She left her life, her family and her country for a man she met on Reddit. Their love is real, but his family has been hell.

Programming note: This conversation was recorded before the COVID-19 lockdown.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bipolar, infidelity, open relationships: they're stuck in a world of loaded words. Her friends are convinced she should leave, but she doesn't want to follow in her mother's footsteps.

Programming note: This conversation was recorded before the COVID-19 lockdown.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Barely a year into marriage, they're trapped in a cycle of explosive conflict. She can do no right, and he can do no wrong.

Programming note: This conversation was recorded before the COVID-19 lockdown.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They grew up with traumatic backgrounds, met in college and immigrated to the U.S. together. They've built stability and security, and now one of them longs for more freedom.

Programming note: This conversation was recorded before the COVID-19 lockdown.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He's been cheating on her for years, and she's had enough. Now she wants to know: is he in or is he out?

Programming note: This conversation was recorded before the COVID-19 lockdown.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Four years in, she can't admit she's attracted to her girlfriend, and her family still doesn't know.

Programming note: This conversation was recorded before the COVID-19 lockdown.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They met as religious teenagers and married as virgins. It's the age old story — once you're allowed to be intimate, you no longer want to be. Deciding to open the marriage has brought about huge changes in their sex life, and ruptures in their emotional one.

Programming note: This conversation was recorded before the COVID-19 lockdown.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Last summer they left everything they'd built in Seattle for a chance at a very different life. He took a dream turn to expand his company and be closer to home; she gave up her nursing job to manage their girls and explore new horizons abroad. COVID-19 hits as they watch the fate of other countries, knowing if it reaches Nigeria with a population of more than 200 million people, it will be devastating. They've been offered a chance to go home, but to what? Leaving Nigeria would mean walking away from everything, but staying could be more than either signed up for. Esther speaks to the couple as Africa begins easing restrictions.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They have three kids and their volatile marriage has fallen apart. She still hopes to rebuild. He can't get out of there fast enough. Two weeks before COVID-19 forced New Yorkers to shelter in place, they filed for divorce. Now they feel trapped. If he goes he risks not seeing his kids for weeks. If he stays he worries it will thwart his plans to finally leave. Esther urges them to think about this present time together and not about what kind of future they will have apart. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices