Wait, did she really say she manifested a best friendship with Weird Al Yankovic? She said it, and more.

In this 1990's-style phone call series, we check in with our featured guest of the week to hear what they thought of their episode.

Tune in to this bonus episode where we're On The Phone with Melanie Curtis, getting her thoughts about Episodes 7 and 8, where she appears with her "other" best friend, Shannon.

This is a quick, fun catch-up where Melanie and Rachel reconnect to reflect, reframe, and add a last dose of seriously good friendship wisdom. Grab your headphones and eavesdrop while we are On The Phone.

What does it actually take to keep a friendship for 20 years? In Part 2 of this conversation, best friends Melanie Curtis and Shannon Lee show us — through wine, tears, ayahuasca, and a whole lot of radical honesty.

In this episode of The Best Friend Project, host Rachel Joy Swardson sits down with lifelong best friends Melanie Curtis and Shannon to unpack the real mechanics of a friendship built to last. They get honest about the moments most of us hide: the small confession over a bottle of wine that could've quietly become resentment, the hard conversation in the back seat of a car when heartbreak made one of them pull away, and the shadow parts of ourselves we'd rather no one ever see.

Together they explore the difference between putting yourself first, putting the other person first, and the reframe that changes everything — putting the friendship first. You'll hear why coming forward with an uncomfortable truth builds more trust than staying silent ever could, how deeper healing work in one area of life can quietly make you a better friend in all of them, and why so many of us were never taught that platonic love deserves the same intention we pour into romance and career.

In This Episode:

• The wine bottle confession how one small moment of honesty ("that was me") became a 20-year lesson in choosing the friendship over your ego
• What "shadow work" really means and why looking at the parts of ourselves we'd rather hide is the secret to showing up as a better friend
• Putting yourself first vs. putting the friendship first
• Why coming forward builds trust like nothing else — Shannon on how plant medicine and deep inner work helped her see her own patterns, own her part, and find peace when a letter went unanswered
• Why friendship breakups can hurt more than romantic ones

Connect with Melanie and Shannon:

@melaniecurtis11

MelanieCurtis.com

@luacheialuminosa

@greatspiritfarm

About The Best Friend Podcast

The Best Friend Podcast is where original friendship research meets real-life stories. Host Rachel Joy Swardson, founder of The Best Friend Project, investigates how women find, make, lose, and keep the platonic loves of their lives through original data, personal experience, and candid conversations.

Learn more, take the survey, and share your friendship story at TheBestFriendProject.co.

Chapters:

0:00 Previously On: Have I Loved My Friends Fully?

1:05 Do You Have a "Friendship Type"?

2:30 Becoming the Safe Container for Each Other

3:20 The Wine Bottle Story: Honesty Over Ego

5:20 Shadow Work: The Parts of Us We Hide

7:00 Pulling Away During Heartbreak

8:30 The Backseat Conversation

10:30 You Can't Cry With a Closed Heart

12:10 When You Need to Put Yourself First — and Say So

14:40 The Reframe: Put the Friendship First

15:20 Red Flags & Why Coming Forward Builds Trust

16:40 Ayahuasca & Healing the Friendship Wound

18:40 The Letter That Got No Reply

21:00 Why Friendship Breakups Hurt More

22:00 How Deep Healing Made Me a Better Friend

24:00 Society Deprioritizes Friendship — Let's Change That

26:00 Childhood Friendship Trauma & the Survey Data

27:00 Connect With Melanie & Shannon

29:20 Rachel's Reflection: Always Put the Friendship First

#TheBestFriendProject #WomensFriendships #FemaleFriendship #FriendshipBreakup #BestFriends #FriendshipGoals #AdultFriendships #HealingTheFriendshipWound #ShadowWork #EmotionalHealing #Vulnerability #FriendshipAdvice #WomenSupportingWomen #PlantMedicine #Ayahuasca #PersonalGrowth #Boundaries #IntentionalLiving #Podcast #FriendshipPodcast

It was a short video. Not even two minutes long. Just two friends singing their hearts that made Rachel cry, and question everything about her own friendships. This is the conversation that followed.

Scrolling Instagram one night, Rachel Joy Swardson stopped on a video of two women in long coats and sunglasses, belting Starship's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us" into wooden spoons, with a caption that read: "When you realize every love song is actually about your friendship." It made her laugh. Then it made her cry. Then it left her with a wave of regret, envy, and longing she never saw coming. So she did what The Best Friend Project does best and she invited those two friends on the show to help her understand it.

In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, Rachel sits down with Melanie Curtis and Shannon Lee, best friends of more than 20 years whose bond is equal parts deep and ridiculous. Melanie is a keynote speaker, world-record skydiver, and peak-performance coach; Shannon is a spiritual ambassador and master plant-medicine facilitator. Together they trace their friendship all the way back to a "love at first sight" moment on a skydiving packing mat in 2005 — and the two decades of high-integrity follow-through that made it last.

In This Episode:

• A "love at first sight" friendship tells how Melanie and Shannon recognized each other instantly on a skydiving mat in 2005, and the 20 years of follow-through that proved it real
• Melanie on why being ridiculous together is actually an act of service and connection
• Nature taught Shannon that honesty is the default, and one of the greatest gifts we can give is to stop trying to change the people we love
• Boundaries inside unconditional love and how to accept a flaky or difficult friend without abandoning your own limits
• The friendship "template”, or the sticky-note mantra that has guided Melanie and Shannon's bond for two decades

Connect with Melanie and Shannon:

@melaniecurtis11

MelanieCurtis.com

@luacheialuminosa

@greatspiritfarm

About The Best Friend Podcast

The Best Friend Podcast is where original friendship research meets real-life stories. Host Rachel Joy Swardson, founder of The Best Friend Project, investigates how women find, make, lose, and keep the platonic loves of their lives through original data, personal experience, and candid conversations.

Learn more, take the survey, and share your friendship story at TheBestFriendProject.co.

Chapters:

0:00 Love, Hilarity & Becoming Toxic: A Preview

1:00 Do Friendships Last Forever — or Grow Apart?

2:00 The Instagram Video That Made Me Hiccup Sob

3:00 When Every Love Song Is About Your Friendship

3:40 The Regret, Envy & Joy I Didn't See Coming

4:30 Meet Melanie Curtis & Shannon Lee

6:20 Love at First Sight — With a Friend

8:00 20 Years of High-Integrity Follow-Through

8:40 Love and Hilarity: The Two Most Important Things

10:00 What It Was About This Video That Felt Different

11:00 Divorce, the Recession & No Time to Be Silly

12:40 What It Means to Truly See a Friend

14:00 Untapped Potential & Refusing the Corporate Box

16:00 Recovering People Pleasers & the Power of Rebellion

19:00 What Nature Taught Shannon About Honesty

20:00 Loving People As They Are — Without Losing Boundaries

22:00 The Friendship "Template" on a Sticky Note

24:00 How I Got Unconditional Love Wrong

25:00 When Resentment Poisons the Well

26:00 Coming Up in Part 2

#TheBestFriendProject #WomensFriendships #FemaleFriendship #BestFriends #AdultFriendships #FriendshipGoals #UnconditionalLove #ToxicFriendship #PeoplePleaser #FriendshipAdvice #WomenSupportingWomen #Skydiving #PlantMedicine #PersonalGrowth #Boundaries #Vulnerability #IntentionalLiving #Friendship #FriendshipPodcast #podcast