https://yt.link/quMC2B9 → thank you for the sponsor of this episode hers. Learn more about hers. 

Inayah on what it actually takes to stop being someone who's always ready to leave.

Inayah is a Houston-born R&B singer and songwriter who first broke through with her viral cover of Ella Mai's "Boo'd Up" in 2018 (a moment that grew her following by over a million people overnight) and has since built a catalog — and a public identity — around emotional honesty, female independence, and not needing a man. Her forthcoming album is called Therapy Wasn't Enough, which is also the most accurate description of where this conversation begins.

In this episode, Inayah gets specific about what it means to be a leaver (someone who, at any given moment, is already scanning for the reason to go) and what it has actually cost her to try to become something different inside a relationship with a partner whose traditional Jamaican values regularly collide with her experience as a modern American woman building her own life on her own terms. Neither of them has figured it out yet (they're not reporting from the finish line here), and that honesty is exactly what makes this conversation worth sitting with.

This one is for anyone who loves someone and still can't quite make themselves put both feet in.

Big love to the sponsor of this episode, Masterclass. Right now, our listeners get an additional 15% off any MasterClass annual membership at masterclass.com/lovers. 

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Follow Inayah

Instagram: http://instagram.com/inayah/

Stream Therapy Wasn't Enough: https://inayahofficial.com/

Want more Lover?

Get a free weekly Love Letter → http://loversbyshan.com/newsletter 

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Sex Is a Skill. Beducated is where you learn it. Join Beducated today at https://beducate.me/loversbyshan. 

Big love to the sponsor of this episode, CozyEarth! Head to https://cozyearth.com/LOVERS and use my code LOVERS for an exclusive 20% off.

Head to www.penguinrandomhouse.com to get your copy of Caro Claire Burke’s new book Yesteryear, a gripping, darkly funny thriller about an influencer trapped in a nightmare version of the past.

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Dondré Whitfield on why men cheat — and what nobody taught them about love.

Dondré Whitfield is an actor best known for his roles in Guiding Light, Queen Sugar, and The Game, and the author of Male vs. Man (a book about what it actually means to be a man in the context of family, fatherhood, and love). In this conversation, he traces the origin of his infidelity not to a moment of weakness but to a moment of watching his father lust after other women in plain sight (that was the day, he says, the cheater in him was born — not because he wanted to be that man, but because he didn't yet know he had a choice).

What follows is one of the most specific and honest conversations we've had on this show about what it looks like when a man finally decides to understand himself and then builds an entire framework so his children don't have to start from zero. His concept, "we date as a family" (where the whole family meets not just the person a child is dating but their father too, so everyone can help scaffold the relationship toward something healthy), is practical, radical, and worth hearing in full.

Follow Dondré Whitfield

Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/alldondre/ Website → https://www.dondrewhitfield.com/ Get Dondré's book Male vs. Man → https://a.co/d/0het8rPc

Want more Lover?

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Join the Lovers Community → https://www.loversbyshan.com/community 
Explore free quizzes + worksheets → http://loversbyshan.com/quizzes

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A few weeks ago I put out the Melissa Ford episode, and the comments told me something I already knew before I hit publish: I crossed a line I claim to stand against. This is me sitting with that.

Chaos is a ladder. I've climbed it for twenty years. The only other ladder I know is love, and it's so much harder, because you have to actually feel your way up it.

I also owe a more honest version of something I said before about my life, my relationship, the joy I keep telling from the outside in instead of the inside out. So I'm saying the true thing plainly: I have an amazing love life. This is the year I stop building from fear.

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Showing some love of the sponsor of this episode #BEDucated. Join Beducated today at https://beducate.me/loversapril. 

Shout out to the sponsor of this episode #Quince. Go to Quince.com/LOVERS for free shipping and 365-day returns.

LOVERS! Right now, you can receive up to 32% off your purchase by heading to Biologica.com/LOVERS!

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Melyssa Ford has heard every version of the argument. She's seen the comments. She knows what people think about a woman her age with no husband and no kids who says she's genuinely happy. 

And she's back to say it again,  louder. In this episode, Shan and Melyssa get into the real reason so many women are quietly stepping back from traditional relationship structures, not out of bitterness, not out of trauma, but out of a clear-eyed look at what they were actually being offered. 

