Best Forevers: A Podcast for Kindred Spirits

Alysa welcomes author, Kayleen Schaefer, of the book Text Me When You Get Home: The Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship to discuss the expectations, stereotypes, and reality of female friendships. These friendships have been viewed as catty, mean, and, essentially, disposable after marriage, but, if we're delaying marriage and friends are at the forefront, why would women give up the...

When one thinks of college basketball, friendship may not be the first word that comes to mind, but, in this episode, Alysa explores the championship culture and the traits of friendships that may be needed for teams, and friendships, to succeed. She speaks with Central Michigan University's women's head basketball coach, Sue Guevara, about her experience coaching, building relationships, and comm...

Making friends is already hard to do, but when you add in mommyhood there seems to be a further critical impact on maintaining and creating new friendships during such an exhausting, isolating, and overwhelming phase of life where such connections may be most important. In this episode, Alysa chats with her two mommy friends, Jenny and Amanda, first, about the all-important friendship origin stori...

Where would we be in life without our friends nerding out with us over our favorite nerdy things? Heather and Liz became friends over their geeky fandoms and then turned it into the amazing podcast, Nerdy Bitches , where they talk about all things nerdy! Join us in celebrating their cool friendship, but also the remarkable podcast milestone of reaching 100 episodes! They're nerdy. They're bitchy....

Who is the person that has impacted you the most? Often, we may report that it was a teacher or a mentor that helped guide us, shape us, and or changed our lives. Therefore, in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, Alysa gives a Best Forevers shout-out to teachers, coaches, mentors, and advisers by talking about the teachers who impacted her, sharing listener letters about their favorite teachers, a...

Nope, nothing weird here…just Gareth Reynolds, comedian and co-host of The Dollop and Point vs. Point podcasts, talking to Alysa about friendship, the role of friendship in the creative process, communicating effectively while collaborating, and what he's learned about humor since he started making jokes in the second grade. This time Gareth actually knows what the topic is about (friendship and c...

Sometimes we meet friends who open doors for us and our world becomes wider and richer because of their interests, investment, openness, and support. This is certainly the case for Alysa and her dear friend and work spouse, Tara. In this episode, the two detail their friendship origin story, which originates in graduate school and includes avocados, Ludacris, Gilmore Girls , traveling, and college...

Get your notepad full of roasts ready and have a listen to Autumn and Markie detail their uniquely close friendship that people usually praise, but then also ask, "Are y'all actually friends?" You'll hear two friends that bicker and laugh through their friendship story, but through it all they demonstrate that when one friend leads with their heart and one friend leads with their head, you can dev...

Have you ever thought your favorite TV show was actually the worst? And, then, did you spend hours chatting about it with a good friend? If you answered yes to these questions, this episode is for you! Alysa chats with friends, Kristen and Elizabeth, who host the podcast, Your Fave is Problematic, where they ruin all your precious childhood movies ( The Goonies ), sacred quotable TV shows ( Gilmor...

If you're wearing a poncho, eating Noodles & Company, and sassing others, you're well on your way to achieving Sasha and Courtney's Best Friend Tier status! In this installment of the Besties Podcaster's Series, I chat with extraordinarily spoopy friends who host the Halloweenie podcast, Spoop Hour, focusing on all the stuff that scares us! But, their podcast isn't just eerie and hilarious so is t...

Major life transitions significantly impact our lives, but what happens with our friendships when our lives change? Do we intentionally communicate to our friends that we'd like to continue our friendships after that change? Or, do these friendships drift apart? In this episode, Alysa talks to friends, Clio, Rissa, and Science from the podcast, The Liberal Arent's, about how their friendship origi...

Grab your wands, House scarves, and your best friends as we apparate into the podcasting world and friendship of Accio Politics, the Harry Potter-themed podcast hosted by Adri and Erin! In this installment of the Besties Podcaster's Series, Alysa chats with the friends about their podcast, which analyzes the politics of the wizarding world chapter by chapter of the J.K. Rowling series, and their f...

How do you care for or comfort a friend through a difficult time? Or, maybe care for or comfort yourself during an illness or trauma? In this episode, Alysa talks with Certified Professional Coach for Successful Multi-creatives, Heidi Bennett, about embodying compassion for ourselves, our friends, and others. Our friends are often viewed as supporters that can help us through trying times so join...

