When his lack of friends becomes your problem: how the male loneliness epidemic affects women’s friendships

When his lack of friends becomes your problem: how the male loneliness epidemic affects women’s friendships

From Friend Forward by Danielle Bayard Jackson -- Female Friendship Expert

May 14, 2026 · 29 min · Season 7 · Episode 13

About this episode

Danielle discusses how the male loneliness epidemic impacts women's friendships and shares insights from research and listener experiences.

Everyone's talking about the male loneliness epidemic. But after six years of hosting this show and seven years of coaching women through their friendship issues, Danielle has noticed something that doesn't get nearly enough attention: men's friendship struggles don't stay contained. They spill over: into your energy, your guilt, your decisions about who you spend time with, and how much of yourself you actually have left to give your own friends. When men are disconnected from one another, women bear the burden. In this episode, Danielle walks through three specific ways she's seen this play out, both in the research and across hundreds of coaching sessions. You'll also hear directly from 4 different listeners who submitted voice notes about what they're experiencing. She also shares clips from her conversation with researcher Sherrie Xue, whose study on men avoiding "date-like" activities with their male friends went viral for a reason. 🎧 BUT WAIT… THERE'S MORE. This week in Office Hours, Danielle shares 2 additional observations backed by the research. Members of Office Hours get supplementary material like this with every episode to deepen their friendships. Join anytime…

People in this episode

Host: Danielle Bayard Jackson

Topics covered

  • male loneliness epidemic
  • women's friendships
  • friendship struggles
  • emotional burden
  • research insights
  • listener experiences

Keywords

  • male friendship
  • loneliness
  • women's relationships
  • emotional health
  • friendship coaching
  • Sherrie Xue study

More episodes of Friend Forward

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Friend Forward podcast page.