Lauren Bans was seven months pregnant when she realized she needed a divorce. Suddenly, she found herself heartbroken, terrified, and completely unable to make decisions or think about the future.
One day, her sister suggested they visit an escape room. As the door locked and the countdown began, Bans found herself enraptured by the puzzles, forgetting her reality for a moment and feeling like herself again. She was hooked and went back to escape rooms over and over.
This week on the “Modern Love” podcast, Bans tells Anna Martin about her unique cure for heartbreak, and how making decisions in a fictional puzzle room helped her feel capable of making them in real life again, too.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/17/magazine/escape-rooms.html" rel="noopener noreferrer">Read Lauren’s story in The New York Times Magazine</a>.
We want to know: How has A.I. changed your relationships? <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/podcasts/tell-us-has-ai-changed-your-relationship.html" rel="noopener noreferrer">Send us a voice memo.</a>
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/how-to-submit-a-modern-love-essay.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">How to submit a Modern Love essay to The New York Times</a>
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/style/modern-love-tiny-love-stories.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">How to submit a Tiny Love Story</a>
Subscribe today at <a href="http://nytimes.com/podcasts">nytimes.com/podcasts</a> or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher">https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher</a>. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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