Have you ever met someone and said, "This is stupid, we should just be best friends"? If so, then you may cosmically connected to them much like life-long friends, Devon and Liz, from The Ouija Broads are connected to each other. In this installment of the Bestie Podcaster's Series, Alysa talks to two spooky friends that were clearly meant to be friends because they can essentially read each other...

In this episode, Alysa extends her thoughts on the experience of jealousy. She reads listeners' stories of jealousy and envy; tackles the controversial, yet popular question, "Can men and women really be friends?," and talks to Lance Bennett from the University of Iowa about his research with Dr. Jennifer Bevan on jealousy in romantic relationships where a partner has a cross-sex best friendship....

In the second installment of the Bestie Podcaster Series, Alysa chats with soul twins, Georgie and Kate, from the Nothing Rhymes With Murder podcast. The interview is a lively hangout session over prosecco, laughs, friendship, true crime, and geek outs over favorite podcasts (including Alysa's fangirling of Georgie and Kate). Come join us (and our pets Ferguson and Joey) and get a glimpse into the...

How many podcasts do you listen to hosted by best friends? Have you ever wondered how they met or how they came to podcast together? Or, maybe, what stories and moments define their friendships? It's time to love more on friendship, podcasts, and the friendships forged through podcasts. In the inaugural Bestie Podcaster Series episode, Alysa learns more about the podcasts Film Roast, Shamble Fest,...

In the second installment of the Best Forevers Book Club, Alysa reads a book from Claire's childhood entitled, I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You, by Ally Carter. They discuss Cammie and her two friends, who attend Gallagher Academy, a spy school for girls. Will the girls pass their Covert Ops class? Will Cammie successfully date a boy while maintaining her secret identity? Wil...

Have you ever met someone and knew you'd be best friends forever? Do you share the good times? Are you able to work through the dark times? In this episode, Alysa interviews true kindred spirits, Carley and Meredith, who have similar heart cries to talk about the hard stuff in life. They love each other, they love friendship, and they love working with women to give them permission to have conflic...

Jealousy is considered to be a taboo topic in friendships, but, in this episode, Alysa blows the dust off her sinfully bad poetry from 2000 to introduce the problems she noticed in her friendships related to this topic. Turns out not everyone is good at writing poetry, but we're all likely to experience jealousy in our friendships so what can we do about it? Alysa defines jealousy, discusses ways...

Alysa often turns to her close friend, Tierney, during difficult times for advice. Tierney is a protective, thoughtful, and funny friend Alysa likes to call, The Chauncey Billups of Crises, because of her ability to calmly deal with stress. So, in this episode, Tierney and Alysa answer your questions about life and stress! Come join these dear friends as they share friendship stories, advice for c...

Tomodachi is the japanese word for friend. In this episode, Alysa learns about this word from the family that inspired the Best Forevers Podcast! Interviews from the grandmother, father, mother, and daughter explore various topics related to friendship, including: popularity, groups of friendship, how personality impacts friendship, how family impacts friendship, friendships with students, friends...

Making friends when we were kids seemed so easy, but making friends as adults is hard! In this episode, Alysa is joined by her friend, Margeaux, to discuss why making friends can be such a chore and to suggest ways to make connections with others. Besides making new friends, Alysa talks to Nate Woo, a Ph. D. student from University of Arizona, about using social media sites to maintain our already...

In this episode, Alysa Lucas welcomes her PR intern, Maria Abu-Joudeh, to the podcast team and they read your letters about friendship in the first episode solely dedicated to listener stories. If you have a friendship story to share, please send those stories to Alysa at bestforeverspod@gmail.com or visit the podcast web page, www.bestforeverspod.com , and click on the Surveys tab to respond to v...

What did you learn about friendships from your favorite books as young adults? Let's find out in the Best Forevers Book Club series! In these episodes, Alysa Lucas will make her student, Claire Stevenson, read a book from her childhood about friendships (and vice versa). In the first episode of the series, they read and analyze, Secrets , the amazingly 80's awesome book from the Sweet Valley High...