Frands Forever with Alisha Ramos

HI FRANDS. We’re all BFFs now, right?…Right? In this episode, we talk about how we make new friends as busy adults, how we sustain relationships beyond grabbing lunch or drinks, and how we build the kinds of communities that give us LIFE. We’re also joined by Girls’ Night In founder Alisha Ramos, who tells us how she built a company around a simple concept: connecting and celebrating women who’d rather stay in.

> Book clubs are just magical, first of all, because books are amazing. But, second of all, it creates a really interesting common ground for everyone… You’re all showing up because you read the same thing, and you are starting off with that common thing and you end up picking up little pieces of the other person’s life as she’s describing how she read the book and interpreted it, and then it kind of like takes the pressure off.

>

> —Alisha Ramos, founder of [Girls’ Night In](http://girlsnightinclub.com/)

Here’s what we covered (and as always, you can find the full transcript below).

## Show notes

Did you know that Sara and Katel first bonded over crab fries? That a full 50 percent of the city of Philadelphia knows each other through Jenn? Well, now you will. We also talk about:

- How great friends are also generous with their friends

- Why you have to get over the fear of rejection when trying to keep adult friendships alive

- Why loneliness is bad for your health

Then, we catch up with Alisha Ramos, who tells us how she [quit her job last year](https://medium.com/@girlsnightin/why-i-quit-my-job-to-build-girls-night-in-456954f44a09) to start Girls’ Night in, a newsletter for ladies who’d rather skip the party, _thanks_. Now GNI boasts more than 30,000 members.

We bond over:

- The magic of book clubs—especially when your new book BFFs also invite you to a potluck

- Celeste Ng’s excellent second novel, Little Fires Everywhere

- Relaxing, relaxing, and more relaxing—Alisha recommends watching The Crown and re-watching I, Tonya (and if you hate Tonya Harding, [read this first](https://slate.com/arts/2018/01/i-tonya-toxic-masculinity-and-the-messiness-of-victimhood.html)).

Also in this episode:

- Thanks to a reader recommendation, Katel’s back in the fiction game with [Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/11/jennifer-egan-manhattan-beach/540612/).

- Did you know that Tinder for moms is a thing? (It’s called [Peanut](https://www.peanut-app.io/).)

- It’s reboot time in Hollywood! Still! Apparently! First up: get your blazers pressed: [Murphy Brown is back](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/01/murphy-brown-reboot-cbs), baby! Let’s hope Dan Quayle doesn’t show up to shame her again. An [Overboard reboot](http://deadline.com/2017/12/overboard-trailer-anna-faris-eugenio-derbez-remake-goldie-hawn-kurt-russell-1202231480/) is also coming, which we’re not feeling great about, given that the plot centers around tricking a woman with amnesia into being your wife—as a comedy!

- What the world really needs is some of that patented