From Houston to Heteropessimism: What could go wrong?

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A city reels, leaders insist on calm, and the numbers won’t stop echoing: sixteen bodies discovered in Houston’s bayous this year. We walk straight into the tension between fear and fact—what officials mean by “no evidence,” what communities hear, and how rumors surge when updates feel thin. Instead of settling for a binary—serial killer or nothing to see—we break down the practical signals that matter: time-of-disappearance windows, case-linkage criteria, toxicology realities, and how mapping sites and social contexts can clarify whether a pattern exists or tragedies are unlinked. The goal isn’t to sensationalize; it’s to ask for transparent, methodical communication that respects both investigative integrity and public trust.

Then the conversation takes a sharp turn to a headline-grabbing claim: dating as an “evidence-based” decision. A professor’s choice to stop dating men sparks a wider look at heteropessimism, household labor research, and the seductive simplicity of treating love like an optimization problem. We separate what the data actually shows—persistent inequities in domestic chores and emotional load—from sweeping narratives that turn partners into “junior employees.” Can analytics help relationships without stripping them of humanity? We argue for the middle path: use evidence to illuminate blind spots, negotiate better boundaries, and build fair routines, while refusing to compress identity, chemistry, and care into a single metric.

If you’re curious about how to tell rumor from risk in public safety—or how to balance heart and heuristics in modern love—you’ll find substance, pushback, and a few sharp questions to take with you. Enjoy the ride, share it with a friend who loves a good rethink, and if it resonates, tap follow and leave a short review so others can find the show. We’ll be back after the long weekend—what’s on your plan list?

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Woot woot, hello, it's Friday.
Okay, uh, I'm sorry, but Ididn't have much time to find
some topics this morning, soit's gonna be scarce, but I did
find something that I found kindof interesting.
Houston police discover 16bodies in bayoux this year as

(00:21):
Mayor dismisses serial killerspeculation.
This is happening in Houston,Texas, not new, not New Orleans,
the Bayous, okay?
I didn't know Texas had bayous.
Texas police have found at least16 16 16 bodies in the bayous
around Houston so far this year.

(00:43):
Um that's more than one a month.
Oh my gosh, according toauthorities and local reports
sparking concerns of a serialkiller, which city leaders are
working to dispel.
Here's this.
This is fantastic.
This is fantastic.
Houston's mayor has said policehave no evidence of a serial

(01:07):
killer.
Well, they just have 16 bodies,that's all.
But experts are calling for anextensive investigation into the
deaths.
I think something's happeninghere.
Something is afoot.
Oh, see, I told you.
I said Joseph Oh, I cannotpronounce his last name.
Gia Cologne, a retired NYPDsergeant and criminal justice

(01:31):
professor at Penn State LehighValley, a coincidence unlikely,
a careful inspection of eachcase is warranted, yeah I'd say
so, including the forty-eighthours prior to the discovery of
their disappearance.
The spate of apparent drowningsis reminiscent of another

(01:52):
concerning number of deaths inthe waters of Lady Bird Lake in
Austin, Texas.
Five of the bodies werediscovered in a five-day span
last month, according to HoustonPolice Chief Noah Diaz.
And Captain Salem Zia, commanderof the Houston Police

(02:12):
Department's homicide division,said the youngest victim was
twenty.
Authorities later revealed thebodies belonged to both males
and females.
Well, what other bodies wouldthey frickin' belong to?
What is wrong with these peoplethe way they write these
articles and ranged in age fromtheir twenties to their sixties?
What do you what are we lookingat aliens now?

(02:34):
Come on.
Rumors stir fear and anxiety inour communities, the chief said.
It's important to rely onverified information and
investigations.
Yeah, but if you have it, ifyou're finding sixteen bodies in
the bayous around your place,something is up and you need to
do you do need to tell thepeople.