If you've ever felt like the options on the table weren't worth the cost, this one is for you.

Follow Melyssa Ford

→ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melyssaford
→ Watch Hot & Bothered with Melyssa Ford (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgI18pIo71rZWq6upn_QxMg
Listen to Hot & Bothered Podcast: available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & all major platforms

Want more Lover?

Shan’s AI trained to give you her advice → http://loversbyshan.com 

Get a free weekly Love Letter → http://loversbyshan.com/newsletter 

Join the Lovers Community → https://www.loversbyshan.com/community 

Explore free quizzes + worksheets → http://loversbyshan.com/quizzes

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Sex Is a Skill. Beducated is where you learn it. Join the world's largest sex school and access 150+ courses for curious adults: https://beduc.at/bg2621-boody

Big love to the sponsor of this episode, Masterclass. Right now, our listeners get an additional 15% off any MasterClass annual membership at masterclass.com/lovers. 

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In this episode of Lovers, I sit down with KevOnStage and Melissa Fredericks for a conversation about the kind of partnership most people admire from a distance… but might struggle to survive in real life.

Before the success, before the tours, and before the platform, Melissa was the one carrying the financial weight of their household while Kev pursued stand-up comedy full time. She talks honestly about what it felt like to be the responsible one, why she chose not to weaponize money in their relationship, and how they built trust without keeping score.

Together, they unpack the mindset that has shaped their marriage for years: if one person fails, both people fail. If one person wins, both people win.

We also talk about resentment in long-term relationships, navigating major life transitions like perimenopause, giving your partner room to evolve, and why some of the choices that strengthened their marriage would look completely irrational to other couples.

This episode challenges modern ideas around independence, partnership, sacrifice, gender roles, and what it actually means to build a life with someone instead of simply alongside them.

If you’ve ever wondered what real partnership looks like behind the scenes, or questioned whether you’d actually be willing to make the sacrifices required for the kind of love you admire, this conversation is for you.

Follow KevOnStage & Melissa Fredericks

→ Kev's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevonstage 

→ Melissa's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrskevonstage/?hl=en 

→ Website & Tour Dates: https://www.kevonstage.com 

→ Watch Kev’s Shows & Comedy Content https://www.youtube.com/user/KevOnStage

AND don’t miss the latest release from Kennedy Ryan upcoming novel Score → https://kennedyryanwrites.com/score/ 

Did you know Kennedy Ryan came on the podcast? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSJxZ-XzFck 

Want more Lover?

Shan’s AI trained to give you her advice → http://loversbyshan.com 

Get a free weekly Love Letter → http://loversbyshan.com/newsletter 

Join the Lovers Community → https://www.loversbyshan.com/community 

Explore free quizzes + worksheets → http://loversbyshan.com/quizzes

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Sex Is a Skill. Beducated is where you learn it. Join the world's largest sex school and access 150+ courses for curious adults: https://beduc.at/bg2620-boody 

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In this episode of Lovers, I sit down with my sister Lauren Morrison to say something ick: we both still enjoy attention from men.

While we prepare for Mash Majesty, our section for Toronto Caribbean Carnival, we’ve been having important conversations around what carnival represents for us, and in addition to community and culture, it’s also a day to flirt with the gaze! 

In this episode, we talk about how motherhood, marriage, long-term partnership, and aging can shift the way women experience themselves socially and romantically, especially in a culture that simultaneously rewards female desirability while shaming women for acknowledging that they enjoy it.

Together, we unpack why so many women quietly miss feeling desired, why being loved and being wanted are not always the same emotional experience, and how spaces like Carnival and Mash Majesty can reconnect women to embodiment, visibility, sensuality, play, and freedom without shame.

This episode is deeply personal, but it’s also connected to the spirit behind Mash Majesty itself: creating a space where women can feel expressive, magnetic, joyful, powerful, sensual, seen, and fully alive in their bodies.

If you’ve ever questioned whether it’s shallow to enjoy attention, missed feeling desired in your relationship, or struggled with how motherhood, aging, or partnership changed the way the world responds to you, this conversation is for you.

