
Karo and Matt introduce the PALS test: a simple framework for evaluating whether a friendship truly serves you. The guys break down the four pillars—passion, appreciation, loyalty, and support—and explain how each reveals the strength of your connection. manoftheyearpodcast.com
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A
Foreign of the year.
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Man of the year. Man of the year.
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Welcome to the number one friendship podcast in the country. I'm Aaron Caro.
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I'm Matt Ritter.
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Guys, we have our biggest announcement ever. Our first audio original is coming out on audible on October 23rd. It's called the Buddy System, A Modern Man's guide to Mastering Friendship. And you could check it out now@audible.com thebuddy system. That's audible.com thebuddy system. We are very pumped. Me and Matt recorded this. This is the best advice we've given on the pod. Also brand new advice. Also incredible stories from our 39 years of friendship. Matt, are you pumped?
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I'm so pumped because it's covering all of our bases. The first half of the book is about book. Audible original. We don't say book is about making friends, starting literally from are they total strangers, are they a friend of a friend, are they a work acquaintance, all of that. Where to do it, how to do it, how to level up. And the second half of the book is a lot of the overlooked stuff, which is the friend maintenance. We've got all these friends that we let kind of die on the vine. How to revive those, how to improve those, how to grow those, and finally how to build an awesome ritual like the man of the year that we have going for 22, 23 years now.
A
So if you guys are fans of the POD or you have a friend guy or girl who needs a pick me up in the friend department, you guys should check out or have them check out this Audible original. It's very funny. It's not like a self help book that Matt reads every day. James. It's very jokey. It's casual. And audible.com thebuddy system.
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I would use the term. It's more accessible than some of those audibles.
A
It's accessible and it's irreverent. Remember Audible was like we've never had anyone use humor before.
B
Yeah. They were like, wait, you made a joke in a self help book? We didn't know you could do that.
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Yeah, yeah, we. There's actually outtakes. Remember? We have to get those outtakes. I forgot. What you challenged me on a typical Matt challenge. Matt GPT where you.
B
I know what it was. I don't want to get into it because I saw. Okay, but I will say there was laughter, there was tears. I was crying. The sound guy was crying. But because of, you know, kind of his own stuff that he was going through.
A
By the way, in a typical prototypical man of the year fashion, we befriended everybody. Matt went out to drinks with the sound engineer. They got drunk. I mean, it was, it was great.
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Look, I. Honestly, it's one of the things I'm really, really proud of in my life to get it, to do it with you, to get to share this with everybody. So please, you know, I know that everybody who's listening is here because they know that friendship is important. So let's all, let's all support each other and support us.
A
Audible dot com. The buddy system. Okay, so before we get into the main topic, Matt, I wanted to. This is actually from the audio, the Audible original. We talk about the different types of friends and the different roles in the friend group, right? You've got the mother hen, the planner, the organizer, the historian, the wild card, like you. And one of my roles is the secret keeper. And you could be in multiple roles. And I've, I've said in the, in the original audio, original. I've told you, people just confided me because I'm trustworthy, which is nice, but also I think maybe because I'm single and they just don't think I have anyone to tell. And I, I, I just, I thought of you because this week, in two separate occasions, I heard two bangers, like two different friends told me bangers that I am now keeping a secret.
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You can't do that. Our audience is now going to be bloodthirsty for these secrets.
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I'm gonna go to my grave with them. But I feel like I'm.
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Why are you telling us this? That's not right. Well, my beak. I need to dip it. I need to dip my beak in these secrets. I need a nibble of these secrets.
A
I feel like I'm carrying around the nuclear football right now.
B
So let me hold it for a minute.
A
No, no, no, no, no. Because you've conceded and admitted that anything that goes to you goes directly to your wife.
B
98% do not pass. I keep a little change for myself hidden in the couch cushions.
A
Well, you also keep some of it hidden from yourself.
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That's true, too. The real dark stuff I, I bury inside the place that I can't access.
A
What was your. What's one of your famous. My, One of my favorite lines of yours of all time. When you met with your therapist.
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Oh, I can't be honest. What did I say? I can't be honest.
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Which lies do I tell.
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You, audience? I want to know, can you relate to lying to your therapist? You don't want them to know that. Does anybody else? Not Want them to know the true you, the real you.
A
Yeah, yeah. All right, so let's get into our main topic, which is also something we touch on in the buddy system, which is, Matt, how do you actually know if someone is a good friend? If someone is a friend you should be keeping in your life, like if this is a person you should be associating with. And so we came up with a little rubric called the PALS test, P A L S. And it stands for passion, appreciation, loyalty and support. And essentially, if there is someone in your life who meets this test, they're a good friend.
