Man of the Year - Champions of Friendship
As seen in The New York Times, on NPR, and the TODAY Show, Man of the Year is the #1 friendship podcast in the country! Comedians and friendship experts Matt Ritter and Aaron Karo will help you make new friends, reconnect with old ones, and build lifelong social fitness. Each November they award a gigantic Man of the Year trophy to one of their childhood friends – a tradition that has kept their crew going strong since the '80s. But the country is facing a friendship recession – 15% of men report having zero close friends – and they’re on a mission to change t...
#208 - The End of Fridays
Friday night used to be the official start of the weekend, but increasingly, people are staying home. This week, we look at the decline of Friday-night socializing, what’s behind it, and what we lose when the night that once brought everyone together becomes just another night at home.
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#207 - The Knicks Championship That Friendship Built
It was an amazing run in so many ways, but the thing that struck us is that they were not the most athletic or talented, but they were by far the most in sync group of actual friends we may have ever seen in sports and we explore how that played a part in the championship that friendship built!
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#206 - So Many Activities!
Making friends as an adult is hard, but maybe the solution is surprisingly simple: join something. This week, we explore the rise of adult activity fairs, why clubs and group activities are having a moment, and how finding your people might start with getting off the couch and putting your name on a sign-up sheet.
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#205 - Parents Modeling Friendship
How do we as parents model for our children what healthy friendship looks like? When we don't have friends around, how does that affect their view of what friendship looks like. And when we have healthy friendships and our children see the importance of it in our lives, how much better will their outlook be? We also tackle questions like how do you balance your children and your friendships and how do you rebuild friendships if you went into the blackhole when you had kids.
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#204 - The Art of Being a Regular
There’s something special about walking into a bar, coffee shop, or restaurant where everybody knows your name, or at least knows your order. This week, Karo and Matt are talking about the underrated social power of becoming a regular, and how simply showing up to the same place over and over can turn strangers into acquaintances and acquaintances into friends.
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#203 - My Husband Has No Friends...and How to Fix it?
NY Magazine and the Cut came in hot this week with an article titled "My Husband Has No Friends" - catchy, but really not very helpful in terms of solutions to a real problem. In fact it's one we've been working on since Episode 1. You may be the husband in question, feeling like that article resonated, or maybe you feel attacked, or maybe you're the wife or partner that felt heard by it. But since they didn't think to call us and ask for actual help, we decided we'd do what we always do and give you helpful tips...
#202 - Slow Friendship
We live in a world of instant intimacy, but maybe the best friendships are the ones that take their time. This week, Karo and Matt explore the rise of “slow friendship,” discuss why oversharing isn’t the same as closeness, and debate whether letting trust build gradually can lead to deeper, more lasting relationships.
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...#201 - Curating Your Hangs
When you go to a party where a host has put some thought into it, you feel it immediately and you feel great when you leave. What if we started putting just a tiny bit more thought into our hangs? We discuss how small tweaks can make it feel better than the normal routine that may be getting stale.
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#200 - 200TH EPISODE SPECTACULAR WITH ADAM PALLY
Karo and Matt are joined by returning champion Adam Pally to celebrate their 200th episode of Man of the Year! The guys chat about Hollywood, wellness, and working with friends. Stick around for the end when Adam roasts Karo for not casting him in the Tickle Me Elmo movie.
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#199 - Mate Expectations (Friendship in the UK)
Karo and Matt have both recently returned from trips to London, which got them thinking about how friendship differs across the pond. They discuss why American friends tend to be more expressive, British friends tend to be more deeply-rooted, and how both qualities can be taken too far. Plus, what each country could learn from the other about being a better friend.
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#198 - Summer Friendship Year Round
Does it seem like friendship is effortless or more present in your life in summer? It's because it is. Why? Because you're in a summer friendship mindset. This week we discuss how to carry that forward into the fall - through what we call the Sad Sixty, to avoid that lull.
