Jo here and you are listening to Under the Influence.

Friendship is one of my great obsessions.

I write about it and I think about it all the time.

And I probably overanalyze all of my own friendships, but in a cute way, in a totally cute way.

I say this a lot, but we talk a lot about romantic love and not nearly enough about the power

and the importance of friendships in our life. And we also hear a lot about loneliness these days, but then not nearly

enough about what it takes to build and keep real friendships in the messy middle part of our life.

We see so many headlines right now about the loneliness epidemic, especially for men,

and the different ways that modern life is pulling us apart.

My guest today had a very different reaction to all of that discourse.

She kept thinking quietly to herself,

this does not actually describe me.

I have a lot of friends.

So the journalist Anya Kamenetz wrote about it and her piece went viral. The title grabbed me. I wrote her right away and asked

her to come on the show. It was, I'm a working mom in my 40s and an introvert, and I have more

sweeter and deeper friendships than ever in my life.

So today, we're going to get into how an introverted, bookish kid who always felt like the odd one out ended up with rich and abundant friendships in midlife.

I love this conversation.

I'm very excited for Anya and I to become more real-life friends since we've been online friends.

And I think this podcast

is the first step in that journey.

Hello.

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