B
What do you think about. I was thinking about this. Should we. So should we walk through each of those elements? I was just going to say, do we believe that they have to have the four out of four?
A
So let me give the, the lightning fast version, then we'll talk. So passion is like, do you like hanging out with this person? Right. We get a lot of people who are like, I have this buddy, but we don't have a good time. Like, okay, Appreciation. Do they respect and see you for who you are and what your talents are and what your idiosyncrasies are? Loyalty, I think pretty self explanatory. That's trust and then support. As we talk about in the audible original, when the chips are down, will they be there for you? Will they show up?
B
I think it's a great test, obviously because we came up with it, but also because not a lot of us have benchmarks. Right? Everybody thinks friendship is this ambiguous amorphous thing. And that's what the modern friend universe. We're struggling with this idea of how do I measure? I don't know, what are we? There's a lot of undefined things happening in friendship. So the palace test cuts right to it. So let's look at that. Look. I love the passion one because at the end of the day I think it's the easiest. Do I feel good about seeing this person? What's more simple than that, by the way?
A
One thing, just to go back to what you said before about defining, you know, we talk about dtf, defining the friendship. Define the friendship. Let me, let me do a crazy devil's advocate for you on passion because we have given some advice in the past that a person has reached out to us. They're in a new city, they made a new friend, they don't really know anybody else. And this person isn't really like scratching their itch as much. And we've said, listen, start with this friend. That you aren't super passionate about because they, they, they, you know, it's better to have one than none.
B
Well, that's different. I agree with, I agree with what you're saying. That's different because you don't fully, totally know that person yet. And so I think you're still getting to know you phase. And so part of what we talk about is giving people the chance and seeing them in the best light and kind of not passing judgment when you're in friend making mode. I think this is more, this test is more for, hey, let's examine the friendships that I have, not the ones that I'm still building. Right. Wouldn't you say?
A
Did you. Do you know that there's a trend in date now? I'm talking about romantic relationships that away from the spark that the spark is, is, is, is a myth that like when you sit down with someone, oh, I didn't feel a spark. That you're supposed to ignore that. Have you heard that?
B
Oh, but I mean, I've heard some version of this. If this is, this has been, this debate has been going on for to have the heat or is it somebody like Steady Eddie? You know, this is like every rom com. It's like the guy who, you know, he's a waiter, but he's electric. Right. Or it's like, oh, right, doctor or lawyer. Right. That's always. That's. That's Reality bites. That's. That's Bridget Jones Diary. That's every. So I love that the TikTok Gen thinks they just discovered that.
A
Yeah. But that just reminded me of that. If you just made a friend and you're not like, so stoked to hang out with them every moment, that's okay. I mean, you just made this friend.
B
That's what I'm saying. So I don't think it fits in necessarily with like, how, how harsh we're going to shine.
A
So what about appreciation?
B
So appreciation is. I was thinking about how would I rank these? I think appreciation to me is the kind of like if I had to put them in order, that would be last. Because a lot of people have a hard time showing appreciation. I mean, we're trying to teach people to do this on the pod. You know, we're trying to get people to say thank you as a gateway to I love you. And I think everybody has communication styles that will impact how they show their appreciation.
A
Appreciation is one of those things that if it's. There is a really, like, you love hanging out with people who just like get you and see you and appreciate you. And it could be. I feel like a lot of our listener questions, which we'll get to shortly, is about, you know, people planning something the other person, like, doesn't appreciate it, doesn't thank them, doesn't get what they're doing. So it. I think you're right that it's probably towards the bottom.
B
Well, it's funny, because I think a lot of the people who often give appreciation to others don't get it back equally.
A
Oh, interesting.
B
Yeah. And I think, like, a lot of people are. And then, like, eventually they start getting this feeling, like, how come nobody appreciates me?
A
Right, right.
B
You know, I'm always going out and, you know, spreading the love. And I think, you know, sometimes you have to accept that that's who you are, and that's great.
A
You.
B
You give. You give it. And we give things to give things, not to, you know, transactionally get them back. But I do think eventually you want to have the balance of, like, okay, is anybody appreciating what I bring to the table here?
A
Right. Yeah, for sure. All right, so that's P and A. And what about L for. For loyalty?
B
I mean, I think loyalty is one of those. You get one strike or two.
