And I began to notice that there was a lot more talk about friendship, and talking about it in these different ways, talking about the biology and evolution of it. And that’s what I sort of came to understand as I mean, as a science journalist, my job is to go out and talk to scientists, listen to them, listen as they speak amongst themselves, and see what they think is interesting and what’s important. But it turns out that there’s really also a biology to friendship and an evolutionary story here. And of course, there are cultural layers to friendship, lots of them. That it was this kind of lovely byproduct of human civilization and language. And that is, frankly, what we thought for a very, very long time. You know, we’ve known for really 1000s of years, that friendship is pleasurable, Aristotle and Socrates disgust it, you know, so it’s not that friendship is new in the least, of course, what is new is that we understand that friendship is not just cultural. But your book is making a very persuasive argument that there are ways that friendship can be analyzed scientifically, and that this science of friendship, as it were, can contribute important insights. Friendship is traditionally thought of as a social experience. So the intro to your book is entitled A new science. I’d like to jump right into your fascinating book on friendship and social relations, which it’s so timely as we deal with the aftermath of now nearly a year and a half of social distancing. Congratulations on receiving such a prestigious award. Friendship has met with rave reviews, and was selected as a 2020 Nautilus gold Book Award winner. You’re the author of three books, all of which I hope to discuss with you today: “Toxic truth about the dangers of lead poisoning”, “I can hear you whisper about deafness”, and most recently, “Friendship, the evolution biology and extraordinary power of life’s fundamental bond”, published by ww Norton in 2020. Your work has appeared in The Atlantic, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and many others. You write the Brainwaves blog for Psychology Today. Lydia, you are a science journalist and contributing editor for Scientific American.

Lydia, thank you so much for being with us today. I’m Jennifer Cohen and it’s my great pleasure to welcome journalist and author Lydia Denworth to the podcast.

Welcome to the voices and bioethics podcast.

Lydia denworth friendship