Brittany Howard, the five-time Grammy Award-winning singer, makes vibrant, dynamic music about love. As the frontwoman of the band Alabama Shakes, she was celebrated for the power and emotionality of her voice. When she began her solo career in 2019 with “Jaime,” an album named after and dedicated to her older sister, who died at […]
Read MoreTag: Love (Emotion)
Dating Apps Have Hit a Wall. Can They Turn Things Around?
As online dating became as easy as swiping a finger across your phone screen, the companies who own apps like Tinder and Bumble became Wall Street darlings. But about a decade later, those platforms are now struggling to live up to expectations, and investors have grown frustrated and eager for something new. Match Group and […]
Read More‘Modern Love Podcast’: Novelist Celeste Ng on the Big Power of Little Things
This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions. [MUSIC PLAYING] speaker 1 Love now and — speaker 2 Did you fall in love [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] speaker 3 […]
Read MoreIn Love? Share Screenshots Of Your First Messages Together
Not long ago, nearly every initial conversation with a potential romantic partner was in person or over the phone. Now, they’re increasingly digital — taking place on dating apps, over text or in direct messages on social media. What were some of the first online words you exchanged with the person you’re with? Do you […]
Read MoreThe Key to a Happy, Stable Marriage
When Bert Ellison experienced intense mood swings, the first person he turned to was usually not his wife but Dan Driscoll, his close friend of more than two decades. During the first year of his Ph.D. program, Mr. Ellison was an emotional yo-yo, one day telling his wife that he wanted to quit, the next […]
Read More‘Modern Love Podcast’: Un-Marry Me!
We’re kicking off our new season this Valentine’s Day with a story from a Modern Love veteran. David Finch has published three Modern Love essays about how hard he has worked to be a good husband to his beloved wife, Kristen. As a man with autism who married a neurotypical woman, he found it especially […]
Read MoreHow Love and Romance Affect Your Brain
New love can consume our thoughts, supercharge our emotions and, on occasion, cause us to act out of character. “People pine for love, they live for love, they kill for love and they die for love,” said Helen Fisher, a senior research fellow at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University. “It’s one of the most […]
Read More‘Shared Sorrow Is Half Sorrow’
Early on the morning of Friday, Nov. 10, my phone rang with terrible news: My wife, Nancy, has a highly aggressive form of breast cancer. Even as I type these words, I know there are countless readers who know the exact sensation. Either they’ve received a similar diagnosis or they love someone who has. And […]
Read MoreOn Christmas, It’s OK to Argue
Many of us envision a happy holiday as one when nothing dramatic occurs. We avoid religion, politics and other divisive issues like we avoid the questionable potato salad filled with raisins. Holidays have become seasons of hiding. Couples going through a rough patch hope to make it through the familial gatherings without allowing the tensions […]
Read More‘Modern Love Podcast’: I Married My Subway Crush
Zoe Fishman couldn’t stop thinking about the man she called her “subway crush.” For years, she saw Ronen on the train and admired him from afar. When they finally connected, it turned out Ronen felt the same, and they began a blissful life together. But when their story took a devastating turn, Zoe had to […]
Read More‘Modern Love Podcast’: Our 34-Year Age Gap Didn’t Matter, Until It Did
Sonja Falck was immediately attracted to Colin, the professor who was renting her a room. He was intellectual and lively, with bright eyes that drew her in. It was only after they were already dating that Sonja found out Colin’s age: He was 34 years older than her. Their age gap didn’t give them pause. […]
Read More‘Modern Love Podcast’: Two Boys on Bikes, Falling in Love
Eleven-year-old Eric Darnell Pritchard was a solitary kid. They preferred reading romance novels to playing sports, and watching soap operas to hanging out with the neighborhood kids. Although they were obsessed with love, they felt too different to find a romantic connection of their own. Then, a cute boy moved in across the street. To […]
Read MoreRosalynn and Jimmy Carter’s Hometown Mourns for the Love of a Lifetime
There was a time, Rosalynn Carter once confessed, when she dreaded going back to Plains, her tiny Georgia hometown. Actually, she was furious about it. She was enjoying her life as a young sailor’s wife, relishing the freedom and sense of adventure that came from being so far from home. But then, her husband, Jimmy, […]
Read MoreThe Carters’ Hometown Mourns for the Love of a Lifetime
There was a time, Rosalynn Carter once confessed, when she dreaded going back to Plains, her tiny Georgia hometown. Actually, she was furious about it. She was enjoying her life as a young sailor’s wife, relishing the freedom and sense of adventure that came from being so far from home. But then, her husband, Jimmy, […]
Read More‘Modern Love Podcast’: He Cared About Me, So I Broke Up With Him
When Jessica Slice started dating a man named David, there was a lot to like about him. They could nerd out about books and board games. He was thoughtful and kind. But Jessica had a problem. The more caring David was, the more she recoiled. “He’s the greatest!” She texted her sister. “But I doubt […]
Read More‘Modern Love Podcast’: Did I Fail as a Parent?
Listen and follow Modern LoveApple Podcasts | Spotify ‘I think what we did when we sent him away is we just delayed the inevitable. And the inevitable was very ugly.’ Rick Reiss was scared for his teenage son, Gabriel. Gabe was struggling with depression and mood swings, and no amount of therapy or medication seemed […]
Read MoreLove in Harsh Times and Other Coping Mechanisms
We’re living in a brutalizing time: Scenes of mass savagery pervade the media. Americans have become vicious toward one another amid our disagreements. Everywhere I go, people are coping with an avalanche of negative emotions: shock, pain, contempt, anger, anxiety, fear. The first thing to say is that we in America are the lucky ones. […]
Read More‘Modern Love Podcast’: My Sweaty Revenge
Christi Clancy had been avoiding her best friend’s ex-husband. He’d unexpectedly left her friend for another woman. After supporting her friend through the pain and heartbreak, Christi couldn’t help but resent the ex-husband for all the damage he’d done. So when the man walked into Christi’s spin class, she saw an opportunity to exact revenge […]
Read MoreMy (Liberating) Secret Shame
This time, though, I was old enough to understand the root of her despair, to know that she would slip into a pale shadow of herself for months. Besides me, only one pregnancy had been successful — my little brother, whose wide liquid eyes reflected my own anxiety every time the shroud fell over our […]
Read MoreReading Amy Bloom on the Power, and Limitations, of Love
In the summer of 2001, seven months pregnant and working in a research lab in Iowa City, I signed up for an eight-week fiction-writing class taught by James Alan McPherson. I turned in my very first short story, “Immortality,” which Jim enthused about in class, though I was too inexperienced to understand his excitement. I […]
Read MoreThe ‘Bristle Reaction’ Is a Common Intimacy Killer in Relationships
Pay attention to your partner’s reaction. When one person is bristling, both people need to examine their roles in the scenario, Howard said. If you repeatedly encounter bristles when you make a move, it might be time to change up your tactics and “read the room,” she said. Approaching while your loved one is cooking […]
Read MoreGerry Turner Is the First ‘Golden Bachelor.’ Just Don’t Call Him a Silver Fox.
Women keep approaching Gerry Turner in airports, asking to pose for pictures with him. This is not something that ever happened in the first seven decades of his life. But a lot has changed since Mr. Turner, 72, signed up to date 22 women on a reality television show. For example: He has been spending […]
Read MoreFor ‘The Golden Bachelor’ and Others, What Dating After 60 Looks Like
Kathy Denton, 64, said she felt “bolder” now, in part because she no longer experiences the pressure she once did to settle down. She has been able to find fun with some of the men she has met through dating sites, even if none have been a long-term match. One “delightful man” cooked her “the […]
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