Love is Dead: Historical Heartbreaks and Hot Takes Rachel Dyer + Hazel Atkinson

This week in an unedited special episode Hazel and Rachel explore how to show love in a long distance relationship. Hazel digs into the often one-sided love affair of Emperor Napoleon and his wife Josephine. Rachel explores the softer side of General and President Ulysses S. Grant. Long distance can be hard but if you put in the effort sometimes the other person will be into it?

Do you believe in love at first sight?

Today Hazel and Rachel answer the oldest question in the book (if that book happens to be The Bible or the Argonautica) and discuss whether we should believe in 'love at first sight'.

Rachel gets biblical with the story of Jacob and his wife Rachel . . . and Leah  . . . and all their handmaidens. Would you work for seven years just to marry the one you love?

Then Hazel looks at the story of Medea and Jason, in which we  learn of the 'sweet anguish' caused by the arrows of Eros, and wonder if the Argonauts count as the first 'lads on tour'.

CW: death, non-consensual sexual activity

(Although as usual we are a light-hearted podcast please note this week's episode may contain some upsetting themes)



We're back baby! And answering one of your dating queries: are grand gestures the epitome of romance, or just a little too much?

Hazel guides Rachel through the ‘Undo Your Door’, a late medieval Romance simply stuffed with all manner of twists and turns, leading them to wonder: is embalming a practical skill?

Then Rachel discusses one of history's most famous romantic gestures: the abdication of King Edward VIII, a sacrifice made in the name of love for an - *gasp* - American!

It gets icky, it gets weird, it's history!

This week Rachel and Hazel take on the first of their listener questions: how long should I wait before having sex with someone? Do I have to follow the ‘three date’ rule? (Short answer: no!)

Rachel’s prayers have been answered as she finally gets to talk about her historical hero Anne Boleyn, famed for holding out a huge seven years before enjoying conjugal relations with the most famous of Tudor Kings, Henry VIII.

Hazel searches for a pair who didn’t wait so long, and discusses the similarities, differences and overall melodramatics between Literature’s number one couple, Romeo and Juliet, and a real-life scandal which rocked the Elizabethan court.

This week Hazel and Rachel help you find the right place to meet someone offline. Let's face it, most of us are meeting our partners online; both of us did. But in a busy, technologically overwhelming world, maybe you're looking to meet someone out and about. Well, why don't you let Ovid, a Roman poet in the Augustan Era, and Elizabeth Woodville, a true dragon queen of Late Medieval England, tell you where to find a hot date.

If you are a skipper and want to get past the into chit chat the history bits begin at 8:45. ;)

 And as always, if you have any dating conundrums you would like history to help you out with, please let us know at: 



Insta - @loveisdeadpodcast

Twitter - @LoveisDeadPod

or e-mail us at loveisdeadpodcast@gmail.com 

We would LOVE to hear from you. 

This week Rachel and Hazel take on THE most googled question of 2020: what is ghosting? We move from the Napoleonic era to the mythology of Ancient Greece in order to gain a better understanding of the term, and discover just how long humans have been ghosting one another. Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Bonaparte (née Patterson) and Ariadne of Crete provide us with inspiration for how to bounce back from a ghosting, and make us realise just how much historical-heartbreak seems to involve boats!