A
Yeah. I mean, I'm trying to even think. Like, it's hard for me to even think of an example of what disloyalty means in a friendship, because we are very lucky. We don't really mess with that too much.
B
Major disloyalty. Right. Which is like talking.
A
Sleeping with your wife or whatever.
B
Yeah, badly. But then I think there's minor disloyalty. Like, you know, for example, like when you'll go to some random Halloween party instead of our house.
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Random example of something that is it disloyalty. If I said, hey, I'm going to this other party instead.
B
Disloyal.
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Disloyal.
B
Yeah.
A
But remember what happened that night?
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You showed up later.
A
I showed up later, and the party was already over.
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A
You got the worst of both worlds.
B
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I'm glad you drove cross town and got nothing.
A
Oh, that was rough. That was rough. Yeah. Loyalty. I mean, yes, certainly. If you have to ask yourself, is this person loyal? That in and of itself is.
B
That one's the clearest one. Right. If you know if somebody's loyal or not.
A
Yeah, yeah. And then we have support, which is being there for you. And just to give a little insight into the audio original Matt, you said the first half is about making friends. And our key to that is be the friend. The second half is about maintaining your friends, and our key to that is showing up.
B
So, yeah, yeah. I mean, again, in adult friendship, life is too short to have people around that do not support you.
A
Do you want to give a little primer? Because it's so important what we mean by showing up. Because it seems simple, but.
B
Well, I think a lot of people have this idea that you need to show up for events. That's maybe one thing, but I think showing up means showing up in the good times and the bad. So in the good times, like showing up when things are happening positive in people's life and being there for, you know, excited about that, that's support, too. I think a lot of people forget that one. Like, people want to want you celebrating the wins with them and then the losses. Life isn't all, you know, birthday parties and fun stuff, right? There's. People are sick, people lose their jobs, people die. We always say, you got to say something. You got to show up in some way anyway. Whatever way is. Is you are capable of doing. We're all capable of showing up in some way. So I'm not saying, hey, everybody has to show up in the same way. But you know yourself as a listener. You know you, and you know how you can show up and you know when you're not showing up.
A
I'm gonna give you an example, Matt, about one of these banger secrets I have, where I'm gonna keep everything so vague that you're gonna get upset. But I used some of our advice. So this friend was telling me that their friend something, you know, bad was happening with them. And my friend said. So I. I texted him. I'm like, you know, let me know if you need anything. You know, I'm here for you. Just let me know. And I said, that's good. And your heart is in the right place, but you're putting the onus on this other person to tell you what they need. I want you to just say, hey, we're getting drinks tomorrow.
B
Right? I like that. I like that. And I think I forget. When we talked about. Was it in the. In the audible or do we talked about it in the audible?
A
You're talking about. Yeah, how to. How to be there for friends. Yeah. It's not. We sort of listen. It's important. If you're going through something and you need something specific to articulate that, but you can't always articulate.
B
Yeah. I also just think for support, we have this idea that it has to be on these big events. You can Support your friends on a regular, daily basis by communicating regularly. That's like keeping them out of the loneliness game is support. You know, there's just a lot of ways to support people, like when they're, you know, when. When they're in a fate. Like, for me right now, it's like people support me by just changing their plans to come over my house instead of, say, asking me to go out when I have two little kids. Those are minor things, but just not having to, like, not just immediately already knowing me and knowing what's going on and just being like, hey, can I come over? You know, can we just do dinner at your house? That's supporting me so that I don't have to make kind of an argument to plead my case for why we should just do it.
A
Listen, a support could also come in a thoughtful check in. You know, my. My buddy Shane. Not Barbershy. My other buddy Shane, he was. He was under the weather. I texted him. I mean, this sounds so silly.
B
Yeah.
A
How you feeling? Like, did you go to the doctor? And he was like, oh, thanks for asking. Blah, blah, blah. Most dudes are not doing that.
B
No, they're not. And so I think that's. If I had to say, like, what's the biggest room for improvement? It's that support.
A
Yeah. Let's. Let's come back to Pal's test and take a listener question.
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Great.
A
All right. We'll be right.
