How To!: Let Go of a Friendship
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2024
⏱️ 28 minutes
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Summary
Our series about friendship ends with a look at, well, how friendships end.
Alice and Grace connected when their kids started dating. They became fast friends whose family lives were intertwined—in a good way. They even joked that they might end up raising grandchildren together. When the kids broke up, Alice and Grace broke apart, too. Now, Alice is wondering whether she should fight for her cherished relationship or just move on. On today's episode, Carvell Wallace brings on Carissa Potter, an author and artist who founded People I've Loved and hosts the podcast Bad at Keeping Secrets.
Miss last week's episode? Learn how to evolve your friendships. If you're enjoying this series, check out our other friendship episodes:
How To Make Friends as an Adult
How To Make Friends… Like a Man
How To Show Up For a Friend With Cancer
Do you have a problem that needs solving? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
How To's executive producer is Derek John. Joel Meyer is our senior editor/producer. The show is produced by Rosemary Belson and Kevin Bendis.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | it's a visceral loss and the scientific part of my brain wants it to make sense at least |
| 0:09.2 | because there's a little cognitive dissonance that I did nothing wrong that I'm aware of and yet I |
| 0:17.4 | feel a little punished for it. |
| 0:28.0 | Welcome to How To, I'm Courtney Martin. Today is the third and final episode in our friendship series. |
| 0:32.0 | We would genuinely love to hear from you |
| 0:35.0 | about your hard-earned friendship wisdom or any questions you have. The how-to |
| 0:39.4 | hotline is always open at 646 495 401 or email us at how to at slate.com. Now this week's |
| 0:48.0 | listener Alice wrote in with what feels like a perfect culmination to the |
| 0:52.0 | series. What to do when a |
| 0:54.4 | a friendship, when you value deeply, suddenly disappears. |
| 0:58.9 | I'm going to hand things over to my co-host, |
| 1:01.0 | Carvel Wallace, and Alice to fill us in on the split. |
| 1:05.0 | I am Alice and I am a stay-at-home mom with three kids, teenager age, and I drive taxi. |
| 1:16.0 | So Alice, you're here because you have a very specific conundrum that you would like advice on. |
| 1:21.2 | Can you give us the background on this story? Yes, my daughter started dating, I guess, middle school, a boy. It's a small school and she's known him since they were in second grade. And the parents I've |
| 1:35.2 | always wanted to get to know better and this gave us the reason to get to know each |
| 1:39.3 | of other better. And then COVID struck and the mom of the boy became sort of a foxhole friend of mine. |
| 1:48.0 | The benefit of COVID was that our children couldn't be close to each other. |
| 1:52.4 | They couldn't smooch or anything. |
| 1:54.4 | During COVID, relationships were strained in her family. They were strained in my family and |
| 2:00.1 | we were both feeling betrayed actually by family who would throw away the relationship |
| 2:07.0 | just because there would be a mask that had to be worn. |
... |
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