The Friendly Podcast

Break? What break? This episode was released 2 weeks after the previous, as usual. Shrinkhala and Sarah finish the 36 Questions to increase intimacy and reflect on the takeaway messages from this exercise for friendships. We conclude: 1) haunt your father tenderly as a positive, supportive ghost and 2) ask people questions about themselves and take an interest in their internal lives. Theme music: Disco Sheik by Podington Bear

Is there a way to hack friendship, or even love? That's exactly what the more pop-psychology minded advocates of the "36 questions" claim to do. Initially developed by psychologist Arthur Aron, these questions have been popularized through articles in the New York Times, and features in other esteemed podcasts. But can you actually make someone fall in love, or in friendship, with you just by asking these questions? In this episode, your intrepid hosts do just that - so you don't have to!  The 36 Questions that Lead to Love (The New York Times) Can you fall in love with anybody? (Why Oh Why) Theme Music: Disco Sheik by Podington Bear Reach us on Twitter @friendlypodcast or email us at [email protected]  

Watch out, This American Life, because Friendly just launched its first ~narrative style episode. Anyone with siblings knows that the sibling dynamic is...tenuous at times (i.e. you often want to render unspeakable violence on to each other). But it's also a dynamic that changes over time, ideally becoming cordial, and possibly even turning into a friendship. How does this change happen? Are your hosts friends with their siblings? And how does making frog soup fit into the brother-sister relationship? Your intrepid hosts conduct interviews and engage in deeply philosophical discussions to find out.  Theme music: Disco Sheik by Podington Bear Other music by Podington Bear Reach us on Twitter @friendlypodcast or email us at [email protected]  

In our grand return Shrinkhala and Sarah welcome you to a radical new seven-dimensional form of podcasting! We also interview Matt Rea and Reg Wiebe, co-hosts of the Plot Device podcast, about friendships between men and masculine-identifying folks: do stereotypes apply? How do these friendships evolve over time? Tune in and find out! Theme music: Disco Sheik by Podington Bear Listen to Plot Device! soundcloud.com/plotdevice Reach us on Twitter @friendlypodcast or email us at [email protected].

In this Friendly Minute we're giving a preview of Season 2 with a peek at an interview we did with Sarah's brother, Ian. The sibs share stories to try to embarrass each other but mostly end up embarrassing Sarah, who thought it was important she try to teach her older brother moral lessons as a child. Twitter: @friendlypodcast Gmail: [email protected] Theme music: Disco Sheik by Podington Bear

For our second Friendly minute, we try something thematically different by asking each other: "Hey, if you had to be several animals stuffed inside an item of clothing, which animal would you be and why?" We may have been a bit buzzed, but we learn some new and important (I guess?) facts about ourselves along the way....   Acknowledgements: Thanks to twitter user @outseide for the inspiration for the podcast topic. Theme music: Disco Sheik by Podington Bear

Shrinkhala and Sarah are back in a miniature episode to discuss friendships made in unconventional ways. Have you met a friend via strange or serendipitous circumstances? Share your stories with us! Email [email protected] or tweet @friendlypodcast. Acknowledgements: Theme music: Disco Sheik by Podington Bear

The fantastical season 1 finale is here! Appropriately, we talk all about keeping in touch: how often do you need to talk to someone for it to "count"? Does role-playing as Harry Potter help? For the first time in this podcast's history, we even do some Questionable Statistics on our own friends to explore how we all keep in touch with our high school buddies. Friendly will be back for season 2 in a few months, so stay tuned, friends! Thank You Mr. Banky: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thankmrbanky/ P.S. We formally apologize for the crackling on Sarah's end! She is doing pushups right now as punishment. Acknowledgements: Theme music: Disco Sheik by Podington Bear Other sound: Who Wants to be a Millionaire theme, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Hello and welcome to a very special episode of the Friendly Podcast! If you consume online media, you've probably come across this personality type before. The man who eschews traditional norms of masculinity. He's not afraid to talk about his emotions, has a cool, self-eraciating ~post-meme~ sense of humour, and is pro-social justice/feminism. What implications does this have for male-female friendships? Also, stay tuned for an exciting announcement about the future of this podcast! Note: the recent events at Polygon (www.polygon.com) prompted us to discuss this topic.

Hey pals! Your good buddies Shrinkhala and Sarah are back at it again with a case study on friendships in the 2011 hit movie Bridesmaids!  Do the bridesmaids actually have any friends? Do we buy the whole nice guy act from the movie's main love interest? Would you be friends with a sociopathic but rich and well-connected suburban socialite? Aren't some of the jokes in this movie sliiiiiightly offensive!? That's right, sit back, relax, and take yourselves back to 2011. A simpler time when yours truly had just graduated high school, vine was still a thriving media platform, and Bridesmaids was the hot new thing in Hollywood.

We answer questions about friendship from the popular Internet Web Sites Buzzfeed and Hello Giggles. Join us as we ponder what felonies friends should commit for each other, how involved you should be about your friends' significant others, and deepen our own friendship by asking each other such intimate questions as "if you were a cake, which cake would you be?" Theme music: Disco Sheik by Podington Bear Additional music by BoxCat Games

This week we took a look at some surprising historical friendships (did you know Helen Keller and Alexander Graham Bell were buds?), the differences in friendship values between North America and West Africa, and in a new segment called Imaginary Friends, we chatted about historical or pop culture figures who we would want to have as friends. You know, in that hypothetical other universe where you can just hang out with Thomas Edison if you want. Thank you to Podington Bear for the use of our theme song, Disco Shiek. We also discussed the following article by G. Adams and V. Plaut: The cultural grounding of personal relationship: Friendship in North American and West African worlds. Personal Relationships, 10(3), 333-347. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Glenn_Adams/publication/7762002_The_Cultural_Grounding_of_Personal_Relationship_Enemyship_in_North_American_and_West_African_Worlds/links/02e7e517e88fd794d1000000/The-Cultural-Grounding-of-Personal-Relationship-Enemyship-in-North-American-and-West-African-Worlds.pdf

Is "soulmate" a word that should apply to friendships as well? We dive into this idea and include an essential ~inspirational quote~ to help us along. In our new segment Friend-a-pedia, we discuss some little-known terms and jargon relating to friendship. Importantly, we try to answer whether or not lobsters can open doorknobs. Acknowledgements: Theme music: Disco Sheik by Podington Bear

How does social media change the way we form and maintain friendships? Are #millenials ruining everything? We also attempt to figure out what inspirational friendship quotes are trying to tell us and take a look at the friendships in BoJack Horseman. "Friendship Mountain" article by Tim Urban (Wait But Why): http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/12/10-types-odd-friendships-youre-probably-part.html Acknowledgements: Theme music: Disco Sheik by Podington Bear

We discuss the challenges and joys of adult friendships, take a look at Harry Potter and Hermione Granger's relationship (#Harmony shippers beware), and share facts we learned while researching this week. Acknowledgements: Theme music: Disco Sheik - Podington Bear Hedwig's Theme - John Williams Move On Up - Curtis Mayfield Additional thanks to Neil Cicierega for the use of the Potter Puppet Pals audio and Pogo for the use of the Alohomora song off the album Weave and Wish.