Why Do Happy People Cheat?

Radio Atlantic

The Atlantic

Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2017

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"Infidelity," Esther Perel writes in the October issue of The Atlantic, "happens in bad marriages and in good marriages. It happens even in open relationships where extramarital sex is carefully negotiated beforehand. The freedom to leave or divorce has not made cheating obsolete." Adultery is as ancient as marriage, and as contemporary relationships have evolved, Perel writes, the causes and consequences of infidelity have much to teach us about the nature of commitment. In this conversation, Perel talks with our hosts about some of those lessons, culled from numerous sessions counseling couples as a psychotherapist. Perel is the author of Mating in Captivityand the host of "Where Should We Begin?"—an Audible original series entering its second season on October 24th. Her new book, The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity, is now available in bookstores. Links: - "Why Happy People Cheat" (Esther Perel) - "You Need Help to Help Her" (Esther Perel, "Where Should We Begin?") - "Muto" (Matt Thompson, Snarkmarket) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's one of the 10 Commandments
0:02.4	Thou shalt not commit adultery,
0:05.2	and yet people do.
0:07.2	Prominent people,
0:08.4	ordinary people,
0:09.9	and even people who are perfectly happy with their partners.
0:13.5	Why do happy people cheat?
0:16.6	And what can that teach us about love?
0:19.4	This is Radio Atlantic. Hi, I'm Matt Thompson, Executive Editor of The Atlantic, and with me once again in the
0:39.7	studio in DC is my esteemed co-host Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, back from
0:46.0	his Galavans.
0:47.0	Hello, Jeffrey.
0:48.0	Hi, Matt.
0:50.0	I didn't know Galavans.
0:51.6	Is Galavans a noun? I'm gonna make it a noun. I don't know Galavans is Galavans a noun I'm gonna make it a noun I don't that's how that's how
0:55.6	Goulbert's Galavans
0:57.4	hey Alex you haven't been introduced yet you're not allowed to talk
0:59.9	remember the rules speaking, the podcast rules?
1:03.2	Introducing, belatedly introducing, our esteemed, esteemed co-host.
1:08.7	Wait, she's double esteemed co-host.
1:11.0	Alex Wagner over in New York.
1:13.6	And esteemed espresso.
	...

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