Shapes of Love

Do y'all use pet names with your significant other? What about nicknames for your favorite people? How do y'all use language to express love? Enjoy an improv episode with the SOL boys as we tap into a light-hearted discussion on that varying way we use names in our personal lives! Stay tuned to the end for some cultural insights on names of love in Igbo and Jamaican culture! Enjoy and Thank you for listening! Follow @Shapesoflov3 on Instagram for more!

How do you interact with the notion of reciprocity in your friendships? Is its transactional nature integral to who you call a friend? What is your perception of the necessity of vulnerability for sustaining lasting relationships? We each brought two close friends to help us explore the often overlooked underbelly of how we exist, perceive, and manage ourselves in friendships; both in our expectations and the social reality of these relationships! Sheridan is an Atlanta native, a graphic designer and Stanely's long time friend who is more like a brother with origins stemming from the high school track days, Sheridan wouldn't hesitate to give her kidney for this friend! Rachel is a Maryland born, but current Kentucky transplant. She's Biafra's close friend also with origins in high school beginning through shared faith and missions, who despite the lack of physical proximity for 5 years and counting has gracefully retained its depth and intimacy. Both of these women boldy detail the intricacies of their own relationships, while seamlessly illuminating fundamental aspects of friendships often not discussed. Through their contributions they invite personal introspection of the who, how, and why you exist in relationships in a certain way! Enjoy and Thank you for listening! Follow us @shapesoflov3 on Instagram!

What role does social media play in allowing for intimacy? How do in real life relationships compare to those that are exclusively virtual? Do deeply intimate virtual relationships necessitate a stronger foundation than their “IRL” or in real life counterparts? Join us in our playful but investigative dialogue on the intricacies of social media on our everyday relationships! Thank you for listening! Follow us @shapesoflov3 on instagram!

What are cultural stigmas around masculinity and relationships? How are stereotypes of manhood imposed on boys in adolescence? Who would you call in the middle of the night if you were sick or afraid? In our first male exclusive, we interrogate the positionality of masculinity in relation to making and maintaining friendships with other men as well as the space for vulnerability! **Trigger warning Suicide** Declan, a Nigerian-American, is a single young black man currently working in Baltimore at the Kennedy Krieger Institute as well as a coordinator for the Baltimore Health Department. Nate is a newly married, young white man having worked in various Christian campus ministries is currently located in Rhode Island with sights on Seattle. Both of these men provide nuanced insights, bringing experiences from all boy high schools, friendship through marriage, and personal anecdotes of challenges and successes navigating male relationships! Follow @shapesoflov3 on instagram for more content! Thank you for listening! Links to sources below: NPR episode on masculinity and loneliness https://www.npr.org/2019/10/11/769538697/guys-we-have-a-problem-how-american-masculinity-creates-lonely-men Harvard Study ; https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/04/over-nearly-80-years-harvard-study-has-been-showing-how-to-live-a-healthy-and-happy-life/ Suicide rates; https://afsp.org/suicide-statistics/

We've all heard the stories of the knight in shining armor saving the damsel in distress! It has morphed over the centuries to fit modern life and so Stanley and Biafra engage with its necessity as a cultural phenomenon. Is it merely an act of kindness from any male figure? Can women be chivalrous? Do people desire for the men in their life to be chivalrous? Spotify listeners let us know what you think in the poll below! Yay or Nay to Chivalry? Thank you for listening and hope you enjoy! Follow us @shapesoflov3 on instagram!

The Season 2 Opener features a guest appearance of Wesley Wagnac a pastor, marriage counselor, and love enthusiast! He brings an array of insightful perspectives on everything from the state of love affaris in the country today, to the necessary tenets of love in partnership, and the many classic pitfalls of lovers. Check out the episiode on Hidden Brain for background on the history of marriage in the U.S. and how we got here. https://open.spotify.com/episode/7hG7NxvLZTVvlQcu1b2u7U?si=1e313b875f4f467c The SOL Boys are back and excited to bring another season on all things love and the ways its exists in our everyday lives. Follow us Shapesoflov3 on instagram for exclusive content and videos. Email us @Shapesoflov3gmail.com for any questions, feedback, questions or comments! Thank you for listening!

Are our misconceptions of the emotional highs of love a threat to creating lasting mature love? How do we live a life of love in our relationships? Or better yet, how do you define love to begin with? In this episode we discuss it all and more with a very special guest Dr. Armin Zadeh! Dr. Zadeh, MD, PhD, MPH is a cardiologist, author, professor and philosopher currently working at Johns Hopkins! Authoring over a hundred scientific articles and publishing the book that served as the backdrop of our discussion "The Forgotten Art of Love''! This book has been characterized as a philosophical and scientific exploration of the whys behind love as it applies to sex, religion, romance, society and ourselves diving into all that love invites into our world! The link to his website to purchase the book is below. https://www.lovetheforgottenart.org/ Follow us @Shapesoflov3 on instagram for exclusive videos and content! Email us @shapesoflov3@gmail.com for feedback, questions or comments! Thank you for listening!

