Valentines listening – 6 of the best sex & relationships podcasts

We’re at peak Valentines hype, so what better time to revisit this article where comedian Rosie Wilby chooses her favourite podcasts for dishing out advice about how real-life relationships work. This article was first published in February 2021.

You’ll Do

Comedians and real-life couple Catherine Bohart and Sarah Keyworth charmingly debunk all of our romantic fairytales by unveiling the day-to-day domestic mundanities of living together, monogamy, ageing, shopping, taking out the bins, changing nappies and cat litter. Ingenious rounds of questions, including one based on the infamous ‘thirty-six questions’ that psychologists believe can accelerate the falling in love process, are fired at guests who, you’ve guessed it, are also partners in real life. Highlights include Zoe Lyons telling the story of meeting her wife Sindy by, quite literally, ‘falling off the back of a van’ in Lesvos. Listen now >>

A Single Serving

Host Shani Silver aims to change the narrative around singledom from taboo to celebration. Having the freedom, independence, time and headspace for friendships and dreams sounds ever so tantalising to this exhausted coupled-up listener. Highlights include the episode Enjoying the Zebras and Giraffes with author and fellow podcaster Francesca Specter, who has coined the word ‘Alonement’ in order to reclaim solo time as a joyful and precious thing a million miles away from loneliness. Listen now >>

Good Sex/Bad Sex

The presenter pairing of self-confessed ‘professional prude’ Bibi Lynch and former sex worker Miranda Kane gives this conversational exploration of all things sex a truly accessible, and often hilarious, feel. However, it’s the episodes where they look beyond the ins and outs of erectile dysfunction, sex toys, orgasm gaps and vaginismus that really fascinate and add an extra dimension. Broader discussions on asexuality, polyamory, coming out, dating apps, disability and sex, heartbreak and menopause are deftly handled with big hearts and open minds. Move over Marvin. These ladies provide all the sexual healing we need in 2021. Listen now >>

Where Should We Begin with Esther Perel

Renowned Belgian therapist, speaker and author of books Mating in Captivity and The State of Affairs, Esther Perel invites anonymous real couples to unpack their most intimate stories of infidelity, grief, betrayal and heartbreak in a one-off session. She believes that ‘an affair can even be the doorway to a new marriage… with the same person’, a concept that I was keen to explore when I first discovered her work while writing my first book Is Monogamy Dead? Most of us don’t fully understand what our entangled emotional decisions to begin or end relationships are actually based on. Listening to Esther calmly helping others gets us all a little bit closer to articulating our own conflicts and struggles. Listen now >>

Masala Podcast

This award-winning show, hosted by Sangeeta Pillai, features South Asian women busting taboos around sex, sexuality, periods, menopause, mental health, shame and sexual harassment. Highlights include the episode on Being Transgender and South Asian. A compelling interview with Britain’s first out Muslim drag queen, Asifa Lahore, is complemented with a fascinating exploration of the culture and history of the traditional Hijra community, one of the oldest transgender communities in the world. Listen now >>

The Breakup Monologues

Full disclosure. This is my own podcast! Working on the premise that ‘tragedy plus time equals comedy’, I have spent three seasons inviting esteemed guests including Richard Herring, Dolly Alderton, Katy Brand and Ayesha Hazarika to share their tales of breakup and recovery with me. The podcast stems from my trilogy of solo comedy shows The Science of Sex, Is Monogamy Dead? and The Conscious Uncoupling and, as such, combines humour with some of the real science and psychology underpinning heartbreak. Recent themes have included whether, in the near future, we might be able to take a pill to help reduce the trauma of a breakup. Could the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind come true? Our fourth season launches this February, with The Breakup Monologues book to follow in May.  Listen now >>

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Rosie Wilby is an award-winning comedian who has appeared many times on BBC Radio 4 programmes including Woman’s Hour, Loose Ends, Midweek, The Human Zoo and Four Thought. Her first book Is Monogamy Dead? was longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize and followed her TEDx talk of the same name, a trilogy of internationally-acclaimed solo shows investigating the psychology of love and relationships and a decade of immersive research.

Rosie also presents The Breakup Monologues podcast, which was nominated for a British Podcast Award and has been recommended by Chortle, BBC Radio 4, The Observer, Metro and Time Out. She writes for publications including the Guardian, Cosmo, The Sunday Times and New Statesman and regularly appears as a commentator on sexuality, dating and love on radio and TV programmes including Good Morning Britain.