The Weekly Wrap has a new name and a new format. Starting today it’s The Orbit!
We’re still delivering you a weekly dispatch of our top stories each weekend, but we’re evolving to include a bit more editorial voice, a bit more context and less clutter. Plus a new News of the Nude section at the bottom tracking stories from outside Planet Nude that we feel are worth your attention.
The new name just makes more sense. Nudism’s big stories tend to circle back around: the same beaches, the same legislative fights, the same questions about what the movement is for. Our work is ongoing. We’re not wrapping anything up because nothing has ended. We’re tracking what keeps circling. And we’re sharing what’s in our gravitational orbit at any given time. Welcome to The Orbit.
— Evan, editor
This week on Planet Nude
This week the stories we’re orbiting are mostly about land and access—which spaces exist, which are being threatened, and what it actually takes to create a new one from scratch.
The Kentucky story is easy to read as a cautionary tale about a group that got ahead of itself—declared a nude space without legal standing, invited media attention before building any coalition, and handed a hostile county government an easy win. That reading isn’t wrong. But the reason Bluegrass State Naturists exist at all is that Kentucky has essentially no lawful pathway for social nudism. They’re not picking a fight. They’re responding to an absence. Whether their strategy works is a separate question from whether the underlying problem is real.
The Brazil story runs parallel. Two beaches, two organizations, two different approaches to the same pressure. What links them is that neither is asking for anything radical—just honest engagement from public authorities with spaces that have existed for decades. That's a low bar. The fact that it requires sustained legal effort to clear it says something about where we actually are.
Denny Blaine is another. The beach has existed as an informal nude space for decades, but a wealthy neighborhood and a city government that won't commit have forced its defenders into court just for a seat at the table. This week a judge clarified what should have been obvious: topfreedom is legal there, even in the park's clothing-required zone. A win, but the kind that shouldn’t have required a lawsuit.
All of these stories share multiple common threads, but the most obvious to me is that the nudists are always the scrappy underdogs fighting for their space and for everyone’s rights.
Also, AANR ballots are out this week with a genuinely contested presidential race that could shape how the organization responds when legislation comes for your beach or your club. Voting closes June 20—we published an election guide and Q&As with both presidential candidates if you need to get up to speed.
Candidate Q&A: Linda Weber · Candidate Q&A: Joe Rives
Check out these stories and more from this week on Planet Nude.
This week in Culture
This week on Strips
Diary of the Astro-Nudes: Forbidden Fruits!
More recent Strips
News of the Nude
Here are a few stories we’re tracking off Planet Nude this week.
California has some of the last nudists left. I went to see why they’re still there.
Rowan Jacobsen’s Slate feature is the most substantial mainstream piece on nudism’s decline in years. Reported from Glen Eden, name-checks Planet Nude and Naked Age. Worth reading even where it oversimplifies.
Khan ‘failing to protect children’ from London’s naked bike ride
The World Naked Bike Ride London runs June 14 and is already under pressure from a safeguarding petition. The “children in public spaces” framing appearing here is the same one showing up in Ohio and at Denny Blaine. Worth tracking.
Ontario judge prohibits girl, 11, from attending nudist camps
A temporary order barring a child from naturist resorts while a family court sorts out conflicting accounts from both parents. A concerning incident with an adult at a nude camp is at the center of it. Real complexity here, not a simple story in either direction.
Discord Dispatch
The Planet Nude Discord is where the Planet Nude community comes together, and it’s growing fast with hundreds of members and daily discussion, games, trivia, and the occasional event. This is our weekly dispatch from that space.
This week, several members compared notes on whether they were anonymously quoted in the recent Slate feature on Glen Eden, which drew from one of our #undressed-threads polls of 18-35 members. People are also swapping favorite bands in #out-of-orbit, and a new #undressed-threads post is asking how political nudism should be—still worth weighing in on.
Upcoming in the Discord:
May 15, 4:15 PM Pacific — Diary of a Nudist screening with trivia beforehand
May 27, 6:00 PM Pacific — Nude guided meditation with Richard Dewey of Humanist Meditation
Date TBA — Reverse strip poker game night
Join us at discord.gg/8gt7D6ssMd — learn more
Featured: 1 Naturist Life
Dustin Cox makes the case that naturism functions as a kind of sabbath practice: a deliberate, recurring withdrawal from the performing self. It's a frame that doesn't require any religious commitments to land.
The Orbit is Planet Nude’s weekly digest. Published every Saturday. 🪐
What do you think of the new format? Feedback always welcome.