LOVELINK

In our first pod featuring LOVELINK, Dr. Simon and Dr. Humphrey have a casual conversation on the coronavirus. We talk about the social implications, how to emotionally connect while practicing social distancing, and ways to manage anxiety during a time of uncertainty. We also share our own experiences of living with a partner in extremely close quarters and what it's like to collaborate virtually...

Dr. Suzanne Iasenza is like a cool aunt you can talk to about sex without worrying she’ll tell your parents. She’s warm, funny, and non-judgmental. In this highly informative interview, Dr. Iasenza talks to us about the fluidity of sexual preferences and what we can learn about our partner and ourselves when we stop judging and start getting curious. Iasenza provides concrete strategies for helpin...

Dr. Amelia Kaplan Romanowsky is a psychologist, professor, and author. She has co-authored the book  Treating Affect Phobia , teaches at Montclair University, and has a private practice in Maplewood, NJ where she specializes in couples therapy. Developing healthy boundaries is a pillar of Dr. Romanowky's clinical work and she teaches this to her clients in both individual and couples therapy....

Women in straight relationships are increasingly making more than their male counterparts. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 29% of women earned more than their male partners in 2016, up from 18% in the 1980’s ( https://nyti.ms/2O6SLXi ). This sounds like good news, yet our culture spins a narrative that breadwinning women spells disaster for couples ( https://on.mktw.net/2Xz3exQ ). In...

Dirty Lola is a sex educator, storyteller, and creator of Sex Ed A Go-GO, a live sex Q&A talk show performed regularly in NYC and taken around the country. She teaches sex education at conferences, universities, and you can find her behind the counter at Shag, a sex shop in Brooklyn. In this fun and at times provocative interview, Lola teaches us all about kink and BDSM, what it means to exper...

Jette Simon is a Danish clinical psychologist with over 30 years of experience working with couples from around the world. She is an Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy trainer and Director of the Washington DC Training Institute for Couples Therapy and EFT Institute in Copenhagen. She’s also Signe’s mom! In this personal interview with us from 2017, she shares insights from her past romantic rela...

This is the second episode in our series on women, sex, and tech. We are strong supporters of female entrepreneurs, as ones ourselves, and it’s been so exciting to pick the brains of like minded women who are dedicated to spreading sex education and promoting sexual wellness. Our guest today is the cofounder of Allbodies (formerly Cycles and Sex), an education platform to teach people about their...

In this engaging interview, polyamory expert and coach, Effy Blue, talks to us about what makes for successful poly relationships and how to decide whether a polyamorous lifestyle is right for you. Effy shares her personal journey from monogamy to polyamory and offers up lots of practical advice about everything from talking to your monogamous partner about polyamory, how to think about scheduling...

Dr. Jacob Ham is a clinical psychologist who specializes in working with couples and trauma. He is the director of the Center for Child Trauma and Resilience and assistant clinical professor and supervisor at Mount Sinai in New York City. This episode is a sequel to our first interview with Dr. Ham (Ep 8 - Haunted By History: Love After Trauma), where we are introduced to a couple struggling with...

This episode is part one of a series on women, sex, and tech. We interviewed founders, Gina Gutierrez and Faye Keegan, founders of their company Dipsea, a tech company that offers audio stories for a new platform to foster sexual wellbeing. The stories range in genre, perspective, and mood, and are designed to turn their listeners on and help them to feel sexy. We picked their brains on female sex...

Dr. Sue Johnson is a clinical psychologist, researcher, and the developer of  Emotionally Focused Couples and Family Therapy (EFT), a powerful model that helps couples tune into their emotions to reconnect. She is the author of the bestselling book Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love, an evidenced based program to help couples build safety. Among her many accomplishments, Sue...

Mark Epstein, M.D., is a psychiatrist, speaker, and author of numerous books integrating concepts from Buddhism and psychotherapy, including Thoughts Without A Thinker, Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart, and his most recent book Advice Not Given: A Guide to Getting Over Yourself.  In this insightful interview, Mark describes the ego, the ways we need it, how it gets in our way, and it’s role i...

