Love Stories

(Apple Podcasts, acast)

We ask people about their favourite records, books and movies.

Despite them probably being more important to who they are, however, we don’t tend to ask about their relationships.

Journalist and broadcaster Dolly Alderton does that with her podcast series Love Stories.

Dolly’s guests choose their most defining relationships: the passion, heartbreak, longing, familiarity and fondness that forms who they are.

Think of it as a bit like Desert Island Discs for issues of the heart. Among the stellar line-up of Love Stories is author Marian Keyes, who is her usual chatty, insightful and hilarious self. Oscar-nominated Hollywood star Stanley Tucci dropped in to provide some insight into his romantic life growing up as a younger actor.

The 16-episode series tied in with Dolly’s book Everything I Know About Love and is now, sadly, finished. Dolly herself is a nice presence, extracting wisdom from her interviewees. “The author Marian Keyes told me that she spent her 20s in needlessly dramatic and intense relationships and that, on reflection, she used those turbulent affairs as a way of avoiding confrontation with real issues holding her back, such as low self-esteem and addiction,” said Dolly.

“She said,‘i was generating fake emotions to distract from the pain of being me’ – one of the most stunningly astute, wise and self-aware sentences I’ve ever heard, and one I’ve thought about, spoken and written about many times since.”