Best Friends and Life Partners

Up First from NPR

NPR

Daily News, News

4.5 • 52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 14 December 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What was the biggest thing that changed for you this year? We’ll go first: our host Ayesha Rascoe bought a house with her best friend! Now the two of them are living together and platonically coparenting five kids under the same roof. The seed of this idea actually came from a conversation Ayesha had last year, when she sat down with NPR producer and editor Rhaina Cohen to talk about her book, "The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center." In the book, Rhaina shares stories about friends who own homes together, raise kids with each other, and care for each other in old age. At the end of the year, when so many of us are reflecting on personal milestones and relationships, we’re sharing Ayesha and Rhaina’s conversation again. Because so much is possible when you choose to put friendship at the center of your life.

This interview originally aired on February 11, 2024.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is a Sunday story from up first where we go beyond the news of the day to bring you one big story.
0:09.4	At the end of the year, I always like to kind of look back on the year that was and think about those things that happened that I'm happy about and those things that I want to leave in the old year
0:25.2	and not bring it to the new. This year, I have some really great things that happened to me.
0:33.8	And one of the best things that happened was I bought a house with my best friend.
0:40.0	Whose jacket is this?
0:43.3	McKenna, is this your jacket?
0:45.1	Can you come get your jacket?
0:46.8	And now we are living together with my three kids and her two kids. and we are platonically co-parenting and really
0:59.2	living this blended family life.
1:05.2	You know, some people say, is it like the Brady Bunch?
1:08.3	Well, a little bit, because it really is a blended family.
1:11.8	You know, we get up in the morning, we get the kids ready. Jasmine takes them to school.
1:17.3	During the day, me and Jasmine are working. I usually do the pickups with the kids, and then I get
1:24.8	dinner started. Now, I don't think Zola ate.
1:28.1	Zola, did you eat anything?
1:29.1	I did.
1:29.7	You did?
1:30.7	Okay.
1:34.5	Jasmine helps with the homework, and she also does the craft projects, which is very important,
1:36.9	because I don't like to do crafts.
1:39.0	And you guys, if you were actually here, you would see me I made this beautiful crochet.
1:44.0	And the kids, generally what they're doing when they're all together is they are screaming
	...

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