Modern Romance

An Investigation

By: Aziz Ansari, Eric Klinenberg

Narrated by: Aziz Ansari, Eric Klinenberg

Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

The number one New York Times best seller.

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 24. 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.

©2015 Aziz Ansari (P)2015 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

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

"With topics like online dating apps to serious social science research, the book is sure to have you laughing if not taking a few notes." (USA Today)

"Entertaining and illuminating." (The Guardian)

Brilliant Audiobook.....

This is not just a bio of Aziz, but a wonderful book about Modern Romance in today's culture!!!

Insightful and Educational

I found this book to be really helpful and have a witty commentary regarding dating in the age of social media. I enjoyed that it was co written with a sociologist and stated statistics.

very good insight #tacos

I really enjoy the brown man's voice and comedy. this is a book I would not listen to normally. but I like Aziz is comedy so I looked to see if you had a book this will popped up. did not give me much hope for the future of my sex life being married for 15 years. But it is interesting to me to see how young dudes now a days are kinda pusses when it comes to dating. Well have fun with it.

Huge help for class assignment!!!!

This book I have to read for a Sociology class. It was taking me too long to read so a huge thanks to Audible for making this title available!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Grateful I read it

Aziz was great. Before I read this book and as a young single trying to date in this digital world, I put the blame of troubled dating on everyone but myself. Though much of it is out my control, his insight and experiments made me realize all the things I do that impede relationships from developing. Refreshing and funny. Personal and real.

Interesting and Entertaining

If you're like me and you don't understand how people could ask each other out and break up over text message, then you'll find this book interesting. It explores some of the generational, technological, and cultural differences of dating and relationships. Lots of interesting facts and I love how Aziz reads his book in a casual and entertaining manner. The audiobook version has exclusive parts that aren't in the other formats, like how he calls us listeners lazy for not even reading the book. Good stuff!

Amazing

Aziz Ansari does an amazing job explaining how modern romance works is this technological age. it was well written and insightful and it is worth every second of reading and/or listening.

An intellectual Stand Up Performance

If you love Aziz's stand up you will love this audible. Even if you do not love his stand up you will still find this very enjoyable.

Very inciteful with Aziz's charisma and humor. He does take the topic seriously however. Think of his stand up as ice cream. The jokes are the actual ice cream and with interesting facts being sprinkled on. However the audiobook is the exact opposite with the interesting facts being the primary focus and the jokes sprinkled
In.

Very well done

Well written and narrated

This book was amazingly insightful and funny! Aziz's narration could not have been better. It's easy to tell that he put some serious time and effort into writing this book and I highly recommend it to anyone.

Mind opening, funny, enlightening

I understand why and what I have to do to win at this game. They did a great job at how modern day romance is conducted. Insight on both male and female prospective was very helpful and much more.