The Yeah, No, For Sure Show | Friendship Takes the Mic

Amy VanHaren
  • 5.0 (10)
  • Mental Health
  • Updated Weekly

The Yeah, No, For Sure Show is the friendship podcast that makes you want to text your people. Because without friends, life is f*cking lonely. Hosted by Amy VanHaren—your enthusiastic friend who handwrites letters and actually follows through on plans—this is where friendship takes the mic. Each week feels like you're the third friend at the table as Amy and her favorite humans talk about the laugh-until-you-cry friends, the show-up-with-wine-when-life-implodes friends, the haven't-talked-in-months-but-nothing's-changed friends. We explore every season of friendship: making friends in midlife, soul friends, camp friends, mom friends, the heartbreak of growing apart, the magic of new connection, and how we f*ck it all up and recover. It's honest. It's hilarious. It's your campfire for women craving more joy and deeper connection. The kind of podcast that reminds you: friendship matters, and you're not failing at it. We're all figuring it out together. Will it improve your sleep or make you more productive? Probably not. Will it make you laugh? We sure hope so. Will you walk away feeling a little less lonely? Yeah, no, for sure! Nothing is inner circle here. Hop on the couch - you’re part of this now. Feeling this? You're not alone. Join the campfire conversation + community at www.yeahnoforsure.show.

  1. The Friends Who Showed Me Grace: What Friendship Revealed in Season One

    Apr 29

    The Friends Who Showed Me Grace: What Friendship Revealed in Season One

    Season one finale of The Yeah, No, For Sure Show—a friendship podcast about female friendship, midlife friendship, chosen family, and the lessons we learn when we finally look closely at the relationships that shape us. In this finale, I revisit the moments, clips, and guest reflections that stopped me this season: what Katharine realized about building things with friends, what happened to Marcy’s mother’s best friend after listening to our episode, what Alice discovered about grace — and about herself — and what changed for Alisa, who came on this show and said out loud that she sucks at friendship. I also answer a few questions my friends sent me and share what’s coming in Season 2, plus how you can help build it. This episode is a celebration, a reflection, and a thank you for anyone who has been here from the beginning, found us in the middle, or is starting right here. Here’s what friendship revealed when we finally gave it the mic. Topics: female friendship, friendship podcast, friendship lessons, chosen family, midlife friendship, loneliness, connection, women and friendship, friendship stories, grace Join the conversation + community → yeahnoforsure.show | Instagram → @theyeahnoforsureshow

    27 min
  2. The Friend You Watch Everything With: Our Top Five Friendship Shows and Why They Matter

    Apr 15

    The Friend You Watch Everything With: Our Top Five Friendship Shows and Why They Matter

    There’s always one friend you watch everything with—the one who gets your 11pm recap text, the one who made you watch it in the first place, the one whose name comes up every time a new season drops. This episode is for her, and for you. Holly Curtis is back—creative director, sauna companion, and the friend who helped build this brand with me—and today we’re each revealing our top five friendship shows of all time. We built our lists independently and reveal them live, with no idea where the other one landed. You’ll hear where we overlap, where we completely diverge, and why this conversation turned out to be about so much more than the shows. It’s about the shared ritual of watching something together. The post-episode group texts. The remember-when rewatches. The way certain stories become inseparable from the people you watched them with. Because sometimes what we remember most isn’t the cliffhangers or the characters, it’s the friends we tune in with. This episode is for anyone who has ever loved a show the way you love a friend—or loved a friend the way you love a show. Topics: friendship shows, watching TV with friends, top five lists, chosen family, shared experiences, nostalgia, friendship rituals, comfort TV, binge watching Tell us which shows made your list—head to Instagram or Substack and let's debate it.   Join our campfire: yeahnoforsure.show | @theyeahnoforsureshow