(02:55):
Houston Mayor John Whitmerslammed misinformation and wild
speculation online frompolitical candidates surrounding
the cases at a news briefing onSeptember twenty ninth.
We do not have any evidence.
No, you just have sixteen deadbodies.
Hello.
That there is a serial killerloose in Houston, Texas, he

(03:17):
said.
Let me say that again.
There is no evidence that thereis a serial killer loose in the
streets of Houston.
Yeah, okay, buddy.
He called the number of deathsalarming and asked for patience
as the city investigates.
Okay, well, what do you think isgoing on?
There that goes on, and I don'treally want to keep this that

(03:38):
goes on that much longer.
But what do you think ishappening?
That's the first time I've everheard this story like this.
Okay.
Next.
Oh, y'all, get ready for thisnext one.
Oh, this is a new, this is a newthing.
Okay, get ready.
It's a new spin on dating, andthis this is insane.
Professor has been praised forevidence-based decision to stop

(04:02):
dating men, but why reduce loveto a math equation?
Alright, you ready?
Here we go.
This is so dumb.
I can't believe some of thesepeople who have these college
educations actually make itthrough life like this.
Okay.
Heteropessimism is a trendybuzzword right now, with female

(04:24):
writers lamenting the state ofstraightness in thought pieces
and TikTokers pitting the sexesagainst one another.
And a Wharton professor's bookis being lauded as according to
New York magazine, an echo aneconomist's take on
heteropessimism, as though morenegativity about heterosexuality

(04:46):
is what we need.
In her media rounds, okay, thisis her book title, get ready,
it's a mouthful.
In her media rounds for havingit all, what data tells us about
women's lives and getting themost out of yours, Associate
Professor of Business EconomicsCorrine Lowe has ruffled some
feathers.
I'd say so.
I'm not physically repulsed bymen, I'm socially and

(05:10):
politically repulsed, she jokedto New York magazine, before
revealing that her move toexclusively date women after
divorcing her husband was anevidence-based decision.
So you weren't born that way?
Is that what you're saying?
You weren't born gay?
Okay.
See, it is a choice.
Uh making it even more clinical,she reas she recently told the

(05:35):
Times of London how dating womenwasn't if was an efficient
decision.
I didn't have time to filterthrough men.
I needed to take on another, Ineeded to take another draw from
the distribution, as economistssay, as productivity as as

(05:55):
productively as possible.
Did you get that?
Did you get that?
She doesn't have time to gothrough all the men.
So what you have time to gothrough all the women?
What's the difference here?
Uh they say this, and then thisnext bit is insane.
The way women look at men, thesewomen, these these college

(06:20):
education, uh educated womenlook at men is asinine.
Okay.
They say romance is dead, butperhaps it's just been replaced
with a formula.
No, all right, get ready.
This is the insane part, believeit or not.
The author claims that manywives end up with a husband who

(06:41):
is a junior employee they haveto manage as opposed to a co-CEO
of a household.
Bull crap, bull hockey, bullSHIT.
What kind of person says thisabout a man, about her husband?

(07:05):
She cites her 2025 study,Winning the Bread and Baking It
Too, which found thatheterosexual wives still carry
much of the household workload,regardless of how much they earn
relative to their husbands.
Well, maybe that's becauseyou're not supposed to be okay.
No, I'm not gonna go down there.
Maybe that's because maybe youwere meant to be the nurturer

(07:30):
and mothers and wives and notthe you know what I'm saying.
I think you know what I'msaying.
But you know, if you look, ifyou want to go out there and do
your thing, then do your thing.
But you don't need to bringothers with you.
Don't try to talk other womeninto doing it too, because this
is dumb.
If you want to go out there andbe the breadwinner, go fine.

(07:52):
There's nothing wrong with that.
But you don't have to put downmen, you just haven't found the
right one, that's all.
You you want a robot, is whatyou want.
That's what you want.
You want okay, I'm done.
I I'm done.
I may have to do a blog postabout that.
I'm gonna have to finish readingthat article, let it marinate.

(08:14):
I need to think about it becauseI do, I think I do want to write
about that.
I want to write a rebuttal tothat asinine woman.
All right, see, will it well Iguess we're done here.
Because I'm good.
I'm glad I'm running out oftime.
So we need a question of theday.
Well, I guess it's the weekend,and it's for some of us a
three-day weekend.

(08:36):
So my question is the day,question of the day is what do
you have planned this weekend ifyou want to share with me?
You may not want to share withanybody uh what you're doing,
and that's fine.
Um, so I guess that's it.
That's all I've got today.
Today is Friday, right?
I'm sure yes.
It has to be Friday.

(08:58):
Yeah, long weekend coming up,and the gent and I will
hopefully maybe be back onSunday with our brood awakening.
We'll we'll see.
There probably will not be apodcast here on Monday since
that is a holiday.
Um, just because I won't begetting up and doing my regular
routine, so there's that.
Alright, I gotta go.

(09:18):
Thanks for listening.
Have a great weekend.
Bye.