Why are relationships are a mid-level marketing scheme? Because the media only ever focuses on getting you into them (the will-she, won't-she flirtation period) and then conspicuously leaves out all mention of the WHOLE REST OF THE PACKAGE.

The biggest celebration most people have of themselves in their lives is their wedding. Which, if the marriage goes well, is really only, what, the first 10% of the relationship? This is why rom-coms are dangerous, and why it has left the US with a 50% divorce rate.

We have so few models in the mainstream media of healthy long-term relationships but a million depictions of women playing hard-to-get and men playing their aloof mysterious James Bond characters, BOTH OF WHICH MAKE FOR TERRIBLE, UNHEALTHY LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS.

We discuss all this, along with which dating apps are best, the hottest thing a man can do to score women, the fact that dogs are the new children and plants are the new pets, and how it is bullshit that we don't celebrate single people more, with Ody Ezeigwe, the host of "You Odyssey Awaits," and an extremely accomplished, worldly, funny, home-owning single person who is ready for someone to notice her greatness.

Links:

Ody's Podcast, "Your Odyssey Awaits": yourodysseyawaits.buzzsprout.com

The ever-relevant Metafilter Thread on Emotional Labor: http://www.victorkumar.org/uploads/6/1/5/2/61526489/emotional_labor_-_the_metafilter_thread_condensed-.pdf

Vox Explainer on why Weddings are so Expensive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxEa_SpL_Fs

Music is The Beauty of Maths by Meydän.

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