World renowned love guru and couples psychotherapist, Esther Perel, poignantly describes the realities of romance, including infidelity and complacency in relationships. Why do we cheat even when we're in happy relationships? Can relationships be repaired after an affair? How do we maintain romantic excitement in the face of familiarity? Esther shares with us thoughtful and seductive solutions to...

Simone's cousin Rachel and her girlfriend Ada visit LOVELINK to talk about how their relationship evolved following Ada’s gender transition. With great humor and wisdom, Rachel and Ada open up about what they’ve learned about themselves and each other through Ada’s transition, including changes in the way they connect emotionally and sexually. Regardless of how you identify, there’s a lot to be le...

Dr. Bill Doherty, professor and director of the Minnesota Couples on the Brink Project at the University of Minnesota, gives us some solid Midwestern relationship advice. He’s worked with thousands of couples and been married 40 + years, so he knows a thing or two about what it takes to sustain long-term commitment. In this interview, he shares how he helps couples working through the often wrench...

Terry Real, psychotherapist and founder of Relational Life Therapy, specializes in working with men, particularly narcissistic, or what he calls “grandiose” men. In this deeply informative and timely interview, Terry talks to us about the different forms of narcissism, how narcissism develops, and the ways it emerges in relationships. In an era with Donald Trump as our leader, male narcissism rear...

We went into the mind and psychotherapy session of Dr. Jacob Ham, a clinical psychologist who specializes in the treatment of trauma. He is the director of the Center for Child Trauma and Resilience and assistant clinical professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. In our interview, he described how pain from the past affects our current relationships and ways that he helps...

Nell is a 34-year-old designer who has extensive experience exploring online dating. Through her dating adventures, experience of numerous dating apps, and understanding texting rapport, she has guided many friends through navigating the often daunting cyber world of love. In this interview, Nell candidly opens up about the realities of online dating. Nell shares what she has learned about tolerat...

Dr. Alexandra Solomon is a clinical psychologist at The Family Institute and professor at Northwestern university where she teaches the famous undergraduate course “Building Loving and Lasting Relationships: Marriage 101.” She is the author of the book Loving Bravely: Twenty Lessons of Self-Discovery to Help You Get the Love You Want. As the title suggests, Dr. Solomon explained to us in this illu...

Carina Ho is a survivor of a tragic car accident that killed her mother, caused her stepfather to suffer from a traumatic brain injury, and left her paralyzed from the chest down. Three years later, and wheelchair bound, our guest is a full time modern dancer at Axis Dance Company, has released her EP album Onikho, and is the most recent recipient of the Fullbright Scholarship. Several months befo...

Helen Fisher, PhD, is a biological anthropologist and the chief scientific advisor to Match.com. In this illuminating interview, Dr. Fisher explains to us what happens to our brain on love or after rejection, the biological underpinnings of how we pick our partners, and takes an anthropological perspective on the ways in which online dating has formed our way of experiencing relationships. Dr. Fis...

Emily Nagoski, PhD, is the author of New York Times best-seller “Come As You Are: The Suprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life.” Emily’s message is powerful to women exploring and understanding their sexuality: you are NORMAL, just as you are! As a professor at Smith College and sex educator around the country with a popular TedTalk, her mission is to help women feel confident and j...

Columbia researcher, teacher, and therapist Aaron Breslow explains the many ways to have an open relationship, why we want them, and how heteronormative couples are starting to learn from the gay community. Aaron brings humor to the episode and his own personal experience of entering a monogamous relationship for the first time. Whether you’re already in an open relationship, are curious, or just...

Dr. Ian Kerner, psychologist, sex therapist, and author of New York Times bestseller “She Comes First,” speaks with us about the challenges couples face regarding desire and preserving sexual satisfaction in long term relationships. Dr. Kerner discusses why it’s so difficult for couples to talk about sex, what contributes to a lower libido, and the importance of erotic fantasies.