S13 EP9: Friendship is Vital! Why We Need Platonic Love.
The Thick Thighs Save Lives Podcast
Constantly Varied Gear
4.9 • 724 Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Friendship is often treated like an extra relationship, one that gets pushed aside once careers, partners, kids, or exhaustion take over. But what if friendship isn’t optional at all?
In this episode, we sit down with friendship expert and author Dr. Marisa G. Franco to unpack why platonic relationships are essential for our mental, emotional, and physical health, and why our culture has quietly taught us to deprioritize them.
We talk about the hidden “hierarchy of love,” why many women feel shame for loving their friends deeply, and how loneliness impacts your health more than poor diet or lack of exercise. Dr. Franco shares research-backed strategies for making friends as an adult, maintaining friendships through life changes, and letting go of the belief that friendship should “just happen.”
If you’ve ever felt like you’re bad at friendship, wondered if you’ve outgrown people, or felt lonely despite being surrounded by others, this conversation will change how you see connection.
Key Takeaways
Friendship is a health issue.
Friendship doesn’t just happen.
Loneliness changes your body.
Friendships ebb and flow.
Someone has to be brave first.
(00:01:13) Welcome Dr. Marisa G Franco to the podcast
(00:04:54) The history behind why friendship became “secondary”
(00:07:00) The hierarchy of love & shame around platonic intimacy
(00:11:00) Can men and women really be friends?
(00:13:10) Why maintaining friendships feels so hard as adults
(00:17:20) Loneliness vs. diet & exercise: the shocking stats
(00:19:15) How to actually make friends as an adult
(00:25:05) Why we are afraid to say I love you to a friend
(00:30:00) Rapid fire questions from the community answered
(00:41:25) Where to find Marisa and final takeaway
Marisa’s Links:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drmarisagfranco
Website and QUIZ: www.DrMarisaGFranco.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You know, you said loneliness is more damaging than poor diet or exercise. |
| 0:04.0 | I was hoping you could expand on this a little bit more. |
| 0:07.3 | There's so much research showing that when we are connected, we perceive stress as less stress. |
| 0:13.6 | When you look at meta-analyses that look at the effects of diet and exercise on lifespan, |
| 0:18.1 | you know, having a good diet, eating your vegetables, running, exercising, |
| 0:21.5 | they decrease your risk of death by 25% around there. |
| 0:25.2 | But having a large social network decreases your risk of death by about... |
| 0:28.6 | Whoa. |
| 0:35.0 | Hey, everybody. |
| 0:35.9 | We've had some of the most incredible guests coming to you these past couple of months. |
| 0:41.5 | The amount of expertise and knowledge on these cutting edge topics is something we really hope that you enjoy. |
| 0:50.8 | And if you do, it would make a huge difference to us if you could rate, review and |
| 0:55.8 | subscribe the podcast. It helps us to get more guests, better experts, and talk about all |
| 1:02.3 | of the things that are really important to you. So give us a love, give us a lot of love, |
| 1:08.6 | and don't forget to subscribe so you get all our new episodes. |
| 1:13.4 | Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Thick Thigh Save Lives podcast. I'm Kelsey, and I'm joined |
| 1:18.9 | here with Marissa G. Franco. I am very excited to have you on Marissa. So welcome to the podcast. |
| 1:26.1 | Kelsey, thanks so much for having me. |
| 1:27.5 | So this is actually, I've done, I don't know, Marissa. So welcome to the podcast. Kelsey, thanks so much for having me. |
| 1:34.4 | So this is actually, I've done, I don't know, 300 episodes, a lot of, a lot of podcast episodes. |
| 1:42.2 | But I don't think I have ever truly covered platonic friendships. And I'm very excited about it because we have a primarily female audience who I consider all of my friends. |
| 1:47.0 | And we have not talked about friendship. |
... |
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