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Okay, guys, this is asking for a friend. If you have a friendship question or ethical dilemma, just send us a message on Instagram. Our handle is man of the Year podcast and we will answer on the show. And if you like, we can anonymize it and we will do our best to give you some advice. Okay, so this came in over Instagram. Matt. The question is. Dear Matt and Cairo, I have been having problems with two friends on a group chat. I don't think we've had this before. Two friends on a group chat. They're two of my good friends. And we. And we. And like a lot of good friends, we bust each other's balls. But sometimes they take it too far. They tease me about sensitive subjects. My age, my career, my baldness, my dating life. And it hurts my feelings. I know they're just trying to be funny. Maybe I'm just sensitive. But lately I've been feeling like this group chat isn't good for my mental health. One hurtful comment can ruin my day. I don't want to mess up my friendship with these guys or try to impose some kind of speech code, but it's gotten to the point where I'm afraid to look when I see a new message pop up in our group chat because I know it might hurt my feelings. And guys, what should I do?
B
Carol, was this. You always chat. Is that. Is this what's happening over there?
A
Oh, I mean, listen, it's happened. Our group chats get pretty brutal sometimes.
B
I mean, look. Yeah, I know. Listener. Hey, it's called being on a group chat.
A
Can we just. Can we just do a quick light hearted look at what he said? They make fun of him. My age, my career, my baldness, my dating life. So what a collection. I mean, how old could this buy possibly be, right?
B
His age. Are they not all the same age? Maybe he's very young, right? Maybe he's young. And he's bald.
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
B
I mean, look, sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches.
A
What that. You never do go say that on the list.
B
Look, it's group chat, you know, that's like what it is. It's a little bit of that. But I don't think saying something in the group chat like, hey, guys, tone it down. I think that will backfire.
A
That is true. And we should say we were last year on the COVID We both are PEN alumni on the PEN Alumni magazine. And one of the pull quotes was our love language is busting balls, I believe.
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, I had a little experience recently where like, somebody just said something that I, you know, was like, dude, don't be. Why are you saying that in a group chat? You know, like, I felt like it was out of line, so I just texted him directly. Yeah, you know, I mean, I think that's the, the best way is if there's one culprit, I think you got to address it directly.
A
Well, there's only two to people.
B
Group chat.
A
That's what it's. That's what it's implying. Yeah.
B
Ah, man.
A
Well, I would say step one is I would be interacting with this group chat less. Just as far as sort of this person writing to the group chat just.
B
To like, like get the message.
A
Exactly. Just to like, take. Take the foot off the brake a little bit. Then it's two. The two bullies just talking to themselves. Right?
B
Yeah, that's true. That would be pretty funny if, like, you just stop responding and there's just a week's worth of spewing.
A
Like, okay, have you ever seen that? Like, for some websites when they need to. Need to moderate comments, they don't delete the comment, they just make it invisible to anybody else. So the person still thinks they're commenting, but he doesn't know that nobody else can see it.
B
That's so ridiculous.
A
Yeah, so I think that's step one. It's interesting that you're saying, don't say anything on the group chat. It could backfire. Okay. I mean, that's fair. I mean, I suppose these groups.
B
Guys, come on, you're being too mean. And it's just like, okay, so let's.
A
Let'S, let's role play here. Yeah, you want to talk to one? Let's just say it's one of the guys as being a culprit. Yeah, he's a culprit. You call them or text them?
B
I think I just text him at first.
A
Okay, give me an example of what.
B
You might say, I'd be like, listen, you know, I love. You know, I dish it as much as I take it. I love the group chat, you know, but it's just. It's just getting a little. It's getting a little. It's crossing a line. I just say it's crossing. It's crossed the line. I just wanted to say, like, across the line would appreciate, like slowing your roll. That's how. That's how I do it.
A
Yeah. I think, I think being a little self defrecating could work, you know, like, we all know I am quite old and I am.
B
Yeah. Or you could strike back. You know, you gotta.
A
Matt, this is so unlike you. You're usually like Joe diplomacy.
B
Yeah. Talk some socks and pride crap.
A
Guys talking like, who's the guy from Karate Kid?
B
The other guy, Zabka.
A
You're like, strike first.
B
Yeah, Strike first, strike hard, no mercy. Well, I'm just saying that's how, you know, that's how it goes on those group chats. So, you know, you could engage. You could do. You know, it's like you can arm yourself sometimes you gotta stand up to bullies.
A
Yeah. All right, well, let me. Let me pitch you this. I think you're right. Sending the text. I don't love the term crossing a line.
B
Okay.
A
Just feel like that's like adding fuel to the fire.
B
Okay.
A
Maybe. I mean, I don't know. Is it. Could you say it hurt my feelings or is that too. Too.
B
You can. You can. I mean, we're adults, you know, you can. You'd be like, look, man, that's. You guys are hurting my feelings. It's not. It's not cool.
