Episodes

No new episode this week, instead, a look back at some of the sharp, funny, and most honest moments from the last 30. New episodes return next Tuesday.

This week I’m doing something a little different. This is an episode of my other podcast, Usefulish, which is a completely different kind of show from Girls Can Tell. So consider this a little detour from our regularly scheduled programming. I hope you enjoy it.

I still have tons of old, dead conversations I've had on the app. This week I went back and reread the ones that went nowhere, some I ended on purpose, and some just sort of ended themselves. Horses, maple syrup urine disease, and a woman who compared a relationship to a newborn baby all show up. See if you recognize yourself or someone you've talked to in any of these.

Five hundred conversations. Zero dates. Two weeks ago, I was ready to delete the app for good. Then something happened this week that made me stop and ask if I quit one week too early. I don't know how this ends yet, but here's what almost walking away taught me.

This isn't really about concerts. It's about what people choose to put at the center of their identity, and what that secretly tells you about compatibility. After decades in radio, playing in bands, working backstage, standing onstage, and watching live music from every possible angle, I've come to a conclusion that surprises almost everyone. It's also one of the fastest reasons I'll swipe left on a dating profile. Why? Because "I love live music" often isn't describing a hobby, it's reveal...

Two calls in, before we'd even met, she told me something about her ex-husband that should've ended things on the spot. I almost let it slide anyway. Here's why I didn't, and what I've learned about believing people the first time. Video versions of the weekly podcast are available on: YouTube Spotify And check us out on: Tiktok Instagram Facebook X Make sure to follow us while you’re there. Go to the website and leave us a voicemail Click the microphone button on the lower right and tell u...

I share a building with 500+ people and can't remember the last time a stranger there turned into anything. Not a date, not a friend, not even a regular conversation. This week I figured out why, and it's not the building, it's not the city, it's not even really about being single. It's the same reason dating apps had to exist in the first place, and once you see it you can't stop noticing it everywhere.

My ex contacts me every three or four months. The message is always the same formula, she has something to tell me, but she never says what it is. This episode breaks down textbook avoidant behavior, why she vanished the last time I responded warmly, why she'll never acknowledge what ended us, and the uncomfortable part about why her three-month cycle is perfectly timed to the exact moment my memory finishes editing her back into someone worth answering. And yes, I'm calling it now. She'll be ba...

Politics has become one of the biggest filters in modern dating—but I don't think politics is actually the real issue. Over the last year, I've noticed something changing on dating apps. People aren't just telling you what they believe anymore. They're telling you who they refuse to date before you even say hello. So when did politics stop being something we discussed and start becoming part of our identity? In this episode, I look at how curiosity, open-mindedness, echo chambers, and social ...

A conversation that should have never happened made me realize something I hadn't connected before. Dating apps and matchmaking services are trying to accomplish the same thing, but they're built on completely different incentives. One depends on engagement. The other depends on successful introductions. Once you notice that difference, it's hard to stop seeing it. It's why so many people are giving up on the apps, and why I think we're getting close to the next evolution of online dating.

I did sixty episodes of this podcast without ever showing my face. Then I turned on a camera and everything changed overnight. Comments, DMs, strangers feeling like they knew me — none of it happened for fourteen months and then all of it happened at once. This episode is about why presence does something that photos and audio never can, what it means for your dating profile, and why the thirty seconds of video you haven't posted yet might be the only thing standing between you and a connection...

I've finally had it. This one's a little different. Shirtless showdowns, pickleball pansies, Wimbledon-level tennis jags on a public court, scooter shits, absurdly loud cars, and industrial-strength playground blunts. Tune in for a completely reasonable and measured discussion. Obviously. If you'd rather see the video version, check it out here: https://youtu.be/U_4YlQPOqWg Or here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2DFGqBQLbCS6xvtSGBNGv1?si=A2hfflj2RJCcM3pYPp4Umw

Most people on dating apps can answer a question. Almost nobody can actually play. This episode is about the difference and why it's the only thing I'm still looking for. Check out the video version on YouTube and Spotify! Or just listen to the audio version, gramps.

She was smart, funny, attractive, and easy to talk to. Two days of genuine connection that felt like something real. And then she mentioned something which changes everything. This episode is about the information people strategically withhold in early dating, the specific details that would change everything for the other person if disclosed upfront. Some of it is serious. Some of it is ridiculous. All of it is real. Things that belong in your bio but somehow never make it there.

In this episode, I get uncomfortably honest about my high standards and how often they’re just an excuse. I talk about fast dismissals on the apps, the fear that no one would actually want the full version of me, and the difference between protecting your time and protecting yourself from judgement. If you’ve ever wondered if you’re picky, or just afraid to find out, this one’s for you.

What would you do if a stranger on a dark empty street started telling you what you had for breakfast, your sister's name, your favorite color, things they have no business knowing? That feeling is a version of something happening in dating right now. Someone already has a file on you before you've said a word. They've googled you, stalked your socials, or got the full briefing from a mutual friend. They know you, while you know nothing about them. This episode is about what that information gap...

Dating profiles are full of them. The woman who's been to 44 countries, has three trips already booked this year, mentions travel in her bio four times, and somewhere underneath all of that has a detailed list of what she wants in a partner. Loyalty, presence, and someone who shows up. This episode is about that contradiction, what travel obsession says in a dating profile, what the relationship you'd be signing up for looks like, and why the person with a lot of stamps in their passport is ofte...

Most people believe that jealousy indicates something is wrong with them, that secure, emotionally healthy individuals don't experience it, and the goal is to move past it entirely. This episode argues the other side. Jealousy isn't some character flaw, and dismissing it because someone convinced you that the feeling itself was the problem might be the most costly mistake you make in a relationship. This episode explains the two kinds of jealousy, and one of them is telling you something you sh...

A listener called in about something she couldn't stop doing even though she could see it happening. She'd been telling herself she'd get serious about dating again once she hit a goal. This episode is to anyone else who keeps moving the finish line.

A few months ago I ran an episode of this podcast using a cloned version of my own voice. Nobody noticed. Not one message. Not one comment. This episode is about what that means for radio, for podcasts, for the voicemail sitting on your phone right now in someone's voice you completely trust. At several points in what you're about to hear, the voice isn't mine. I'm not going to tell you where. See if you can find them.

The profiles have gotten worse. Not slightly, significantly. The Instagram handle in the serious relationship bio. The wrong age that somehow always gets entered younger. The AI bio with the em dashes in it. The skyline that doesn't exist. The woman who liked you first and spent the conversation taking shots at you. This episode is about what all of it actually signals, because someone is always paying attention, even when you think they're not.

In this episode, I share the conversation that almost never happened: a rematch with a clear political filter that put me in the ‘no’ category. She pushed past it anyway, and what unfolded forced me to confront my own label-based shortcuts, like the flight attendant rule and almost swiping left on someone 20 miles away in Chicago’s brutal traffic. We explore the difference between healthy behavior filters and dangerous assumptions, the invisible cost of missed connections, and how to ask better ...

You're still on the apps. Still swiping and responding. But something shifted and you know it. The curiosity and patience is gone. You're dismissing people in thirty seconds over things that don't mean anything, and calling it standards. It's burnout. And the problem with staying on the apps when you're already this depleted is that something good could show up right now and you probably wouldn't recognize it.

Being alone can feel peaceful, until something reminds you what connection actually feels like. This episode explores the difference between being okay alone and getting used to it.