Skin Hunger: Part 2 - a podcast by WNYC Studios

A listener we're calling Elle ended her relationship a few minutes after 2020 began. And she describes it as a pretty devastating breakup: "Basically I was on quarantine for two months already before all this happened," Elle told me. "I was not going anywhere. Not seeing anyone. Being around people...felt too painful." 

Elle says overall, she's glad she wasn't in that relationship when the pandemic began. But it did mean thatshe's had to figure out other ways to get touch—including "germ bonding" with another couple. For a listener we're calling Dennis, who separated from his wife of 37 years last fall, it hasn't been so simple. He'd started getting into contra dancing pre-pandemic—something that was really helping him get through his divorce. But the weekly dances shut down in March. "I think it's going to be the last thing to come back. And also the, the crowd is, a lot of us are older," he said. "So it's going to be a long time. And it's really sad."  

Plus, we hear from a listener whose relationship ended during quarantine, after a long-distance conversation about grooming. 

Thanks to the team at Love + Radio for their work on this collaboration.

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