Are Americans suffering a friendship crisis?

There are lots of different types of friends. Best friends, work friends. Facebook friends, even frenemies. Each has an important role in our lives that has been shown to impact our mental and physical health.

Now the American Friendship Project, a new program co-led by Colorado State University communication studies researcher Natalie Pennington, provides one of the most complete looks at this highly critical — but rarely studied — relationship. In this episode of CSU's The Audit podcast, Pennington spoke about the project's findings, how we view friendship and how we can stay better connected.