Invisibilia

Alex is a comic who feels perfectly comfortable commanding a packed, rowdy audience, but consistently submits to what other people want in everyday life. This week, a look at how uncomfortable feelings about power can backfire on ourselves and the people we love. We get the help of a power expert - a dominatrix - to untangle Alex's power dynamics, and find out what it takes to treat a power allergy.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

2022 feels like walking a tightrope. We're grappling with control of our bodies, our time, the direction of our country - while trying to not spin out and just doomscroll. So this season, Invisibilia takes on control. The narratives we have about what's in or out of our control. Invisible tools of control. The crutches we use to FEEL in control but that might not be helping.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Would you ever consider going to therapy with a friend?Two best friends who call themselves brothers were drifting apart, so they asked psychotherapist Esther Perel to help — and we listened in. This episode was recorded in collaboration with Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel and a companion episode can be heard on her podcast.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Sh*t happens. So why is it so hard to talk about? This week, the ways that poop divides and binds us in our friendships.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

A lot of us think that it's a bad idea to get physical with friends. We worry it'll get messy, maybe even ruin the friendship. But if physical intimacy between friends weren't so taboo, what could our friendships look like? In this episode, we explore the gray zone of sex and friendship, following a man who deliberately kept his friendships with women hazy and now wants to apologize, and a pair of BFFs who became close through sex.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

You know the old saying--keep your friends close and your enemies closer. But what if you can't tell the difference? In this episode, the story of two friends who got caught up in a Top Secret operation that tested their assumptions about trust, betrayal, loyalty, and power.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's a basic tenet of friendship that you get to choose your friends. We look at two institutions that took away that choice: convents circa the 1960s and a summer program with unusual rules. What do we lose and what do we gain when we give up our preferences and try to make friends with everyone equally?Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's one of the most common and infuriating friend mysteries out there - a friend disappears into thin air. But where do these ghosts go? And why are we so haunted by them? If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Friendship gets the Invisibilia treatment.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Let's get slow. Producer Abby Wendle picks up the gauntlet that was thrown down in the last episode "The Great Narrative Escape." Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy