#179 - Your Newest Friendship Questions, Answered (My Mom)

Dear Nina: Conversations About Friendship · Jan 4, 2026 · 27m

For the first episode of 2026, I have my mom, Kathy Sackheim, in the studio for her 6th appearance on the podcast to help me answer a stack of listener questions straight from the Dear Nina inbox.

We move quickly through a range of friendship dilemmas from listeners:

milestone birthday expectations

uneven effort

friend group tension

an uncomfortable confrontation

a group chat blowup

reaching out after a long gap since the last hangout

and what to do when a friend’s choices leave you conflicted and/or burdened (We slightly disagreed about that last one!)

My mom, at 80, brings decades of…