This episode marks the shift from story to structure. After dismantling romantic mythology, The Desire Economy introduces the underlying reality it obscures: desire operates across distinct markets with rules, currencies, and costs. Rather than replacing one belief system with another, this episode provides a new way of seeing — one that turns confusion into orientation and emotion into information.

In This Episode

1. Why mythology collapses once cost is examined
2. How desire continues to function even when stories fail
3. What happens when exchange is denied but never removed
4. Why men feel lost after disillusionment with romance
5. How markets replace moral narratives as explanatory tools
6. What becomes visible when desire is treated structurally
7. Why clarity feels destabilizing before it feels liberating

Key Themes

1. Romantic mythology
2. Desire as exchange
3. Structural vs moral explanation
4. Misattribution of pain
5. Markets and currencies
6. Orientation vs belief
7. Sovereignty

Why This Matters

Men do not struggle because they rejected romance — they struggle because they were never given a framework to replace it. When mythology breaks, many men fall into cynicism or detachment. This episode offers a third path: seeing desire as an economy. Not to reduce intimacy, but to make it legible enough to engage without self-loss.

Listener Reflection

Where in your life did a romantic story stop explaining your experience — but you kept living as if it still applied?