Luke Williams is a man who will do anything for a story. Anything.

Luke Williams will do just about anything for a good story.

He’s been a meth addict and lived as a homeless man, all in the name of journalism.

Luke moved in with junkies to explore the dark depths of addiction, danced with psychosis and wrote a book about his experiences – The Ice Age.

And now he tells how he worked as a ‘money boy’, trading sex with men for money. Not because he needed it, but just for the hell of it.

Extreme? Yes. Fascinating? Definitely.

On the latest episode of Meshel Laurie’s Nitty Gritty Committee, Luke spoke about his experience of working as a male sex worker.

So what would drive a man who had worked at the ABC to give it all up to work on the streets?

“All sex is for money – well, all gay guys do it… I worked in a brothel, called The Stable in 2001 in Port Melbourne, and I found it very difficult getting customers, so I thought, well I’ll just go and work on the street. I didn’t need the money, I had a boyfriend at the time,  I just wanted the adventure,” he told Meshel.

“When I was doing my law degree and needed money I started doing it again. I was a cheap whore… $100.”

As for his time in the sex capital of the world, Pattaya?

Seduced by the city's sleazy nightlife with its 27,000 sex-workers and wall-to-wall brothels, he had sex with one of Thailand's infamous 'money boys' and was thrilled to be offered work as one.

The former journalist was told, "you're the only white one, you'd have a clear advantage."

Hear Part One of Luke's interview with Meshel Laurie about Ice Addiction here.  

But despite his debauchery in those early days in Pattaya, Luke found something unexpected in Thailand that led him to trade sex and drugs... for religion.

Luke and Meshel talk about everything from relationships to Buddhism on the latest episode of the Nitty Gritty Committe Podcast. Listen here, and subscribe in iTunes.