What If This Is About Me?
After years of lurking on the Craigslist Missed Connections page, a Chicago school teacher stumbles upon a post about him.
The Missed Connections Podcast delves into the heartwarming, bizarre, and sometimes poignant real-life stories from Craigslist's Missed Connections section.
Each episode uncovers the hidden narratives behind fleeting encounters, exploring the emotions and what-ifs of people searching for lost chances. In episode one, we meet Evan, who, after years of lurking, recognizes himself in a post.
Listen by clicking the link above. Or, if you're into podcast transcripts, read on.
Post 1 Lady in the line, 7-Eleven, you were standing in line when I walked in, you made eye contact with me, and we smiled. You were very beautiful.
Post 2 Athletic, built, gentleman alone in the car, turning left, you looked once, as did I, and I noticed you looked again. I meant nothing sexual. I was having a horrible day. Thank you for being kind.
Post 3 Long shot, but searching. We met three months ago. Your name is Tom. You drove Alexis. My name is Richard. It's a long shot, but I have to try.
Post 4 We had jury duty together on August 12, 2024. You were the black hair woman in the black dress. You were dismissed by the attorney. I was kept. We were exchanging a lot of looks, and I'd like to ask you out.
Post 5 I complimented your cherry earrings on the bus. We ended up getting off at the same stop. If you see this and want to get to know each other better, tell me where you got those earrings again.
Narrator These are posts from Craigslist Missed Connections, and you're listening to the Missed Connections podcast. Each episode uncovers the hidden narratives behind fleeting encounters, exploring the emotions and "what ifs" of people searching for lost chances. Join us as we delve into stories from the infamous Craigslist section, as we feature interviews with real people who have found connections using this platform. These stories are not rehearsed, and the voices you hear are not actors. Join us as we navigate through love, serendipity and the human desire for connection, one missed connection at a time.
Narrator In 2005, Craigslist debuted the Missed Connection section, where people posted about others who caught their attention in public. The addition of this personal ads page speaks to a trend as old as time, one that tells us a lot about human nature. Speaking on this topic is author and personal ads historian Francesca Bowman, who wrote a book on this exact subject titled Matrimony, Inc: From Personal Ads to Swiping Right, A Story of America Looking for Love. When Bowman first started looking into the history of personal ads, there wasn't much to find.
Francesca Bowman First of all, I found there'd been no research done on this subject. And so for a historian, that's sort of thrilling to stumble across a corner of the world that no one's paid attention to, particularly a corner of this world that tells us so much about the history of human mate choice.
Narrator Bowman's research sheds light on why forums like Missed Connections have stood the test of time.
Francesca Bowman There's a huge amount of consistency in the way humans behave, and that the idea of sort of change is really like over eggs. I think we really don't change that much, yeah, and they have these basic, basic in all senses, sort of human desires and needs and insecurities. The minute you get the printing press, it's used for human relationships. The minute you get past newspapers and magazines, it's used for human relationships. The minute you get the internet, the first thing it's used for is human relationships.
Narrator The Craigslist Missed Connection section is one of a kind. Out of the infinite digital avenues available, people around the world still turn to this page to, quite frankly, shoot their shot. This is Evan.
Evan I started reading them just in the Chicago section, and I wasn't like reading them... There's, I feel like they don't... There's not a ton of postings, and most of them are either... Most a lot of them are kind of strange, I think, or very, very vague. And so I would probably check them. I started checking them, like, once a week, more or less. And just like reading through the ones from the week, and like looking at the taglines and locations, like thinking like, is this potentially something that involved me or somebody else that I know?
Narrator Evan has always enjoyed the Missed Connections page. He found humor in the different listings, and he always held on to a tiny bit of hope that there might be a post about him. But before we get into that, let's get to know a little bit about Evan.
Evan Oh, I'm a teacher for Chicago public schools.
Narrator Evan was raised not to focus on chasing money, but to do things that brought him happiness.
Evan Which is, I admittedly a privileged, privileged position to be in. But I'm glad that I got that advice. There is a lot of joy in working with kids and getting to know them and their families and trying your best to be a good influence in their lives.
Narrator Regardless of feeling fulfilled with his life, Evan wanted companionship.
Evan I had a difficult breakup of a long-term relationship when I was about 27, and I found myself feeling lonelier than I had felt in a long time. You know, I started using dating apps. The dating apps actually make me feel a lot lonelier in a lot of ways when I'm single.
Narrator After so much time on the apps, he found himself disheartened by the monotony of dating app culture.
Evan There's a lot of like, your hopes swing up and down when you're using them, and I felt more disappointment than success, I guess, from using things like that. And so what just, you know, it's very weird to use Craigslist in a form of dating. I don't know anybody that does that. There have been a few times where I've thought about posting a missed connection, but I, in the end, I didn't, because I never really felt like I had that true like, "Oh, I wish I had just spoken to you and and tried to connect with you, because I could sense your interest."
Narrator After years of lurking on the Missed Connections page as a pastime, Evan didn't actually expect to become a participant.
Evan What if, like, somebody used this strange and anonymous forum to try and connect, and then one day it did happen. It was a woman for man, and said that she liked the way that I was looking at her, and wanted to connect or or just posted about it.
Narrator Next time on Missed Connections...
Evan I quickly went to "No, no, this is definitely my friends fucking with me."
Credits
Narrator Missed Connections is a Weather Tomorrow production, written and produced by Elena Pizza and Elyse Wild. If you have missed connections you'd like to share, please reach out at missconnectionspod.official@gmail.com