Last Year of Single

One of the hardest and least talked-about parts of being single (especially after a breakup) is loneliness. Not missing one person. Missing a whole world of connection. This episode gives you a practical plan to fix it.

Anna Goldfarb (New York Times friendship journalist) and Demi Kotsoris, founder of Millennial Crisis, share the exact strategies that work for making new friends as an adult, and why so many of the standard pieces of advice completely miss the mark.

Bree brings her own story: arriving in Mumbai as a solo female traveller knowing no one, and building a community from scratch in one of the world's most densely populated cities.

In this episode you'll learn:

•    Why making friends as an adult is so much harder than it was when you were younger (the real reasons)

•    How to turn an acquaintance into an actual friend

•    Where single women are actually meeting new friends in 2026, beyond the apps

•    How to overcome the fear of putting yourself out there when you're already lonely

•    Why loneliness after a breakup feels different from ordinary loneliness and how to address both

•    How to build a social life that makes being single genuinely enjoyable rather than isolating

Bree is in Mumbai, India.

Anna Goldfarb's book 'Modern Friendship'

Follow Demi Kotsoris on Instagram

Millennial Crisis website

Subscribe to Last Year of Single Substack here

Follow Bree Steele on Instagram

Join the Last Year of Single community

Email Bree Steele: [email protected]

Host, Executive Producer & Editor: Bree Steele

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When you're single (especially after a breakup) your friendships become everything. Your support system, your social life, your chosen family. So why do they so often fall short of what you actually need?

Anna Goldfarb, friendship expert and New York Times journalist, and queer friendship researcher Tom Roach reveal why friendships get harder as we get older, and what single women can actually do about it.

Tom also shares what straight women can learn from LGBTQIA+ communities about building truly honest, intimate friendships.

Bree brings her own experience: as a solo female traveller living abroad alone in Mumbai, she had to build an entire social world from scratch, and learned more about friendship in six months than in the previous decade.

In this episode you'll learn:

•    Why friendships feel less satisfying as you get older and the specific challenges single women face

•    What happens to your friendships when you're the only one still single

•    How loneliness after a breakup or in single life goes deeper than just missing people

•    What the LGBTQIA+ community does differently when it comes to friendship depth and honesty

•    How to stop settling for surface-level friendships that leave you feeling more alone

•    How to have the conversations that actually deepen a friendship

Bree is currently in Mumbai, India.

Anna Goldfarb's book 'Modern Friendship'

Tom Roach's book 'Friendship As a Way of Life'

Subscribe to Last Year of Single Substack here

Follow Bree Steele on Instagram

Join the community on Instagram on Facebook

Email Bree Steele: l[email protected]

Host, Executive Producer & Editor: Bree Steele

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Whether you're newly single after a breakup and terrified of being alone or you've been single for years and still feel like something is wrong with you, this episode gives you the science behind why, and what to actually do about it.

Dr Anna Machin, evolutionary anthropologist and love researcher at the University of Oxford, reveals the biological and societal reasons behind our fear of singlehood.

Plus, Sreemoyee Piu Kundu - founder of Status Single and a solo woman navigating single life in India - shares what it's really like to face the pressure of being single in a culture that expects you to be partnered.

As a solo female traveller living alone in Mumbai, Bree brings her own experience of navigating the fear of being single far from home and how she stopped letting it make her decisions.

In this episode you'll learn:

•Why fear of being single is hardwired into us and how to override it

•How dopamine, serotonin and beta endorphins (love chemicals) drive our need for connection and how to get them without a romantic partner

•Why being single feels like failure and the cultural and biological truth

•How to stop letting the fear of being alone control your dating decisions

•What single women navigating cultural pressure in India reveal about universal fears

•Practical ways to feel connected, loved and satisfied as a single person

Link to Anna Machin’s book ‘Why We Love’

Follow Sreeymoyee Piu Kundu

Subscribe to Last Year of Single Substack here

Follow Bree Steele on Instagram

Join the Last Year of Single community

Email Bree Steele: l[email protected]

Host, Executive Producer & Editor: Bree Steele

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Whether you're newly single or you've been single for years; this is the episode that changes how you see everything.

Host Bree Steele introduces the concept that started it all: what if you treated your single life as the most intentional, exciting chapter - not a waiting room for a relationship?

After crying on the kitchen floor at 4am, losing her job, moving to Mumbai alone on gut instinct, and getting brutally honest advice from Graham Norton, Bree stopped waiting and started living.

As a solo female traveller living abroad alone in one of the world's most chaotic cities, Bree shares why being single and free was the most powerful position she's ever been in, and how you can find that too.

In this episode you'll learn:

•    Why we're the first generation who can choose to be single and why we still don't know how to enjoy it

•    How to shift your mindset from waiting for a relationship to actually living your single life

•    The story behind the Last Year of Single List and how to make your own

•    Graham Norton's brutal, honest advice on being single and why it hit differently

•    Why solo female travel and living abroad alone is one of the most powerful things a single woman can do

•    The fears and excitement of deciding to stop settling and start living

Bree's Instagram

Last Year of Single Substack

Join the Last Year of Single community

Email Bree: [email protected]

Audio editor: Ryan Pemberton

Host and Executive Producer: Bree Steele

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you're newly single, healing from a breakup, or exhausted by the pressure to find a partner before you can start living - this is the podcast that changes everything.

The Last Year of Single is the show that asks one question: if you knew in 12 months you'd never be single again, how would you spend your time?

Host Bree Steele - award-winning podcaster, TEDx speaker, and Australian woman living solo in Mumbai, India - lost her job, moved continents alone, went internationally viral, and built a life she actually loves.

This podcast is what came out of that.

Each episode tackles the hardest parts of single life: fear of being alone, loneliness, love bombing, toxic relationships, attachment styles, dopamine and dating apps, breakup recovery, burnout, single woman finances, sex life while single, making friends as an adult with leading experts and zero toxic positivity.

This is the podcast for single women who are done putting their lives on hold. Not a waiting room. The main event.

Best listened to in order - this is a serialised story with a beginning, a middle, and a life that builds.

Follow Bree on Instagram: @breesteele.mp3

Substack + Last Year of Single List: here

Email: [email protected]

Host: Bree Steele

Executive producer and editor: Bree Steele

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.