Home Podcasts Solo – The Single Person’s Guide to a Remarkable Life
Solo – The Single Person’s Guide to a Remarkable Life

Solo – The Single Person’s Guide to a Remarkable Life

Dr. Peter McGraw 267 Episodes Sep 17, 2026

Solo - The Single Person's Guide to a Remarkable Life, hosted by Dr. Peter McGraw, is a podcast that celebrates and destigmatizes single living. It explores how being single offers freedom for adventure, entrepreneurship, art, travel, fitness, and more. Peter, a behavioral scientist and humor researcher, interviews happy single individuals and gathers advice from experts on health, money, business, and dating. The podcast serves as a resource for those who are happily unattached.

Episodes

Solo Thoughts 20: The Things You Own...
Solo Thoughts 20: The Things You Own... Sep 17, 2026 1138 What does a man become when divorced from possessions?As Peter McGraw prepares to leave Denver for Bogotá, I discover that getting rid of stuff is the easy part. The harder part is confronting the scarcity, control, and old identity hiding inside it. This Solo Thoughts episode about decluttering, departure, and the difference between managing a move and actually making a transition. Onwards!Love t
Q and A with Peter's Soul Sister
Q and A with Peter's Soul Sister Aug 25, 2026 3305 Every day is a big day – but some days are bigger than others. For the final recording in the Solo Studio, Peter welcomes back a familiar guest: his soul sister of 22 years, Julie Nirvelli. Before Peter packs up, clears out, and heads to South America for sabbatical, the two sit down for a candid Q&A about friendship, independence, blind spots, and what happens when people who love each other
People Who Shouldn't Have Married (Again)
People Who Shouldn't Have Married (Again) Jul 23, 2026 3285 What if some of history’s most fascinating people didn’t need better marriages — they needed permission not to marry? In this re-release of a fun, historically rich Solo classic, Mary Dahm and Peter McGraw discuss people who probably shouldn’t have married, using figures like Abraham Lincoln, Ernest Hemingway, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman to reveal how marriage became the expected escalator into a
Solo Thoughts 19: A-Life vs. B-Life
Solo Thoughts 19: A-Life vs. B-Life Jul 2, 2026 1729 In this Solo thoughts episode, Peter McGraw introduces the distinction between A-Life and B-Life. A-Life is achievement, optimization, production, and living through goals. B-Life is presence, pleasure, engagement, and doing things for their own sake. Drawing from anxiety, sabbatical planning, retirement, Seneca, and a vintage typewriter, Peter makes the case for shifting the dial from producing a
Solo Book Club: The Present Age
Solo Book Club: The Present Age Jun 16, 2026 4182 Peter McGraw is joined by David Jitendranath for a Solo Book Club episode on Søren Kierkegaard’s The Present Age. They discuss why this slim, difficult book feels eerily modern: a culture of reflection without action, irony without commitment, resentment disguised as equality, and “leveling” as the force that pulls down anyone who dares to stand apart. A conversation about aliveness, deep water, a
Singles in the Workplace: How Companies Can Better Support Solo Employees
Singles in the Workplace: How Companies Can Better Support Solo Employees May 28, 2026 3633 Sarah Brock, the CEO of Sarah Bee Talent, joins Peter McGraw to examine how “family-friendly” workplaces often overlook solo employees. Building on Peter’s recent article in The Conversation, they discuss scheduling, workplace culture, benefits, amatonormativity, and practical ways companies can better support Solos in an era when unmarried adults are reshaping the workforce.Love the show? Su
Aging Single #12: The Wealth Ladder
Aging Single #12: The Wealth Ladder May 7, 2026 3614 What does financial freedom look like when you’re climbing solo? Peter McGraw talks with Nick Maggiulli, author of The Wealth Ladder, about the six levels of wealth, what changes at each stage, and how singles can build money—and a remarkable life—on their own.Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo/
Are You Dead? Going Solo in China
Are You Dead? Going Solo in China Apr 28, 2026 3090 One in four Chinese households is now a single person. Pan Wang, Associate Professor of Chinese and Asian Studies at UNSW Sydney, joins Peter McGraw to talk about the “Are You Dead?” app, one-person hotpot restaurants, date-renting, AI companions, marriage markets, and how TV dating shows reshaped love and marriage in a single generation.Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!
Solo Thoughts 18: Welcoming Rough Seas
Solo Thoughts 18: Welcoming Rough Seas Apr 7, 2026 1080 A high-achieving friend falls in love and suddenly finds himself in rough emotional seas. In this Solo Thoughts episode, Peter McGraw explores why calm, optimized lives can make us successful – but not truly alive – and why passion, uncertainty, and even heartbreak may be the price of a psychologically rich life.Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/so
Lessons from the Hurt Business
Lessons from the Hurt Business Mar 24, 2026 4380 Heavyweight boxer turned writer Ed Latimore joins Peter McGraw to talk about his new book, Hard Lessons from the Hurt Business—a raw meditation on violence, discipline, ego, addiction, and growth. Onwards!Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo
The Psychology of Solitude
The Psychology of Solitude Mar 10, 2026 5124 Alone isn’t lonely. Psychologist Robert Coplan, author of The Joy of Solitude, coined aloneliness—the distress of not getting enough time to yourself. Psychologist Thuy-vy Nguyen, co-author of Solitude: The Science and Power of Being Alone, discovered the “deactivation effect”—just fifteen minutes alone turns down the volume on your emotions. Peter McGraw talks to them about th
Aromanticism (Again)
Aromanticism (Again) Feb 28, 2026 3840 In this re-released episode, Peter McGraw asks the question, “What if you never felt romantic love – and didn’t need to?” In this eye-opening favorite, Peter sits down with Jessalyn Dean, an aromantic relationship anarchist living a remarkable solo life. They unpack what it means to be aromantic, how Jessalyn got off the relationship escalator, and why autonomy, not romance, is her guiding co

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