    52 min
  3. The Friends at 13: What Middle School Friendship Feels Like

    Apr 8

    The Friends at 13: What Middle School Friendship Feels Like

    What does friendship actually feel like at 13 when middle school drama hits hardest and you're figuring out who your people are?  This week I sit down with my daughter Emma and her best friend Sierra, both 13 and in 8th grade, for a conversation about what friendship looks like right now from the inside.  You'll hear the four words Sierra said in a fourth-grade recess line that started their whole friendship. The summer they spent watching Riverdale on call simultaneously so neither one got ahead. How they've built a tight, drama-free friend group without social media, what they honestly think about it, and how they feel about having their moms be friends too. I also share what 8th grade was really like for me: the cheerleading formation, the girl who said out loud she couldn't believe she had to stand next to me, the three days of silence and heartbreaking lonliness that followed. Because watching these two show up for each other the way they do, with that much honesty, kindness and maturity, it gives you hope.  This one is for those with 13-year-olds in their lives, all of us who remember our first real teenage friends, and anyone who thinks middle school friendship is just drama. Emma and Sierra's Friend Picks: Keeper of the Lost Cities book series, Duolingo streaks, late-night phone calls Topics: middle school friendship, teenage friendship, 13-year-old best friends, friendship without social media, Riverdale, middle school drama, parenting teens, finding your people Join the campfire → yeahnoforsure.show | Instagram → @theyeahnoforsureshow

    36 min
  4. The Friends Who Won't Let You Die: Loving a Friend for a Lifetime

    Apr 1

    The Friends Who Won't Let You Die: Loving a Friend for a Lifetime

    Jeanne McDermott gave the eulogy for her oldest friend two weeks before we sat down together. She’d known her since she was ten years old. Alice Markowitz, filmmaker and Jeanne’s closest friend for nearly 50 years, was sitting right beside her. The three of us talked about how beautiful it is to hold a friendship across an entire life: what you gain, what you lose, and what you carry forward when someone is gone. We also talked about what friendship in your 70s looks like, the shock of aging, and the real joys of a community choir. This one comes with a lot of laughs, a little heartbreak, and so much wisdom about how to cherish your friends and give one another grace. It’s for anyone who has friends they’ve known throughout their life—people they love deeply and are also a little terrified of losing. Topics: lifelong friendship, friendship grief, friendship in your 70s, aging, women and friendship, midlife connection, chosen family, friendship after loss Alice’s Friend Pick: Anything written by Anne Lamott Jeanne’s Friend Pick: A good game of Charades. Join the campfire → yeahnoforsure.show | Instagram → @theyeahnoforsureshow

    59 min
  5. The Friend Down the Street: When Neighbors Become Your People

    Mar 25

    The Friend Down the Street: When Neighbors Become Your People

    There's a particular kind of longing that hits in midlife—not for more friends exactly, but for a friend nearby. Someone whose door you can walk to. Someone who knows your life because she's actually in it. My neighbor Marcy Yeager sent me a text she rewrote 800 times—and what followed was one of those rare friendships that sneaks up on you. We talk about how cul‑de‑sac Halloweens and carpooling turned into deep friendship, what it means to have someone in the foxhole of raising a teenage girl with you, and the quiet magic of friends down the street. Marcy is a CliftonStrengths coach who can spot your superpower—and your kryptonite—in about five minutes. We get into what your wiring reveals about friendship chemistry, why she modeled her entire approach to showing up after watching her mom, and what happens to a neighborhood friendship when the kids grow up and you realize you're not making plans around them anymore. We also talk about bringing back the afternoon pop‑over, the magic of a door that's always unlocked, and why sometimes the bravest thing you can do is text the person down the street and say: do you want to be friends? This episode is for anyone who has ever wanted a friend nearby. And for anyone who has been rewriting that brave little text for way too long. Join our campfire: yeahnoforsure.show @theyeahnoforsureshow

    35 min

  6. Mar 18

    The Friend Who Asks Questions: We're All Starving for the Same Thing

    Have you ever asked your friends how they actually feel about your friendship - what it means to them, what they need from you, how it's really going? Most of us never do. Even though we talk to our friends for hours, for decades. This week there's no guest, just me on the couch halfway through season one, sharing the biggest revelation these first six conversations have given me: turning the lens onto the friendship itself changes everything. It makes friendships more intentional, more honest, and more seen, for you and for them. I talk about what I'm hearing from you, the listeners, the questions I'm asking my own friends now, and the ripple effects I didn't see coming: reconciliations, teary car calls, and women texting the things they've been meaning to say for months. You'll walk away with real questions you can steal for your next walk, voice memo, or parking‑lot debrief. This isn't a recap episode. It's about what happens when you finally talk about the friendship itself. For anyone who has spent years talking to their friends and never once talked about the friendship. Topics: female friendship, intentional friendship, how to talk about friendship, midlife connection, loneliness, chosen family, friendship questions Amy’s Friend Pick: Social Print Studio — my favorite place to print photos of my friends, because the people who matter deserve to be on your walls, not just your camera roll. Join the campfire → yeahnoforsure.show Instagram → @theyeahnoforsureshow

