Welcome to your inlaw’s emotional silverware drawer—where everyone’s a fork, but somehow all the tines are tangled together: What is an enmeshed family?

If you’ve ever felt like your in-laws operate like an exclusive club where membership requires full disclosure of your innermost thoughts and the ability to cancel all personal plans at a moment’s notice, congratulations! You’ve married into an enmeshed family system.

Coined by family therapy legend Salvador Minuchin, enmeshment describes a family dynamic where boundaries are non-existent, autonomy is considered treason, and personal decisions require committee approval. Love is abundant, but so is guilt—so much guilt.

Welcome to the future, where love is no longer bound by the constraints of carbon-based life forms.

If you've ever wished your partner came with a mute button or could be upgraded every six months, AI companionship may be the answer to your oddly specific prayers.

With advancements in artificial intelligence, some individuals are exploring relationships with AI partners—romantic, emotional, and sometimes even physical (I’ll let you Google that one yourself).

These AI companions can engage in conversations, provide emotional support, and never forget an anniversary. They don’t snore, they don’t leave dishes in the sink, and they certainly won’t break up with you over text.

But what does it say about modern romance when some people would rather whisper sweet nothings to a chatbot than engage in the messiness of human relationships?

Is this an evolutionary leap in intimacy, or have we collectively given up on each other?

Narcissists: the self-absorbed, the masters of self-promotion, the ones who bring their own spotlight to the party and then complain when no one applauds.

They’re the villains in every “toxic relationships” article and the goldmine of pop psychology content.

But what if, beneath the grandiosity and the humble-bragging, narcissists are actually lonely?

What if, despite all their peacocking, they feel left out more often than the average person?

New research suggests exactly that.

A recent study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Büttner et al., 2024) has found that people with narcissistic traits experience more social exclusion than their less self-absorbed peers.

Not only do they feel left out, but they often are left out.

And, as it turns out, this rejection fuels their narcissism further, locking them into a behavioral doom loop worthy of its own Greek tragedy—or at least a well-placed sitcom subplot.

Modern dating has found a way to make even more people uncomfortable—by broadcasting personal romantic experiences to the world in real time.

Welcome to Date With Me, the latest trend where singles document their dating lives online for public consumption. Think of it as a fusion between reality television, influencer culture, and a desperate cry for accountability.

I

n this trend, people share everything—from first date nerves to post-date recaps—through TikToks, Instagram stories, or full-fledged YouTube vlogs.

Some participants even live-stream their dates, ensuring an eager audience can watch the awkward silences unfold in real time.

It’s radical transparency, but with the added bonus of audience engagement metrics. Who wouldn’t want strangers voting on their romantic compatibility like it’s a bad episode of The Bachelor?

Just you, your date, and an audience of thousands waiting to see if they’ll mispronounce "charcuterie."

Modern dating has abandoned the ideal of finding a "perfect" partner.

Instead, it has fully embraced the beautiful disaster that is human attraction, where quirks, eccentricities, and borderline bizarre obsessions aren’t just tolerated—they’re the foundation of connection.

Enter freak matching, the latest dating trend that takes the phrase "there’s someone for everyone" to new and occasionally unsettling heights.

What Is Freak Matching?

Freak matching is the idea that the very traits that make you undateable to most people are precisely what make you irresistible to the right person.

In essence, freak matching is dating Darwinism at its finest—survival of the quirkiest.

Spending hours glued to our smartphones has become second nature.

But new research suggests that taking a break from mobile internet could be the mental refresh we all need.

A study published in PNAS Nexus found that blocking mobile internet access for just two weeks led to increased happiness, better mental health, and improved focus.

Love is a battlefield, but before you even get to the trenches, there’s a bigger question: Are you ready for a serious relationship?

If you think the answer lies deep in your attachment style, the latest research suggests you might want to reconsider.

According to a new study in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships (Yang et al., 2024), your friends—yes, those meddling, opinionated, and brutally honest people—might actually be better at assessing your commitment readiness than you are.

Even more intriguing?

While Attachment Theory still dominates pop-psychology discourse, newer models of relationship psychology suggest our ability to commit isn’t as neatly dictated by childhood experiences as once thought.

Researchers have long been intrigued by the female orgasm, primarily because, unlike male orgasm, it doesn’t come with a clear-cut evolutionary reason.

Male orgasm is like an overeager mail carrier—package delivered, mission accomplished (Puts et al., 2012).

Female orgasm, on the other hand, is like a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, wearing lingerie.

This has led scientists to explore whether female orgasm is an adaptive function or simply nature’s little inside joke.

Here’s one for you. Two spiritual practices walk into a neuroscience lab. One, Tenzin Kunga a Buddhist monk, radiating calm, his mind locked in deep, undisturbed jhāna meditation.

The other, Bobby Joe Buford, a charismatic Christian, eyes closed, hands lifted, speaking in tongues with fervent abandon.

At first glance, they couldn’t be more different—one the epitome of stillness, the other of ecstatic movement.

But according to a study in the American Journal of Human Biology, they might just be running the same cognitive software.

Welcome to the “Attention, Arousal, and Release Spiral,” the latest brain hack hiding in plain sight across religious traditions.

Neuroscientists have uncovered that Buddhist meditation and glossolalia (the fancy term for speaking in tongues) trigger a similar feedback loop in the brain, leading to deep states of joy and surrender.

This suggests that despite their stylistic differences—monks doing their best impression of a human statue while Pentecostals go full rock concert—both traditions may have independently cracked the code on how to hack the mind into peak spiritual experience.

Dating in 2025 has reached a new level of efficiency—or self-sabotage, depending on your perspective. Enter loud looking, the latest relationship trend that takes the subtlety out of dating and replaces it with aggressive marketing.

If you've ever dreamed of turning your love life into a public relations campaign, this might just be your moment.

The premise of loud looking is simple: instead of playing it cool and dropping hints about your availability, you declare your dating intentions to the world as loudly as possible.

This can involve announcing on social media that you're actively looking for a partner, wearing clothing that literally says "single," or peppering every conversation with a well-placed, "By the way, I am VERY available." It’s transparency taken to an almost religious level, as if honesty and volume were the same thing.

Are you tired of traditional relationships, but also kind of tired of non-traditional ones too? Do you enjoy deep emotional connections but break out in hives at the thought of cohabitation, shared finances, or, God forbid, merging book collections?

Welcome to solo polyamory, the latest relationship trend that lets you have your romantic cake and eat it too—alone, in your own apartment, where no one leaves their wet towel on your side of the bed.

What Is Solo Polyamory?

It takes two to tango… but what if your partner left the dance floor?

If you’re here, you probably feel like you're fighting for your marriage alone, and let’s be real—that’s exhausting.

Research suggests that in nearly two-thirds of divorces, one partner is the primary initiator (Amato & Previti, 2003). And that initiator is often the husband in midlife divorces and the wife in early-marriage splits (Brown & Lin, 2012).

But here’s the rub—many people who think they want out aren’t actually certain.

Studies show that up to 40% of those considering divorce later regret it (Hetherington & Kelly, 2002).

So, can you shift the tides? Can you reignite a spark when your partner has emotionally checked out?

Yes—but not in the way you think. This isn't about convincing, begging, or playing therapist.

Instead, we’ll explore the science of disengagement, how attachment styles shape marriage disconnect, neurodiverse relationship patterns, and cultural narcissism’s impact on long-term love.

And, because we’re keeping it real here—I’ll also tell you when it’s time to stop fighting and start protecting yourself.