500 episodes listed below
Modern dating, named and made practical.
Dates & Mates with Damona Hoffman is a brisk advice show about dating, boundaries, values, and relationship patterns. It favors clear prompts over vague comfort, translating messy romantic situations into decisions listeners can actually make.
PRESS PLAY
Dates & Mates with Damona Hoffman is a relationship advice show built around clarity, boundaries, and the modern mechanics of finding love. It treats dating as emotional, but also practical. The show repeatedly returns to the idea that romantic frustration often comes from inherited scripts: fairy tales, old breakups, family models, dating app habits, or beliefs absorbed before they were ever questioned. Damona Hoffman names those scripts and then turns them into prompts. Short questions become tools. A long-distance romance becomes a test of timing, travel, fantasy, and actual life design. A cancelled date becomes a lesson in self-respect, resistance, and the difference between openness and overextending. A money question becomes a discussion of life stage, shared values, and whether two people are positioned to build something together. The show is especially strong when it translates a vague feeling into a clean next step. It does not linger in ambiguity for long. Episodes often move from a listener concern to a broader principle, then back into a practical action, such as slowing communication, spacing out dates, making a clean exit, or asking what would happen if a long-distance meeting went well. The tone is warm. The posture is firm. Damona Hoffman validates the emotional stakes of dating without letting romance become an excuse for ignoring evidence. Interview episodes broaden the frame, bringing in voices on shared values, later-life love, astrology, and relationship myths, but the conversation usually returns to the same central question: is this belief helping create the relationship someone actually wants? The show also has a strong coaching-business texture, with mentions of courses, retreats, date trackers, listener DMs, and one-on-one coaching. That makes it feel practical and service-oriented rather than purely conversational. It is best for people who like advice with structure, repeated takeaways, and a clear point of view. It is less suited to listeners looking for detached analysis or subtle debate. The appeal is in its forward motion: name the pattern, check the story, respect the boundary, and choose from a clearer place.
Made for: For daters who want warm but direct guidance on apps, boundaries, long-distance connections, money, and relationship myths. It especially suits listeners who like exercises, rules of thumb, and emotionally fluent coaching.
What sets it apart: The show stands out by turning dating confusion into repeatable frameworks: myths to name, scripts to rewrite, questions to ask, and boundaries to test. Its advice is energetic and structured without sounding clinical.
From navigating dating apps to overcoming the friendzone to seeking a soulmate, this ain’t your momma’s love advice! Hosted by the Official Love Expert of The Drew Barrymore Show and LA Times advice columnist, Damona Hoffman, Dates & Mates is jam-packed with interviews from your favorites celebs, authors, and experts.Dates & Mates is the 2022 Winner of The Best Podcast of the Year at The Black Podcasting Awards, #1 ranked love and relationship podcast by Cosmopolitan Magazine and a Top 10 Pick by HuffPost in the love category.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Damona Hoffman makes modern dating more legible by connecting boundaries, learned romantic scripts and self-trust to concrete relationship decisions.
Dates & Mates with Damona Hoffman turns dating uncertainty into a series of choices a person can examine and make. Hoffman moves between guest conversations, reflective exercises and direct responses to submitted dilemmas, with a coaching style that favors agency over…
Fairy-tale beliefs get a software update before your next date can install another bug.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical reset on dating beliefs, using sentence prompts to surface the scripts that shape love.
This Dates & Mates episode treats dating trouble as a matter of the stories people carry, not a roll of the dice. The host argues that luck is a myth, puts more weight on naming those private rules, and suggests that once listeners can spot them, they can start rewriting the…
A dating gut check that treats resistance as bodily wisdom.
Damona Hoffman opens by extending a June offer after a strong listener response, then turns to a dating question about what it means when a third date feels resistant rather than exciting.
A practical, clear-eyed check on whether a long-distance spark is ready for real-world travel.
Long-distance dating is treated here as more than a sweep of late-night calls and airport fantasies. Damona Hoffman centers the less glamorous moment before anyone books a trip, pressing on whether the connection has a workable future, what exclusivity would actually mean, and…
Valentine's Day gets a grounded reset on timing, myth, and shared values.
The episode frames Valentine's Day as a check on the stories people carry into love, from the fear that all the good ones are taken to the hope that a friend may someday change their mind.
A practical dating-boundary conversation about clean exits, revenge reporting, and trusting intuition after someone responds badly.
A dating-app boundary problem becomes a concise look at clean exits when an unwanted response turns into revenge reporting. The episode keeps its focus on the practical moment of deciding a match is not right, then leaving through unmatching or blocking before the exchange…
A 2026 forecast that turns astrology into plain talk about loyalty and attachment.
Astrology of 2026 & Love Forecasting treats the year ahead like a relationship weather map, following the North Node in Aquarius, the South Node in Leo, and an eclipse season that signals larger shifts.
A 600th-episode relationship reset asks which fairy-tale belief still gets to run the show.
Damona Hoffman's 600th episode frames fairy-tale romance as something worth auditing, not simply outgrowing. The episode moves through familiar dating beliefs: love should feel easy, affection has to be earned, every box needs checking, rules can make someone stay, and destiny…
A dating reset that replaces fairy-tale thinking with plain talk about choice and agency.
Dates and Mates leans into the strain of modern dating, where every signal can feel overread and every swipe can leave people more worn down than hopeful.
Damona Hoffman hosts the 600th and final episode of Dates and Mates, announcing the end of the show's current format.
Damona Hoffman hosts Francesca Hoagie, author of 'How to Find True Love', to discuss modern dating challenges.
This episode explores how Vedic astrology can guide your love life in 2025 by uncovering patterns, timing, and compatibility through natal charts and cosmic energies.
This episode explores how to balance curiosity and respect in relationships, focusing on navigating boundaries and emotional availability, with a listener question about a three-date Hinge connection.
This episode explores modern dating challenges and offers guidance on being authentic and intentional in relationships, featuring experts Julie Krafchick and Yue Xu.
The host uses fairy tale thinking to look at the stories sitting underneath dating.
Damona Hoffman opens with an update about her breakthrough boost, saying the May offer has been extended for three days in June and that two 90-minute sessions remain for people who want help getting clear on what has been blocking them and walking away with a real plan.
Damona Hoffman answers a Dear Damona question from Marianne, a 71-year-old listener in San Francisco who matched with men in Hawaii, Los Angeles, and Mexico after using niche dating sites.
Episode 597 opens with a quick note about a breakthrough boost offer that was extended into June after a strong response in May.
Damona Hoffman uses a listener story about Match.com to examine “revenge reporting,” the practice of retaliatory reports that can get someone banned after a rejection.
The host opens with a quick update about a breakthrough boost offer.
This episode explores the importance of financial compatibility in relationships, challenging the notion that love alone should transcend money and discussing how financial stability relates to life stages and shared values.
This episode explores why modern dating feels harder than ever, challenging fairy tale myths about love and examining how the pandemic and dating apps have impacted real-life connections.