Join us for Toronto Caribbean Carnival August 1st, 2026

https://tribal.masos.app/events/b73d9cf9-ca8b-4d97-b7c8-a2511cec0b35/sections/db97e350-5840-448f-ba03-ff461464549c

Follow Lauren Morrison

→ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachlaurenmorrison/→ Get Lauren’s new book https://www.amazon.com/Be-Room-Shrinking-Leading-Purpose/dp/B0FM4HGYSP→ Sign up for a free coaching consultation with Lauren https://www.beintheroomcoaching.com/work-with-lauren

Want more Lover?

Shan’s AI trained to give you her advice → http://loversbyshan.com 

Get a free weekly Love Letter → http://loversbyshan.com/newsletter 

Join the Lovers Community → https://www.loversbyshan.com/community 
Explore free quizzes + worksheets → http://loversbyshan.com/quizzes

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Showing love to our sponsor Arya. You deserve a novelty and pleasure in your intimate, ESPECIALLY in light of Mothers’ Day. Head to https://www.arya.fyi/mothersday to learn more

Sex Is a Skill. Beducated is where you learn it. Join the world's largest sex school and access 150+ courses for curious adults: https://beduc.at/bg2619-boody 

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How much of your attachment style is actually formed in childhood?

In this episode, Shan sits down with renowned psychiatrist and attachment expert Dr. Amir Levine to unpack the myths around attachment theory and why attachment styles are far more flexible than people think.

Dr. Levine explores the nuances of anxious, avoidant, and secure attachment, with a specific emphasis on avoidant attachment and the misconceptions surrounding it in modern dating culture. He explains why attachment is better understood as a belief system rather than a fixed diagnosis, revisits the groundbreaking “Strange Situation” experiment developed by Mary Ainsworth, and shares practical tools like the Tennis Wall of Love and the C.A.R.R.P. method to help build healthier, more secure relationships.

The conversation also explores how technology and modern communication have completely changed the way we connect, date, and experience intimacy today.

Follow Dr. Amir

Take his MasterClass on The Science of Connection → https://www.masterclass.com/classes/the-science-of-connection

Get His New Book Secure → https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/secure-amir-levine/1148276412

Get His Bestselling Book Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find and Keep Love → https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/attached-amir-levine/1102355415

Connect with Dr. Amir → https://amirlevinemd.com

Want more Lover?

Shan’s AI trained to give you her advice → http://loversbyshan.com 

Get a free weekly Love Letter → http://loversbyshan.com/newsletter 

Join the Lovers Community → https://www.loversbyshan.com/community 
Explore free quizzes + worksheets → http://loversbyshan.com/quizzes

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Showing love to our sponsor Biologica. Take their Quick Hormonal Life Stage Quiz to find the formula that’s right for you, and get up to 32% on your purchase: https://biologica.com/lovers 

Thanks to Cozy Earth for sponsoring this episode. Go to cozyearth.com/LOVERS for up to 20% off! 

Sex Is a Skill. Beducated is where you learn it. Join the world's largest sex school and access 150+ courses for curious adults: https://beducate.me/shanboody. 

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What does the Kama Sutra say about hands?

In this episode, Shan sits down with storyteller and pleasure educator Seema Anand to explore one of the most overlooked (and underestimated) tools of intimacy: your hands.

Recorded live in London in front of an audience of sex educators and pleasure-positive voices, this conversation focuses on expanding your pleasure potential, with a special emphasis on hand sex, as we celebrate the launch of our brand new Käma jewelry collection, inspired by the Kama Sutra.

Seema shares what the Kama Sutra actually teaches about touch, including specific finger combinations, how intention shapes sensation, and why hands play a central role in pleasure.

We also explore the connection between the Kama Sutra and lunar phases, rethink the art of foreplay, and touch on the idea of being multi-orgasmic, and what that can look like.

