Whitney Pennington-Rogers

She's a journalist and author of The Other Significant Others.

And last year, she delivered a TED Talk that pushed us to expand who we count as our people.

and to recognize the deep, sustaining connections that don't always fit neatly onto holiday cards or family trees, but can shape our lives in very profound ways.

I'm so grateful she's here to help us reflect on belonging, connection, and relationships that can carry us into this season and well beyond it.

Please give a welcome to Raina Cohen.

Well, I think just maybe to kick things off, your talk, the talk that you delivered on the TED stage is sort of a distillation of the big idea from your book, the other significant others that

essentially argues for a more expansive approach to friendship and the role it can play for all of us.

And to pull a quote from the book, you say, if we don't limit friendship, it can be central to our lives.

So for those of us who aren't familiar as a primer, I think for our conversation, what do you mean by this?

How are we limiting friendship and how could we think about it more fully?

And you mentioned just now that you have sort of a personal connection to this.

Can you tell us a little bit more about why you wrote the book and then ultimately gave the talk?

And I think it's really important to note that this isn't an argument against romantic relationships.

You're not suggesting that you have either or, right?

how you can think about friendship as sort of a primary, maybe even foundational relationship.

And I'm curious to hear what you've learned about what can become possible for people when we do remove the limits from friendship and how it can function.

And how have you seen people's lives improve as a result of doing this?

I think there's been so much written these days about the challenges adults face in maintaining strong relationships.

platonic relationships across different life events, whether that's relocation or marriage or children.

And I personally know that I've experienced some of these challenges as I've gotten older.