Ridiculous Romance

You didn’t think we’d totally disappear without a goodbye smooch, did you?? Yes, sadly this is (for now) the last episode of Ridiculous Romance. But we’ve been working hard on ourselves so we can stay in your lives well into the future! Plus updates on Replika, Walnut the Crane, and some real sweet Presidential passion. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

RiCRYPTulous Romance returns for a 3rd Halloween Season! When Queen Victoria’s dear husband Prince Albert died, she fell into deep mourning. But when a medium brought the queen a letter from Albert from beyond the grave, her spirit was lifted. She arranged a seance to peer through the veil and speak to her beloved once again!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When two queer, sex-positive, environmentalist artists meet, of course they’re going to fall for each other and make something truly fascinating. Filmmaker Beth Stephens and feminist artist and porn star Annie Sprinkles started the Ecosex movement which says that instead of “Mother Earth”, maybe we should treat our home like “Lover Earth”. Things are gonna get dirty - literally ! See omnystudio.co...

This goody bag is bursting! We finally get to talk about Chris Martin & Gwyneth Paltrow’s conscious uncoupling and somehow get into Rebecca Black’s Friday - and that’s all before the theme song! Then it’s the clever wives from the Siege of Weinsberg, Fet-Mat’s preserved corpse, an intersex person’s colonial calamity, and making ecological porn for Mother Earth. Absolutely STUFFED! See omnystud...

The proverbial fallout of America’s bombs blew back at Robert Oppenheimer as the government pinned any blame on him. But Kitty was there to shield him and unleash a little fire of her own. BONUS - after we finish this Radioactive Romance, we’re having a talkback about the two biggest movies of the summer,  Oppenheimer & Barbie. Let’s go party! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informatio...

J. Robert Oppenheimer is getting kilotons of attention right now, but the women in his life didn’t get a lot of screen time in Nolan’s new film. So we’re looking at the explosive force that Jean Tatlock, Kitty Puening, and Ruth Tolman had on his life, and how the atom bomb might not exist without the laws of attraction. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We finish up our round-up of sex & marriage in the news with some celebrity weddings, a couple of symbolic ceremonies with reptiles & Replikas, & our feelings about new SCOTUS legislation. Spoiler Alert: we've got opinions! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listeners, you've tagged us in dozens of current headlines and stories about sex and love, and we decided it was time for us to give our *expert* opinions. From throwing sex toys at Lil Nas X, to sexual harassment lawsuits in Japan, to (of course) AI sexbots, we got all the hottest - and coldest - sex stories happening in the news RIGHT NOW. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When all a man gets in his divorce is his beloved pickup truck, you know it's a country music story. To be fair, he also got $65k because his ex-wife was country music (and hot chicken) legend Lorrie Morgan. Her 6 marriages are the stuff country songs are made of - literally! Her messy divorce from Jon Randall led to him writing the Brad Paisley/Alison Krauss hit "Whisky Lullaby". See omnystudio.c...

Winnaretta Singer-Polignac wasn’t just shaping culture for generations to come while she was living in Paris and London - she also had quite a few lesbian lovers, and every single one of them was a remarkable woman with a few wild love stories of their own: the suffragette and composer Ethel Smythe, the painter Romaine Brooks, the socialite and writer Violet Trefusis, and so many more. We’ve colle...

Winnaretta Singer inherited her father's massive sewing machine fortune, but she still had to marry an aristocrat to be part of high society. One big problem - she was a lesbian! Fortunately she found the perfect match in Prince Edmond de Polignac. They both loved music, art, and best of all - he was gay too! Together they threw stacks of money at artists and composers whose names we still know to...

Al Capone took his wife and son to Miami to try and retire, but he ended up continuing his murderous, bootlegging, tax-dodging ways. When he was caught and sent to Alcatraz, Mae had to work against the system to get him medical care for the syphilis that was destroying his brain. When he finally got out, he went from #1 Public Enemy to #1 Dad! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Before Italian-American mobster Al Capone became Public Enemy #1, he fell in love with an Irish girl named Mae, and defied cultural customs by marrying her. They had a son named Sonny, and Al wanted to provide for his family as a legitimate businessman. But (spoiler alert) he fell into a life of crime. And an undiagnosed case of syphilis wreaked havoc on his brain and made him even more ruthless a...

