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

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 the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo/

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 disagree. Prompted by a beautifully messy listener question, Peter and Julie explore sensitive subjects, intellectualizing versus feeling, and the places where autonomy can both serve us and get in our way. They also reflect on how their views of Solo living have evolved – and look ahead to Peter’s next chapter: examining the “Solo economy” and the institutions still built around couples, despite a world increasingly filled with unmarried people and one-person households. It’s a conversation about rough seas, remarkable friendships, and making space for a new life without abruptly abandoning the old one. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo/

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 adulthood, respectability, and belonging. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo

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 remarkable life to actually living one, Solo or not. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo/

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, and what it costs to act as an individual in an age of endless commentary. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo/

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? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo/

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/

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! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo/

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/solo/

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

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 the science of solitude and answers questions, such as “What actually happens when you sit with yourself? And how much solitude is enough?” The answers might surprise you. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo

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 compass. It’s funny, sharp, and surprisingly relatable – even if you’re not aromantic. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo/

What happens when two charismatic creatives—and close friends—sit down with Peter McGraw to talk friendship, love, and the Solo movement? This intimate, funny, and thoughtful conversation with Chester See and Darwyn Metzger explores what it means to live remarkably, forge deep male friendships, and question the default path. A fan favorite, this episode returns for a new wave of listeners. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo/

Why are unmarried patients less likely to receive life-saving medical treatments? Peter McGraw talks to professor and author Joan DelFattore about how America’s healthcare system disadvantages those who are single or outside the nuclear family model. From TEDx talks to the New England Journal of Medicine, she’s sounding the alarm on a silent crisis. If you’re Solo—and especially if you live alone—you need to hear this episode. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo

Whether you call it a Third Act, third season, or second life, one thing’s clear: middle-age and beyond isn’t the end. It’s a redesign. In this episode, as part of the series on aging, retiring, and dying single, Peter McGraw explores how Solos can turn aging, retirement, and reinvention into their most liberated chapter yet. Joined by Theresa Williamson , a city planner and Solo in her own second life, they unpack how mobility, flexibility, and optionality give Solos an edge—and why a fulfilling Third Act doesn’t require a fat bank account or a partner, just a little creativity (and maybe a plane ticket to Brazil). Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo

In this Solo Thoughts episode, Peter McGraw talks directly to you about how singles are reshaping work, housing, finance, and community. The rise of single living isn’t a passing fad— it’s a structural shift. Yet our institutions remain stuck in a world built for two. That disconnect is where the Solo Economy sits. Is the world ready? No. Join the movement: petermcgraw.org/solo Interested in workshops or coaching? Reach out. Onwards! Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo

New to Solo? Start here! This re-release from the early days of the pod covers a concept that comes up again and again—in the podcast and Peter McGraw’s book. The “relationship escalator” is the default path of dating, moving in, marrying, and merging lives. Amy Gahran , who coined the term, joins Peter to break it all down. We explore what the escalator is, why it’s so invisible, and how Solos step off it—through consensual non-monogamy, platonic partnerships, sexual friendships, or simply going Solo. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo

It’s 11/11—Singles’ Day—and we’re celebrating Solo style. First, Bella DePaulo returns to talk about her new book Single at Heart , why solo diners are more influential than you think, and what it really means to thrive alone. Then, Christina Campbell (aka CC) joins to unveil the Singles Bill of Rights—a bold call for equality in a world built for two. Onwards! Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo

Sex educator and psychologist Lisa Dawn Hamilton returns to join Peter McGraw to build on Relationship Design and discuss Intimacy Design—the art of co-creating authentic, adventurous, and consent-forward sexual experiences. From sexual containers to eager consent, they explore how to make intimacy safer, hotter, and more intentional. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo

Peter McGraw talks with Lucy Meggeson —host of Thrive Solo and author of a new book Shiny Happy Singles (UK) / Thrive Solo (US)—about embracing single, child-free living as a path to freedom, joy, and reinvention. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.petermcgraw.org/solo