It's a special dating storytime episode! These are short episodes where a guest and I each tell a story from our dating past. Please enjoy a quick story from Rachael about a guy with a boat and my story about a guy without a bedframe.

Send in your dating dilemmas and questions to [email protected] or through social media direct messages to have Elisa and a guest share their response on a future episode.

Find Ask Elisa on social media:

About Ask Elisa

Ask Elisa is a podcast about dating in your late 30s, 40s, and older. I’m your host, Elisa Sparkman. I found myself unexpectedly single right before my 40th birthday. Now with two years of dating behind me, I wanna talk about it! Dating at this stage in life has its unique challenges.

Join me and my guests as we take real questions from listeners and dive into the messy, funny, and often frustrating world of modern dating—from first dates and dating apps to boundaries, heartbreak, and everything in between. Whether you’re newly single, getting back out there after years, or just trying to make sense of it all, you’ll find validation, perspective, and comfort here. Come for the laughs, stay for the honesty—and leave feeling a little less alone in your love life.

In this episode, I talk with Claudia, a therapist and active dater. We discuss our processes for reviewing dating profiles, what gives us the immediate ick, and what we like to see. Since Claudia and I both date men, we only discuss men's dating profiles. 

As always, I share a question from a listener for my guest and me to respond to. The question for this episode is, "Should unmatching etiquette be a thing?"

Send in your dating dilemmas and questions to [email protected] or through social media direct messages to have Elisa and a guest share their response on a future episode.

Find Ask Elisa on social media:

About Ask Elisa

Ask Elisa is a podcast about dating in your late 30s, 40s, and older. I’m your host, Elisa Sparkman. I found myself unexpectedly single right before my 40th birthday. Now with two years of dating behind me, I wanna talk about it! Dating at this stage in life has its unique challenges.

Join me and my guests as we take real questions from listeners and dive into the messy, funny, and often frustrating world of modern dating—from first dates and dating apps to boundaries, heartbreak, and everything in between. Whether you’re newly single, getting back out there after years, or just trying to make sense of it all, you’ll find validation, perspective, and comfort here. Come for the laughs, stay for the honesty—and leave feeling a little less alone in your love life.

In this episode, I talk with my friend Rachael about starting to date after a big break up. Many people in their late 30s, 40s, and older find themselves on the dating scene after the end of a significant relationship. I've been through a divorce and had a second long-term relationship of almost eight years end unexpectedly. Rachael called off her wedding just two weeks before the date. We discuss our experiences of the public nature of these types of break ups and what it was like to get back out on the dating scene.

As always, I share a question from a listener for my guest and me to respond to. The question for this episode is "How do you balance small talk and depth on a first date?"

Rachael's blog: thisvulnerablelife.org

Send in your dating questions to be answered on the show!

Send in your dating dilemmas and questions to [email protected] or through social media direct messages to have Elisa and a guest share their response on a future episode.

Find Ask Elisa on social media:

About Ask Elisa

Ask Elisa is a podcast about dating in your late 30s, 40s, and older. I’m your host, Elisa Sparkman. I found myself unexpectedly single right before my 40th birthday. Now with two years of dating behind me, I wanna talk about it! Dating at this stage in life has its unique challenges.

Join me and my guests as we take real questions from listeners and dive into the messy, funny, and often frustrating world of modern dating—from first dates and dating apps to boundaries, heartbreak, and everything in between. Whether you’re newly single, getting back out there after years, or just trying to make sense of it all, you’ll find validation, perspective, and comfort here. Come for the laughs, stay for the honesty—and leave feeling a little less alone in your love life.

Ask Elisa: the good, the bad, and the ick is a new podcast about dating in your late 30s, 40s, and older. I’m your host, Elisa Sparkman. I found myself unexpectedly single right before my 40th birthday. Now with two years of dating behind me, I wanna talk about it! 

Join me and my guests as we take real questions from listeners and dive into the messy, funny, and often frustrating world of modern dating—from first dates and dating apps to boundaries, heartbreak, and everything in between. Whether you’re newly single, getting back out there after years, or just trying to make sense of it all, you’ll find validation, perspective, and comfort here. Come for the laughs, stay for the honesty—and leave feeling a little less alone in your love life.

Send in your dating questions, scenarios, and situations to [email protected] or through social media direct messages to have Elisa and a guest share their response on a future episode.

Join the Ask Elisa community on Patreon for free at https://www.patreon.com/cw/AskElisa

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