Alex Dobrenko

I’m so happy to hear that these friends’ stories made you feel that way. A colleague of mine says he strives to report on people who are “extraordinary but anonymous,” and I feel that’s a perfect description of the people in my book. Which makes it hard to just share one partnership, but I’ll do it.

The idea from a dialogue point of view was, he was a man who sold his soul, so he basically surrendered the sense of I or me. He never refers to himself as I or me; it’s always “a man.” He is a sort of elemental figure and an ancient character who can’t seem to die. As he says in the last episode, “I didn’t speak to anyone for a century.” So what... See more

“Correct your mistakes before they become your habits.”

The problem is that when it comes to friendship, we are ritual-deficient, nearly devoid of rites that force us together. Emily Langan, a Wheaton College professor of communication, argues that we need them. Friendship anniversaries. Regular road trips. Sunday-night phone calls, annual gatherings at the same rental house, whatever it takes. “We’re... See more