I have a new piece on BBC Capital Today about the sharing economy. Here’s how it starts:

A few years ago, a large event in Saskatoon usually meant more business for the Chaplin Country Bed and Breakfast in Saskatchewan, Canada. “I’m about 10 minutes out of the city, so when the city hotels and bed and breakfasts fill up, I would often get their overflow,” said owner Kathy Chaplin.

But those days are over. As the popularity of home-sharing website Airbnb has grown — a recent search found 48 listings in Saskatoon, ranging from $184 for an entire three-bedroom home to $41 to rent a couch in the owner’s living room (bring a sleeping bag and pillow) — Chaplin’s business has slowed down. She has seen her business drop by 30% in the last two years.

To read more click here.

Late last month, a panel of Fox News commentators discussed the coming elections when host Kimberly Guilfoyle explained why she didn’t think young single women should vote:

It’s the same reason why young women on juries are not a good idea. They don’t get it. They’re not in that same life experience of paying the bills, doing the mortgage, kids, community, crime, education, health care. They’re healthy and hot and running around without a care in the world,” she said on The Five.

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Dear Sara: I am single and have a few single friends, but most of my friends are couples. And one of these couples is very tight—they met a few years ago and have been in constant bliss ever since. I am incredibly happy for them, but I also find myself increasingly envious, to the point where I find myself not wanting to be around them and actually hoping that they’ll have problems! (They report that they never do.) This is so not me. I know it happens because I long for what they have, but how can I stop being such a catty, hateful person when they share their happiness? – C.A.

Dear C.A.: Envy is one of the toughest emotions to deal with because it packs a two-fold punch. First, there is the envy itself, that terrible feeling of loneliness and deprivation you get when your friend’s guy impulsively kisses her hair or laces his fingers through hers.
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Dear Sara: I just emerged from a two-month relationship that ended very unkindly. The guy suddenly went missing in action for days, appeared later with some very dodgy-sounding excuses, and then proceeded to break up with me via e-mail, after insinuating that my behavior prompted such a reaction from him.

All too often, married and coupled-up friends have told me when you are with the right person, you will KNOW. I thought I did with this guy (and I have dated a ton—I’m 31). But clearly I didn’t. It was only a two-month relationship, but it started off superbly—daily contact from him, he introduced me to his friends, he asked me for my views on marriage/kids, was there at the airport when I returned from a two-week trip overseas. Then, just as suddenly, it went downhill and he told me he wasn’t sure if he was “ready” for a relationship and needed “time to think.”
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In It’s Not You, I talk a lot about how meditation and Buddhism helped me manage the stress of being single in a society centered around couples and families. My Buddhist studies have continued to help me stay sane in world that is—let’s face it—pretty nuts.

Since the book came out, many people have asked me for recommendations on how to start their own meditation practice, so I want to tell you about the best introductory course that I know of.
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Several years ago, I was dining out with a friend when he asked about my love life. I confessed there was nothing to report—I hadn’t dated anyone in ages. So he did the thing people do when confronted with a person who is single-not-by-choice. He asked what the problem was.

If you’re a romantically unattached person who’d prefer not to be, you’ve probably had some form of this conversation: the earnest, well-intentioned attempt by a friend or family member to solve the riddle of you. Are you afraid of intimacy? Do you have low self-esteem? Are you so self-sufficient you’re not leaving any room for love? Or are you so desperate to find a partner that your raging neediness is repelling all prospects?

On this particular night, I had been on my own for about six years, and I was fed up with these kinds of questions.
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If you haven’t been listening to Lea Thau’s amazing series “Love Hurts” on KCRW’s Strangers radio show, I urge you to. It is one of the smartest, rawest and most honest portraits of love and dating I have heard in a very long time, maybe ever. I was fortunate to be interviewed for Part 3 of the series, but that’s not why I’m recommending it. I recommending it because it’s crazygood!

http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/strangers

Many years ago, I was talking to a woman at a party about relationships and mentioned that I hadn’t been in one for ages. She told me this wasn’t a problem for her. She always had a boyfriend—her current beau was a biologist at an elite university—and before him there were plenty of others.

“Men flock to me,” she said.

The hostess called us to dinner, where the woman continued to assert her superiority, informing the table of her culinary skills and deep appreciation of classical music, while I scowled into my plate. All I wanted to do was go home and turn on the TV and try to forget that I was an unappealing cipher who men didn’t flock to. But instead, I looked up at the faces of the other guests and saw that they were nearly as miserable and annoyed as I was. And I realized this woman had made a terrible mistake. Her attempts to impress everyone were having the exact opposite effect.
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Producer Lea Thau on KCRW’s Strangers discusses the pain of dating in these times. She also shares her own story: Love Hurts.