Naomi runs some thorny AITA questions past Joel, who recorded this both recovering from a surgery,  coming down from a head cold, and hopped up on Benadryl.  He's mostly coherent, but if you're wondering why he goes weird places with the material Naomi gave him...it was probably the narcotics. We talk about some fun stuff, ranging from girlfriends who don't like their partners showing up drunk to the ethics of liking sexy Instagram model photos,  to spouses who break up because of climate change concerns. We are now recording through Riverside.fm and producing both video and transcripts of each episode. Find those on our Patreon. This month we made a donation to a trans rights org supporting trans individuals fleeing states where their existence is being outlawed. There are a lot of groups doing good work like this: take a look at your community. Support the show

We return to Steve, who's still doing his best to redeem his legacy, convince readers he's not full of it, and prove he's a great father. Unfortunately, he opens chapters 2 and 3 by talking about how he never talked to his daughter one-on-one until she was 13, so it's an uphill battle. Nonetheless.Chapters 2 and 3 cover Steve's advice on dating men of different ages and his attempt to dispel some "myths" surrounding men's desire to date successful women. Not all of this advice is bad but there's ongoing themes once again of Steve presenting incredibly weak versions of arguments and claiming success when he's easily able to refute them, women needing to do all the work in a relationships, and Steve attempting to dismiss any bad behavior/toxic worldviews of men. A great redemption arc, for sure. We are now recording through Riverside.fm and producing both video and transcripts of each episode. Find those on our Patreon. This month we made a donation to a trans rights org supporting trans individuals fleeing states where their existence is being outlawed. Yeah, we're still doing that. Genocide isn't going anyway anytime soon. There are a lot of groups doing good work like this: take a look at your community. Support the show

Thankfully for our podcast it turns out our long-running relationship-advice nemesis Brodrick published even more dating advice content after 2009. A pseudo-sequel to his "Act Like a Lady" book, Straight Talk is Steve's purported attempt to clarify some of his more controversial statements from that text and provide even more insight into the inner world of men. Unfortunately, our exploration of the first part found that these efforts only reveal how bad and inapplicable his first advice was, how his own life story contradicts key parts of his core beliefs, and how bad of a parent he is.  This part also has the added bonus of Naomi having absolutely no idea what we'd be discussing and being bowled over by the audacity of her cohost to bring her back into Steve's orbit once more. Fun stuff. We are now recording through Riverside.fm and producing both video and transcripts of each episode. Find those on our Patreon. This month we made a donation to a trans rights org supporting trans individuals fleeing states where their existence is being outlawed. Yeah, we're still doing that. Genocide isn't going anyway anytime soon. There are a lot of groups doing good work like this: take a look at your community. Support the show

Joel and Naomi get together once more to talk about America's least depressing and/or controversial topic, abortion. We go over what the recent elections mean for abortion politics, where anti-abortion groups are headed next, and some of the dangers women are still facing before Joel launches into a completely unrelated bit meant entirely to distract from our bleak choice of topic. It's good, we promise.Check out arizonaforabortionaccess.org to learn more about the ballot initiative trying to get abortion rights enshrined in AZ's constitution and how you can help.  We are now recording through Riverside.fm and producing both video and transcripts of each episode. Find those on our Patreon. This month we made a donation to a trans rights org supporting trans individuals fleeing states where their existence is being outlawed. Yeah, we're still doing that. Genocide isn't going anyway anytime soon. There are a lot of groups doing good work like this: take a look at your community. Support the show

Look, we get it, we've spent so much freaking time on this and you just want us to move on and discuss more amusing anecdotes about AI dating apps telling people to kill the Queen of England (real thing that happened, check out our AI episode). But we think most people aren't going to spend 15 hours listening to our critiques so here's a abbreviated summary of what's in the book and why its wrong. Obviously we go into a lot more detail in the episodes about each specific chapter (and you get the benefit of listening to Naomi's horrified reactions in the moment), but if you want the quick and dirty of why this book sucks, this is the ep for you. Joel discusses the background of the book, the horrible arguments in each chapter, and the overall philosophical/political ideas that underlay the more obvious dating advice.  We're not linking to places you can buy this book. Go support your local library.We are now recording through Riverside.fm and producing both video and transcripts of each episode. Except this one. No one wants to see Joel talking to himself for over an hour. Find those on our Patreon. This month we made a donation to a trans rights org supporting trans individuals fleeing states where their existence is being outlawed. There are a lot of groups doing good work like this: take a look at your community. Support the show