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#197 - Friendship After College
College graduation comes with plenty of advice about careers, money, and success, but almost none about how to build a life filled with strong friendships. Karo and Matt share the lessons they wish they'd known at 22, from making new friends after college to staying connected as life inevitably pulls people in different directions. Whether you're a recent grad or just looking for a friendship reset, this episode offers practical advice for building the kind of relationships that last.
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#196 - Are You Having Enough Fun?
Whatever happened to fun? Are you still having it with your friends? If so, great. Friendship doesn't stay fun by accident. In this episode, we talk about the small shifts that keep your relationships from becoming predictable and why the people you love deserve more than just dinner reservations and catching up.
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<...#195 - Friend Group Finances
What if the biggest influence on your spending isn't your job or your neighborhood, but your friends? Karo and Matt explore the hidden financial culture inside every friend group, from the one guy who always wants to make it rain to the one who can sniff out the best happy hour deal town. They also tackle one of friendship's biggest taboos: would knowing what your friends actually earn make your relationships stronger, or blow up the group chat?
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#194 - Friendship Bombing
You've heard of Love Bombing, well now there's a new term...that we invented...called Friendship Bombing. Most of the same principles apply. We debate how to feel when someone comes in hot and heavy!
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#193 - Peak Friendship
Have we reached peak friendship? Karo and Matt explore this idea on three levels: 1) the high-water mark of an individual friendship, 2) why research suggests most people have the largest social circles around age 25, and 3) whether friendship itself has peaked as a cultural force.
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#192 - Refriending
Matt and Karo discuss a very thorny friendship topic. Should you ever refriend? Should you open space for someone who you were friends with but something happened or didn't happen and now you're pondering whether to give it a second chance.
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#191 - Independence
Happy 250th birthday America! Karo and Matt celebrate Independence Day by talking about independence in friendship – the line between autonomy and neglect, why some people are too self-sufficient to ask for help, and the bittersweet reality of what happens when a friend stops needing you the way they once did.
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#190 - The Friendship Danger Zone
What is the "friendship danger zone" and how do we manage to avoid it. Most friendship advice is for people in crisis. But the real danger zone is when someone isn't in crisis at all. They're not depressed. They're not getting divorced. They're not calling you at 2 a.m. They're just... a little quieter canceling more initiating less less excited a little lost not quite themselves The problem is nobody knows what to do because nothing is technically wrong.
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#189 - Friendship Myths, Part III
It’s the third installment of our Friendship Myths franchise! In Friendship Myths III, Karo and Matt tackle some of the most common misconceptions about friendship, including whether good friendships should be effortless, whether you should feel 100% like yourself around your friends at all times, whether time spent equals closeness, whether friends should celebrate you exactly the way you celebrate them, and whether good friends really don't need boundaries.
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#188 - Date Your Friends
Matt and Karo debate whether it's a good idea to date one of your friends. To cross that line between friend and lover, and if you can ever go back if it doesn't work out. It's a high risk, high reward maneuver!
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#187 - Copycats. And Copycats.
What do you do when a friend starts copying your style, your slang, your hobbies, or even your entire personality? Karo and Matt discuss copycats, the fine line between admiration and identity theft, and whether imitation really is the highest form of flattery.
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#186 - Permaguests
Matt and Karo have talked about the benefits of being a host many times before, but we decided this week to talk about the other side. The guests who seem to never host. Is it ok to be a permaguest, and if so, what are your obligations?
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#185 - Group Chat Etiquette and Sardinemaxxing
Karo and Matt the discuss the rules for optimizing the group chat with your friends – but more importantly, fad king Matt spends ten minutes on his effort to eat as many sardines as possible.
