130: How to Strengthen Adult Friendships, with Author Kat Vellos

More Happy Life with Andy Proctor

How do you make friends as an adult? And if you have made a friend, how can you keep them and strengthen that friendship? In today’s episode we talk about the importance of friendship as an adult as well as how to build and strengthen friendship in our lives. I interviewed Kat Vellos, the author of the amazing book We Should Get Together, on these things, and I’m very excited to share this with you.

What are the biggest barriers to friendship?

• Constant relocation
• Full schedules
• The demands of partnership and family
• Declining capacity for intimacy and compassion in the age of social media

We talked about a lot of practical ways to overcome these obstacles in the interview.

We talked about Dr. Jeffrey Hall at the University of Kansas conducted research that showed that it takes approximately 200 hours to go from strangers to really close friends. When was the last time you spent 200 hours with someone? How many people can you say you have spent 200 hours with in the last 5 years?

This is a fascinating interview and I hope you not only listen to this interview, but pick up Kat’s book! I have it now and have devoured it! It is an amazing book with such charming illustrations and memorable stories and the best part is that it is packed with tips on how to build and strengthen friendships. Do you feel like you need more friends right now? This is the perfect book (and podcast episode) for you!

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