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When you were a kid, making friends might have seemed easy and natural.

You were surrounded by potential playmates at school and on the playground, and friendships just seem to happen.

And college may have been another situation where friendships easily blossomed.

But for many adults, making new friends and maintaining old friendships is more difficult.

We're all busy with work, our partners, child care, and other grown-up responsibilities,

and friendships often end up taking a backseat to the other priorities in our lives.

Why is that? Why is it so hard to make friends as an adult? And why don't we prioritize friendship

more? If you want to make new friends, what's the best way to do it?

What about strengthening and rekindling old friendship ties? What are the essential ingredients of

being a good friend? And how do you know which friendships are worth the effort to maintain?

Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, the flagship podcast of the American Psychological

Association that examines the links between psychological science and everyday life. I'm Kim Mills.

Our guest today is Dr. Marissa Franco, a psychologist and friendship expert who is working on a book about

friendship called Plotonic, due out later this year. Dr. Franco is a counseling psychologist and an

assistant clinical professor at the University of Maryland. She was previously an assistant professor

...