Last Year of Single

If you're newly single, healing from a breakup, or exhausted by the pressure to find a partner before you can start living - this is the podcast that changes everything.The Last Year of Single is the show that asks one question: if you knew in 12 months you'd never be single again, how would you spend your time?Host Bree Steele - award-winning podcaster, TEDx speaker, and Australian woman living solo in Mumbai, India - lost her job, moved continents alone, went internationally viral, and built a life she actually loves. This podcast is what came out of that.Each episode tackles the hardest parts of single life: fear of being alone, loneliness, love bombing, toxic relationships, attachment styles, dopamine and dating apps, breakup recovery, burnout, single woman finances, sex life while single, making friends as an adult with leading experts and zero toxic positivity.This is the podcast for single women who are done putting their lives on hold. Not a waiting room. The main event.Best listened to in order - this is a serialised story with a beginning, a middle, and a life that builds.Follow Bree on Instagram: @breesteele.mp3Substack + Last Year of Single List: hereEmail: lastyearofsingle@gmail.comHost: Bree SteeleExecutive producer and editor: Bree Steele

Whether you're newly single or you've been single for years; this is the episode that changes how you see everything.Host Bree Steele introduces the concept that started it all: what if you treated your single life as the most intentional, exciting chapter - not a waiting room for a relationship?After crying on the kitchen floor at 4am, losing her job, moving to Mumbai alone on gut instinct, and getting brutally honest advice from Graham Norton, Bree stopped waiting and started living.As a solo female traveller living abroad alone in one of the world's most chaotic cities, Bree shares why being single and free was the most powerful position she's ever been in, and how you can find that too.In this episode you'll learn:•    Why we're the first generation who can choose to be single and why we still don't know how to enjoy it•    How to shift your mindset from waiting for a relationship to actually living your single life•    The story behind the Last Year of Single List and how to make your own•    Graham Norton's brutal, honest advice on being single and why it hit differently•    Why solo female travel and living abroad alone is one of the most powerful things a single woman can do•    The fears and excitement of deciding to stop settling and start livingBree's InstagramLast Year of Single SubstackJoin the Last Year of Single communityEmail Bree: lastyearofsingle@gmail.comAudio editor: Ryan PembertonHost and Executive Producer: Bree Steele

Whether you're newly single after a breakup and terrified of being alone or you've been single for years and still feel like something is wrong with you, this episode gives you the science behind why, and what to actually do about it.Dr Anna Machin, evolutionary anthropologist and love researcher at the University of Oxford, reveals the biological and societal reasons behind our fear of singlehood. Plus, Sreemoyee Piu Kundu - founder of Status Single and a solo woman navigating single life in India - shares what it's really like to face the pressure of being single in a culture that expects you to be partnered.As a solo female traveller living alone in Mumbai, Bree brings her own experience of navigating the fear of being single far from home and how she stopped letting it make her decisions.In this episode you'll learn:• Why fear of being single is hardwired into us and how to override it• How dopamine, serotonin and beta endorphins (love chemicals) drive our need for connection and how to get them without a romantic partner• Why being single feels like failure and the cultural and biological truth• How to stop letting the fear of being alone control your dating decisions• What single women navigating cultural pressure in India reveal about universal fears• Practical ways to feel connected, loved and satisfied as a single personLink to Anna Machin’s book ‘Why We Love’Follow Sreeymoyee Piu KunduSubscribe to Last Year of Single Substack hereFollow Bree Steele on InstagramJoin the Last Year of Single communityEmail Bree Steele: lastyearofsingle@gmail.comHost, Executive Producer & Editor: Bree Steele

When you're single (especially after a breakup) your friendships become everything. Your support system, your social life, your chosen family. So why do they so often fall short of what you actually need?Anna Goldfarb, friendship expert and New York Times journalist, and queer friendship researcher Tom Roach reveal why friendships get harder as we get older, and what single women can actually do about it.Tom also shares what straight women can learn from LGBTQIA+ communities about building truly honest, intimate friendships.Bree brings her own experience: as a solo female traveller living abroad alone in Mumbai, she had to build an entire social world from scratch, and learned more about friendship in six months than in the previous decade.In this episode you'll learn:•    Why friendships feel less satisfying as you get older and the specific challenges single women face•    What happens to your friendships when you're the only one still single•    How loneliness after a breakup or in single life goes deeper than just missing people•    What the LGBTQIA+ community does differently when it comes to friendship depth and honesty•    How to stop settling for surface-level friendships that leave you feeling more alone•    How to have the conversations that actually deepen a friendshipBree is currently in Mumbai, India.Anna Goldfarb's book 'Modern Friendship'Tom Roach's book 'Friendship As a Way of Life'Subscribe to Last Year of Single Substack hereFollow Bree Steele on InstagramJoin the community on Instagram on FacebookEmail Bree Steele: lastyearofsingle@gmail.comHost, Executive Producer & Editor: Bree Steele

