Jul 11, 2026 · 37 min · 12 segments
*This episode was originally published on March 16th, 2017.* The term "ghosting" isn't a new concept anymore—the idea that someone suddenly and inexplicably disappears from your life. In the past, a…
Steve AlmondHost
Cheryl StrayedHost
Tim KreiderGuestHi Steve.
But I would say I started hearing it maybe only about three or four years ago.
We're old, so probably it's been around since, like, the dawn of the new millennium.
this talk of ghosting? Yeah.
I teach, you know, undergraduates and they use this term now with a casualness that to me, again, with the old school heart, I'm like, really? You can just completely without any explanation abandon somebody who you've been to one extent or another intimate with?
Yeah, but, you know, I want to kind of complicate this idea of ghosting a little bit because I do think that there's a reason that this term has come about in the age of the Internet and this time that we are all so easily and constantly connected via social media, texting.
And I will say there are so many relationships, friendships, as well as romantic or sexual relationships that I had in my 20s that I guess technically I was ghosted, meaning I had a friend or a lover and we lived in different cities, so we would correspond via postcards or letters.
Hi Steve.
But I would say I started hearing it maybe only about three or four years ago.
We're old, so probably it's been around since, like, the dawn of the new millennium.
this talk of ghosting? Yeah.
I teach, you know, undergraduates and they use this term now with a casualness that to me, again, with the old school heart, I'm like, really? You can just completely without any explanation abandon somebody who you've been to one extent or another intimate with?
Yeah, but, you know, I want to kind of complicate this idea of ghosting a little bit because I do think that there's a reason that this term has come about in the age of the Internet and this time that we are all so easily and constantly connected via social media, texting.
And I will say there are so many relationships, friendships, as well as romantic or sexual relationships that I had in my 20s that I guess technically I was ghosted, meaning I had a friend or a lover and we lived in different cities, so we would correspond via postcards or letters.
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