It's an all-Austen episode: Sanjana formally pitches The Other Bennet Sister, arguing the show works because it lets Mary Bennet stay a genuine weirdo instead of “yassifying” her. Then Nikki Payne joins to talk Jane Austen: her Clueless-into-Emma origin story, why Sense and Sensibility reads more like a philosophy argument than a romance, and her theory that you can always tell when the characters boned off-page. And: Mutual homework, as Sanj and Tyler both consumed Sense and Sensibility for the first time.

• Sanj pitches The Other Bennet Sister on BBC/BritBox (an adaptation of a novel by the same name by Janice Hadlow). 
• Nikki Payne is the author of Pride and Protest, Sex, Lies and Sensibility, The Princess and the P.I., and the upcoming The Pro and the Con.
• Two of Nikki’s favorite Austen retellings:  Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin and Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal. 
• Mutual homework: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Perhaps the audiobook narrated by  Nicola Coughlan?

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Sanjana and Tyler bravely enter the Goodreads discourse: the good, the bad, the entertaining. Then Alexandra Romanoff—author of 831’s Big Fan, Square Waves, and Vacation Self trilogy—joins to talk about moving from YA to adult romance, writing sex across genres, and whether teenagers can really get a happily ever after. Plus: The books and movies our hosts are most excited for this fall.

• Alexandra Romanoff on writing YA to erotica to adult romance. Her YA books: Grace and the Fever, A Song to Take the World Apart, and Look. Her adult romances, for 831: Big Fan, Square Waves, and Vacation Self. (The complete three-book set!)
• Zan’s intimacy and YA pick:  Our Shouts Echo by Jade Adia.
• The fall watch-and-read list: Bad Words by Rioghnach Robinson, Damned If I Do by Alexandria Bellefleur, You’re the One That I Haunt by Katie Jung, Free Falling by Lyla Sage,  Sunflower Season by Danica Nava, Verity, Wicker, and, of course, The Love Hypothesis.

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Sanjana and Tyler saw One Night Only, and, listener, they loved it. More on that before Business or Pleasure and Extracurricular author Rachel Lynn Solomon joins to talk about the fantasy and complications of celebrity romance. Plus: what our hosts read and watched in August (shoutout Scandal).

• The One Night Only verdict: Give yourself over to the premise, support theatrical rom-com releases, and acknowledge that—spoiler—they probably should have had sex.
• Rachel Lynn Solomon is the author of Business or Pleasure and Extracurricular, two fresh takes on celeb/norm romance.
• Sanj’s recent cultural consumption: Sterling Point, Scandal, and C.R. Jane’s The Wrong Player series. Tyler’s latest: Brooke Averick’s Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It, Ann Patchett’s Whistler, and Jenny Jackson’s The Shampoo Effect.

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Why is it that some celebrity romances feel genuine and others feel like fake news? Sanjana and Tyler dig into the authenticity of it all before UTA literary agent Ariele Fredman joins to chat about what romance publishers want right now and what may be coming next. Then, Sanj and Tyler crown their Q3 Internet Boyfriends.

• Celebrity romances mentioned: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, Matty Healy and Gabbriette, Dua Lipa and Callum Turner, and Tom Holland and Zendaya.
• Ariele Fredman on what’s trending in romance publishing, with a shout-out to I. V. Marie’s YA romantasy hit Ruinous Ends.
• Q3 Internet Boyfriend nominees: Dónal Finn (Young Sherlock, The Other Bennet Sister) and Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani, with special acknowledgements for Irish accents and public officials willing to solve your dating problems.

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Sanjana airs a pet peeve—the "didn't feel realistic" critique—and she and Tyler make the case that exaggeration is one of romance's best tools. Then Adrie Rose, a former sex worker and editor of the book of essays I Hate My Job, joins to talk about how the genre handles sex workers (not well) despite being kind of obsessed with writing them. And: Sanj completes her Tyler-assigned homework and comes back thrilled by The Pairing by Casey McQuiston, and especially by the line "the Kierkegaard of cock."

• Adrie Rose edited and contributed to I Hate My Job and cohosts the Pages and Prejudice podcast. Her recs: the TV show Harlots, Kathryn Moon's Monster Smash Agency series, and Charlie Amen's Hawk & March.
• Sanjana's homework: The Pairing by Casey McQuiston.
• From Sanj: For more on “realism” vs. “truth” vs. “performance” vs. “artifice,” here’s an interesting bit of writing from Vicky of the Chicky Substack from a more film-crit angle.

