Episode
Significant Sans Sex (w/ Rhaina Cohen)
- Podcast
- Uncertain Things
- Published
- Jan 17, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 4476
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/uncertain-things-1365822/episodes/significant-sans-sex-w-rhaina-cohen/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/uncertain-things-1365822/significant-sans-sex-w-rhaina-cohen.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
To write The Other Significant Others, journalist Rhaina Cohen interviewed couples around the country who have committed to sharing their lives with each other — just not their beds. These pivotal yet hard-to-define relationships have existed throughout history, but we lack the vocabulary to talk about them (let alone a legal framework to protect them). Adaam and Vanessa — platonic partners themselves — talk to Rhaina about the nomenclature that helps/hinders us, the lack of templates for meaningful friendships, and the unspoken-about-elephant in these relationships (yes, sex). Mentioned in this episode: -Rhaina on the Ezra Klein Show -Our conversation about friendship infrastructure with David French -Our conversation about solitude with Bill Deresiewicz Find us on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts. Share @UncertainPod on your social media of choice. On the agenda: -On words, romance, and indefinable friendships [0:00-33:06]-The legal difficulties platonic partners face [33:07-40:24]-Putting marriage on/off its pedestal [40:25-47:28]-On polyamory [47:29-53:49]-The challenges of relationships with no defaults or templates [53:50-1:03:36]-Friendship & solitude [1:03:37-] Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday thoughts, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com. Get full access to Uncertain Things at uncertain.substack.com/subscribe