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MPR News with Angela Davis
Angela Davis and Samantha Matsumoto

Making and keeping friends as pandemic restrictions lift

A woman talks on the phone with a friend during quarantine
Friendships are more than just nice to have, they're a biological need for all humans.
Polina Zimmerman via Pexels

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Our lives have changed a lot since the COVID-19 pandemic began. And some of those changes may have affected our friendships. 

Maybe social distancing shrank your social circle. Or maybe you chose to let some of your friendships fade away. 

One study in the U.K. found that 22 percent of people reported their friendships outside their household had gotten worse during the pandemic. 

Now, as we enter a new phase of the pandemic, many people are reconnecting with old friends — or trying to make new ones.

Host Angela Davis talked with a friendship expert and an author of a memoir about making and keeping friends as an adult. 

Guests:

  • Shasta Nelson is a friendship expert, speaker and author of “The Business of Friendship: Making the Most of the Relationships Where We Spend Most of Our Time”

  • Billy Baker is a reporter at the Boston Globe and author of the book “We Need to Hang Out: A Memoir of Making Friends”

  • Jon Slock is a coordinator for the Meet Up group Break the Bubble