Episode 7 - The Artist

You guys, we made it! The final episode is finally here! It’s a little stitched together with paper clips and rubber bands, but it should hold together. I’ve been on the road, and the travel mic doesn’t quite sound as good as my mic at home, so if you hear some sound quality variance, it’s me not you. If you prefer to wait, I’ll be uploading a clean version of this episode once I get back to the US.

Oof, I have a million thank-yous to do, and I’m almost certain I’ll forget some. The easy one up top is to TONGUES., without whom I sort of can’t imagine this series? Like, maybe if it hadn’t worked out I would have figured out something else, but thank god I didn’t need to. Please go find their music on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music, and check out their web site, www.tonguesmusic.com where you can find links to all the social medias.

Thanks to Will de Renzy-Martin for performing the voice of Phil! You can find out more about Will by clicking here. Again special thanks to all the actors I worked with this season!

You can find the section of Serial I quoted in Episode 7, during Sarah’s conversation with Deirdre Enright of the UVA Innocence Project.

Do yourself a favor and treat yourself to a viewing of John Stamos’ Guide to Cuddling from College Humor.

This episode’s credit music is “Manchester” by Kishi Bashi from his album 151a, which is available on iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify!

If you have any thoughts, questions, or insights, please let us know! You can reach us at serialdaterpodcast@gmail.com, on Twitter/Facebook @serialdaterpod, or simply by leaving a comment below!

Thanks again, everyone!

Episode 6 - The Market

Nearly there, folks! This penultimate episode of Serial Dater UK includes hashtags, lifetime bans, and Stephen Fry!

The usual thanks and announcements—every week I’m more and more grateful that the amazing group TONGUES. has seen fit to allow me to use their music to help tell my story. Please go inflate their Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music numbers so that the giant corporations send them slightly larger checks. Or, bypass the middleman and just buy it for when the internet fails and the only music we have is the stuff we downloaded! Get so much more info on their web site!

Calum Barclay continues to do killer work in the role of Calvin—find out more about him here and here. And we’re thrilled to welcome back to the podcast Alastair James Murden playing the role of Jack! Check out Alastair’s website, www.alastairjamesmurden.com!

Looks like my only outside cultural reference this week is “Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me” by TISM, which is definitely worth 4 minutes of your time. Well, 3 minutes and 55 seconds.

This week’s credit music is “Epitaph for My Heart” by the Magnetic Fields from their album 69 Love Songs, which you can find on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.

Episode 5 - The Return

Are you guys getting whiplash yet? I am, and I already know what happens! This episode is chock full of anxiety, posturing, charming texts and echoing silences. Doesn’t that sound like fun?

You know what is fun: TONGUES.! If you haven’t checked them out yet, well—what are you waiting for? You can listen to their music on Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music, and you can follow them on Facebook and Instagram!

Again, big thanks to Calum Barclay for playing the role of Calvin! Definitely check out more of Calum’s work by clicking here and here.

Another big thanks to Tara Brach for letting us to use clips of her podcast. The clip from this episode comes from the talk “My Religion is Kindness, Part 1.”

The clip from Sex and the City comes not from the Season 4 finale, as I said in the episode, but from Season 4, Episode 6, which you can watch online at Amazon Prime.

If for some reason you don’t already own “Crazy in Love” by Beyoncé ft. Jay-Z: Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music.

Definitely give Laura Marling’s album, Short Movie a try, which is where you can find the song, “Don’t Let Me Bring You Down.”

You can buy It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on Amazon, if you want to see CB attempt the football. Also, definitely check out this amazing article about the football gag on Slate!

This week’s credit music is “I Really Like You” by Carly Rae Jepson, available on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.

(Also, still working on the photos for this week… they’ll be up soon!)

Episode 4 - The Downs

Happy Friday, everyone! Or whatever day of the week you happen to be reading this on!

So, first things first: this episode is heavy. For those of you who are friends with me, it might even be a bit hard, as I discuss some of my struggles with depression and suicidal ideation. For those of you who aren’t friends with me, it may still be hard, because these are tough topics!

Suffice it to say, it’s important for me to state here for the record that I’m doing really well now, and that I’m taking care of myself, getting the help I need. If anyone has any specific questions for me, feel free to email me, and I’ll do what I can to answer them. Otherwise, I hope that by taking you on the journey I went on, you’ll understand a little bit how I ended up where I did.

Before we get into the other episode things, a couple quick links: if you’re looking for mental health resources, visit the National Alliance for Mental Illness at www.nami.org. And you can always call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

This episode has a lot of stuff going on—maybe too much! It’s so long!

As ever, TONGUES. continues to do right by us by providing the music for this series. Have you checked them out yet? No? Why not? Do it! Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music, and on the web at www.tonguesmusic.com!

