Romantic mythology is not a single belief — it is a cultural operating system.

This episode steps back from markets, behaviours, and outcomes to examine the story most men were given about love, desire, intimacy, and meaning. Not to dismiss romance, but to understand how a single narrative came to dominate how desire is interpreted and why that dominance produces confusion rather than clarity.

Rather than framing romantic mythology as deception, this episode treats it as a successful public relations campaign: a story that organises feeling, smooths over power dynamics, and obscures cost in the name of purity, meaning, and virtue.

1. What “romantic mythology” actually refers to — and what it doesn’t
2. Why desire was framed as non-transactional
3. How pain, confusion, and endurance were rebranded as proof of depth
4. Why clarity is often treated as unromantic or suspect
5. How romantic mythology benefits from being the only accepted language of intimacy
6. The specific myths The Desire Economy will dissect over time
7. Why men often blame themselves when the story stops working

1. Desire as exchange
2. Mythology vs structure
3. Confusion as misattribution
4. Why suffering is moralised rather than interpreted
5. The cost of denying markets and currencies

Most men don’t struggle because they lack sincerity or effort.

They struggle because the story they were given does not explain the reality they are living.

This episode reframes romantic mythology as incomplete rather than evil and opens the door to a more accurate framework for understanding desire, cost, and sovereignty.