Works
Browse through Pepper's many contributions to the fields of intimacy and sexuality.
Articles
Find published periodical and peer-reviewed articles here.
Books
With 25 books to chose from, you're sure to find one that grabs your attention.
Television & Entertainment
See Pepper's television appearances and learn about her filmography.
Courses
My latest course on Sex & Intimacy is now available on the Paired app. Click below to learn more!
NEWS FEED
Senior Sexuality, Mature Relationships, and Love After 60 Advice from Sexologist Dr. Pepper Schwartz.
What are the characteristics of a good, intimate relationship as a senior?
Are medical doctors a good source of information about sex and intimacy?
Why is the media afraid to deal with the topic of love and intimacy after the age of 60?
Dr. Pepper covers them all of it!
Between the Pages: 'Relationship Rx' Offer Prescriptions for Love
Dr. Pepper and Dr. Jessica Griffin discuss the three-tiered approach to solving common relationship problems (from their new book, Relationship Rx). Their relationship advice can be categorized into three levels: relationship vitamins, relationship medicine, and relationship CPR.
8 Signs You’ve Caught Feelings
Dr. Pepper explains the role of emotional signals in falling in love and helps readers suss out whether what they’re feeling is romantic love or platonic love:
“Romantic love is characterized by fixation with each other, the notable craving for depth, emotional closeness, and physical intimacy,” Schwartz says. “The energy of platonic love is calmer, more spacious, with less urgency to merge and be as close as possible.”
Dr. Pepper named one of Modern Mom’s Top 100 list!
In honor of Mother’s Day, ModernMom is recognizing 100 Top Moms achieving significant life goals across twenty diverse categories and Dr. Pepper was selected in their list!
Flashback Footage: Dr. Pepper Schwartz rates the compatibility of the Dancing With The Stars and the GMA casts!
Dr. Pepper rates the compatibility of dancing partners and the GMA hosts!
Feeling Lonely? Advice For Finding A Partner Later In Life
Many people find themselves alone later in life, whether from the loss of a spouse, a divorce or having always been alone, maybe with a little curiosity for what else is out there. NPR talks to Dr. Pepper Schwartz who says that finding companionship and intimacy at an older age is definitely possible.
BBC: The woman who got America talking about sex
Dr Ruth Westheimer first became popular on a radio show in New York in the early 1980s. Her frank and open approach to giving advice on all sorts of different questions about sex soon made her a TV personality too.
This biographical piece includes interviews with other leading sex experts- both those who inspired Ruth and were inspired by her as well as her contemporaries.
10 Great Cities for Older Singles
One of Pepper’s absolute favorite things to do to inspire romance is traveling! This week she helps AARP make a list of some of the must-go places older singles should go if they’re looking for love.
"In many cities, there may be a lot of people aging in place, but with no place to meet each other…What you're looking for are cities or towns that have both population and opportunity.”
Dr. Pepper talks Love & Romance on the PowerUp Podcast
-Dr. Schwartz shares her background, how she has achieved success and recognition within her field, and what hurdles she has had to overcome to make a name for herself.
-Dr. Schwartz explores the requirements of romantic love and what can make a lasting relationship.
-We discuss the characteristics within a relationship that can help OR hinder the individuals' goal attainment and success, and furthermore, how those same characteristics can strengthen or hurt the overall relationship.
Dr. Pepper on Calm the Chaos podcast
What You’ll Learn:
What is the impact of a healthy sex life
Is sex necessary for a good marriage?
Does any research show that as we age our hormones dictate the desire for pleasure?
How does our sexual relationship change as we move past sixty years young!
How have people’s relationships and intimacy changed due to COVID lockdowns
How does Dr. Schwartz Calm the Chaos in her life?
What is Dr. Schwartz’s challenge for all of the listeners
Podcast: Making it through the pandemic with your partner
Dr. Pepper sits down with Tyler Quillin on the podcast Hyping Hope to discuss how the pandemic and political tumult are impacting our relationships and those looking for love. It is easy to feel very isolated and anxious these days. Dr. Pepper shares a number of strategies and thoughts on how we can combat these feelings right now. Dr. Pepper shares her path to working in the sexuality and relationships space and the conversation covers a whole range of topics from parenting through puberty, out-growing friends, and relationships between people that hold seemingly contradicting beliefs, i.e. George and Kellyanne Conway.
