Latest posts
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Happy Valentine’s Day from Love, Death and Taxes
On Valentine’s Day 2025, Agnes and Ryan talk about celebrating with atmosphere and small moments instead of gifts or big spending, then answer several audience questions: a partner’s family expecting extravagant gifts, a partner who ignores the holiday, a best friend dating an ex, and a date who wen
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Your Dream Wedding with Rev. Agnes
Ryan and Agnes talk about planning a dream wedding with Agnes in her role as a wedding officiant. She explains how a ceremony can be customized across religions and cultures, why she asks couples to do at least six weeks of premarital counseling, and how blended-family ceremonies like candle and sce
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Grieving Complicated Relationships: Finding Peace Amid Mixed Emotions
Agnes and Ryan talk about how to grieve or react when someone who died had a difficult reputation or a hard relationship with you, sparked by the online reaction to the killing of a health insurance CEO and a debate over a controversial cabinet nominee’s past. They weigh honesty against the rule not
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Post-Election Relationship Fallout: You Voted for WHO?!
Ryan and Agnes talk about how the 2024 election affected relationships, from couples and parents with grown children to friends and coworkers. They discuss separating a person’s vote from their character, why some voters prioritized issues like immigration and prices, why Agnes avoids arguing politi
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A Glossary of Relationship Terms
Agnes and Ryan define common relationship terms: red flags, attachment styles, boundaries, codependency, love languages and gaslighting. They give examples of each and discuss why communicating your needs early matters. Situationships, trauma bonding and other terms are saved for a later episode.
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Post-Election Relationship Fallout: You Voted for WHO?!
Agnes and Ryan talk about how the 2024 presidential election strained relationships between partners, parents and grown children, and friends. They discuss separating a person from their vote, setting a no-politics rule at the dinner table, and disengaging when a conversation turns into shouting.
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Disappointed? But Not Surprised
Recorded days after the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Ryan and Agnes share their disappointment and talk through why the result did not surprise them: misinformation and information silos, immigration, turnout, how women and Black men voted, and the economy and inflation. They also discuss pay se
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Race, Religion, and Politics in Relationships: Can We Talk? PART 3
In part three of their series on politics, religion and race in relationships, Agnes and Ryan talk about race. They share their own experiences with interracial relationships, family disapproval, microaggressions and stares, and compare how race is viewed in Jamaica, Poland and the United States. Th
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Race, Religion, and Politics in Relationships: Can We Talk? PART 2
In part two of a three-part series, Agnes and Ryan talk about how religion and politics play out in relationships and families. They discuss keeping the peace over political differences, an Al Smith dinner and the politics-religion overlap, Catholic and Anglican traditions, interfaith marriages, hid
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Race, Religion and Politics in Relationships: Can we talk?
In part one of a series on race, religion and politics in relationships, Agnes and Ryan talk about why couples and families avoid these topics and how they keep the peace. Agnes explains her view of legal immigration, ESTA travel authorization and her own immigration vetting, Ryan describes early jo