Rhaina Cohen's moving intimate portraits of people in unusually devoted friendships upend our
cultural narratives about which relationships matter . . . an arresting work of compassion and
insight. -Lori Gottlieb New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
and co-host of Dear Therapists podcast 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.
