In this episode, we welcome Rhaina Cohen, who literally wrote the BOOK on intimate friendships. "The Other Significant Others" profiles several friends whose relationships challenge us to rethink the default choices around sex, romance, intimacy, and family.

How can these friendships help us escape the metaphorical escalator that pulls us to the choices we're "supposed" to make, instead of the ones that we really want?

This is a podcast on intimate friendship, and on today's episode, we strip that down to the basics. A breezy summer confection of just us two, dishing as we love to do: ...debating where to stand at a concert; yearning for a Gen Z selfie consultant; reveling in the pleasure of being RIGHT (dammit); and giving heartfelt advice to our younger selves.

Soon, we'll be opening up the season to talk about chosen family and community building, featuring some GREAT interviews with authors, experts, and icons (from radical friendship idioms to senior centers, to communal living, to nightlife). But before we head out to explore all that, we get back to basics: just two friends...being friends.

Amrita and Andrew invite six friends around the dinner table to discuss friendship and intimacy: our co-host Marina, plus college friends, an ex-boyfriend, a neighbor...all with different perspectives on romance and family. We talk about what makes people get close, the difference between friend-intimacy and romance-intimacy -- plus, some personal tea spillage...just between us buds. Pull up a chair!