Affair Confessions

Tales of Taboo

Ali Weiss

Society & Culture

4.8 • 725 Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome back to season 6 of Tales of Taboo. I’ve missed you.

Affairs are by no means good or fair, but they rarely have malicious intent. More often, they’re about quelling the ways adult life can be lonely and disappointing. This week’s lustful anonymous confessors began their affairs in Paris nightclubs, Las Vegas strip clubs, and European hideaways; on Seeking Arrangements and Ashley Madison; at work, via email, and though the phone. They fell for their clients, coworkers, bosses - even doctors! While the physical circumstances vary greatly, our storytellers all admit to strikingly similar emotional motivations: trauma, abuse, sexual rejection, unhappy marriages, insecurity, the loss of love. And the words they use to describe the way their paramours made them feel are the same, too: ‘sexy’, ‘pretty’, ‘desired’, ‘chosen’, ‘adventurous’, ‘appreciated’, ‘valuable’, ‘validated’, ‘liked’, ‘loved’.

I mean, how many times do we get presented with an all-encompassing romantic attraction that makes us really feel something? That isn’t circumstantial, or a void filler, or in pursuit of domestic stability? Where it’s just this inexplicable, chemical heat?

I’m not saying it’s right. I’m just saying it’s complicated.

Tales of Taboo is produced and narrated by Ali Weiss. Share your own confession - or love letters and hate mail - at [email protected]. Follow Ali on Instagram & TikTok @aliweissworld. Audio production by Chris Stathopolous and WTF Media. Theme song by Chris Stathopolous. Cover photo by Erika Flynn. Cover art by Kristen Montenegro. If you love the show, please take a moment to leave a rating and review - it's immensely helpful for expanding our network of anonymous confessors around the world. Thank you!

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Ali Weiss and I'm obsessed with the people, ideas, and experiences that break the rules, beat the odds, or are considered socially unacceptable.
0:28.4	Welcome to Season 6 of Tales of Taboo. Here's how this works. Each week, I gather anonymous confessions from my listeners around the world, who've existed in elusive subcultures, ventured down the road less traveled, made serious mistakes, and taken extraordinary chances.
0:48.1	Some of them call my hotline and others submit written confessions for me to read.
0:53.3	These stories are raw. They're honest. They're
0:55.8	even downright shocking sometimes, and you might not always agree with what you hear. But they
1:01.5	deliver the most incredible life lessons and ask us to consider why we're all so afraid to be
1:08.1	different. My hope is that by creating conversations around forbidden subjects,
1:13.5	I can help remove the shame that surrounds them and ideally encourage a more individualistic
1:19.6	and less judgmental world. And maybe one day we won't even want to be anonymous.
1:29.3	I come from a small, close-knit family that is anchored by the quality of my parents' long-lasting marriage.
1:36.3	My parents have been together for over 35 years and over the course of my life.
1:41.3	I've watched them choose each other over and over again. I've seen
1:46.5	stuff get extremely bad and I've seen how rewarding it is when it's good. My parents are far from
1:53.8	perfect as individuals, but they've given me a model of what marriage can and should be. And they're excellent parents to me and my brother.
2:03.8	Considering the fact that they still co-own their business and travel the world together in
2:08.2	their personal time, they've actually set a bar for me that's borderline unrealistic.
2:14.6	Wanting what they have has informed all of the decisions I've made when it comes to my relationships.
2:22.1	That said, there is no way to control love. You can choose a partner, but you cannot choose to be in love with them.
2:31.9	Trust me, I've tried. And then on the flip side, you cannot choose who you do end up falling in love with them. Trust me, I've tried. And then on the flip side, you cannot choose who you do
2:36.9	end up falling in love with. And sometimes that is the absolute worst person, the person who's off
2:44.7	limits or unattainable or inappropriate. And for better or worse, that inappropriate off-limits, nonsensical person
2:53.9	often feels way more electric than the good choice. I'm going to say what we're all thinking,
	...

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