There's so much that we can learn by looking at both romance novels and the people who write them.

The community of romance writers is a microcosm of American society.

It's full of controversy.

It's full of people who want the best for the world.

It's also a place where imagination can help us envision

the world that we want. Yeah, like it's a place where utopia is imaginable. That's always what I

have loved about thinking about the purposes of romance and of entertainment more

broadly, but like the idea that, oh, there could be a world in which women's pleasure is

taken seriously. Exactly.

This is the Culture Study podcast, and I'm Anne Helen Peterson.

And I'm Christine Larson, professor at University of Colorado Boulder, an author of Love in the Time of Self-Publishing, How Romance Writers Change the Rules of Publishing and Success.

As you know, each week we take a piece of the culture that surrounds us and we really look into it from as many angles as possible.

And we're trying to figure out what it says about the world we live in.

And today is part two of a conversation about romance novels.

Back in June, we talked to romance novelist Nisha Sharma about tropes, about diversity and representation on the page, about whether you should be concerned when reading romance novels makes you question your love life, so many things.

Part three of this series will be out next month, and it'll be all about the business of selling romance.

But today, we're looking specifically at the readers

and writers and the publishing industry itself. So I am so excited to talk to you, Chris, about the work

that you have done analyzing this industry, the larger romance community, the ethos of care and of work

that is all around romance writing. And then also because you are a cultural scholar

as well, we can think about the purposes of romance and why romance is the way that it is

and some of these larger questions that our readers and listeners have posed for us. So let's start

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