LOVE, RECONSTRUCTED: February 2022 podcast playlist

We often view love, be it ours or others, through the constructs of society. This playlist challenges that notion. It’s an ode to defining love in the image of who we are as people, and not how society wants us love.

This playlist is sponsored by This is Dating.

 
This playlist was curated by Shreya Sharma. Shreya has by-lines in Sounds Profitable and Gumball. She also curates the Inside Podcasting newsletter twice a week.

Podcast Playlist on LOVE, RECONSTRUCTED

Get the full playlist on your podcast player of choice using these platforms:

Being Seen: “Love, Radically” (November 2020, 33 min)
The first season of Being Seen focuses on the gay and queer Black male experience through conversations with leading voices. This episode explores the “revolutionary act” that is Black men loving Black men.

Embodied: “Aced: Love, Romance and Asexuality” (November 2021, 24 min)
A discussion with folks who identify as the A on the LGBTQIA spectrum. It’s a sexual identity that’s long been ignored, minimized and misunderstood. They share their differing experiences of not being sexually attracted to anyone and a reminder we could all use: love and sex are not the same.

This Is Dating: “Love Bombing: Kahn Date 1” (January 2022, 35 min)
Khan is good at falling in love. He’s also good at wooing everyone around him. On this week’s date, he questions the root of his charm.

Inappropriate Questions: “Can I Ask a Polyamorous Person ‘Do you get jealous?'” (June 2021, 37 min)
When every love song and rom-com is about finding your one true love, the idea of having multiple romantic partners can raise a lot of questions. One thing polyamorous people get asked a lot is whether they get jealous. But what really is jealousy and where does it come from? And is it different for people who are non-monogamous?

WILD: “Episode 7: How Do I Love Someone? Starring Megan Tan” (July 2021, 42 min)
WILD features 10 coming of age stories from the pandemic infused with joy. In this episode, the creators made a rom-com! Falling in love during a pandemic unexpectedly distorts time to an exponential degree. In a fiction meets non-fiction romantic comedy, Megan Tan explains.

Bonus podcast episodes:

• Israel Story: “Love Syndrome, Revisited” (October 2020, 1 hr 9 min)
  After finding out that her sixth child, Angkor, has Down’s syndrome, Chaya Ben Baruch adopts a baby with Down’s syndrome as a companion for Angkor. This starts her on a journey that takes her from Alaska to Israel, adopting more Downs’ children along the way.
• This is Love: “My Penny” (June 2021, 36 min)
  In October of 2006, a press conference was held at a hospital in Denver. During the press conference, a man asked if anyone watching could tell him who he was, or how he got there. Because he didn’t know.
• ICYMI: “The Real Story of ‘West Elm Caleb’” (January 2022, 34 min)
  The idea of Love Bombing has become a TikTok sensation with the “West Elm Caleb.” He is eager to please, over promises and under delivers, and is perhaps someone who doesn’t know what he wants from his own life or the one he hopes to share with a partner. This is a great listen to put to rest the Love Bombing of the West Elm Caleb.
• Showmance: “Episode 1: Pop Quizine” (June 2021, 26 min)
  Showmance is an immersive fiction podcast. Recently jilted by her boyfriend&mbsp;also her boss&mbsp;Casey is offered a dream job launching the British spin-off of the cooking TV show she produces, and heads to London looking for love. What she doesn’t expect is to find it TWICE!
• Ear Hustle: “I Want the Fairy Tale” (July 2019, 42 min)
  How does dating work in your 30s when you’ve been locked up since you were 15? How soon do you share your incarceration history with new love interests? And how the hell does online dating work? Recently released men and women muse about all of it, and one former San Quentin inmate tries to make a beeline from the gates to the altar.
• Kerning Cultures: “To Oslo, With Love” (December 2019, 1 hr)
  Elie was a journalist looking for her next story when she met Ziad at a party in Istanbul. Ziad was a Syrian refugee hoping to travel to Europe and apply for asylum. Elie asked Ziad if she could follow him to Norway, his final destination, and document the journey. He said yes. So commences their odyssey together… and the beginning of a journey neither could have anticipated.

Recommended Books/Resources:

We’ve started compiling recommended books from the podcast playlists and from our chapter meetings on our Amazon Idea List.

• Book: “Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society and the Meaning of Sex.” by Angela Chen (guest on Embodied episode).
• Article: “What Is ‘Love Bombing’?” by Gina Cherelus in the New York Times.
• Book: “Love’s Not Color Blind: Race and Representation in Polyamorous and Other Alternative Communities” by Kevin Patterson (guest on Inappropriate Questions episode).

Conversation Starter Questions:

1. What has the pandemic looked like for your love life?
2. What’s something you wouldn’t normally share on a first date? (question inspired by the This Is Dating episode)
3. What does self-love and self-care look like for you? Has this definition changed during the pandemic?
4. Who are your role models for love? (question inspired by the This Is Dating episode)
5. What was your understanding of asexuality and aromanticism before listening to this playlist?
6. Have you ever been the victim or perpetrator of love-bombing? (question inspired by the This Is Dating episode)
7. How have these episodes challenged your definition of love?