Dating Over 50? Here’s Everything You Need to Know
By editor@purewow.com (PureWow)
In this Yahoo! News article, Dr. Pepper gives readers practical, actionable advise on how to successfully date after 50. Like “pick five major qualities of a potential date as ‘must haves,’” and “the theory of pineapple, which goes something like this—even though pineapple is regarded by many as delicious, not everyone likes it...’Nobody likes everything, some people don’t like pineapple and some people don’t like me, it’s just taste.’”
Podcast: Arranged Marriage, American Style!
Pepper and her good friend, social psychologist and couples’ therapist, Sara Nasserzadeh, PhD, share what they’ve learned from their recent projects. For Dr. Nasserzadeh, it’s a dyadic validation study for Relationship Panoramic Inventory. For her part, Pepper shares her top learnings as one of the three relationship experts on the Married at First Sight TV show!
Listen to this episode of The Little Black Fish podcast now!
How have families changed in the last 20 years?
Pepper gives a webinar on how the American Family has changed over the years. This video webinar is a collaboration with the Third Path Institute.
Thawing the “Seattle Freeze”
Pepper sets the record straight on the local phenomenon known as the “Seattle Freeze”.
USA Today: The Dating Game
As part of the USA Today Best Years magazine, Dr. Pepper and other experts explain why so many single older adults are turning to online dating and which sites give them the best shot at finding Mister or Misses Right!
Dr. Pepper breaks down how she uses the “Home Visit” to pair up couples on Lifetime’s MAFS. Season 9 premieres June 12 on Lifetime!
Podcast: Intimacy Through The Ages: How Getting Older Shifts Dating And Relationships
Listen to Dr. Pepper sit down with The State of Things podcast and discuss the impact aging has on intimacy, and a decade by decade look at shifts in bodies, relationships and attitudes.
Over the hill and online: Dr. Pepper sits down with the American Sociological Association to discuss the massive increase in online daters over-50.
This Is the Surprising Age When You’ll Have the Best Sex of Your Life
“Best sex” is a subjective term, according to Dr. Schwartz. “The most important thing about sex as we age, and at any age, is to have the right attitude,” she says.
Continue to full article on Reader’s Digest by clicking here.
The sex talk: Why older adults may be due for a refresher course
By Robyn A. Friedman
There’s been a dramatic rise in HIV/AIDS incidences among older adults—but why? And why now? Some of the factors Friedman discusses in her new City & Shore article include:
1) Viagra, Levitra, Cialis, implants and other tools are allowing men to be sexually active longer in life.
2) Many older adults came of age before AIDS was an issue, so they never learned about safe sex or, if they were in a monogamous long-term relationship, they didn’t care.
Not to forget how social norms and attitudes influence sexual behavior, Friedman enlists Dr. Schwartz to help explain how sociological and individual factors may also contribute to the rise:
3) “For the most part, older people identify condoms with staving off reproduction, so when they’re not able to get pregnant, they tend to not use condoms,” says Schwartz.
4) “You’re a different human being than you were [when you were younger], and you may have assumptions of what sex will be like, but particularly if you’ve been in a long-term marriage, you haven’t thought about how you measure up on the dating scene, who will find you attractive, what are the new norms of how long you wait and what is acceptable given that everyone knows you’ve had a full sex life at some point,” Schwartz says. “You simply don’t know the dance steps, so it’s a challenge because the rules, if they ever were clear, are even less so at this point.”
You might know Dr. Pepper Schwartz from any one of many places. She's a professor of Sociology at the University of Washington. But she's also the author of 25 books, the former Sex and Relationship Expert with AARP and she is now on her sixth season of Lifetime TVs Married at First Sight.
In this conversation, we talk about the influence that the times have on us. In Pepper’s case, as a child of the 60’s, she was surrounded by a culture of sex, drugs and rock and roll and she learned how to push the boundaries at a very early age. A Yale graduate, she’s had a successful career at the University of Washington as one of the first professors hired for a tenured position (she’s now been there for 40 years). She continues to change with the times and her teachings reflect her own interests and path including, now, sex in the aging population.
