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In Class 2 of our course on friendship, you’ll learn how to get out of your comfort zone when it comes to fostering new friendships and resuscitating old ones. Cristina talks to Washington Post advice columnist Carolyn Hax about doable ways to make real-life connections at a time when technology makes that seem hard. Friendship expert Danielle Bayard Jackson makes the case that spending time with friends can be as simple as some shared errands. And Bob Waldinger is back to explain how we don’t always know what we actually want from interactions with other people. It turns out, we might surprise ourselves.

For more advice on how to navigate all sorts of relationships, read columns by The Post’s Carolyn Hax.

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In the first class of our course on making the most of your friendships, host Cristina Quinn learns what it means to be socially fit — and why it’s never too late to start getting those reps in. Cristina talks to Bob Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development — the longest longitudinal study on human happiness — about why friendships matter for our health and what we can do to assess our connections. He gives practical advice for how to take stock of, reinvest in or rethink our relationships, with exercises that can work as an ongoing social fitness regimen.

You can learn more about the Harvard Study of Adult Development here. Waldinger and his colleague wrote a book, “The Good Life,” that includes more tips for finding satisfaction in human relationships.

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The electoral college has served as the system to elect U.S. presidents since the earliest days of the country. And while it has evolved over the years, Americans still use this complex representative system to choose their country’s leaders. The system, however, is not without its flaws — and many have pushed for alternatives over the years.

In the third class about how the electoral college works, host Cristina Quinn talks with historian Alex Keyssar about potential alternatives to the way the United States elects presidents. The class explores the merits and flaws of the current system, and lays out the challenges to putting a different one in place.

Here are resources to help you learn more about attempts to overhaul the electoral college:

• National Popular Vote plan challenges undemocratic electoral college
• One almost-successful attempt to reform the electoral college

And don’t forget to vote! You can check the status of your 2024 voter registration here.

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In the second class in our series about how the electoral college works, host Cristina Quinn talks to historian Alex Keyssar of the Harvard Kennedy School about the compromises that drove the Founding Fathers to land on a complex, winner-takes-all system rather than a straightforward popular vote.

Keyssar walks listeners through the evolution of our voting system in the years following the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, and how things like electoral vote ties, the introduction of political parties and the end of slavery eventually led to the version of the voting system we have today.

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In the first class in our course on how to enjoy cooking more, host Cristina Quinn teams up with the Washington Post food team to uncover tips for identifying your kitchen personality. Food and dining editor Joe Yonan, food writer and recipe developer Aaron Hutcherson and recipes editor Becky Krystal identify how to apply personality characteristics — like a tendency to tinker or an adherence to rules — to your cooking experience. The process can make preparing a meal more personalized and therefore more pleasurable.

Find more than 10,000 recipes – sortable by cuisine, course and time it takes to cook – in The Post’s recipe finder. Try one of Cristina’s favorites, Simple Butter Chicken.

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