Should We Get Married? with Maxson and Emily
We’re Maxson and Emily. We’ve been together for 4.5 years and we want to have a family together, but…getting legally married? That’s not so obvious to us. In each episode we talk to someone who has special knowledge about marriage: a divorcee, an ER nurse, an accountant, a prenup lawyer, a polyamorous married couple, a 12-year-old with unmarried parents, and many others. In our final episode, we’ll decide what we want to do – get married, or stay dating forever.
Whether you’re engagement-curious, a lifelong skeptic, happily married, or simply hungry for honest conversations about modern love and partnership, we welcome you to join us as we decide: should we get married?
Want to tell us your story, or just get in touch? Send us a note at swgmproject@gmail.com.
Episodes
13 episodes
Archie: does divorce hurt your kids?
We talk to Archie, a substance abuse counselor, nationally ranked yo-yoer, and the son of Isabel from Episode 4. He has eight divorces in his immediate family, including his own parents'. He tells us about going through addiction and recovery p...
Nico Ceremony: what does it feel like to get married?
We try out getting married to each other with a ceremony - vows and all - put together by Nico Raineau, professional wedding officiant, who we first spoke with back in Episode 8. At the end of the episode, Maxson and Emily reflect on how the ex...
Rhaina: is your spouse more important than your best friend?
We talk to Rhaina Cohen, author of The Other Significant Others, about the importance of "platonic life partners" - friends that you love with a depth and domesticity that mirrors romantic partnership. She tells us how she and her husb...
Bridget: if it's not a hell yes, is it a hell no?
We talk to Bridget, Emily's freshman year college roommate and the show's first listener-turned-guest, who reached out after hearing the couples therapy episode and had notes. Bridget has been with her husband for 12 years, and her take is dire...
Nico: what does a wedding officiant know about marriage?
We talk to Nico Raineau, a professional wedding officiant, who takes notes on our love story as he prepares a mock wedding ceremony for us. We learn about the unusual world of wedding officiants, we describe our weird and distinctly un-vibey fi...
John: what if one of us went to prison?
We talk to John J. Lennon, a self-taught writer who has been incarcerated at Sing Sing Prison for 24 years. John has been married twice to women he fell in love with through handwritten letters. He tells us what conjugal visits are like, who ge...
Karen: what does our therapist think?
We talk to Karen Gordon, our couples therapist, about the health of our actual relationship. We've been seeing her for over three years, and in some ways, she knows us better than our friends and family. We talk with her about our conflict cycl...
Miles + Elektra: can you love more than one person?
We talk to Miles and Elektra, a legally married polyamorous couple, about what marriage means when it's not grounded in sexual exclusivity. They make the case that non-monogamy actually strengthens their commitment: loving others keeps their li...
Julia: can you prove you're in love?
We talk to Julia Funke, an immigration lawyer, about if getting married will help Emily get Maxson's EU citizenship. We also talk about the "love test," which is how the government figures out if you have a real relationship and sometimes invol...
Isabel: does marriage stop you from breaking up?
We talk to Isabel Gillies, a mother of two whose first husband fell in love with someone else, about whether marriage actually prevents couples from breaking up. She shares her theory that everyone has multiple soulmates over the course of a li...
Deb: what happens when you're dying?
We ask Deb, a trauma nurse, if it's true that you can be blocked from entering the emergency room to visit your partner if you aren't legally married. We also talk about who gets decision-making priority if you are on life support. She tells us...
Esme & PF: do kids need married parents?
We talk to Esme, a 12-year-old, and her dad PF, about their unusual family structure. Esme’s parents were never legally married, so we get to ask her: what was that like? Did you feel like your parents were more likely to break up? Any issues w...
