Marisa G. Franco, PhD, author portrait
© Dante Corinaldi (@don.visuals)

Marisa G. Franco, PhD

Dr. Marisa G. Franco, PhD, is the New York Times bestselling author of Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make—and Keep—Friends. She holds a PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Maryland and works as a professor there currently. She writes for Psychology Today and has been a featured psychologist in The New York Times, on NPR, and on Good Morning America. Dr. Franco delivers talks about connection, belonging, and worth all over the country to private companies, universities, and nonprofit organizations. Her newest talk is entitled “Self-Worth at Work: The Key to Resilience in Times of Change.”
Platonic

Books

Platonic

Videos from the 2026 First-Year Experience® Conference are now available

We’re pleased to share videos from the 2026 First-Year Experience® Conference. Whether you weren’t able to join us at the conference or would simply like to hear the talks again, please take a moment to view the clips below.   Penguin Random House Author Breakfast Monday, February 17th, 7:15 – 8:45 am PST   This

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What Students Will Be Reading: Campus Common Reading Roundup, 2025-26

With the fall semester in full swing, colleges and universities around the country have announced their Common Reading books for the upcoming 2025-26 academic year. We’ve compiled a list of over 291 programs and their title selections from publicly available sources, which you can download here: First-Year Reading 2025-26. We will continue to update this

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2026 Catalog for First-Year & Common Reading

We are delighted to present our new First-Year & Common Reading Catalog for 2026! From award-winning fiction, poetry, memoir, and biography to new books about the environment, current events, history, public health, science, social justice, student success, and technology, the titles presented in our common reading catalog will have students not only eagerly flipping through

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FROM THE PAGE: An excerpt from Marisa G. Franco, PhD’s Platonic

How do we make and keep friends in an era of distraction, burnout, and chaos, especially in a society that often prizes romantic love at the expense of other relationships? In Platonic, Dr. Marisa G. Franco unpacks the latest, often counterintuitive findings about the bonds between us—for example, why your friends aren’t texting you back (it’s

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