A special encore as your dad hastily preps to wed your podmom, Jarrett. Refresh your brain about your heart, then stay tuned for a new secret at the end.

Love! Romance! Intimate relationships! Marriage! Divorce! Remarriage! Clowns! This episode has it all. The wonderfully warm Dr. Benjamin Karney of the UCLA Marriage lab has been studying romance and intimate relationships for 20 years and sits down to chat about being single and the mechanisms behind finding a partner, what behaviors foster intimacy, why some couples stay together vs. splitting up, some bananas proposals, wedding budgets, how parenting affects marriage, historical problems with matrimony and his own experiences with marriage and divorce. These behaviors are also so applicable to friendships, work partnerships and as it turns out...professional clowns.

Dr. Ben Karney at the UCLA Marriage Lab

This week's donation was made to Care.org, which works to end gender-based violence.

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Sound editing by Steven Ray Morris & Jarrett Sleeper

Theme song by Nick Thorburn

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Matrimoniology (MARRIAGE) Encore with Ben Karney