One of the hardest and least talked-about parts of being single (especially after a breakup) is loneliness. Not missing one person. Missing a whole world of connection. This episode gives you a practical plan to fix it.Anna Goldfarb (New York Times friendship journalist) and Demi Kotsoris, founder of Millennial Crisis, share the exact strategies that work for making new friends as an adult, and why so many of the standard pieces of advice completely miss the mark.Bree brings her own story: arriving in Mumbai as a solo female traveller knowing no one, and building a community from scratch in one of the world's most densely populated cities.In this episode you'll learn:•    Why making friends as an adult is so much harder than it was when you were younger (the real reasons)•    How to turn an acquaintance into an actual friend •    Where single women are actually meeting new friends in 2026, beyond the apps•    How to overcome the fear of putting yourself out there when you're already lonely•    Why loneliness after a breakup feels different from ordinary loneliness and how to address both•    How to build a social life that makes being single genuinely enjoyable rather than isolatingBree is in Mumbai, India.Anna Goldfarb's book 'Modern Friendship' Follow Demi Kotsoris on InstagramMillennial Crisis websiteSubscribe to Last Year of Single Substack hereFollow Bree Steele on InstagramJoin the Last Year of Single communityEmail Bree Steele: lastyearofsingle@gmail.comHost, Executive Producer & Editor: Bree Steele

Burnout hits differently when you're single. There's no one to pick up the slack, share the mental load, or notice before you crash. If you've come out of a breakup already running on empty, or you've been carrying too much alone for too long - this episode is what you need.Irralee Andrzejowska (SIRPA practitioner and physiotherapist) and Dr Michael Leiter (burnout researcher and author) reveal why burnout is so much harder to recover from when you're doing life alone, and give you a real, practical path back to yourself.Bree shares her own experience of burning out as single woman; living alone and struggling to get ahead financially.In this episode you'll learn:•    The signs and stages of burnout: how to spot them before you completely crash•    Why burnout recovery is harder when you're single and have no one to catch you•    How to start recovering your energy without having to do it all alone•    Workplace burnout — how to set boundaries before you hit the wall•    Self-compassion practices that actually help when everything feels overwhelming•    Why burnout and heartbreak often arrive together and how to address bothBree is currently in Mumbai, India.Contact Irralee AndrzejowskaSIRPA websiteDr Kristin Neff self-compassion techniquesContact Michael Leiter and find his book hereSubscribe to Last Year of Single Substack hereFollow Bree Steele on InstagramJoin the Last Year of Single community on FacebookEmail: lastyearofsingle@gmail.comHost and Executive Producer: Bree Steele

Burnout, stress and heartbreak don't just live in your mind, they live in your body. This short guided body scan, led by SIRPA practitioner Irralee Andrzejowska, helps you check in with what your body is actually trying to tell you.You can do this body scan any time, as many times as you like. It pairs directly with Episode 6 on burnout recovery, but works as a standalone practice whenever you need to come back to yourself.Important: make sure you're sitting or lying down and not driving while listening.A simple, powerful tool for any single woman who's been carrying too much for too long.Contact Irralee AndrzejowskaSIRPA websiteFollow Bree Steele on InstagramFollow Last Year of Single on InstagramJoin the Last Year of Single community on FacebookEmail: lastyearofsingle@gmail.comHost and Executive Producer: Bree Steele

Being single doesn't mean your sex life has to be a series of disappointing hookups that leave you feeling worse than before. Clinical sex therapist Laura Miano joins Bree for the honest, practical conversation about sexual fulfilment that single women are rarely given.Laura Miano is a clinical sex therapist and co-founder of POSMO, and she brings zero judgement and complete honesty to one of the topics single women talk about the least (and need to talk about the most).Whether you're newly single after a breakup trying to figure out what your sex life looks like now, or you've been single for a while and want to stop settling for connections that don't serve you - this is the conversation that fills the gap.In this episode you'll learn:•    Why sexual satisfaction doesn't require being in a relationship•    How to build a confident, empowered relationship with your own sexuality•    Why hookup culture so often leaves you feeling emptier than before•    What ethically non-monogamous connections might offer single women that traditional dating doesn't•    How to meet people in real life beyond the apps and the swipe•    Practical ways to explore your sexuality as a single woman and feel genuinely good about itBree is currently in Mumbai, India. She met Anil Kapoor.Contact Laura Miano for guided masturbations hereFind KAMA guided masturbations hereFind our more about POSMO hereFollow Bree Steele on InstagramJoin the Last Year of Single community on FacebookEmail: lastyearofsingle@gmail.comHost and Executive Producer: Bree Steele