💎 Shop our new KAMA ring collection. Shop the collection: https://surmeyi.com/kama

RSVP to our Tell-ALL Part 🎉Tuesday, May 5th at 11AM PST. https://community.loversbyshan.com/c/podcast/tell-all-pleasure-party-w-seema-anand-0454f07b-12ae-40ae-b0e6-1f5a167f721a 

Watch Seema’s Previous Podcast EpisodesKama Sutra Secrets Every Woman Deserves to Know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2Pj2rTHLyk The Kama Sutra Secret ‪@SeemaAnandStoryTelling‬ Wants the World to Know About: https://youtu.be/HfrQynAqKjo

Follow SeemaGet her book Speak Easy → https://www.amazon.com/Speak-Easy-Filed-Longing-Intimacy/dp/9361319337 Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/seemaanandstorytelling/?hl=enSubscribe to her YouTube Channel → https://www.youtube.com/@SeemaAnandStoryTelling 

Want more Lover?

Shan’s AI trained to give you her advice → http://loversbyshan.com 

Get a free weekly Love Letter → http://loversbyshan.com/newsletter 

Join the Lovers Community → https://www.loversbyshan.com/community 

Explore free quizzes + worksheets → http://loversbyshan.com/quizzes 

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Sex Is a Skill. Beducated is where you learn it. Join the world's largest sex school and access 150+ courses for curious adults: https://beducate.me/shan2026 

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In this episode of Lovers, Jared and I sit down on vacation for a conversation we’ve never had this honestly before.

This is our seventh year of marriage, the year people warn you about. The year of the “seven-year itch.” And while we’ve built a life together, kids, history, love, this was the first year I really sat with a truth that surprised even me.

For a long time, I wasn’t fully certain we would stay married forever.

In this conversation, we talk about what it actually feels like to be years into a relationship, how having children changes the dynamic between partners, and why even strong marriages go through seasons of doubt, distance, and recalibration.

We share the fears we had going into year seven, the honest ways our relationship has been tested, and what ultimately shifted for me to say, fully and consciously, that this is the person I’m choosing for life.

This episode isn’t about perfect love. It’s about commitment, growth, and what it really takes to stay.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your relationship can survive the hard seasons, or questioned what long-term love is supposed to feel like, this conversation is for you.

Follow Jared BradyInstagram → https://www.instagram.com/enjoyjaredbradySubscribe to his YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKVWwEy39GLNzKXXt9v46TA 

Want more Lover

Receive the weekly Love Letter → http://loversbyshan.com/newslette

Join the Lovers Community → https://www.loversbyshan.com/community

Explore quizzes and worksheets → http://loversbyshan.com/quizzes

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Shout out to the sponsor of this episode Tonal. Right now, Tonal is offering our listeners $200 off your Tonal purchase. Just go to tonal.com and use promo code LOVERS.

Big love to the sponsor of this episode, Masterclass. Right now, our listeners get an additional 15% off any MasterClass annual membership at https://www.masterclass.com/lovers 

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In this episode of Lovers, I sit down with Affion Crockett for a conversation about love, timing, and what it really takes to build a relationship that works.

Affion is actually part of my own love story. He’s the reason Jared and I met. But in this conversation, we turn the lens on him.

Now in his 50s, after years of dating, therapy, and the loss of his father, Affion shares that he finally feels clear on what he’s looking for in a partner, and what he’s no longer willing to force.

For a long time, he believed in the idea that if you try hard enough, you can make a relationship work. But watching his father spend years in an unhappy marriage, and ultimately pass away still carrying that weight, changed how he sees love completely.

We talk about why some relationships aren’t meant to work no matter how much effort you put in, why “happy wife, happy life” doesn’t always lead to real fulfillment, and what it looks like to pursue a relationship that actually adds to your life instead of draining it.

This isn’t a story about giving up on love. It’s about getting honest about what love should feel like, and having the clarity to wait for the right fit.

If you’ve ever tried to make something work that just didn’t click, or wondered if it’s too late to find the kind of relationship you really want, this episode is for you.

Want to manifest a love that FEELS exactly as you’ve always dreamt it would (in your wildest dreams)? Get specific with that language using our LOVERS feelings wheel + Romantic Wishlist worksheet

https://www.loversbyshan.com/resource/the-feelings-wheel---newsletter-subscribers-only

Follow Affion Crockett
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/affioncrockett/
Watch A Hip-Hop Story Now → https://www.ahiphopstory.com/ 

Want more Lover?
Receive the weekly Love Letter → http://loversbyshan.com/newsletter
Join the Lovers Community → https://www.loversbyshan.com/community
Explore quizzes and worksheets → http://loversbyshan.com/quizzes

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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