Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center

The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center

By Rhaina Cohen

NATIONAL BESTSELLER AN INDIE BESTSELLER " The Other Significant Other s. . . fundamentally, it's become my new Bible. " -- Trevor Noah "An arresting work of compassion and insight. " ―Lori Gottlieb "I loved and recommend [ The Other Significant Others ] to everybody. " --Ezra Klein "I feel like I've been waiting for this book for my entire adult life.

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Book Information

Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publish Date: 02/13/2024
Pages: 320
ISBN-13: 9781250280916
ISBN-10: 1250280915
Language: English

What We're Saying

February 13, 2024

February 13, 2024

By Porchlight

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Full Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
AN INDIE BESTSELLER "The Other Significant Others...fundamentally, it's become my new Bible." -- Trevor Noah
"An arresting work of compassion and insight." ―Lori Gottlieb
"I loved and recommend [The Other Significant Others] to everybody." --Ezra Klein

"I feel like I've been waiting for this book for my entire adult life." ―Anne Helen Petersen
Why do we assume romantic relationships are more important than friendships? What do we lose when we expect a spouse to meet all our needs? And what can we learn about commitment, love, and family from people who put deep friendship at the center of their lives? In The Other Significant Others, NPR's Rhaina Cohen invites us into the lives of people who have defied convention by choosing a friend as a life partner--these are friends who are home co-owners, co-parents or each other's caregivers. Their riveting stories unsettle widespread assumptions about relationships, including the idea that sex is a defining feature of partnership and that people who raise kids together should be in a romantic relationship. Platonic partners from different walks of life--spanning age and religion, gender and sexuality and more--reveal how freeing and challenging it can be to embrace a relationship model that society doesn't recognize. And they show that orienting your world around friends isn't limited to daydreams and episodes of The Golden Girls, but actually possible in real life. Based on years of original reporting and striking social science research, Cohen argues that we undermine romantic relationships by expecting too much of them, while we diminish friendships by expecting too little of them. She traces how, throughout history, our society hasn't always fixated on marriage as the greatest source of meaning, or even love. At a time when many Americans are spending large stretches of their lives single, widowed or divorced, or feeling the effects of the "loneliness epidemic," Cohen insists that we recognize the many forms of profound connection that can anchor our lives. A rousing and incisive book, The Other Significant Others challenges us to ask what we want from our relationships--not just what we're supposed to want--and transforms how we define a fulfilling life.

About the Author

Rhaina Cohen is an award-winning producer and editor for NPR's documentary podcast, Embedded. Her work, often focused on social connection, has aired on numerous podcasts and radio shows, including Hidden Brain , Invisibilia , and All Things Considered , and her writing has appeared in The Atlantic , The Washington Post , The New Republic and elsewhere.

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