PROS BEFORE BROS: The Audiobook

Published in 2019 by the Offbeat Empire LLC, the first edition of PROS BEFORE BROS was a 114-page hardback art book paired with jewelry designed by the author.

A true story by Seattle author Ariel Meadow Stallings about sex work and grabbing your own healing by the balls, the narrative of PROS BEFORE BROS explores identity, feminism, shame, surrender, gender roles, BDSM, empowerment, embodiment, and trying to get out of your own damn head.

The limited run first edition hardback+jewelry pairing set sold out in 2022... But the book is now available as an hour-long author-narrated audiobook. As with the original print run, this audiobook edition is a limited run, with only 100 available.

A note from the author

Yeah, hey. I'm Ariel. I'm an author best known for writing about weddings, so the fact that I wrote a first-person memoir about hiring a sex worker to do therapeutic healing with me might seem like, uh, a little bit of a departure.

But that's just one of the ways that PROS BEFORE BROS is unlike anything I've ever done before...

As seen in Seattle's The Stranger

"When the pain was most acute, Stallings dove into therapies of all kinds. Some of them were effective, some of them not, but Stallings says there were two things that really helped. The first was dance, which makes sense: Exercise is a standard get-out-of-depression tactic. The second thing Stallings did was less common and a lot more radical: This divorced, fortysomething mom hired a sex worker..."

READ THE ARTICLE

What readers are saying

"As a lover of kink-as-healing modality and panty-soaking, one-handed reads that traverse psychic and physical transformation, I am just so smitten with PROS BEFORE BROS. Stallings' writing about her own experiences with what she calls 'play therapy' and engaging the services of an SF Domme who helps her undress post-divorce trauma and re-train her to embody her personal power in new ways that is so rewarding to read about." -Kirsten J. Sollee

"This audiobook is a quick listen, but it was so moving. I have never read anything in this genre before, so I didn't have any expectations going into it. It was an emotional yet erotic and raw journey of self-discovery and empowerment. I cried half the time I was listening (in a cathartic way) and came away from this book with a sense of openness and a feeling of better knowing myself. It is explicit, so if you aren't into that kind of thing, this may not be for you. I don't find it to be unnecessarily or gratuitously explicit though, it's just open, honest, and real. Definitely recommend." -Teresita

"I was left feeling inspired to be more present in my body and to make a more conscious effort to understand the underlying factors that drive my desires and impulses – so, the book is both one-handed read and personal development." -Samantha Jackson

"Unexpected and raw, this memoir was a conversation. I might as well have been sitting across the table from the author while she spilled all the tea for me (I would probably be sipping on coffee, I picture us at a cafe). What was it like reading Pros Before Bros? I craved the upcoming words, and the experience I was getting through her." -Marina

Ready to have me whisper my book into your ears?