The realist’s guide to online dating after 50
Just how do you find Mister or Misses Right after 50?
Get ready to invest lots of time, prepare for a few setbacks, and give yourself a healthy dose of realism when you’re dating later in life. This is, after all, the “realist’s” guide to dating after 50…
NPR segment: Dating after retirement
Pepper sits down with NPR’s 1A WAMU to discuss how men and women date and mate differently post-retirement.
Dateless in Seattle
By: Beau Iverson
This article appears in print in the February 2019 issue of Seattle Magazine.
Dating in Seattle isn’t easy. Our weather is gloomy, we work a lot, many locals have embraced the Nordic reserve of the city’s early citizens, and, yes, the “Seattle Freeze” is a thing. So, how does one find love here? We asked Jenna Bean Veatch, a multidisciplinary artist, teacher and creator of “The Not-Creepy Gathering for People Who Are Single and Want to Fall In Love” meetups, and Pepper Schwartz, Ph.D., a sociologist and sexologist at the University of Washington—and the Salish Lodge’s “romance concierge”—for their tips.
NYPost: The red flags to look for before you get married.
More than 55,000 single men and women have applied to be on Lifetime’s “Married at First Sight,” a reality show in its eighth season that puts a modern twist on arranged marriage. A panel of relationship experts — psychologist Jessica Griffin, sociologist Pepper Schwartz and pastor Cal Roberson — comb through the applicants and choose couples that then meet at the altar as strangers. The stakes are high: At the end of the eight-week trial period, the four selected couples have to decide whether they want to stay married or get divorced.
Here are the red flags that three experts think all couples should look for before saying “I do.”
Why unrequited love is worse the older you get.
Pepper offers advice on how to manage unrequited love post-60.
“If you’re fixated on someone and you’re not getting the response you want, it’s never easy,” says Pepper. “But when you’re older, it’s a scarcer resource. You may wonder if you’ll ever find a love like this again.”
Put a ring on it? No way, more older singles say
By Janet Siroto
Pepper gives insight on why Americans are shucking marriage today more than ever before.
“…Often, the conditions of past marriages were painful enough and difficult enough that they are loath to re-enter that fray.”
How to avoid Thanksgiving family drama.
When it comes to politics at the dinner table, Pepper’s advice: “There’s no advantage to talking about politics at Thanksgiving. It’s fraught with danger…Not that it’s not important, but you don’t need it that day. You can do whatever you want to do the other 364 days of the year.”
Let’s talk about sex.
Pepper sits down with the people at Lovehoney to talk about all things erotic, romantic, and…well…sexy!
Get some practical tips and fun ideas from one of America’s most prolific sexologists.
Zestful Aging: Why we study relationships and age together.
Pepper sits down with Nicole Christina, LCSW, for her podcast Zestful Aging to talk about why we need the field of intimacy research, how much is at stake for the modern day woman, and how sex and love is (and is not) different at different ages.
Help Keep Sex Research Alive!
Endowed Professorship in Dr. Schwartz's Name
Fundraising progress through May 2018
Help us reach our goal!
The University of Minnesota is instituting an endowed professorship in Dr. Schwartz's name. This professorship ensures that the study of aging and sexuality continues regardless of varying sociopolitical climates. Without these funded, endowed professorships, studies on sex and intimacy will become more and more rare, especially those focusing on often overlooked populations like older adults. If you can donate anything to the cause, please do! If giving money is not an option for you, sharing this link and the video above to spread the word is also incredibly helpful!
"An endowed professorship in sexuality and aging will ensure the ongoing sustainability, growth, and success of our bold three-pronged mission to: 1) Expand scientific research in positive sexual health and clinical care for older adults 2) Improve education about aging and sexuality for healthcare providers 3) Provide accurate information and positive attitudes about sexuality among aging people through the media PHS named this professorship to honor Dr. Pepper Schwartz for her lifetime of contributions to the field of sexual health."
-University of Minnesota
New book on gender!
