You're listening to TED Talks Daily. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. I don't know about you,

but something that gets a lot harder for me as my life has gotten crowded with responsibility

is to nurture my adult friendships. But platonic friendships are so crucial to our well-being.

And today, psychologist Marissa Franco shares how to make new friends, keep them, and focuses

on all the ways making an effort will bring deeper fulfillment.

This is from a 2022 TED membership event where she's in conversation with Ted

Current Events curator Whitney Pennington Rogers.

Hear them after a short break.

Now, as an expert on friendship, I'm up against a lot because of the hierarchy that a lot of

our cultures place on love, right?

With familial love at the top, with romantic love at the top.

And with platonic love, friendship love really at the bottom. And with so many countries, people feeling so lonely and so disconnected,

I believe that if we leave friendship at the bottom of this hierarchy, it's like there's gold

at our feet that we're treating as concrete. And so why are friendships so

key? Well, our bodies have always known that we need an entire community to feel whole. And just being

around a spouse, for example, only surfaces one side of ourselves. So maybe the part of me that

likes to garden or do yoga will begin to wither away if my spouse,

for example, doesn't like these activities.

But then when I'm around a friend, I can garden and plant my pathos with them.

And I'm around another friend that I can downward facing dog with.

And I feel my entire identity accordion outward unfold and fan out.

And I experience the full richness and complexities of who I

...