Another big thanks to Calum Barclay for continuing to provide the voice of Calvin; find links to more of Calum’s work here and here. And thank you again to Matthew Hall for voicing Robbie—find more of his work here.

You can find the enormous archive of Tara Brach’s past talks and meditations at www.tarabrach.com, or on Apple Podcasts. The talk referenced in this episode can be found here: “Loving and Losing.”

You can now watch Gavin and Stacey on Amazon Prime Video and on Hulu! The clip in this episode came from Episode 3.

You can watch the “Hamlet” Episode of Sassy Gay Friend by clicking here.

SPY can be found for purchase or rent on all the major services, including iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Amazon, and many of the minor services as well.

Links to the music featured in this episode will be coming soon! This week’s credits music was Fiona Apple’s “Hot Knife”.

Racing the sun to Dorset

The sun won. The sun always wins.

Is it a sign?

Literally, it is. But what does it mean?

Brighton's West Pier

#morekissing

Watching the BBC cover the Iowa Caucuses

Embellishing a sign found at East Croydon train station

…and dance til you feel better.

Schumann's 3rd Symphony and Violin Sonata

At the Royal Festival Hall! Not pictured: Charlotte, sitting to my left.

London, that minx

Brighton, being beautiful

Episode 3 - The Highlands

For those of you who are listening as these are released, Happy Thanksgiving! For those of you who are just finding this podcast weeks/months/years after it was released… uh, Happy Thanksgiving!

This episode has a lot of stuff going on! As always, I continue to be utterly delighted having TONGUES. providing the music for Serial Dater UK… make sure you check out their music and find out more info at Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music, and on the web at www.tonguesmusic.com. You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

A big thanks to Calum Barclay who played the role of Calvin! You can find out more about Calum and his work here and here. Also, thanks to Alastair James Murden for voicing Paul, and to Matthew Hall for voicing Robbie.

You can (and should) absolutely watch the entirety of Eddie Izzard’s Dressed to Kill special, which you can buy on iTunes, Amazon, and a lot of other places.

This episode’s credits music is “If You Find Yourself Caught In Love” by Belle and Sebastian from their record Dear Catastrophe Waitress, available on Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

Check out the pics from Manchester and Scotland to the right!

Tribute to Alan Turing in Manchester

I won’t say I didn’t get a little choked up at the tile pride flag at his feet.

Manchester Town Hall

Complete with Nightmarish Santa

Statue of Abe Lincoln

He was very popular in Manchester

Wild cat from the Manchester Museum

What a wild cat

The rerouting for me and Bill to get from Manchester to Fort William

It was fine it just took a long time

First pic of Scotland

Looks cozy, right?

Gare Loch and the town of Garelochhead

Just being real chill and real stunning

Highlands!

Horseshoe curve between Tyndrum and Bridge of Orchy

I don't even know where this was taken

The whole damn place looks like this, its bonkers

This is not a postcard

This is just real life

This was my PP for *quite* a while

I mean, right?

Sorry, this is getting gratuitous

I mean, not really sorry

Fun with Photoshop!

Dame Judi Dench

So good

TONGUES.!

They were very very good

Terrifying beast from the Kelvingrove Museum

I actually can’t remember if it’s a real or mythic beast

LAD!

Irish Claire’s Irish Setter, real mythical beast

This is a school in Edinburgh

Mostly here as proof that Scotland = Hogwarts

Delightful chubby bird in the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens

Living its best life!

Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh

Just chillin at the seat

Edinburgh Castle

This is the pic I didn’t fuck up

Episode 2 - The Firestarter

Has it only been a week since Episode 1 came out? I feel like it’s been at least a year. But hey! At least I’m not blowing the schedule yet! That’s very exciting!

In this episode, we repeat our too-many-dates-in-one-week past, get a little hot under the collar, and have to ask the existential question—is this even a date?

A bunch of extra thanks and nods here: first up, thanks to Alastair James Murden who played the roles of Sam, Tim and Joey. You can learn more about him at his web site. Major props also to Matthew Hall, who voiced Robbie—find more of Matthew’s work by clicking here.

Thanks again to TONGUES. whose tunes continue to rock our world. Make sure you give them a listen without me yammering over their awesomeness: you can find their stuff at Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music, and on the web at www.tonguesmusic.com.

If for some reason you haven’t seen Sister Act 1 or 2, they’re both available on Hulu, as is Die Hard 1, which is arguably the greatest Christmas movie of all time. Die Hard 2: Die Harder, is available to stream with a Cinemax Subscription through Amazon. You’ll have to pony up cash to watch the Muppet Christmas Carol, but it’s available to buy everywhere. You can stream the entirety of Queen Elizabeth II’s 2015 Christmas message on YouTube. You can find Autre Ne Veut’s Anxiety on Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music.