Isaac M. Singer was a struggling actor with an estranged wife, a girlfriend, and 10 kids between the two of them. But his knack for invention helped him launch America's first multi-national business, the Singer Sewing Machine Company. But he couldn't keep his stitches in his britches and eventually he fathered 26 children from 4 different women. His lifestyle needled his business partner & ne...

It's high time we checked in on our fellow humans' romances, so once again we turned to the most Ridiculous forum on the web: Reddit. People boldly ask if they are the a-holes in their relationships, but the answers aren't as easy as we thought! Plus Bridezilla vs Bridesmaid Kong, a husband gaslighting with real gas, and some poor people who are dating true f***ing idiots. All this and more here i...

Bernard Bouriscot worked in the French Embassy in China in the 1960s, where he befriended a man named Shi Pei Pu. Soon, Shi revealed his biggest secret - he was actually a woman in disguise! They fell in love, and Bernard started spying for the Chinese government in order to stay close to her. But Shi had more secrets, and Bernard was in for some shocking truths! See omnystudio.com/listener for pr...

After the death of Tsarina Anastasia at the hands of the boyars, Ivan IV was furious. With his 2nd wife, he started the Oprichnina , and one of Russia's darkest periods in history, resulting in the deaths of nobles, peasants, and even his own family. But it wouldn't be until his 8th marriage that his brutal rule came to an end. Don't worry, we somehow still found a few laughs in there! See omnystu...

Ivan IV had a grudge against Moscow's nobles ever since they poisoned his mother. So when he was crowned Russia's 1st all-powerful Tsar, he started cutting off their power (by cutting off their heads). His 1st wife Anastasia helped him keep his cool, but when the nobles poisoned her too, Ivan really started to get Terrible. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Queen Elizabeth and Robert Dudley were still super into each other after Amy Robsart died, but marrying would be too scandalous. But despite taking on her own suitors, Elizabeth was still incredibly jealous when Robert Dudley hooked up with other ladies! But did Elizabeth and Robert ever actually - you know - DO it?? We dive into all the craziest theories, from trauma and stepdads to incest and Sh...

Lord Robert Dudley was besties with his childhood friend, Elizabeth Tudor. After she snagged a promotion to Queen of England, she kept him close and eventually fell in love with him. But when Robert's wife Amy mysteriously died, the rumors started flying about what the Queen and her alleged lover might be capable of! Was it an assassination? An accident? Or something... spookier?? Well we think we...

Craig Pritchert was going to be a Major League Baseball star before Barry Bonds stole his thunder. So Craig decided he would steal too - from banks! He met and fell for Nova Guthrie, a smalltown girl who craved excitement. Their spree of robberies netted them half a million dollars, and they were so in love that the only real crime would be to keep them apart… Well that and all the stealing. See o...

Ron Sheppard has been married 8 times and engaged even more. He's not a playboy or a polygamist, he just can't seem to date anyone without proposing! Now after 57 years of I Do's, he's done with divorces and retiring from romance. His manic matrimonies got us talking about some people's obsession with (or phobia of) marriage, and our own feelings about it too! See omnystudio.com/listener for priva...

Isabel and Jean Godin were so deeply in love that when distance and politics kept them apart, they waited for each other. But after 20 long years, Isabel was done waiting. In the company of 42 people, she set off through the Amazon basin to reunite with her husband. But almost immediately, things started to go disastrously wrong, leaving Isabel alone in the rainforest to fend for herself. See omny...

Turns out we have the best fans of ANY podcast out there, and your words deserve to be heard! This time y'all filled in some details from earlier episodes, gave us some great insight for our non-binary characters, told us your own Jeopardy connections, helped with our accents, and even sent us to Poetry Corner with one listeners bawdy poem to her patient husband! There's so much more, so listen in...

Percy Grainger was a talented Australian composer and a complicated guy. He was weirdly close with his mother. He was kind of a big racist. He invented weird, wacky instruments and challenged musical norms. And he left a package to be opened ten years after his death which shocked the world - because inside were whips, bloody clothes, and photographic evidence of a wild BDSM sexual lifestyle.  See...