{"podcast":{"title":"Based Camp | Simone & Malcolm Collins","slug":"based-camp-simone-malcolm-collins-6378161","podcast_index_feed_id":6378161,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/1643534/s/64409.rss","website_url":"https://basedcamppodcast.substack.com/s/based-camp-simone-and-malcolm","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/1643534/s/64409/a478854e7b409f02072d443b587bdd1d.jpg","author":"Based Camp | Simone & Malcolm Collins","episode_count":867,"summary":"We will try to have in depth conversations about intellectually engaging topics in a way that does not fall into simple left right pandering (and thus is both based and camp). This is the podcast by the creators of the Pragmatist Guide series and the Pronatalist movement, Simone Collins and Malcolm Collins.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-15T02:19:12.019878+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/based-camp-simone-malcolm-collins-6378161"},"episode":{"title":"Dating Is New & Was Considered Worse than Wh****g","slug":"dating-is-new-was-considered-worse-than-wh-g","published_at":"2026-09-02T11:56:39+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/based-camp-simone-malcolm-collins-6378161/dating-is-new-was-considered-worse-than-wh-g","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/based-camp-simone-malcolm-collins-6378161","url":"https://basedcamppodcast.substack.com/p/dating-is-new-and-was-considered","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/213842076/2af2692cbd845b5d527d0a03fe1f2a6b.mp3","summary":"Historically, what we now call dating was treated as lower-status than prostitution. The word “date” itself once meant visiting a prostitute. Then working-class “charity girls” undercut professional sex workers by trading companionship and intimacy for dinners, tickets, clothes, and nights out — a practice contemporaries called treating. In this Based Camp episode, Malcolm and Simone Collins walk through the late-19th / early-20th century shift: cheap urban leisure (nickelodeons, dance halls, Coney Island), taxi dancers as proto-host clubs, shop girls hunting rich bosses, the rebrand of face-painting into “makeup,” the invention of “personality” and the It Girl, and 1920s petting parties. They argue modern dating is not an ancient institution that suddenly broke. It is a recent, low-commitment market that was controversial when it appeared — and that older courtship systems (family-supervised seasons, explicit marriage-seeking) may be more honest than ambiguous long-term dating. Also discussed: why they treat dating as wife-hunting rather than “seeing where it goes,” why they want paying-for-dates destigmatized as traditional, and how RFAB can generate period-accurate 1920s stories. Episode Transcript [00:00:00] Malcolm Collins: Hello, Simone. I am right off learning a historical fact that blew my mind, which is that historically what we today call dating was seen as lower than prostitution- [00:00:16] Simone Collins: Wait ... [00:00:16] Malcolm Collins: until incredibly recently, up until the 1920s. Even our word date Historically meant visiting a prostitute. [00:00:30] Simone Collins: I thought it was like an, an assignation or a something else. That’s great. An [00:00:35] Malcolm Collins: assignation? [00:00:36] Simone Collins: Like, a rendezvous. [00:00:38] Malcolm…","meta_description":"Historically, what we now call dating was treated as lower-status than prostitution. The word “date” itself once meant visiting a prostitute. Then working…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3487,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/based-camp-simone-malcolm-collins-6378161/episodes/dating-is-new-was-considered-worse-than-wh-g/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/based-camp-simone-malcolm-collins-6378161/dating-is-new-was-considered-worse-than-wh-g.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}