Another tip of the hat to the folks of Prom Date who let me use their tune “Good Morning, Boyfriend” again as a throwback to season 1. You can still buy it at Bandcamp!

And of course, major thanks to friend of the podcast Anna Marquardt did our super sexy end credits theme! Check out Anna’s web site here, and you can also check out our greatest co-achievement, Fashion It So, the internet’s pre-eminent blog dedicated to the fashions of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which the two of us write together.

Pumpers night!

I don’t have pictures of the Halloween Party where I met Sam, but I do have this picture of a party we had at my place a few nights before where everyone in my house carved a pumpkin, and which my flatmate dubbed “Pumpers Night,” said in a very thick west country accent.

Cheesy Instagram from the spot I first kissed Robbie

sorrynotsorry

Watching a Muppet Christmas Carol next to a "Tree"

Hard to tell what’s more authentic

Christmas Pudding

This! Pud! Is on fire!

Mah gurl Lizzie

Deliverin’ those xmas wishez

Havant Girls Don't Play

Not super relevant to the podcast, but I love this picture.

Episode 1 - The Newbie

Hey Everyone! What?! We’re back! Just like Beyoncé, I’m dropping the first episode without a lick of publicity. That’s how this works, right? Anyway, for those of you who stayed subscribed to the podcast or forgot to unfollow us on Facebook or Twitter (hmm, maybe not having posted in two years is finally paying off), hi!

As you may have gathered, this season of Serial Dater is going to be about my year of dating in the UK! And I have so many people to thank!

First, big shout-out to our new music partner, TONGUES., a Glasgow-based band who have agreed to lend their tunes to this season. You can check them out at www.tonguesmusic.com, and you can find their stuff on Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

Big thanks to Sam Ford, who performed the voice of Kieron. You can find more of his work here!

“Rule Britannia” performed (ironically?) by the United States Army Strings, and made available on Wikimedia Commons. You can find the recording here.

You can read Blythe Roberson’s essay “Fulbright Proposal for Getting Away from New York Boys” in The New Yorker by clicking here.

The complete episodes of Gilmore Girls and Master of None can both be found on Netflix (in the United States, anyway). Our quoting of Follies came from the 1998 Cast Recording, which you can find here on Amazon.

End credits music: “Somebody Groovy,” by the 1991 Washington University Greenleafs from their album, It Ain’t Easy Being Green. Available for purchase on iTunes!

Please tell people on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram if you’re into that sort of thing. You can also tell them in real life! And please, click here to go to our page in Apple Podcasts and leave us a review if you liked it!

Check out all the crazy photos below!

View fullsize

Knitted tea cosy from the Tea Shop Theatre

It’s so cute I could spit.

Dog sitting on a bar stool at the Eagle Pub

Like it thinks it’s people

Life Preserver at the Palace of Westminster (aka Parliament)

Words cannot convey...

Welcome to Serial Dater!

Thanks so much for coming to check out the podcast! Serial Dater is a 6-part serial podcast, and is best listened to from the beginning. Because of how time and blogs work, this means you'll either have to scroll all the way down or click here. You can also get the podcast through most podcasting apps, including iTunes and Stitcher!

And, of course, we'd love to hear your feedback! E-mail us at serialdaterpodcast@gmail.com, Tweet at us at @serialdaterpod, leave a note for us on Facebook, or do Tumblr things to us on Tumblr.

Thanks, and happy listening!

-Charlie.

Episode 6 - The Parting Glass

Hi Everyone! OMG it's the last episode! In this episode we move to Florida and go to Rehab, investigate ourselves, and learn a lot about zippers. 

You can find Kyle Munzenrieder's hilarious description of the "The Ten Distinct States That Make Up Florida" in the Miami New Times by clicking here.

If you've enjoyed the podcast, you can support us in the following ways!

1) Consider joining or donating to the National Marrow Donor Program at www.bethematch.org. We should note that, right now, gay men (i.e., men who have had sex with other men in the last five years) are ineligible to join the registry. If you'd like to see this policy changed, you can sign the petition at www.bonemarrowpetition.org. 

2) Please support the musicians who generously donated their music to the podcast! You can find PROM DATE's album, Portraits at www.promdatemusic.com. Also, if you are in Chicago on 5/1 or Memphis on 5/3, make sure you catch Prom Date on Tour this week! Head to their web site for more info.  You can find SCOTT JAMES' album, Destinesia, at www.scottjamesmusic.com. Scott is also performing this Friday, 5/1, 6pm, at Rockwood Music Hall in New York City.

3) If you'd like to directly support SERIAL DATER, first and foremost, make sure you share, tweet, and reblog about us on all the platforms! You can find us on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr! If you'd like to kick us a few bucks to help with production costs and to encourage future podcasting, click here or on the Donate link at the top of the page.

