What’s Modern Love? - The New York Times

For 15 years, Modern Love has brought personal essays about love, loss and redemption to readers of The New York Times. Four years ago, it became a podcast. And now the column has inspired an eight-episode series on Amazon Prime Video.

You can read the original essays that the episodes are based on here:

• “When the Doorman Is Your Main Man” by Julie Margaret Hogben. For a single woman in New York and the man who stands watch in her building, their special bond proves lasting. Especially when she learns she’s pregnant.

• “When Cupid Is a Prying Journalist” by Deborah Copaken. Thirty years ago, she thought her boyfriend had stood her up. The story was much more complicated. Now she can urge the subject of an interview to win back his lost love before it’s too late.

• “Take Me as I Am, Whoever I Am” by Terri Cheney. A woman goes public with her bipolar disorder, and assesses how it has shaped her love life.

• “Rallying to Keep the Game Alive” by Ann Leary. Deciding to get divorced can be the key to staying married.

• “At the Hospital, an Interlude of Clarity” by Brian Gittis. For six hours in the emergency room, of all places, he felt like his true self and could enjoy the date that landed him there.

• “So He Looked Like Dad. It Was Just Dinner, Right?” by Abby Sher. A young woman works through feelings about her late father by spending time with an older man.

• “The Race Grows Sweeter Near Its Final Lap” by Eve Pell. With few outside pressures, an older couple has nothing to do but love each other, be happy and go running.

(They are also available, along with dozens of others, in our recently published Modern Love anthology.)

Once you’ve read the essays and watched the episodes, you may ask yourself: What’s happened since? Where is the author now? How is the author now?

So I interviewed four of the people whose essays inspired episodes, seeking answers. You can read those interviews here:

• Deborah Copaken, author of “When Cupid Is a Prying Journalist,” on what happened with the one who got away. (Her episode stars Catherine Keener and Dev Patel.)

• Terri Cheney, author of “Take Me as I Am, Whoever I Am,” on what’s happened since she went public with her bipolar disorder and how she’s doing today. (She is played by Anne Hathaway.)

• Ann Leary, author of “Rallying to Keep the Game Alive,” on her near-divorce from actor Denis Leary. (Tina Fey and John Slattery play the couple — and well.)

• Julie Margaret Hogben, author of “When the Doorman Is Your Main Man,” on how she, her daughter and Guzim are doing today. (This episode stars Cristin Milioti.)

Then, if you’d like to check out a sampler of Modern Love columns without having to plunge blindly into our 750-column archive, I pulled together, in no particular order, a collection of 25 of the most read, most shared and most memorable Modern Love essays.

Some more things a Modern Love fan may want to do:

• Sign up for Love Letter, our weekly newsletter with the latest Modern Love essays, Tiny Love Stories, podcast episodes and other relationship stories and news.

• Listen to the Modern Love Podcast on iTunes, Spotify or Google Play Music.

• Read all our Modern Love essays and Tiny Love Stories here.

• Check out the updated anthology “Modern Love: True Stories of Love, Loss, and Redemption.”

• Come to an upcoming event in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Oct. 23; in San Francisco on Thursday, Oct. 24; or in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, Oct. 27. We’ll update this page with more event information as they are scheduled.

• Follow Modern Love on Facebook — or keep up with me and the Modern Love projects assistant, Miya Lee, on Twitter.

Thanks for reading, listening and watching. We hope you enjoy.