Reasonably Optimistic
Reasonably Optimistic
The Washington Post
Modern dating is miserable. Can it be fixed?
37 minutes Posted Jun 24, 2026 at 10:00 am.
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Show notes
Host Megan McArdle talks with culture writer Kat Rosenfield about how dating apps, therapy-speak and online gender wars have changed romance — making flirtation feel risky, rejection feel catastrophic and desire feel suspect. They discuss the lost art of approaching people in real life, what older courtship norms got right and Rosenfield’s new novel, “How to Survive in the Woods.”