It's over. We did it. We finished the book. We're lying completely exhausted on the side of Mount Doom like we've just thrown the Ring of Power into a volcano (which we guess we kind of did).Join us as we discuss the convoluted and nonsensical finale to this book, a contradictory mess of random pseudo-philosophical musings that contradict nearly all of the major ideas discussed in prior chapters. Aaron didn't know how to wrap this one up so he kind of throws his entire philosophy at the wall but fails to provide any practical advice that readers can conclude on. We discuss why his platonic ideal of a man living his best life is a huge loser, why the Tinder Swindler story doesn't represent how all women approach dating, and why his assumption that all women will always break up with even the most successful men is not borne out by the data. We will do a follow-up episode where we attempt to summarize the whole text and provide some better dating advice than this drivel: not sure when it'll be out, but keep your eyes to the horizon. Joel is also trying to option his 200 page outline for these episodes as an HBO mini-series; let us know if you have any Hollywood connections. We're not linking to places you can buy this book. Go support your local library.We are now recording through Riverside.fm and producing both video and transcripts of each episode. Find those on our Patreon. This month we made a donation to a trans rights org supporting trans individuals fleeing states where their existence is being outlawed. There are a lot of groups doing good work like this: take a look at your community. Support the show

Well, the tech bros have fizzled out on crypto and NFTs and finally stumbled onto a technology that actually impacts dating, generative AI. We get together to discuss what the technology is, how unethical its creation was (and continues to be),  the emergence of easily-accessible deepfake technology, and all the cool new AI-apps that can improve your profile photos, give you awesome pickup lines, and support your plans to kill major world leaders. We also touch upon how laws to tackle these issues aren't always perfect, how the technology's abuse isn't easily regulated, and ways you can sorta prevent some of the worst abuses from happening to you. Fun stuff.  We are now recording through Riverside.fm and producing both video and transcripts of each episode. Find those on our Patreon. This month we made a donation to a trans rights org supporting trans individuals fleeing states where their existence is being outlawed. There are a lot of groups doing good work like this: take a look at your community.  Support the show

Chapter 7 is over. Done. Finished. Finito. It didn't go down without a fight though: Aaron felt the need to express some truly baffling non-sequitur opinions in his discussion of men freeing themselves from the yoke that is women, including the idea that Buddhism doesn't approve of any form of romantic desire,  that if men stopped dating they could retire with $6.9 million in the bank (but only if you start investing at age 18 with $260k in the bank),  and that women have literally created no part of western civilization.  He also continues to not provide any tangible advice that might help people trying to find their way in the difficult world of dating but we're not sure if that's because he genuinely has nothing useful to say or because  he just wanted to wrap up the book at this point. We didn't let any of this bs fly though: Joel and Naomi did our best to verbally smack him around a bit before we laid this chapter to rest, once and for all. For the record, Joel was wrong about the San Francisco gender ratio but right about the Bible Belt.  We're not linking to places you can buy this book. Go support your local library.We are now recording through Riverside.fm and producing both video and transcripts of each episode. Find those on our Patreon. This month we made a donation to a trans rights org supporting trans individuals fleeing states where their existence is being outlawed. There are a lot of groups doing good work like this: take a look at your community.  Support the show

We're going to make it after all. We're through the worst of it and finally can see the end, chapter 7 and the rest of this horrid book will be done in no time. This time we hone in a bit on Aaron; Joel brings in an incredibly awkward anecdote from one of his other books (yes, Joel read another Aaron book...) that helps illustrate his perspective on human interactions and makes it clear he's not the expert on dating that he might want people to believe. We also discuss why its toxic to try to cut women out of your life, how people should recognize there are factors outside of their control that have an inordinate amount of influence over how they turn out in life, and once again how none of this advice is actually helpful even for readers who have drunk the Kool-Aid and are earnestly looking to change their lives. Joel also debuts his newest bit "Anewsments," which is just his way of bringing current events into the show again. He's so transparent.  We're not linking to places you can buy this book. Go support your local library.We are now recording through Riverside.fm and producing both video and transcripts of each episode. Find those on our Patreon. This month we made a donation to a trans rights org supporting trans individuals fleeing states where their existence is being outlawed. There are a lot of groups doing good work like this: take a look at your community.  Support the show

Lauren comes back after nearly a year hiatus to discuss the best relationship and dating questions from r/AITA and r/AITAH. Unlike the mishmosh questions from prior episodes, this episode is all wedding-themed because she and Joel are planning a wedding and dreading what horrors await them as they approach their big day.  Come listen to us discuss how to deal with parents asking for a wedding invite for their relationship "third," how to respond when someone attempts to propose in the middle of the wedding dances,  and whether or not to invite your "kissing cousins" to your wedding. Come for the drama, stay for some wedding planning advice.If you want to support Desert Paws you can find their website here,This month we made a donation to a trans rights org supporting trans individuals fleeing states where their existence is being outlawed. There are a lot of groups doing good work like this: take a look at your community.  Support the show