Admit it, most of those in the state of singledom take comfort — revel, even — in the romantic failures of others. You may be single as a dollar bill, you tell yourself, but at least you’re not as bad as the guy who was caught cheating with the sister-in-law, stuck with someone with a fetish for cuckolding and/or is saw someone who left streak marks on the bedsheets last night.
Yes, there are real stories and problems, which you can listen and read about in various advice columns and confessionals on the Web in podcasts and books. Here are among the best of them:
Listening to the long-running agony uncle podcast is never a dull moment, despite being on the Web for over five years. Unlike other relationship advice columns or podcasts, host Dan Savage consistently answers the most bizarre, incendiary, and controversial with brutal humour, honesty, and a lot of swear words.
Don’t expect the prim-and-bland advice of Dear Thelmas here; the 47-year-old Savage is known for his controversial stand as a gay rights activist, and you can always depend on him for a good rant about issues regarding gay rights, abortion, and homosexuality amongst American politicians.
The relationship questions fielded here are definitely not your garden-variety quandaries; the usual 45-minute long podcast would discuss issues of cheating partners, the wide world of fetishes, and key relationship issues, including the appropriate time for when it’s okay to fart in bed (12 weeks, if you’re wondering).
From WYNC, the home of fine podcasts like Radiolab and This American Life, comes RelationShow, the brand new-relationship show launched on February 14. Hosted by Faith Salie and Mario Correa, the podcast relies on the buddy relationship between the straight-and-married Faith and her Gay Best Friend Mario.
“Mario was dating a lot of guys, and I was dating my guy a lot. There were questions over Shiraz about how to get someone to say ‘I love you’ first, when to sleep together, how to handle crazy exes, what the ratio of texting to talking should be in a new relationship,” Faith wrote on the show’s creation.
For the first episode, the duo talked to Carrie Fisher, discussed hidden love codes in instant messages, and novel ways of keeping the flames burning — a little bit like a podcast version of Cosmo. They also talk to divorced couple Carolyn Hax and Nick Galifianakis, who happen to be among America’s most widely read relationship advice columnists. Hey, it takes all sorts to make the world go round.
Things I’ve Learned from Women Who’ve Dumped Me
What’s more joyous than putting the feet up, having a cup of cocoa, and reading about how other people got dumped? Edited by Ben Karlin, the consulting producer for Modern Family, Things I’ve Learned from Women Who’ve Dumped Me is a collection of essays and stories from well-known personalities who share one thing in common — being dumped.
Among the contributors are Nick Hornby, Stephen Colbert, Dan Savage, and Andy Richter, who through their self-deprecating tales of love lost, reveal what it really means to have love, lose it, and find it again. The book can be hard to find in bookstores, but it is available in various digital formats including the Kindle.
For a taste of what to expect, read Four Short Crushes, an essay in The New Yorker by Paul Simms that was published in the book as “I’m Easy.”
