Cultivating Non-Romantic Intimacy

A Q&A with Anne Helen Petersen, published in her Substack, Culture Study, in October 2024.

Sometimes I’ll get an email in my inbox asking me to take a look at an upcoming book and as soon as I read the book description I know: this is deeply Culture Study. Sometimes it’s because the topic and approach asks us as readers to look much closer at some component of the culture that surrounds us — whether that’s the culture of gay Republicans or tracking our kids. And sometimes the topic just intersects squarely with an ongoing theme of the newsletter, like the value of caregiving or, frankly, what reactions to Taylor Swift tell us about ourselves and our values.

Group Living and Other Recipes, the beautiful new book from Lola Millholland, falls into that second bucket, intersecting with so many of the conversations we’ve had in this space over the last few years about building and sustaining community, and living with (or very near) friends.

Read the whole Q&A at Anne Helen Petersen’s Culture Study.