Heartbeat

Heartbeat: Ask Dr. Pepper Schwartz

The column answering your questions or discussing topics on sexuality, love, and relationships

Pepper Schwartz, Heartbeat
Let’s Redefine ‘Retirement’

Let’s Redefine ‘Retirement’

It must be more than just leisure and fun, or else we’ll slide downhill

Given my desire to avoid retirement, I was lucky that after I ended my 50-year tenure with the sociology department at the University of Washington, I was able to continue to be employed as a relationship expert on Married at First Sight, a reality television show on the Lifetime television network. It cushioned my transition from being a…

Do Women Really Need Men?

Do Women Really Need Men?

Just asking the question could spark a fierce debate

OK, I know that’s a provocative question, but…

Is Honesty the Best Policy in Relationships? Uh, Sometimes

Is Honesty the Best Policy in Relationships? Uh, Sometimes

All 'rules' have exceptions

I know that there is generally an ironclad sentiment that honesty is always best. But I would like to propose a reexamination of that “always” word. Because I think, no matter how much we all want to know the truth about everything, that the absolute truth is sometimes too brutal, and sometimes too destructive, to use or hear…

The Therapy Revolution

The Therapy Revolution

 Changing your ability to love, one session at a time

To my mind, some form of counseling or therapy is helpful in preparation for meeting someone, in maintenance of a relationship, in repair when relationships stall or shatter, and in support when you have to start the whole dance over again.

Photo by Glasshouse Images/Getty

Gender-Bending  in the Wilderness

Gender-Bending in the Wilderness

Intense outdoor trip defied conventions

I had confidence in the team, even though this river had rapids that were rated as Class III and IV (translation: a little hair-raising and you get really wet), but I had taken a similar journey with the same company more than 15 years ago, so I knew there was going to be an emphasis on safety, and it would be exciting and well-executed. That said, I was nervous, though I wasn’t sure that my back and bladder were going to be as accommodating as they had been some years ago.

Aging Well Really Is The Best Revenge

Aging Well Really Is The Best Revenge

We can all learn something from the late Tina Turner

I’m bothered by the term “aging gracefully,” whatever that means. I think a better phrase is “aging dynamically,” being your vital, wisest self, a carefully-curated product of living and learning over many years. I know. I am not trying to be Sally Sunshine here and overlook the harsher aspects of being in the third and…

The Good News About Size

The Good News About Size

It's true: it really doesn't matter

Well, let’s suppose, just for a moment, that bigger is better. I say “just for a moment” because I don’t actually think there are any data to support the idea that bigger penises are more talented, satisfying or even more handsome. They are, however, culturally admired and many men, and some women, fetishize size and…

Heartbeat: Showing Up

Heartbeat: Showing Up

Be there for life’s biggest moments

It’s been an odd wedding season. Basically, a large number of weddings have been on hold because of Covid and now, anxious to finally make their commitment legal, weekend after weekend, couples are lined up with local and destination weddings. The destination weddings have me thinking. It started when I called dear friends from San…

Heartbeat: When Hearts and Heads Collide

Heartbeat: When Hearts and Heads Collide

Perhaps everyone has heard the saying that goes something like “to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results is the definition of crazy.” We all smile knowingly, perhaps even smugly. Of course, that’s true. But we shouldn’t be so smug because if that’s the definition of crazy, we are all…

Heartbeat: Why Your Spouse Should Be More like a Dog

Heartbeat: Why Your Spouse Should Be More like a Dog

We could all learn loyalty, love and understanding

As many of you know, I am considered a relationship expert, and from time to time, I like to write a column about the discoveries that keep happening as I listen in and give feedback to couples and singles about love. But for this column, I want to talk about what I think may be…

Heartbeat: Pay For What?

Heartbeat: Pay For What?

The invasion of the transactional body snatchers

Lest you think I am alerting you unnecessarily, let me reassure you that when I heard about this, I gasped.  GASPED! But perhaps you will gasp, too, unless, of course, you knew this all along. What I am referring to is a new culture in dating that looks an awful lot like it’s turning female daters into,…

Heartbeat: Defrosting Seattle. It’s time to become more friendly.

Heartbeat: Defrosting Seattle. It’s time to become more friendly.

The Seattle Freeze versus the Nashville Warm

So, this column is not so much about the Seattle Freeze, but the Nashville Warm. And how I came to be frozen and how I hope to melt. When I first came to Seattle, I realized that I had to cool down. I grew up in Chicago and went to school in the Midwest and…

About Heartbeat

Welcome to my world!

I spend a lot of time thinking about intimate relationships.

If you’ve read any of my previous work as a professor at the University of Washington, or watched me on television, you know that I care about what keeps people together, what drives them apart and what gives them pleasure. I am curious about trends, but also unique behaviors. I look at people above the clavicle and below the waist. It’s all interesting and important to me.

I know it is to you, too. I want to hear what you’re thinking. Please ask me questions or give your point of view at Pepper@seattlemag.com and I will respond, if appropriate, online and perhaps in print.

Let’s have some meaningful conversations – and some fun while we’re at it!

So, what’s on my mind today?

Pepper Schwartz, Heartbeat

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