Dating is in the pits – everyone says so. In England and Wales, fertility rates are at an all-time low, with the US similarly reaching its lowest rate in 2023. Last week, our deputy editor, Serena Smith, wrote about how “the dating crisis is going global.” From the US to Finland, South Korea, Turkey, Tunisia, and Thailand, birth rates are falling, and it’s likely that part of this decline can be attributed to a corresponding drop in the number of couples. When relationships do form, they’re more fragile than they were in the past – but how did we get here?

Has the internet made us more antisocial and more prone to discarding people? Are the apps really ruining dating, or are they a scapegoat for a larger and more deeply entrenched set of problems?

In our second episode of the year, hosts Halima Jibril and Elliot Hoste are joined by Smith to explore the ‘relationship recession’, the crisis in heterosexual dating and how conservative modern dating shows have become. 

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