It might seem baffling that the state gets involved in our love life. Why does the government need to keep track of who's married to whom? Will they next start tracking who our friends are?

What's a producer to say about love? I'll leave the heavy philosophical lifting to John and Ken, and present this Valentine's Day playlist featuring philosophers and others thinking deep about this thing called love.

Carrie Ichikawa Jenkins, a philosopher at the University of British Columbia, enjoys an open relationship with her husband. In a recent profile in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Moira Weigel profiles Jenkins's experience as a person in a "polyamorous" relationship.