The Breakup Monologues with Rosie Wilby

To count down to Christmas, Rosie has raided The Breakup Monologues archives to celebrate some of her favourite episodes that you might’ve missed first time around.

In a live episode recorded at Kings Place in 2019, Rosie chats to advice columnist and author Beth McColl, writer and sex educator Alix Fox and author and podcaster Viv Groskop about micro-cheating, breakup ‘anniversary’ dates, fantasy celebrity shag lists, whether ghos...

In a live episode recorded at The Bullingdon as part of IF Oxford, Rosie shares a chapter from The Breakup Monologues book and chats to historian Sally Holloway about how easy it once was to ghost someone, the evolution of our cultural understanding of heartbreak, the significance of love letters and the history of affairs and to zoologist Joanna Bagniewska about how ‘heartbreak’ might be experienced in the animal world, depressed ...

In a live episode recorded in Einstein’s Garden at Green Man Festival, Rosie shares a chapter from The Breakup Monologues book and chats to author Kat Lister and comedian Meryl O’Rourke about untangling the differences and similarities between a breakup and a bereavement, how time feels elastic when we experience grief, how humour can help us after loss, the fetishisation of young widows, how and when to start dating again and recl...

In a live episode recorded at Latitude Festival, Rosie chats to comedians Rachel Parris and Marcus Brigstocke about meeting through comedy improv, emoji flirting, wearing a kilt as a seduction technique, making each other laugh, being dumped by mixtape, intense teenage breakups, going to New York alone with no money after a breakup, writing a breakup show, the different pressures on men and women to be in relationships and much mo...

In a brief break between live episodes, Rosie reflects on getting married during Pride month and how she learned to find herself and find love through all her many breakups. 

In a live episode recorded at Kings Place, Rosie puts some breakup quiz questions to The Chase’s Jenny Ryan, comedian Jake Yapp and podcaster Martin Joseph. They also chat about the pain and guilt of being the breaker upper, blocking an ex on social media, attachment patterns, breakup songs and take some unexpected detours into grisly breakup metaphors and voiceover auditions for cheese ads. Recorded at Kings Place on 22 April 2022...

In a live episode recorded early one Sunday in a somewhat secret wooded glade at Cambridge Comedy Festival, Rosie chats to comedian Esther Manito on her thirteenth wedding anniversary (with her husband and friends in attendance) about sticking together, starting standup comedy as a mother of small children, whether dick pics existed in the olden days, arguing in the background of her daughter’s Zoom lesson during lockdown, what hap...

In a live episode recorded at Faversham Literary Festival, Rosie chats to psychoanalyst and author Anouchka Grose about monogamy in the animal world, how ethical non-monogamy could inform a new version of monogamy, how we measure the value of relationships, celebrities that your partner would give you a pass to sleep with, decoding our childhood programming about love, no-fault divorce, pandemic dating and how Anouchka inadvertentl...

In a live episode recorded at Poplar Union, Rosie chats to journalist and author Rachel Thompson, journalist and poet Victoria Richards and podcaster and activist Sangeeta Pillai about teenage crushes, lockdown flings and breakups, trying to to be overly cool about meeting your ex’s new partner, discovering dating apps, being single and how the matriarchal Nair community of Kerala used to dump a man by leaving his shoes outside the...

In a live episode recorded at Poplar Union, Rosie chats to comedian and screenwriter Jordan Gray and comedian and Comedy Arcade podcaster Vix Leyton about ex-partners turning up to gigs, teenage heartbreak, the pitfalls of trying to get revenge on an ex via performing in a goth metal band, rudimentary early methods of online chat, whether Halloween should become the new Valentine’s Day, sexy pumpkin outfits, reclaiming a sense of a...

Here’s something a bit different this week. Rosie has been working on a pilot for this new podcast idea…

I am an only child. I do not have a sister. As far as I know. That is enough for the rational, scientific part of me, the part inherited from my pragmatic mathematician father. Yet I have always believed deep within the more spiritual part of me that I do have a sister. So where the hell is she?

This is a story about the conflic...

In a live episode recorded at London Podcast Festival, Rosie chats to comedian Ania Magliano, author of The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale, Haley McGee, and creator of The Chemo Chat Show, Sarah Mills, about whether we can calculate a mathematical formula for the cost of love, crying so much that your nose bleeds, the dubious reliability of scientific studies, smoking after a breakup, first date locations, why fleeting relationships and th...

In a live episode recorded in Einstein’s Garden at Green Man Festival, Rosie chats to journalist and author Jude Rogers about her forthcoming book The Sound of Being Human: How Music Shapes Our Lives, how music can help us to heal after a breakup and Jude’s breakup playlist choices from Abba, Blur, Soft Cell, Erasure and Will Young. Recorded at Green Man Festival on 22 August 2021.

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In a live episode recorded at Underbelly Festival, Rosie chats to comedians Felicity Ward and Maisie Adam about meeting partners at raves and at Edinburgh Fringe, dating apps, gender stereotypes, being an awkward teenager and the future of breaking up over TikTok. Recorded at Underbelly Festival on 7 August 2021. 

You can now follow The Breakup Monologues on Instagram @breakupmonologues and buy The Breakup Monologues book from...