A
Yeah. Because I kind of feel like you can't really cross the line. Then some make someone defensive, hurt your feelings. What are they going to say to that? You know, like, you gotta say, my bad.
B
Defensive. I don't know. If somebody said that across the line, I. I would take it to heart.
A
Yes. But we're evolved.
B
Yeah.
A
We're not group chat thugs like the other people you hang out with.
B
Yeah. It's a lot of that goes.
A
Strike back.
B
No mercy.
A
Yeah.
B
I'm just saying, you know, you might find. You might not. You might find it doesn't bother you as much if you give it out too.
A
Yeah, but some people just not like that.
B
I know, I know that. That's what I'm saying. But like, sometimes that's the dynamic of that group.
A
Yeah.
B
It's like that's if that's how that group communicates. Like, all right, maybe not the greatest group for you if they're just constantly making fun of each other.
A
I mean, it's interesting. What I'd also like to know is, do you think that this group, this group dynamic takes place irl too, or this is just a text?
B
Probably behavior.
A
Yeah, probably.
B
But there's generally a lot, A lot of groups have a guy that ends up bearing the brunt.
A
Oh, I thought you were going to say there's a guy who ends up being the bully.
B
No, I think both, but yeah.
A
Got it, Got it. Okay. All right, so I think our advice is number one. Well, Matt's advice is to. Is to drop a nuclear bomb into this. Into this group.
B
Well, I'm just saying, a self aware, witty comeback. Something funny. You know, comebacks are good, right? Look, you only have a few options. What you said, I think is the best, like stepping back and muting or whatever. It's like they'll get the message.
A
It's funny. Our man of the Year group chat for our man of the Year dinner. There's definitely been a bunch of times when I. I wanted to, like, just drop a real humdinger in there. Yeah. But then I was just like, ah, this is nine guys. It's too hard, it's too unwieldy. You don't know what people are going to say.
B
Right.
A
And I just bite my tongue.
B
Yeah, no, I think that's the move sometimes. But look, I do think cross the line, not cool is a good way to. Yeah, not cool.
A
I like not cool.
B
Yeah, I like, I think not cool. By the way, I've been in a group chat where somebody said not cool. And I was like, oh, okay. And it wasn't me who said it, but I was like, oh, okay.
A
That's.
B
Somebody's going, like, there's boundaries setting.
A
Yeah. I think not cool is the happy medium in between. Cross the line and you hurt my feelings.
B
All right, so let's do not cool. I like that. I agree. Agree on not cool.
A
I have a funny Vegas anecdote for you, Matt. Remember, like six, eight months ago, I went to Vegas for like a night.
B
Yeah.
A
For my friend's 40th birthday. So I happened to end up, like, in the past week on a group chat with the girl, the birthday girl, and. And a guy who I. Who met there, her friend. And we're just chatting back and forth. And then the girl changed the. The. The group chat to Vegas crew.
B
Okay.
A
Me and the guy were like, you're not in it.
B
No.
A
Me and the Guy like Claire. We have 17 chats named Vegas Crew. That's like a.
B
That's funny.
A
That doesn't distinguish it.
B
That's hilarious. Oh. So I was gonna say this. How about this as like a. Just, I don't know, you know, if you want to get out, just be like, nah, this isn't really doing it for me anymore. See you guys. That's a good. That's a good bomb to drop on your way out. Yeah.
A
Okay, so just. Just leave the group chat, but say that. Yeah, yeah, but I think it's. You need to. A warning first.
B
No, I agree, but I'm saying, like, if it continues to be like, this isn't really doing it for me, guys. Enjoy.
A
Yeah.
B
Boom. Vapor.
A
Yeah, yeah. And by the way, listen, if. We'll go back to the pal says in a second. If it's not servicing you, this guy saying he hates when the thing pops up on his phone, bro, we don't know.
B
You don't need to be in that group chat. Right? You can always get. Guys have any idea how many group chats Cairo has self removed himself from? It's gotta be in the hundreds.
A
I. I keep my group chats. You know what?
B
One strike and he's out.
A
One strike. By the way, we didn't even mention the top. If you're new to us, you can watch all of our clips on YouTube and go to many of your podcasts. But Matt is holding a pen, which I don't. I don't think I've ever seen him hold. So when he just said that to me.
B
Yeah.
A
Do you want to hear something?
