R. Lobkowicz, sold him an ad for her radio show, and fell in love. There was just one hitch: He was married to somebody else. They became friends and collaborators, producing a series of legendary Radio Salons and audio tapes, including Dr. Susan Block's Bedtime Stories for Adults Only, that dramatized the erotic feelings they dared not express in real life. She also wrote an advice column for his magazine, the Brentwood Bla Bla. In addition, Block and Lobkowicz organized LA's first modern Art Salons, featuring great local artists, poets, chefs and designers. Later (in 1991), they made Desert Susan, a series of audiotapes for the troops of Desert Storm.

In 1991, when Lobkowicz separated from his then-wife, he and Block embarked upon their Great Love Affair in earnest. They married in '92 in Philly, under the aegis of Rabbi Gerald Wolpe and Rabbi Ivan Caine, both of whom had had a profound affect upon Block's youth. Lobkowicz began producing Block's weekly call-in radio program, now called "The Dr. Susan Block Show" on KFOX, encouraging her to express the more sensuous sides of her own personality. Having always been discouraged from openly expressing her sexuality by past lovers, Block's persona quickly blossomed into the unflinchingly erotic, witty and wise "Mistress of the Airwaves" that she is today. Lobkowicz also started filming his wife as she hosted her radio show in the KFOX studios. Thus began the cinematic process that led to The Dr. Susan Block Show on television as well as Radio Sex TV with Dr. Susan Block on HBO.

Seven years later, Dr. Susan Block has become an internationally renowned sex educator and filmmaker, an award-winning philosopher (winner of the bronze award in the Great American Think-Off nationwide philosophy debate and declared one of four of "America's Greatest Thinkers" of 1998), and an HBO star with #1-rated specials (Radio Sex TV) and recurring segments on Real Sex. Collaborating with her publisher-husband, she has expanded her literary work with their own publication, Dr. Susan Block's Journal, which appears occasionally in print and daily on their website at drsusanblock.com. She also writes a monthly column on sex and politics that is syndicated in other magazines. Her book, The 10 Commandments of Pleasure (St. Martin's Press: 1996), was excerpted in Cosmopolitan, American Woman and the British Sun, has been critically acclaimed (amazon.com gives it the maximum five star rating), and is now being published in countries throughout Europe, the UK, Asia and South America. She is currently writing a new book on her philosophy of ethical hedonism.

Block and Lobkowicz continue to make breakthrough television with the weekly Dr. Susan Block Show on cable TV and the Internet, boasting a huge cult following. Dr. Block draws upon her own rich academic background to present different sexual subjects from historical, psychological, anthropological, biological, sociological, mystical, theatrical and literary points of view. She draws upon her experience and training in both Western and Eastern cultures. She helps callers and guests with their questions, problems, fantasies and fetishes. She teaches both men and women to have bigger orgasms and better relationships. She also reviews various current events, films, plays and books pertaining to sexuality, and talks with celebrities and others in her famous "broadcast bed" filled with pillows, vibrators, whips, dildos, vulva puppets and other erotic props. She broadcasts the show live every Saturday night on her website at radiosuzy1.com (with over 80,000 listeners per month). At any time, visitors can also view and/or hear dozens of archived episodes of The Dr. Susan Block Show on the site.

Tom Quinn of Entertainment Today calls the program "a frank, funny, thoughtful, sensual romp through everything you ever wanted to know about sex and were delighted that somebody finally asked." "Brilliant, sexy, intellectual," writes Art Kunkin of the LA Free Press. "Susan is so damn intelligent it almost scares me," exclaims sex pioneer Betty Dodson. "Dr. Suzy has an ever-growing cult following under her garter belt," says Dale Brasel in Detour. "Why? Unlike Dr. Ruth, you can actually believe she's had-and is still having-sex. Good sex." "Dr. Susan Block is a modern day Cleopatra," writes Richard Rappaport in Soma. "The response to her show has been, well, orgasmic."

Her two half-hour specials on HBO, Radio Sex TV and Radio Sex TV-2: Off the Dial, both scored the highest Nielsen ratings for the day in all of pay cable TV, each reaching about 2.5 million households on their debut nights, with a combined viewership of over 20 million people. Cara Jepsen's review in the Illinois Entertainer sums up the fans' perception of Radio Sex TV on HBO: "Dr. Suzy gives sex and relationship advice that's friendly and direct rather than condescending…combining her open Annie Sprinkle-like sexuality and penchant for lingerie and sex toys…with the no-nonsense chutzpah of Dr. Ruth…Definitely pro-female without being anti-male." "Radio Sex TV sure beats an evening of The Tonight Show!" says Denis D. O'Leary in the Weekly Alibi. Dr. Block also appears regularly (and always to top ratings) on HBO's Real Sex, her next segment scheduled for November, 2000 on Real Sex 27. She is also a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Her video series, Dr. Susan Block's Encyclopedia of Sex & Fetishes, has gained critical praise and worldwide attention. Ellen Thompson of AVN calls her "the '90s Masters and Johnson…Dr. Suzy presents simple, inventive and informative ways to help us all get along…Dealing with a variety of erotic topics, Block's easy-going, playful demeanor puts all at ease." The subjects of the videos range from basic technique (Foreplay) to consumer interest (Vibrators & Other Lovers), from fetish (Spanking For Adults Only) to social commentary (The New Horny Housewife) and political satire (Kenneth W. Starr: A Pornographer for Our Times, recommended by Troy Patterson in Entertainment Weekly, and called "one of the great social satires of our time," by David Hirst of The Australian, as well as an "amusing exposé of the poisonous undercurrent of repression, prurience and hypocrisy in America's political and psychosexual crisis" by Joe Conason of the NY Observer). Richard Pacheco of Spectator calls the series a "work of genius… I've become a fan," and Sharon Peters writes in Libido: "Boldly original…Dr. Susan Block doesn't just push the envelope, she is the envelope!"

