Staying in Unhappy Relationships and the Idea of Divorce as a Triumph

Maybe you’ve seen it happen, or maybe you’ve just heard it whispered: divorce is contagious. One person in a friend group gets divorced, and suddenly it seems like EVERYONE is. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but we wanted to have divorce aficionado Lyz Lenz on the pod to answer all your questions about the way we pathologize divorce.

Show Notes:

• Pre-order Lyz Lenz’s book, This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life (out February 20th!!)

• Lyz also has a fantastic podcast (focused on divorce) and newsletter

• Here’s the study from Brown University on contagious divorce, in case reading studies is your thing

• Lyz references The Tragedy of Heterosexuality by Jane Ward

• Read Lyz’s OG essays in Glamour that made her a Professional Ex-Wife: “I’m a Great Cook. Now That I'm Divorced, I'm Never Making Dinner for a Man Again” and “It Took Divorce to Make My Marriage Equal”

• Watch the absolute time capsule that is the original trailer for The First Wives Club

We’re currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:

• Online shopping culture, including but not limited to people’s reliance on reviews and/or compulsion to leave reviews

• Student loans— how we talk about them, think about them, take this wherever you want

• The romance novel boom

• Anything you need advice on!

• You can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here (and here’s the subscriber-only priority form)

For today’s discussion: Okay but is divorce contagious? When have you wished it was?