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A Discussion with Author Treena Orchard

in partnership with Words Worth Books

For Adults

About the Event

Join us for a conversation with accomplished author and scholar Treena Orchard, as she discusses her new book, Sticky, Sexy, Sad: Swipe Culture and the Dark Side of Dating Apps, with Robin Mazumder. Treena, a professor at Western University, offers a unique blend of insight and vulnerability in this memoir, which has been described as 'Jane Goodall meets Carrie Bradshaw'—an empowering exploration of the digital dating landscape through the lens of an anthropologist who isn’t afraid to share her own experiences.

Presented in partnership with Words Worth Books.

About the Author

Treena Orchard is an anthropologist and associate professor in the School of Health Studies at Western University. She researches and engages in activist debates about sexuality, gender, and health among diverse cultural and digital communities. Deeply committed to public scholarship, she regularly writes for and is featured in leading online publications, including Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, and The Conversation.

About the Moderator

Robin Mazumder is an award-winning neuroscientist exploring how urban design impacts well-being. He is a postdoctoral fellow with the Future Cities Institute at the University of Waterloo, associate fellow with the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria, and fellow with the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health. A passionate science communicator, he has delivered 60+ keynotes internationally, and has been featured by the CBC, Wired, BBC, and Forbes. Robin is currently writing a book on how cities can address pressing issues from mental illness to polarization. He is represented by literary agency Cooke-McDermid.

About the Book

Lifelong luddite Treena Orchard was a newly sober woman coming off a much-needed break from relationships, reluctantly taking the digital plunge by downloading a dating app. Instead of the fun, easy experiences advertised on swiping platforms, she discovered endless upkeep, ghosting, fleeting moments of sexual connection, and a steady flow of misogyny.

Orchard uses her skills as both an anthropologist who studies sexuality and a sex-positive feminist to explore what it feels like to want love while also resisting the addictive pull of platforms designed to make us swipe-dependent. She asks important questions for those searching for love in the modern era: What are the social and human impacts of using dating apps? How can we maintain our integrity and warm-blooded desire for intimacy while swiping? Can we resist some of the problematic aspects of swipe culture? Is love on dating apps even possible?

Revealing how dating apps are powerful social and sexual technologies that are radically transforming sexuality, relationships, and how we think about ourselves, this remarkable book cracks the code of modern romance. Told with humor and vulnerability, Sticky, Sexy, Sad is a riveting and inspiring guide to staying true to ourselves amid the digitization of love in the twenty-first century.

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Programmer: Nancy