Loneliness and How to Rekindle Social Connection

Loneliness can sneak up on us in all kinds of situations — eating dinner alone in front of your computer; hanging back at a party where you feel out of place; holidays spent far from home in a foreign country.

Over the past few years, public health experts have been sounding the alarm over what former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called our national “epidemic of loneliness and isolation” — and that epidemic is affecting many aspects of our physical and mental well being.

On this episode, we look to understand why so many people are so lonely, and find out how we can stay better connected. We find out why science says loneliness is so detrimental to our health, who’s most vulnerable to its effects, and the novel solutions people are turning to, from cuddle parties to robot buddies.

ALSO HEARD:

• We talk with psychology and neuroscience researcher Julianne Holt-Lunstad about how and why loneliness affects us on a biological level, which groups are most likely to suffer from loneliness, and some of the practical solutions science has uncovered to break the “cycle of loneliness.”