When A Man Calls You A Big Mac: Adventures in Online Dating

Episode Four: Love Is A Scam(mer)

Blog Post: https://substack.com/home/post/p-170806444 [https://substack.com/home/post/p-170806444] Stay safe! Find resources below for your country and check with local law enforcement for more ways to protect yourself. ClickFit: Romance Scams | Australian Federal Police. 6 Feb. 2026, https://www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/feature/clickfit-romance-scams [https://www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/feature/clickfit-romance-scams]. Government of Canada, Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Relationship and Romance. 31 Jan. 2020, https://antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/scams-fraudes/romance-rencontre-eng.htm [https://antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/scams-fraudes/romance-rencontre-eng.htm]. How To Avoid Romance Scams | Banking Scams - HSBC UK. https://www.hsbc.co.uk/help/security-centre/how-to-avoid-romance-scams/ [https://www.hsbc.co.uk/help/security-centre/how-to-avoid-romance-scams/]. Accessed 7 Apr. 2026. “Just the Facts: Romance Scams.” Royal Canadian Mounted Police, https://rcmp.ca/en/gazette/just-facts-romance-scams [https://rcmp.ca/en/gazette/just-facts-romance-scams]. Accessed 7 Apr. 2026. “Romance Fraud.” Report Fraud, United Kingdom, https://www.reportfraud.police.uk/romance-fraud/ [https://www.reportfraud.police.uk/romance-fraud/]. Accessed 7 Apr. 2026. “Romance Scams.” Federal Bureau of Investigation, https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/scams-and-safety/common-frauds-and-scams/romance-scams [https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/scams-and-safety/common-frauds-and-scams/romance-scams]. Accessed 7 Apr. 2026. Romance Scams and How to Avoid Them. https://www.scotiabank.com:443/content/scotiabank/ca/en/personal/advice-plus/features/posts.romance-scams.html [https://www.scotiabank.com:443/content/scotiabank/ca/en/personal/advice-plus/features/posts.romance-scams.html]. Accessed 7 Apr. 2026. Stay Safe Online: Avoid Romance Scams. https://www.secretservice.gov/investigations/romancescams [https://www.secretservice.gov/investigations/romancescams]. Accessed 7 Apr. 2026. “What To Know About Romance Scams.” Consumer Advice, 5 June 2019, https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-know-about-romance-scams [https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-know-about-romance-scams]. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datingat40.substack.com [https://datingat40.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Episode Three: Mr. Collins, I Presume

Show Notes Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. With Christina Lupton and James Kinsley, 3rd ed, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2020. Oxford World’s Classics Ser. Ford, Susan Allen. “Mr. Collins Interrupted: Reading Fordyce’s Sermons with Pride and Prejudice.” The Jane Austen Society of North America, 2013, https://jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol34no1/ford.html? [https://jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol34no1/ford.html?] hooks, bell. All About Love: New Visions. HarperCollinsPublishers, 2018. “Jane Austen’s House.” Jane Austen’s House, https://janeaustens.house/. Accessed 6 Mar. 2026. Merton, Thomas. Love And Living. Edited by Patrick Hart and Naomi Burton Stone, HarperOne, 2002. Wilshere, Meredith. “It Turns Out Pride & Prejudice Fans Have Emma Thompson to Thank for This Now-Viral Line from the Film.” People, 2025, https://people.com/how-emma-thompson-helped-pride-and-prejudice-viral-moment-exclusive-11716425 [https://people.com/how-emma-thompson-helped-pride-and-prejudice-viral-moment-exclusive-11716425]. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datingat40.substack.com [https://datingat40.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Episode Two: The Full Meal Deal

Blog Post: https://datingat40.substack.com/p/episode-two-the-full-big-mac-meal Show Notes Victims of the École Polytechnique Massacre (https://shorturl.at/j3PBv) Geneviève Bergeron Hélène Colgan Nathalie Croteau Barbara Daigneault Anne-Marie Edward Maud Haviernick Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz Maryse Laganière Maryse Leclair Anne-Marie Lemay Sonia Pelletier Michèle Richard Annie St-Arneault Annie Turcotte Resources and Works Consulted A Modest Proposal | Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1080/1080-h/1080-h.htm [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1080/1080-h/1080-h.htm]. Accessed 6 Jan. 2026. Atwood, Margaret. The Edible Woman. McClelland and Stewart, 1969. Ballantyne, R M. The Coral Island. T. Nelson & Sons, 1857. Blake, Olivie. Girl Dinner. Tor, 2025. École Polytechnique Tragedy (Montreal Massacre). https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/polytechnique-tragedy [https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/polytechnique-tragedy]. Accessed 6 Jan. 2026. Fresco, Victor, creator. Santa Clarita Diet. Garfield Grove Productions, 2017–2019. Netflix, www.netflix.com. Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Faber & Faber Fiction, 1973. Lyle, Ashley, and Bart Nickerson, creators. Yellowjackets. 2021–present, Paramount+, www.paramountplus.com. The Montreal Massacre - Femicide in Canada. 6 Sept. 2023, https://femicideincanada.ca/what-is-femicide/history/montreal-massacre/ [https://femicideincanada.ca/what-is-femicide/history/montreal-massacre/]. The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. 18 Mar. 2024, https://www.canada.ca/en/women-gender-equality/commemorations-celebrations/16-days/national-day-remembrance.html [https://www.canada.ca/en/women-gender-equality/commemorations-celebrations/16-days/national-day-remembrance.html]. Yoder, Rachel. Nightbitch. Anchor Books, 2022. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datingat40.substack.com [https://datingat40.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Episode One: Down the Rabbit Hole

Resources and works consulted for this episode: Han, Xiaoting, and Chenjun Yin. “Mapping the Manosphere. Categorization of Reactionary Masculinity Discourses in Digital Environment.” Feminist Media Studies, vol. 23, no. 5, 2023, pp. 1923–40, https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2021.1998185. Lorde, Audre. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House.” Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press, 2012. Lorde, Audre. “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press, 2012. Willett, Cynthia, and Julie Willett. “Fumerism: Feminist Anger and Joy from Roseanne Barr to Margaret Cho and Wanda Sykes.” Uproarious, University of Minnesota Press, 2019, JSTOR, pp. 21–46, https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctvr69540.4. How Feminists and Other Subversive Comics Speak Truth. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit datingat40.substack.com [https://datingat40.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]