    9 min
  7. The Friend Who Became Family: Cross‑Generational Chemistry and Spiritual Friendship

    Mar 11

    The Friend Who Became Family: Cross‑Generational Chemistry and Spiritual Friendship

    What happens when someone who isn’t a “match” on paper becomes one of your most important people—and stays that way? I sit down with Sarah Orr, my daughter Emma’s former outdoor school teacher, our family’s nanny, coworker and creative collaborator for over a decade, and in a few months, a mother herself. Sarah came into my life when she was 23 and I was almost 40, and for the last thirteen years she has quietly witnessed every season of my adult life—including my journey into motherhood—and now I get to witness hers. We talk about the Venn diagram of friendship that gets chunkier every year, what frozen pizza has to do with friendship resilience, and the moment Sarah found her late father’s painting in a thrift store—a bird on a cliff—on the same day a healer had described that exact image in her energy field. We also get into cross‑generational friendship chemistry, “pebbling” as a love language, and what it actually looks like to build chosen family when nothing about it makes sense. This isn’t about friendships that were meant to be. It’s about the ones that find a way anyway. This episode is for anyone navigating a cross‑generational friendship, craving chosen family, or wondering if inviting a friend deeper into your life is the right move. Sarah’s Friend Pick: The Infinity Pillow — the circular travel pillow she sleeps with everywhere. Follow your new friend Sarah on Instagram: @sarah.from.maine Join the campfire → yeahnoforsure.show | Instagram → @theyeahnoforsureshow

    44 min
  8. The Friend You'd Buy a House With: Skipping Small Talk and Going All In

    Mar 4

    The Friend You'd Buy a House With: Skipping Small Talk and Going All In

    What if you actually bought a vacation home with your closest friends? Executive coach and writer Katharine Campbell Hirst did—and this conversation will make you want to call your people the second it’s over. We talk about co‑owning a seven‑bedroom house with sixteen friends (yes, the legal docs and money conversations), the Burning Man origin story, and what it feels like to stand on a deck and know you’ll be there together at 80. Katharine has spent her career walking with women at their crossroads, and she’s terrible at small talk in the best possible way. We get into what it means to be the friend who goes deep first, why she deliberately became “weird” at seven so she’d never have to say goodbye again, and how a childhood of moving countries and lonely seasons turned her into a student of human nature with a chameleon‑level superpower. We also talk about playing it cool versus just telling someone you’re in awe of them, working out your attachment issues on your friends before calling in a partner, and the midlife shift from big adventures to being woven into each other’s daily life. This episode is for anyone who has a friendship they’ve been meaning to lean into—and a vacation home with friends they’ve been meaning to stop just dreaming about. Topics: making friends in midlife, co‑owning property with friends, friendship and business, going deep fast, feminine energy, loneliness, attachment, and building things with your people.     How to Co-Buy a Vacation Home with Friends —> Katharine and friend's roadmap! Katharine’s Friend Pick -> Read Matrix by Lauren Groff Follow Your New Friend Katharine:   Website | Instagram | LinkedIn Join our campfire 🔥:  yeahnoforsure.show @theyeahnoforsureshow

    46 min
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Trailer

5
out of 5
10 Ratings

About

The Yeah, No, For Sure Show is the friendship podcast that makes you want to text your people. Because without friends, life is f*cking lonely. Hosted by Amy VanHaren—your enthusiastic friend who handwrites letters and actually follows through on plans—this is where friendship takes the mic. Each week feels like you're the third friend at the table as Amy and her favorite humans talk about the laugh-until-you-cry friends, the show-up-with-wine-when-life-implodes friends, the haven't-talked-in-months-but-nothing's-changed friends. We explore every season of friendship: making friends in midlife, soul friends, camp friends, mom friends, the heartbreak of growing apart, the magic of new connection, and how we f*ck it all up and recover. It's honest. It's hilarious. It's your campfire for women craving more joy and deeper connection. The kind of podcast that reminds you: friendship matters, and you're not failing at it. We're all figuring it out together. Will it improve your sleep or make you more productive? Probably not. Will it make you laugh? We sure hope so. Will you walk away feeling a little less lonely? Yeah, no, for sure! Nothing is inner circle here. Hop on the couch - you’re part of this now. Feeling this? You're not alone. Join the campfire conversation + community at www.yeahnoforsure.show.

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