B
I'm doing something beautiful. So for our Euro trip, our kids are five months and two years and five months. And we spent two months in Europe. And I was like, man, they're not going to remember. That's too bad. So I'm actually writing them a kind of a diary of it. And so they have it.
A
We should tell our listeners, Matt has the worst handwriting any human being.
B
Yeah, actually, let's see if. Can we see this on screen?
A
Your kids are not. Let me see it. Let me see.
B
Yeah, this is good.
A
He's holding up to the camera.
B
Illegible.
A
Wow. I'm gonna say something that's actually not.
B
As bad as I thought. Well, I tried. So I've been going really slow. It's giving me carpal tunnel because I'm not writing at normal speed.
A
You know, when you like, you know, see something from like the archived, like, library of the University of Pennsylvania, and it's like An Ottoman Empire scroll, and it's not even English. That's kind of what that looks like.
B
I love that you saw me with a pen and you know me so well that, like, something was up.
A
Something was up. Something was up. Hey, it's been 39 years. All right, guys, that was asking for a friend. If you have a friendship quote question, send it to us on Instagram and we'll answer it on the show. All right, Matt, any, any final thoughts on the Pals test? Or we could talk about our Audible original again if you'd like.
B
No, I, I, Look, I, I think it's self explanatory. It's a good. The point of our book. Sorry, point of the Audible original is to give you rubrics and guidelines so it doesn't feel so amorphous to decide whether a friendship is healthy for me or not. Whether I should pursue this friendship, whether I should end this friendship, whether I should level up these friendship. Boom. It's right there for you. Listen to the chapter Pals test, right?
A
Because our thing was that, like, people have sex ed, but there's no friend dead, right? So the Pals test, it's not like, you know, you got to follow it to the T. It's more of a guideline of like, okay, am I getting these four things from this person? And then, you know, whether I should drop a bomb on them, as Matt says, or keep him in the group chat.
B
Drop a bomb.
A
And by the way, we should, we should just clarify. So this isn't, this is audio only. You cannot buy it in book form, which is why we keep catching ourselves.
B
So you must go to audible.com backslash the buddy system.
A
By the way, Matt, you know how, like, sometimes you always seem like a thousand years old? No one has said the word backslash in literally 15 years.
B
What do you say?
A
Say buddy.com. the buddy system.
B
Yeah, but the slashes are different and there are two slashes.
A
I mean, there is another not on a you, not in the URL.
B
Oh. So why do people say backslash?
A
Nobody has ever said. Nobody said it since the aughts.
B
Is that true?
A
Yes.
B
Backslash. I've been, I've been walking around saying backslash the Buddy system all week.
A
I mean, I see somebody at a.
B
Coffee shop, I go audible.com backslash and I do the backslash symbol just in case.
A
All right, guys, we'll do it one more time. Audible.com the buddy system. Also man of the Year podcast, also on YouTube, if you want to watch these clips. I think that's it.
B
Great episode.
A
All right. Love it. Thank you guys so much for listening. Always remember, be good to yourself. Be good to your friends. Love you.
B
Love you, buddy.
F
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Episode #154 – The PALS Test: Passion, Appreciation, Loyalty, Support
Air Date: October 21, 2025
Hosts: Aaron Karo (A) and Matt Ritter (B)
In this episode, comedians and self-proclaimed "friendship experts" Matt Ritter and Aaron Karo introduce the "PALS test," a four-part rubric for evaluating the quality of your friendships: Passion, Appreciation, Loyalty, and Support. Drawing from their decades-long friendship, the hosts break down each element of the PALS test, discuss the reality of friendship maintenance, and answer a listener question about group chat toxicity—all with characteristic wit and honesty.
(18:31–26:53)
Question Summary:
Listener writes in frustrated that two friends on a group chat frequently tease him about sensitive subjects (age, career, baldness, dating life), which is negatively impacting his mental health. How should he handle it without disrupting the friendships?
| Segment | Time | |--------------------------------------------------|--------------| | Audible Original Announcement | 00:19–02:00 | | PALS Test: Introduction & Purpose | 05:03–05:43 | | Passion Breakdown & Context | 05:43–09:14 | | Appreciation Breakdown | 09:23–11:02 | | Loyalty Breakdown | 11:02–12:18 | | Support Breakdown & Practical Advice | 12:18–16:26 | | Listener Question: Toxic Group Chat | 18:31–26:53 | | PALS Test as Ongoing Friend "Check-In" | 30:07–31:38 |
For more highlights, listen to the "PALS test" episode or check out "The Buddy System" on Audible.