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#184 - Invite Yourself
Matt and Karo discuss a strategy most people don't talk about when it comes to friendship - what if you stopped waiting for invites and started inviting yourself over? Yes, maybe that sounds aggressive, but the truth is most of the time invites don't come for any particular reason, you could be in the right time or right place, or at top of someone's mind, or you can be forgotten or neglected for no reason. So what if you took a little bit of an assertive approach and invited yourself more. We discuss the pros and cons of the "...
#183 - Buddymoon’s Over
Karo and Matt break down the rise of the “buddymoon” – the trend of friends tagging along on (or replacing) the traditional honeymoon – and whether it’s a genius evolution or a relationship red flag.
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#182 - Brutal Honesty
Matt and Karo debate where the line is. You want friends who will tell it like it is but at some point does it cross from support to unhealthy friending?
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#181 - Roommates!
There’s no friendship more intimate than a roommate. You see everything: habits, quirks, and the stuff no one else can ever know. Karo and Matt break down the upsides, the downsides, and why living together can either cement a friendship or quietly destroy it.
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#180 - TCS - Text Call See
Matt and Karo came up with a great rubric because lets face it if we don't have any structure our friendships fall by the wayside. We find TCS - text once a week, call once a month, see IRL once a quarter, to be an ideal baseline. Obviously more is better but this is a healthy way to stay connected.
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#179 - Drinking Buddies
Alcohol can act as a powerful social lubricant, lowering inhibitions and making it easier for friendships to form. But it can also mask real issues and create a version of connection that doesn’t always hold up in the sober light of day. This week, Karo and Matt examine where drinking genuinely enhances friendship, where it quietly undermines it, and how to tell the difference.
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#178 - Cuffing Season 2026
Matt and Karo get back to a topic they discussed slash invented a few years back. We all know about "cuffing season" for relationships, but there's also a friendship cuffing season and it is upon us. So we give you the best practices to get out and friend!
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#177 - Our March Madness Bro-cket
Steady Eddy vs. Rich but out of touch. Stick to the plan guy vs. Up for anything guy. Hype man vs. Guy who disappears for months at a time. Connector vs. Screwed up his life guy. Karo and Matt put the many types of friends into a bracket to determine who is the worthiest of them all.
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#176 - Grieving Friends
Sometimes things are hard and people need their friends to show up. When someone away, that's what separates the real ones. Matt and Karo discuss the best ways to show up in the hard times.
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#175 - Friendship and Stoicism, aka “Broicism” (sorry)
Everyone’s talking about Stoicism these days. But is it a guide for taking control of your life, or a bunch of BS? Karo and Matt discuss applying Stoicism to friendship!
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#174 - Admin Friends
There's a growing trend of people gathering with their friends to take care of the mundane tasks: taxes, cancelling subscriptions, clearing inboxes. Matt and Karo get into the pros and cons of all of this.
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#173 - The Friend Group Fallacy
Karo and Matt discuss the “friend group fallacy” – the belief that a tight knit crew is preferable to and more common than strong one-on-one bonds. They unpack how sitcoms, social media, and comparison culture distort our expectations, and why a constellation of close individual friendships can be just as meaningful as any group text thread.
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#172 - Do Your Friends Need to Change With You?
Matt and Karo discuss what happens when you evolve. Does your crew need to evolve along with you? If you outgrow them, does the friendship need to end?
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#171 - Yes Men
When your buddies reach out for plans, are you an immediate Yes (Matt) or a knee-jerk No (Karo)? This week the guys discuss best practices for when to accept an invitation from a friend, and when to politely decline.
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#170 - The Superbowl of Friendship - 2026 Edition
It's Superbowl weekend and Matt and Karo share the best tips for making the most of it from a Friendship perspective.
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#169 - One-on-One Friends vs. Big Group Friends
Some friends are elite in a group chat, unstoppable at a party, and absolutely lethal at a 12-person dinner. But put them in a one-on-one situation and suddenly you’re both checking the exits. This week Karo and Matt break down why certain friendships only thrive in a herd and how to keep those friendships strong without forcing awkward solo hangs.
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