Springer Publishing has released the Handbook of the Sociology of Gender featuring Dr. Schwartz and co-author Nicholas Velotta. Their chapter, titled "Gender and Sexuality in Aging", is an illustrative review of the current state of sex and romance in the latter part of the life cycle. Both an eye-opening and well-rounded contribution, Schwartz and Velotta explore the intimate pairings, sexual behaviors, and psychological make-up of America's post-50 population.
Love persists, when we are struggling to.
In a new article featured in the Journal of Aging Life Care, Pepper and co-author Nicholas Velotta examine what love looks like after youth and how long-term care facilities are contributing to a culture of sexual repression in our aging population.
"The Changing Nature of Intimate and Sexual Relationships in Later Life" - Schwartz & Velotta
NYTimes
Podcast:
"Dear Sugars"
Pepper joins the Sugars to dispel myths about sex later in life! Listen in by clicking the link below and pressing play.
The 8 Most Common Fights Couples Have (And How to Resolve Them)
The title says it all! Pop Sugar taps into Pepper's experience dealing with warring couples and how to get them to remedy their grievances.
Looking for love later in life.
With the growing population of Americans reaching retirement age, many unmarried men and women find themselves single and ready to mingle in the later years of their life.
Pepper gives her expert insight on what the dating landscape looks like for our post-50 population and how men and women can optimize their chances at finding The One later in life.
Oh, Melania...How much more humiliation can she take?
"I don't think she ever imagined that he was going to be faithful to her..."
The LA Times gets Pepper's read on First Lady Melania Trump's choice to stay in what many see as a jocular, unsatisfactory marriage.
Sex and guilt
Who feels guilt after sex and why? Pepper offers her expert knowledge along with other scholars on why guilt and sex have had a long history with one another and how to move past it in your own sex life.
Anatomy of love: A mixed tape
This is your body in love. In a new article, Pepper illuminates what it means to be in love...physiologically. And to top it off, for each of love's physiological reactions there is an aptly named love song to go along with it. Get your Valentine's Day on with this special version of a lover's mixed tape!
A frugal lover's Valentine's Day
Pepper gives advice for those lovers that are looking for a great gift for their partner on tight budget.
My Married At First Sight Take-Away: Don't Give Up On Love!
Using our words.
The Aziz Ansari take-away: Talk about sex before having it.
Dr. Schwartz discusses the oft-messy topic of consent in today's polarizing sexual climate in her new Seattle Times Op-Ed.
What Does A Healthy Relationship Look Like?
Along with other relationship experts, Pepper gives readers quick insights into some of the basic constituents of a healthy relationship.
Pepper sits down with Beth Whitman for her podcast Be Bold to talk feminism then-and-now, the current sexual harassment movement, and her extensive background in women's rights.
Dating Someone with Dementia
Pepper is interviewed by reporter Nancy Monson and gives tips for those who are dating while also being a caretaker for a spouse with dementia or for those who are dating someone in this situation. A thought-provoking article that touches on the realities of loving someone who develops Alzheimer's and trying to move on in the most caring and respectful way possible. -Go to article-
Tips on finding your perfect match.
Pepper talks about her experiences on Married At First Sight, what to look for in a partner, and what matters long-term.
Listen to the interview on 1150 AM KKNW (Interview Date: 10/17/2017 11:30AM)
PhD Schwartz to present at the
Family Issues Symposium
Along with co-author and research associate Nicholas Velotta, BA, Pepper Schwartz will be giving a lecture at Penn State on October 23 for her forthcoming article: Online dating: Changing intimacy one swipe at a time?
The talk will focus on how online dating has and has not affected the dating and mating game. How did online dating manage to make its way into the mainstream? Do we have a better chance at finding The One in the era of matching algorithms? Who are the most attractive people online...and who are the least? Learn how governments around the world are funding online dating programs to prevent population decline.
The lecture will be followed by an open Q&A session with the experts themselves. And while you're there, check out all the other amazing topics. Like how Tinder may lead to faster marriages and how children using technology changes family roles and rules.
Catch Pepper's Interview with the Eggology Club
Description: Pepper Schwartz of the reality tv show, Married At First Sight joins the girls from Eggology Club to discuss the modern changes of families, relationships, and individualism from the past. Learn about Dr. Pepper‘s secrets and personal story to having it all and how to use current technology advancements to benefit your future.