We started noticing it during the Mid-Pandemic Era (2021–). Friends who’d been monogamous since college were opening their relationship, seemingly a new point on the path to getting married — or to breaking up. Other friends, starting to date again, found themselves meeting and falling for polyamorous partners and deciding that they, too, were game to give it a try. Elsewhere, we heard about empty-nester couples who, suddenly familiar with terms like “primary partners” and “compersion,” were testing out these new relationship arrangements. Remarkably, not all of these people were the types we’d traditionally associate with non-monogamy (i.e., they don’t go to Burning Man). If you’re in a monogamous relationship, you may have engaged in the tantalizing thought experiment: What would happen to “us” if we opened things up? Could I handle it? Would it be thrilling or destructive or both? Here, two stories to read before you download Feeld:Allison P. Davis’s account of embedding inside a mostly functioning polycule, and the rest ofour practical guide to polyamory today— about everything from broaching the subject with your partner to dealing with their new love interests.

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