There are still tickets to voice-of-the-dates Adam Enright's show, 2SCOOPS at Joe's Pub on Monday, June 8th at 9:30pm. Click here for tickets, and follow 2SCOOPS on Twitter.

Episode 5 - Matt

Hey peeps! Episode 5 is here! In this episode we get in touch with our inner moron, get into the semiotic weeds, fly on eight different airplanes and accidentally do a Dan Savage impression! 

Also, our Music Besties PROM DATE are still on tour! Make sure you check their Facebook page for dates and updates.

And, if you haven't secured your tickets to 2SCOOPS (i.e., voice-of-the-dates, Adam Enright) at Joe's Pub, then, we don't even know what you're doing with your life.

As always, if you can, any sharing/liking on Facebook, following/retweeting on Twitter, liking/reblogging on Tumblr, it GIVES US STRENGTH! Plus we hear it's good for your skin. Oh, and leaving a rating and review on iTunes or Stitcher will make your hair shinier. 

Episode 4 - The Texter

Hi everyone! Welcome back to SERIAL DATER for Episode 4! In this episode, we wax philosophic about communication, talk about how texting has affected dating, get inundated with text messages, and see a celebrity! At least, as someone who is a liberal minded thirty-year-old, we consider him a celebrity.

A couple of announcements! If you've been enjoying the music heard on SERIAL DATER, you should definitely check out the amazing people who are behind it, the synthpop collective PROM DATE. And if you're in the Midwest/South, they're going on a huge tour this spring! Definitely go and check them out—they are the definition of rad!

Also, friend of the podcast and voice of the dates, Adam Enright, will be performing in NYC in June as part of 2SCOOPS, the recently reunited, entirely fictional 90's R&B Girl Group. You should follow them on Twitter and grab a ticket to their show at Joe's Pub. They are amazing! 

To read more hilarious interpretations of text messages, check out Katie Heaney's "Between The Texts" column on The Hairpin. I've linked to the earliest one here, but there are dozens more, so be sure to set aside a good chunk of time because these are hilarious. 

As always, any social media love you can give us makes us so, so, so happy! And we take it in any form, including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, whatevr! See what I did there? Also, any ratings/reviews you have time to write on iTunes or Stitcher are also enormously appreciated! Thanks friends!

From Episode 4, the Threat of Text Message Misinterpretation System

Episode 3 - Argyle

Hey everybody! So glad to see you again! Unless this is your first time... I still feel like you should start with Episode 1, but you know what, I'm not going to tell you how to live your life. You do you.

So, Episode 3... Argyle. Oof. In this episode we talk about what makes for a bad date, some of our friends share their own dating war stories, we go on a short (but focused) rant about why writing is hard, and get love-shoved. 

As always, if you're a fan (even if you listen by coming to this web site and streaming or downloading the podcast) we'd super appreciate it if you'd take a few seconds to subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on iTunes and/or Stitcher. If you still have a few extra seconds and want to like our Facebook Page, follow and re-tweet us on Twitter, or do any other social media good-will, we will love you forever! 

For more information on Jennine Capó Crucet (my writing prof from this episode), check out her web site, www.jcapocrucet.com, and you can pre-order her upcoming novel, Make Your Home Among Strangers, coming out this August!

You can find more info on the Sackett Street Writer's Workshop at their web site, http://sackettworkshop.com. 

Episode 2 - The Pilot

Welcome back, friends! If you're new, go listen to Episode 1 first, which is right underneath this post. Don't worry. We'll wait.

Okay, everyone up to speed? Great. It's time for episode 2: The Pilot! In this episode, we get into how important the other person's job is when it comes to dating, the definition of "rat-a-tat," and why "good on paper" guys get such a tough rap. It's going to be fun!

If you're enjoying the podcast and want to help us out, make sure you subscribe and leave a review on iTunes, go like our Facebook Page, and share, tweet or post about it to all your podcast-starved friends!

Also, you can now find Serial Dater on Stitcher! You can also subscribe and leave reviews there.

Thank you all so much for your support, and I hope you enjoy episode 2!!!

The Meeting Scale (for gays), as referenced in Episode 2 - The PIlot!

Episode 1 - Bow Tie

In the Spring of 2011, fueled by a mixture of imminent-grad-school induced senioritis and a therapist-encouraged carpe diem, I sort of accidentally went on five first dates in seven days. Join me as I take you on a journey through the highs and lows—okay, let's be honest, largely lows—of modern dating. This is SERIAL DATER.

You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes! Click here!

Here is the goodbye scale I mentioned in Episode 1 - Bow Tie!

You can find more info on the "poet named Vince"—Vincent Guerra—at www.vincentguerra.com.

First Episode Coming Soon

We're still getting everything set up, but the first Episode of "Serial Dater" should be along in the next week or two! Follow @serialdaterpod for the latest info!