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Bring the steam: Sanjana and Tyler advocate that sex scenes count as character work and that too many books miss that opportunity. Then Kate Goldbeck—the author of You, Again and Daddy Issues—stops by to talk about what it's actually like to write romance in an era of chronically online readers and, well, Threads. To close things out, Sanj and Tyler make the case for messier, sillier plots: well-executed cheating and unhinged premises, please.

• Our two closed-door book picks are YA: Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert and Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood.
• Kate Goldbeck is the author of You, Again and Daddy Issues, and her Substack is a great BTS look at being a romance writer right now.
• The wishlist for messier romance: the kind of emotional cheating brought to us by You’ve Got Mail and the sort of ridiculous set-ups Susan Elizabeth Phillips delivered with Nobody's Baby But Mine.

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Hear us out: An awkward sex scene can actually be better than a frictionless one. Take the examples Sanj and Tyler cite from Business or Pleasure and Act Your Age, Eve Brown! Then, Riss M. Neilson shares her experiences writing chronic illness and disability and delivering romance to characters who deserve love and steam. Plus, a what-we’ve-consumed-this-month roundup ending with a wildly bad Italian accent courtesy of a rewatch of The Wedding Planner.

• Most-memorable sex scene mentions: Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon and Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert.
• Riss M. Neilson is the author of A Love Like the Sun and The Bridge Back to You. Her rec: Reel by Kennedy Ryan.
• What we’ve consumed this month: The Invite, Lisa Kleypas’s The Wallflower series, Fossil Feud by Maggie North, Chase Me If You Can by Heather Francis, and The Wedding Planner.

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Why an Emily Henry interview now? Sanjana and Tyler dig into Bloomberg’s recent piece on the author, where she discusses Hollywood adaptations and delivers the all-timer line: “A lot of actors think that it’s less humiliating to pretend to be a Beatle than it is to pretend to be in love.” Then: Naina Kumar joins to talk about heyday rom-com movies as novelistic underpinnings—see her latest, Just a Highland Fling!—and our hosts launch the Yearner Hall of Fame. Congrats to Ethan Hawke and Hanif Abdurraqib!

• The Bloomberg Emily Henry interview.
• Naina Kumar’s Just a Highland Fling (out this week!), Say You’ll Be Mine, and Flirting with Disaster. Her rom-com Mount Rushmore: When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail, Palm Springs, and While You Were Sleeping. Bonus: Kate & Leopold.
• Yearner Hall of Fame inductees: Ethan Hawke (his “the one who’s in love always wins” interview with Amelia Dimoldenberg) and poet/romantic/essayist Hanif Abdurraqib.

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Are you on the vertical-video bandwagon? Or perhaps you’ll be more persuaded by another phenomenon, the C-drama, once you’ve heard @tritney’s take on the Chinese romance boom that has finally hit America. (Of course, she brings her starter-pack picks for anyone who wants to see some of the best eye-acting in action.) Then: Sanjana assigns Tyler Sherry Thomas's Private Arrangements, and Tyler becomes a full historical-romance advocate, one devastating "you breathe, and I'll know it's you" line at a time.

• The ReelShort phenomenon and Nick Skonberg, vertical-vid star. Plus: Publishers Weekly on Harlequin microdramas.
• @tritney’s C-drama romance starter recommendations, all on Netflix: Pursuit of Jade, Love in the Clouds, Hidden Love, The First Frost, and the BL (boys’ love) classic The Untamed.
• Tyler's homework assignment: Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas.

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Sanjana and Tyler open by making the case that the World Cup is a 48-country meet-cute machine (see: kilted Scotsmen throwing women over their shoulders in Boston bars). Then KT Hoffman joins to talk baseball in romance: why the minor leagues are more romantic than the majors, why slow-burn and baseball are basically the same thing, and what it takes to write queer and trans joy into sports. And: Tyler and Sanjana watch Bull Durham and Fever Pitch back-to-back—and discover that one is proto-Challengers.

• KT Hoffman is the author of The Prospects, a queer and trans baseball romance set in the minor leagues. His recommended reads: You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian, The Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson, and the baseball romances of KD Casey.
• The baseball movie homework: Bull Durham and Fever Pitch.

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