July 28, 2022

Advice Romance Part 1: Romance Road Test

Advice Romance Part 1: Romance Road Test

In the next couple of episodes I take a look at advice romance: fictional advice in a contemporary romance and a romcom set at radio stations, real life online advice, and a smart, funny new podcast called Romance Road Test.

https://www.confessionsofaclosetromantic.com

What will pull these couples closer together--or push them apart? In Romance Road Test,  good friends Kristen Meinzer and Jolenta Greenberg put romance hacks to the test in their marriages.

The show is a spin-off of their long-running, popular By the Book podcast. How to Be Fine: What We Learned from Living by the Rules of 50 Self-Help Books synthesizes lessons learned from hosting the show.

Here's a nice round up of some of the best female online advice columnists in modern times. Not all of the columns are still running, and some have changed hands, but the archives are a treasure trove. Bye-bye  Dear Abby. 

"I implore you to do everything you can to connect yourself to peers and professionals who will offer you support and guidance. Doing so won’t likely make you feel great in one day. You might not even feel great in a year. But you’re going to feel a whole fuck of a lot better, I can promise you that. There isn’t any reason for you to be alone in this, dear one. You are not alone. There are so many people out there who will nod their heads in understanding and recognition when you tell them all the things you just told me."
Cheryl Strayed is one of the best online advice columnists. Her long-running Dear Sugar (not Ask Sugar as I said in the episode) is a modern classic for a reason.

Heather Havrilesky has gathered her Ask Polly columns into a book How to be a Person in the World: Ask Polly's Guide Through the Paradoxes of Modern Life and that's not an overpromise. Her writing is vulnerable, sometimes raw, wise and full of compassion for herself and others, so chock-full of insight on the thorny issues of life, that I have bookmarked the majority of them. She narrates the audiobook and it's fantastic.




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