Kicking Off The Second Look: A Mini-Series on Friendship

To launch The Second Look, I’m starting with a three-episode mini-series all about… drumroll please… friendship. Why? Because it’s complicated, beautiful, and, frankly, in a bit of a crisis.

As loneliness becomes a defining feature of our time, I want to take a philosophical second look at friendship: how it’s changed, how it shapes us, and how it gets tangled up in politics, values, and beliefs. We’ll ask: Why do friendships fracture over ideological differences? What do we owe each other in moments of disagreement? And how do we make sense of love (yes, love) in friendships?

Karel, William. 2023. Simone de Beauvoir Attending the “Women’s Fair” in Vincennes, June 17, 1973. Editorial 1488794262. https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/simone-de-beauvoir-assistant-%C3%A0-la-foire-aux-femmes-%C3%A0-news-photo/1488794262?adppopup=true.

Of course, guiding us through all this will be Simone de Beauvoir. In particular, we’ll dive into her novel The Mandarins, a rich story about I personally loved on post-war French intellectuals navigating politics, relationships, and their own existential commitments. Think love triangles, political drama, and betrayal—but with more Parisian cafés. Through her characters, Beauvoir explores the tension between personal bonds and political convictions, a tension that still resonates deeply today.

I’m so excited to share this project with you. It’s a little bit of philosophy, a little bit modern, and a lot of questions that don’t have neat answers. But if you’ve sensed social tension on the rise, spent time debating politics over wine, or wondered whether Aristotle would approve of your friendships, this one’s for you.

Tune in—they will be good ones.