Friendship is not a “nice-to-have” but a core, potentially transformative human connection. Rhaina Cohen, author of The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life With Friendship at the Center, joins us. Highlights of our conversation include:

• The “friendship recession” and how modern culture undervalues friendships compared to romantic or family ties;
• Historical and cross-cultural insights into how friendship has been understood and prioritized in different societies;
• Stories from Cohen’s book about people redefining relationships, including platonic co-parents and friends who live together as chosen family;
• The legal and cultural barriers to elevating friendship as a socially sanctioned form of kinship and how policy reforms could better accommodate diverse relationships;
• Cohen’s personal experiences with an intense friendship that reshaped her understanding of love, intimacy, and societal expectations.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/rhaina-cohen

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The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests that draw the connections between pronatalism, human supremacy, social inequalities, and ecological overshoot. Population Balance's mission to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks our human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet.

Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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