The key to keeping old friends? Stop keeping score

Life Kit

NPR

Education, Kids & Family, Self-improvement, Business, Health & Fitness

4.5 • 4.9K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2026

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nina Badzin, host of the podcast Dear Nina: Conversations About Friendship, has spent a lot of time thinking about the richness that old friends add to our lives. In our lows and in our highs, our old friends can remind us of who we are. But time can also do a number on those relationships. So on this episode of Life Kit: how to maintain your longstanding friendships. This episode was originally published on May 19, 2025.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation,
0:05.0	providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability,
0:09.7	upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography.
0:15.6	Coffman.org
0:16.8	You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.
0:23.3	Hey, it's Mariel.
0:26.1	Recently, I interviewed Nina Badsen, who hosts a podcast all about friendship.
0:30.8	And I started our interview with, well, it was kind of a setup.
0:34.6	We played a game of this or that.
0:37.1	So I'll say two options and you say,
0:39.9	quick as you can, which is your favorite? Okay. All right. Um, chocolate or vanilla?
0:45.8	Chocolate. Running or swimming? Running, but I mean, barely either.
0:51.9	Podcast or radio? Podcasts. Old friends or new friends? Oh, that's so hard. I love them both
0:59.6	so much and I think both are so important. But I guess for today we're going to say old friends,
1:05.1	but I do want to urge people that you are never too old to make new friends. Never. My mom just had her
1:10.5	80th birthday with tons of women there. And my mom to make new friends. Never. My mom just had her 80th birthday with
1:11.3	tons of women there. And my mom had four new friends at this luncheon with tons of old friends.
1:17.1	I mean, if that's not the best example, I don't know what it is. Nina hosts the podcast,
1:21.7	Dear Nina, Conversations about friendship, where she gives advice and talks to experts about making
1:27.0	friends, keeping
1:28.1	friends, and losing friends. And I love that she actually gave me a thoughtful response to this,
1:33.7	because it was sort of a trick question. There's a lot of value in having new friends. I know this.
	...

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