Hey hey hey y’all… it’s your favorite podcast back at it again. In this episode we are exploring the relationship of time and love! Is there a right time to love? What does the timeframe look like after falling out of love? How does it differ between each of us and each relationship? We had questions and so we had a casual discussion with just us so… sit back… get comfy… and get ready for all our hot takes! Follow @Shapesoflove3 for exclusive content on a wider array of topics! Take a listen and enjoy! Email us any comments or questions @ shapesoflov3@gmail.com we waiting…

What is friendship and its necessary components? What do you think of when you hear the word intimacy? Have you ever considered intimacy to be a necessary aspect of your friendships? In this episode we brought on two guests to help us explore the perceived boundaries and social norms when it comes to intimacy in our non-romantic relationships! First, we have Sommer a black woman born and raised in Houston Texas, uses she, her prounouns, and is current graduate student at the Dallas Theological Seminary School! Next, we have Mariamawit who goes by Mawit an Ethiopian woman tuning in from Boston, Massachussets, also uses she, her prounouns and currently interning at Apple in Enginnering project Management! For this episode we reference two articles one pertaining to friendship and the other platonic intimacy that you can find below! David Whyte's article on Friendship https://nicholehastings.com/2015/05/05/david-whyte-on-friendship/?fbclid=IwAR3U5q6DwnGeI7ZQ_D4BMpTZ3lWPQD74gdISQyC3cz4sh0oyo6pEHR3p494 An article on Platonic intimacy from regain.us https://www.regain.us/advice/intimacy/all-about-emotional-sexual-physical-and-platonic-intimacy/ Thank you for listening and don't forget to rate+ follow on your streaming platform! You can find more exclusive content, and videos on our ig @shapesoflov3 Our email is shapesoflov3@gmail.com for any comments, feedback, or questions!

What is forgiveness? What does unity mean? Where there is unity is there always love? In the face of injustice and proponents of hate what does it mean to forgive? We were asking QUESTIONS and our guests Paul Orerihime and Claire Hawthorne had more than their fair share of answers and wisdom! Paul is an active priest, fervent dancer, a current masters student at the American Univeristy of Cairo and lastly a proud Nigerian living in Egypt and intersects these identities as he speaks on both forgiveness and the nature of true unity! Claire is a senior black studies major at Amherst College, a dear friend and someone who can boast being the first guest with Shapes of love before the name even existed! She totes much intellectual and interpersonal understanding into our space! Tune in into a relevant and timely discussion on what it means to move forward with forgiveness and current calls for unity! Follow @shapesoflov3 for exclusive content and updates! Email us at shapesoflov3@gmail.com for any comments and feedback!

In this episode we engage three guests on the loss of various loves and navigating heartbreak! What does anger looks like in our different types of relationships? We discuss the ins and outs of falling in love and engage with the age-old questions of whether exes can ever be friends?! Our first guest is Danielle Reed, a senior at Amherst College, a proud woman in STEM as a Bio major and dancer originally from the Bay area Next, we have Evan Young an Amherst Alum class of 19' and English major joining us from Colorado Lastly, we have Nouhaila Benelmourid from the Netherlands, a current grad student at Sciences Po in Paris who brings her knowledge of the differences in the characterization of love in Arabic Enjoy and don't forget! Follow this page and our instagram account @Shapesoflov3 Feel free to email us at shapesoflov3@gmail.com with any feedback or comments!

During this episode, we engage in a gambit of topics surrounding black love across the diaspora! We discuss why the connoation of black love exists, the similarities and differences in values among various identities, along with the impact of our communities in teaching love to name a few. We have three guests join us in this episode all bringing different identities and perspectives into the space. First, we have Kennedy who identitifes as a Black woman descended from enslaved Africans who makes it a point to rep the diaspora as such and is an Amherst alum '19 currently working at a mangement program in Chicago! Secondly, there is Jeremiah is an African-American male a current Black Studies major, music lover and producer at Amherst College! Last but not least, we have Sade who represents love transcending oceans as both an African-American descended from enslaved Africans in the United States and a Nigerian. She is currently working at a public policy firm headquartered in DC. Take and listen to find out more. Enjoy and thank you for listening! Feel free to email us with questions, comments, and topic suggestions or general feedback @shapesoflov3@gmail.com For exclusive content, updates, and details follow us on instagram @Shapesoflov3

In this live we tackle the culture of singleness as a whole, as well as specifically in the black community and how are individual identities shaped our experiences. Lastly, we touched on the effect of the pandemic on our own relations with the identity of living single!! We have two special guests who were able to join us detailed below. First we have Ruth Mosunmade a Nigerian-American, former dj, and Amherst alum who majored in Biochem/physics who found a brilliant way to not only involve scientific theory into our conversations on the culture of singleness but her varying identities!! @faaji.mogul Next we have Amir Hall another Amherst alum majored in English who tuned in from his home in Trinidad & Tobago to supply a stream of provoking questions and new lenses typical as the frontier pushing artist he is!! @amirdenzelhall Enjoy and thank you for listening! Feel free to email us with questions, topic suggestions or general feedback @shapesoflov3gmail.com For exclsuive content, updates and details follow us on instagram @shapesoflov3

A brief introduction on what our podcast Shapes of Love is all about and the two folks who are excited to embark on a journey with y'all on all things love! We encourage you to email us at Shapesoflov3@gmail.com with any questions, feedback, or comments! Follow us on ig @Shapesoflov3 for exclusive content, videos, and topic releases!