Pip Rasmussen

And this idea that like your purpose in life was to find your soulmate, your life partner, get kissed by a prince, you know, and live happily ever after.

So you can understand why like the romantic era has completely shaped and shifted because

With my like conspiracy goggles on, there's money to be made, right?

There's money to be made in, like you were saying, like the wedding industry, like the Hollywood industry, like the way dating apps, like this idea of...

capitalizing on the fact that people are really searching for that special person, that person to marry, to be their soulmate, their everything.

And what we know is that this isn't the case around the world.

This was something that Anna Machen spoke about in the episode I did with her, that research shows love exists everywhere, right?

Like in some cultures, they still prioritise duty and family and stability over passion and personal fulfilment.

Yeah, I definitely think we are in a post-romantic era.

And it's fascinating when you

unpack the history of love and romantic love, right?

Because even doing this episode, it made me realize that like every couple of hundred years, there's a push back against something.

And it's fascinating because the romantic era came out of and stemmed from a push back against

you know, the classic ideals of marriage, right?

And this idea of duty and potentially like relationships that they didn't want to be in and forced marriage.

And it was almost like we're sick of these rules and we're sick of logic and we're sick of being told, you know, how to live our lives and our futures.

And it was a really big pushback in this idea of like,

you know, follow your feelings and follow your heart and marriage should be about love and sex and everything and passion.

And now it's almost like hundreds of years later, we're almost experiencing a bit of a pushback against the romantic era of being like, hang on, why is the rate of divorce in Australia 41%?

Why are dating apps like hell and actually harder to find someone than what they're claiming?