Starter episode: “Can You Fall In Love With Anyone?”
The Radiotopia podcast network has long been a haven for innovative and highly personal stories, and “The Heart” represents its apogee. Over the course of more than a decade, Kaitlin Prest has used the intimacy of audio to explore and deconstruct love in all its forms, delving into (in the show’s own words) “all of the invisible things in the air between humans.” In addition to the self-contained stories of single episodes, the show contains several multi-episode arcs, like the award-winning “No” series, which dug into the issues of consent and power dynamics. Prest skillfully layers sound upon sound to construct layered sonic landscapes that feel fully immersive.
Starter episode: “Hurricane Boyfriend”
There’s a plethora of shows hosted by self-proclaimed “dating experts,” enough that the title should be regarded with some caution. But Ilana Dunn, the host of “Seeing Other People” who used to work for the dating app Hinge, doesn’t present herself as an authority. Instead, she approaches the subject with a “we’re all in this together” vibe reminiscent of a wise older sister. New episodes are released twice each week. The Tuesday installments carry interviews with coaches, therapists and other experts. But the Thursday episodes are the heart of the show, featuring candid (and often anonymous) stories from real daters, some of them wild (“He Wasn’t Ghosting Me, He Was in a Coma”) and others touchingly vulnerable.
Starter episode: “Why Modern Dating Is So Annoying”
The Belgian-born psychotherapist Esther Perel has become one of the most famous therapists in the world, celebrated for her influential work on sexuality and relationships. Perel’s rise to prominence is thanks in part to her early move into the podcast space; she started “Where Should We Begin?” in 2017, giving listeners an irresistible fly-on-the-wall perspective into what happens in a real couples-therapy session. Infidelity, one of Perel’s main areas of focus, is a common theme, but her clients’ issues include trauma, sexual incompatibility and opposing communication styles. If listening to an entire session proves too intense, there are also shorter “Esther Calling” episodes, in which Perel makes an unexpected phone call to a listener who’s seeking relationship guidance.
Starter episode: “I’ve Had 100 Conversations With You In My Head”
There are plenty of reasons to feel discouraged by the app-based modern dating scene, but were things really so much better in the analog days? That’s one of the many debates explored in this series, which started life when Kim Murstein moved in with her family during quarantine and soon discovered that her grandmother Gail had many opinions about her approach to romance. Brutally honest wisdom is at the core of “Excuse My Grandma,” in which the pair dig into dating topics old and new (from evergreen woes like how to make a long-distance relationship work to more modern phenomena like ghosting and sexting). They also answer questions from listeners and try to find a middle ground between their twentysomething and eightysomething approaches.
Starter episode: “Excuse My Grandma’s Knowledge of Dating Apps, Ghosting and Sex Before Marriage”
