Dating Detox: A Brief History of Modern Dating & What Happened to Us

$10 for non-members / guests
No charge for members of Three Cities Social

In Dating Detox, Lakshmi Rengarajan traces the real timeline of modern dating — the forces, the shifts, the turning points that most people feel but can't quite name. This isn't about complaining. It's about connecting the dots so we can start building something better.We have simple explanations for why dating feels broken. "The apps ruined everything." "Paradox of choice." "Chivalry is dead." "There just aren't good people anymore."

They're not wrong, exactly. They're just incomplete. And incomplete explanations lead to blaming each other, - or ourselves - instead of asking the real question: what actually happened?

The answer is bigger than any single app or trend. It's the story of how technology, business, and culture collided with our deepest human desires, and nobody handed anyone a map. We get more guidance at Home Depot than we do with our romantic lives. And yet romance greatly shapes our human experience.

The fix won't be another app. It won't be a speed dating event or a pitch night. Bringing dating back to life is going to take something we almost never do with it: pausing long enough to learn, and then reimagining what's possible. The good news? It's going to be a lot of fun getting there.

How to Date Humans is a year-long project dedicated to exactly that. And this talk is phase one: understanding how we got here. Because you can't rewrite a script you haven't read.

This event is for anyone who cares about how we got here: single, partnered, divorced, on a dating sabbatical, or just curious about why connection feels harder than it used to. The first How to Date Humans event at The Hoxton brought together long-time marriages, app couples, and Gen Zers who'd rather fight a bear than download Hinge — all in the same room. That mix is the whole point.

Learn more about this year long project at How to Date Humans