There is a specific kind of freedom in doing something entirely alone: no one else’s mood to manage, no one else’s idea of you to perform for, total control over how the night goes. Bree talks to Dr. Kris Marsh and Tayler Wells about how to enjoy doing things alone and how our expectations of romantic relationships impact our ability to enjoy singledom.

Kris opens with the story that anchors the episode: going to 26 Kendrick Lamar and SZA tour shows alone, across multiple countries, and the overwhelmingly supportive, admiring reaction from everyone who found out. From there, the conversation digs into why solo concerts strip away other people’s preconceived ideas of who you are, why being alone forces (and rewards) actually talking to strangers, and how to handle the comedown when a euphoric night ends and there’s no one next to you to decompress with.

Then the research: why people with high intimacy expectations of romantic relationships tend to enjoy being single less, why negative relationship expectations don’t carry nearly the same weight, and why people with negative relationship expectations are more likely to be single — without necessarily being any happier for it. Bree, Kris and Tayler make the case that once you learn to actually enjoy your own company, you become genuinely unstoppable — because you stop needing someone else there for the night to count.

Dr Kris Marsh – https://drkrismarsh.com/

Tayler Wells – https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/01461672261438616

Substack memoir — last year of single in real time: breesteele.substack.com

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Host and Executive Producer: Bree Steele

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