Author: The Cut & The Verge

Here’s a special episode of another podcast, Story of the Week. Each week, journalist Joel Stein chooses an article that fascinates him, convinces the writer to tell him about it, and then interrupts a good conversation by talking about himself. In this episode, Joel is joined by Allison Davis who wrote “My Tinder Decade,” a New York Magazine cover about being on the dating app from the very beginning. And never going on more than five dates with anyone. Listen to new episodes of Story of the Week every Thursday at https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/sotw?sid=lotg

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Looking ahead, where is dating headed? Is it leaning into artificial intelligence or dating chat bots? Or is it unplugging and trying to meet people the old-fashioned way – in real life? And with Gen Z skeptical of dating apps, will tech continue to manage the dating experience?

• Hosted by Sangeeta Singh Kurtz (@sangeetaskurtz) and Lakshmi Rengarajan (@Shmi_So_Far)
• Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear next week's episode by hitting the plus sign in your favorite podcast app
• Follow @TheCut and @verge on Twitter

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Welcome to the wide world of niche dating apps. There's an app for almost every group -- Muslims, vegans, the kink community, cat lovers, farmers, rock climbers, and many more. All aimed at helping specific communities find "their people." But do these apps work, and are they sustainable as a business?

• Hosted by Sangeeta Singh Kurtz (@sangeetaskurtz) and Lakshmi Rengarajan (@Shmi_So_Far)
• Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear next week's episode by hitting the plus sign in your favorite podcast app
• Follow @TheCut and @verge on Twitter

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Bumble is the second most downloaded dating app in the U.S., behind Tinder. Dubbed the "feminist dating app," the "anti-Tinder" was designed to make dating feel better, safer, and less creepy for women. But does Bumble deliver on its promise? In today's episode, the story of how Bumble came to rival the power of Tinder and Match Group by harnessing the brand power of feminism. 

• Hosted by Sangeeta Singh Kurtz (@sangeetaskurtz) and Lakshmi Rengarajan (@Shmi_So_Far)
• Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear next week's episode by hitting the plus sign in your favorite podcast app
• Follow @TheCut and @verge on Twitter

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Dating app execs don’t like to explain how their matchmaking algorithms work– they’ll claim it’s too hard to explain, or that they just can’t talk about it, Fight Club style. But critics say that if daters really knew how basic the algorithms are, they might not put so much blind faith into them. In this episode, we dive into just how these algorithms work and speak with daters trying to hack the code that controls their love lives.

• Hosted by Sangeeta Singh Kurtz (@sangeetaskurtz) and Lakshmi Rengarajan (@Shmi_So_Far)
• Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear next week's episode by hitting the plus sign in your favorite podcast app
• Follow @TheCut and @verge on Twitter

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Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, The League. If you’ve ever wondered why using these different dating apps feels similar, it may be because they’re all owned by Match Group, the company that helped start online dating in the 90s, and now owns two-thirds of the dating app market. Today, Match is a dating app conglomerate with millions of users and over 45 brands around the world. That’s billions of dollars worth of swipes and subscriptions. But does paying for what Match Group calls “superpowers” — things like Hinge’s ‘roses’ and Tinder’s ‘super likes’ — get users any closer to connecting with real-life people? 

• Hosted by Sangeeta Singh Kurtz (@sangeetaskurtz) and Lakshmi Rengarajan (@Shmi_So_Far)
• Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear next week's episode by hitting the plus sign in your favorite podcast app
• Follow @TheCut and @verge on Twitter

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