If you’ve read the news lately, you’ve probably heard that Americans may be in the middle of a sex recession. But at least one demographic of people are having the best sex of their lives: Gen X women. At least that’s the argument writer Mireille Silcoff makes in her most recent piece in the New York Times magazine.

In it, she explores her own middle-aged sexual awakening. “I was trying to explain a moment that I was really seeing everywhere,” she told Vox. Between her own life, her friends’ experiences, and the portrayals in pop culture that were popping up everywhere, she sensed a trend emerging. “There seems to be something new in the air having to do with 50-year-old women, their bodies, sex, and relationships.”

So what is in the air right now? And what’s behind these later-in-life sexual revelations? We talked to Silfcoff to find out exactly what’s going on here in this week’s episode of Explain It to Me, Vox’s weekly call-in show. Below is an excerpt of our conversation, edited for length and clarity. You can listen to Explain It to Me on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. If you’d like to submit a question, send an email to askvox@vox.com or call 1-800-618-8545.

What prompted you to write about this in the first place?

I split up from my ex in my late 40s, after a very long relationship of 21 years. When I came out of it, I just thought that what lay ahead of me would be a pretty spinster-ish existence. I was really, really sick for a........

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