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Modern Romance

An Investigation

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Modern Romance

By: Aziz Ansari, Eric Klinenberg
Narrated by: Aziz Ansari
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About this listen

The #1 New York Times Bestseller

“An engaging look at the often head-scratching, frequently infuriating mating behaviors that shape our love lives.” —Refinery 29

A hilarious, thoughtful, and in-depth exploration of the pleasures and perils of modern romance from Aziz Ansari, the star of Master of None and one of this generation’s sharpest comedic voices


At some point, every one of us embarks on a journey to find love. We meet people, date, get into and out of relationships, all with the hope of finding someone with whom we share a deep connection. This seems standard now, but it’s wildly different from what people did even just decades ago. Single people today have more romantic options than at any point in human history. With technology, our abilities to connect with and sort through these options are staggering. So why are so many people frustrated?

Some of our problems are unique to our time. “Why did this guy just text me an emoji of a pizza?” “Should I go out with this girl even though she listed Combos as one of her favorite snack foods? Combos?!” “My girlfriend just got a message from some dude named Nathan. Who’s Nathan? Did he just send her a photo of his penis? Should I check just to be sure?” 

But the transformation of our romantic lives can’t be explained by technology alone. In a short period of time, the whole culture of finding love has changed dramatically. A few decades ago, people would find a decent person who lived in their neighborhood. Their families would meet and, after deciding neither party seemed like a murderer, they would get married and soon have a kid, all by the time they were twenty-four. Today, people marry later than ever and spend years of their lives on a quest to find the perfect person, a soul mate.

For years, Aziz Ansari has been aiming his comic insight at modern romance, but for Modern Romance, the book, he decided he needed to take things to another level. He teamed up with NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg and designed a massive research project, including hundreds of interviews and focus groups conducted everywhere from Tokyo to Buenos Aires to Wichita. They analyzed behavioral data and surveys and created their own online research forum on Reddit, which drew thousands of messages. They enlisted the world’s leading social scientists, including Andrew Cherlin, Eli Finkel, Helen Fisher, Sheena Iyengar, Barry Schwartz, Sherry Turkle, and Robb Willer. The result is unlike any social science or humor book we’ve seen before.

In Modern Romance, Ansari combines his irreverent humor with cutting-edge social science to give us an unforgettable tour of our new romantic world.
Love, Dating & Attraction Relationships Sociology Romance Technology
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Most relevant

If you could sum up Modern Romance in three words, what would they be?

Hilarious, insightful, contemplative

Who was your favorite character and why?

Aziz, his narration was spectacular

What about Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg ’s performance did you like?

Aziz relaid his research in a humorous delightful way

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Dating in different cultures

Excellent - Ansari is a comic genuis

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This was interesting, current, funny, cute & totally hilarious. Aziz is somebody who you can't help but love. His train of thought is wacky but very much accurate to how we all feel I guess. 10/10

Aziz is awesome

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Aziz not only narrated his book hilariously and gave a little something extra to the listeners (largely in the form of humorous insults...) but the book itself is a consistently interesting, well researched sociological study into modern romance that makes for great listening! Can be taken fast or slow, always engaging and quite a page turner at times! Love the depth of the real life elements of your studies - it is talking just as much about me and my friends as about randomers from all the continents! Thanks Aziz and everyone involved for an amazing first audiobook experience and for gifting me with heaps of knowledge on modern romance!

So interesting and hilarious!

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