Not that Dr. Block is always praised. Oh, no. National radio and television talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger called her a "pseudo-professional porn queen." She has been pejoratively called "Queen Dildo" by Greg Gaslin in New Times and snidely considered to be "Little Bo Peep on leave from a French bordello" by Matt LaBash in the conservative Weekly Standard.

She has had her troubles not only with the press, but with the police. On January 31, 1998, in the middle of an episode of The Dr. Susan Block Show in which Dr. Block and the Blockettes presented a Ken Starr lookalike with the 1998 "Pornographer of the Year" award, suddenly, without warning, Dr. Block's home/studio (the Villa Piacere or "Pleasure House") was invaded by about 20 armed members of the LAPD. Neither Block nor Lobkowicz nor anyone else was ever charged with anything. In fact, they were breaking no laws. So why did the LAPD conduct the invasion? We'll never know. Perhaps because they assumed that anyone having as much fun as everyone seems to have on The Dr. Susan Block Show must be doing something illegal. Or maybe that was the only way that certain police officers thought they could get into the show. Many cops are big fans. Dr. Block's studios and galleries were again invaded frivolously and without a warrant by LAPD on February 26, 2000 (For information on the recent raid, see our LAPD page).

Despite the heat (and, to some extent, because of it), Dr. Block continues broadcasting, spreading her message of ethical hedonism and helping callers and guests to deal with their sex lives, as well as venturing out to give the occasional lecture or seminar, addressing such groups as the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), Mensa, The Lifestyles Conventions and many schools and universities, including her alma mater Yale. She is also interviewed with some frequency as a celebrity expert on human sexuality on numerous local, national and international TV, radio (regularly on KCRW's award-winning "Which Way LA?") and Internet shows, documentary films, and in magazines (regularly in Cosmopolitan and Men's Health) and newspapers. And she does occasional performance art pieces, including Sex Acts with Heilman-C which played to overflow crowds of more than 3000 at the Jack Tilton Gallery in Soho, New York, and her acclaimed Old-Time Gospel-Style Sexual Revival at The Lifestyles Convention and Erotic Art of the Apocalypse Opening.

She maintains an award-winning Internet website (drsusanblock.com), which is in the top 1% of all websites in the world. Besides Dr. Susan Block's Journal (which The Women's Guide to Sex on the Web calls "a veritable who's-who and what's-what of 'ethical hedonism'" stemming from "the beauty and brains of Dr. Susan Block') and live and archived broadcasts of her shows (radiosuzy1.com), the site features over 1000 pages of sex educational materials, interviews, photos, writings on sex, love, art, travel, philosophy, politics, poetry, erotic art (eroticsgallery.com), personal ads, electronic book shop (blockbooks.com), adult toy catalog, behind-the-scenes photos from her HBO shows, book, movie, club, restaurant and hotel reviews, Dr. Block's Erotic Theater of the Mind (where viewers can watch her videos) and a wealth of information on the peaceful sex practices of bonobo chimpanzees (blockbonobofoundation.org).

An active long-time advocate of these extremely endangered Congolese apes, Dr. Block uses the highly sexual, remarkably non-violent and non-male-dominant bonobo "lifestyle" as a prototype for her philosophy of "peace through pleasure." Many of her shows, books, videos and columns include theories and information on bonobos, and her website on the creatures she calls "the horniest apes on earth" at blockbonobofoundation.org has been acclaimed throughout the Internet.

Despite the demands of her active media-oriented career, Block maintains her private therapy practice which includes clients from all parts of the globe. About 10 other therapists, experts or prodigies in different areas, also work with clients under her direction in the therapy wing of the Dr. Susan Block Institute. The Institute specializes in treating victims of religious sexual abuse, political indoctrination and mass media distortion. Dr. Block is also a lecturer with the Human Sexuality Department at University of Southern California (USC), and a consultant to the Los Angeles Public Defender's office on capital sex crime cases.

Recently, Block and Lobkowicz and the multi-cultural, multi-racial staff of the Institute moved from the Villa Piacere in the Hollywood Hills into the 8000 square-foot second floor of a beautiful old brick building in downtown LA that used to be a real speak-easy in the 1920s. Having often referred to her show as "Dr. Suzy's Speakeasy," Block and Lobkowicz felt this was the perfect urban center for their erotic educational dream. Part of the Institute is devoted to private therapy, another section to Block Studios that broadcasts the show, and another area to BlockFilms which produces the videos. The newest part of the Institute is the Speakeasy Gallery, LA's only permanent collection of erotic art. The Speakeasy Gallery features erotic art in all media, including painting, sculpture, collage, still photography and video, created by local and internationally distinguished artists. Block also exhibits a few of her own works, including her video-photo "Happy Snaps," sensual-satirical "Panties-in-a-Bottle," and her impeachment erotica piece "Hungry Republicans." The Gallery's first show, "Art of The New Morality for the Next Millennium: Ethical Hedonism," will be featured on HBO. The show "Foot Fetish Art" was accompanied by several formal and informal Foot Pleasure Salons that have been sensuous extravaganzas. The current exhibit is "Erotic Art of the Apocalypse." Opening night, Dr. Block perform one of her renowned, rousing "Old-Time Sexual Revivals." The Speakeasy Gallery's next exhibit, "Sexual Evolution," will raise funds to help save the bonobos.

Dr. Susan Block can be reached at 213.749.1330. Her e-mail address is drsuzyb@blockbooks.com.