Episode 1
Guest: Anja D
Date: September 2026
Topics:
About This Episode
Romance in movies is beautifully scripted. Real relationships have dirty laundry, mismatched libidos, bad moods, emotional baggage, awkward conversations and occasionally someone asking, “Why the hell are you behaving like this?”
Romance: Fiction versus Reality is our attempt to separate the fairytale from the facts—and have a bloody good laugh while we’re doing it.
The Conversation
❤️ Romance: Fiction versus Reality
We grow up surrounded by stories about romance: grand gestures, perfect chemistry, effortless sex, soulmates and happily ever after. But what happens when the credits roll and you’re left with real life, real relationships and a partner who doesn’t always behave like the hero in the movie?
In this episode, we take a brutally honest—and often hilarious—look at the gap between romantic fantasy and actual relationships.
🔥 Real Morning Sex
Forget the perfectly lit bedroom, flawless hair and enthusiastic cinematic passion. What does morning sex actually look like in the real world? We talk about the reality of intimacy when you’re tired, possibly unshowered, worried about work and wondering whether either of you has actually brushed your teeth yet.
🧍♀️ Is Being Single Actually a Problem?
Society has a funny way of treating being single as something that needs to be fixed. But does being without a partner really mean something is missing? We unpack the pressure to couple up, the fear of being alone and whether being single can sometimes be considerably more peaceful than being in the wrong relationship.
❤️ Love Isn’t Always Enough
We’ve been taught that love conquers all. But is loving someone enough to make a relationship work? We talk about compatibility, communication, respect, trust, timing, shared values and the uncomfortable reality that you can genuinely love someone and still be completely wrong for each other.
🧠 When You’re the Only One Doing the Emotional Work
What happens when one person is constantly communicating, checking in, resolving conflict, remembering birthdays, initiating difficult conversations and trying to keep the relationship emotionally alive—while the other person appears to have outsourced the entire job?
We explore emotional labour, emotional availability and what happens when one partner becomes the relationship’s unofficial therapist, project manager and crisis department.
💭 Unrealistic Expectations of Men and Women
We’ve all inherited ideas about what men and women are supposed to be. Men should be this. Women should be that. He should provide. She should nurture. He should initiate. She should be emotionally available. And apparently everyone should look fantastic while doing it.
But where did these expectations come from—and how much of them actually belong in a modern relationship?
🦄 Talking Unicorns — The Last of the Good Men
Do genuinely decent, emotionally available, loyal men still exist—or have they become the mythical unicorn of modern dating?
We discuss the elusive concept of “a good man” and what that actually means. Is the bar genuinely too high, or have we simply been looking for the wrong things? And, perhaps most importantly, are we recognising the good ones when they appear?
Resources Mentioned
- The Iceni and Boudicea
- Chinese Warriors
- Samurai Warriors
Our Guest
Young, eager, ambitious and all the sass, Anja D joins us for this podcast!
Anja may just be starting her relationship journey in life but she brings a fresh perspective on what dating is like nowadays with the likes of online apps and sites – a sharp contrast to what Delaney and Miss M experienced in their twenties – and reminds us all of our rambunctious hormones in those years!