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Conversations with experts, authors, and friends explore how we can better navigate the joy and the heartbreak of being a person in the world, with other people. Created, produced and hosted by Madeleine Dore. For more projects and offers, visit www.madeleinedore.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A fridge defender and a retreating lobster: somehow, both can help you handle other people.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A quiet, clear-eyed look at why adult friendships thin and what it takes to keep them.
This episode treats adult friendship as something that wears down gradually, not as a bond that breaks in one clean moment. Drawing on Kat Velos, it notes that many adults lose one to two friends a year, often because people move away, and asks what it takes to keep the ties…
A calm, concrete guide to retreat, honesty, and quiet support.
Retreat here is treated as a practical pause, not a defeat. A lobster under a rock while it sheds and regrows gives the episode its clearest image, but the stronger move is simpler: making room to ask for distance, rest, or help without turning that need into a speech.
A thoughtful look at how friendship becomes daily practice, not just good feeling.
A Social Life with Friends turns a broad social question into something lived and specific. It follows how people share space, money, chores, worry, and hope without losing kindness, moving from the pressures of the housing crisis into the quieter mechanics of co-living.
Ira Glass frames weekly theme-driven segments spanning family secrets to Portland's protest conflict.
Shankar Vedantam unpacks the psychology behind relationships, careers, and money through researcher interviews.
David McRaney interviews researchers on cognitive bias, motivated reasoning, and why minds change.
Ryan Holiday pairs daily Stoic lessons with long-form guest conversations at his Texas bookstore.
NHPR's Jason Moon investigates the Bear Brook barrel murders and a New Hampshire wrongful-conviction case.
Russ Roberts interviews authors and economists on ideas from classical liberalism to AI.
Friendship expert Kat Velos discusses how perceived difficulties in friendship are actually challenges like courage, scheduling, and vulnerability, reframing common complaints.
Madeline Dorr opens with a plain kind of ache.
Madeline Dorr starts with Mari Andrew’s lobster image of retreat during a growth period.
Madeline Dorr opens with Eve Grzybowski describing how a group of friends imagined retiring together in their dream home.
A Social Life, with friends examines how people-pleasing develops when honesty and self-expression have been treated as unsafe or disappointing.
Exploring how to prioritize deeper connection and friendship over individualistic goals in the new year.
Madeline Dorr asks Tina Roth-Eisenberg, founder of Creative Mornings, how to bring people together through intentional gatherings.
Host Madeleine Dore explores how to improve social lives and combat loneliness through conversations with experts and friends.