Other People’s Podcasts 0051 – Art Of Manliness: One Man’s Impossible Quest – To Make Friends in Adulthood

Firstly – yes. You are correct. There was no OPP last week. I simply forgot to get up on it by Sunday morning. I was probably playing Star Wars but I can’t say that with certainty.

And now for this weeks excursion…

Oh the eternal problem of making friends. Not friends with benefits. Friends. A whole different sorta thing. I should probably have another listen to this podcast what with me living in a new city for the first time in 20 bloody years. At some point I may want to talk to someone other than myself and my stuffed rabbit.

Especially since I don’t have Bathroom Spider to talk to any more.

Several years ago, there was a tweet that went viral which said that of Jesus’ many miracles, perhaps his greatest, was having 12 close friends in his 30s.

As people say, it’s funny, because it’s true.

When my guest today came face-to-face with the anemic state of his own friendships, he set out to try to do the miraculous himself, and make friends in middle-age. His name is Billy Baker and he’s a journalist and the author of We Need to Hang Out: A Memoir of Making Friends.

Billy and I begin our conversation with the problem of male loneliness in the modern age, and how it befell him in his own life. We then discuss how men and women do friendships differently, the way men do theirs shoulder to shoulder, what this means for what male friendships need to be built around, and why they require what he calls “velvet hooks.”

Billy shares how he started his project, which experimented with different ways to recover and create connections, by rekindling his old friendships, but why that ultimately didn’t scratch the friendship itch for him. Billy then describes what did: a kind of casual fraternity for middle-aged men he started, and how it was inspired by something called the “men’s shed” movement in Australia and its philosophy that men need “somewhere to go, something to do, and someone to talk to.”

We end our conversation with Billy’s takeaways for making friends in adulthood, including the need for embracing intentionality and social risk.

Show Highlights

Why are men so susceptible to loneliness?

What are the health consequences of loneliness?

Face to face versus shoulder to shoulder

What are “velvet hooks”?

Why re-kindling past friendships didn’t fully scratch the friendship itch

Why the Men’s Shed Movement inspired Billy to make some actual friends

How COVID managed to strengthen friendships

The pressure of trying to be friends with both halves of a couple

What’s the actionable takeaway here for guys?

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/making-friends-in-adulthood/

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