This podcast episode dives into the origins, trajectory, and current form of modern love, particularly in relation to identity. Tracing the philosophical, psychological, and cultural changes, it focuses on how self-love has been framed historically.
This episode touches on how today’s cultural obsession with self-esteem and self-care practices reflects both a positive recognition of self-worth but also a commodification of self-love in the consumer age.
Podcast guest Moira Weigel, affiliated WGSS faculty member, assistant professor at Northeastern University, and author of Labor of Love: The Invention of Dating, discusses the consistency of a societal “moral panic” surrounding dating and “going steady.”
“We’re animals and we have a lot of mechanisms for figuring out who we like, and apps know how to encode only a few of them.”
Moira Weigel, affiliated WGSS faculty member, assistant professor at Northeastern University, and author of Labor of Love: The Invention of Dating
Listen to the full podcast here!
