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No Stupid Questions

170. Are We Getting Lonelier?

No Stupid Questions

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture

4.63.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How can you be lonely when so many people showed up at your birthday party? Can you fight loneliness by managing expectations? And where can you find company while enjoying the best garlic cheeseburger in the greater Salt Lake City metro area?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Do you have any rose-colored glasses?

0:03.5

Go put those on.

0:04.6

I'm Angela Duckworth.

0:07.0

I'm Mike Mann, and you're listening to no stupid questions.

0:10.3

Today on the show, are we becoming lonelier or just more alone?

0:16.0

Look how many people showed up for your birthday party?

0:18.0

How could you be lonely? Mike. Mike, I have a question that's kind of a downer, so I'm just going to say it before you say,

0:39.4

no, don't bring me down, but I wonder if you think that we're more lonely these days. And I guess by we, I mean, I don't know, maybe I mean Americans, maybe I mean anyone. Do you think people are feeling more lonely these days?

0:54.0

Oh my gosh, yes I actually do and I think we see it a lot.

0:59.0

It's so interesting that you ask this.

1:01.0

I would just say anecdotally, I mentor a group of young single

1:04.8

adults who are in their early to mid-20s. Some are in college, some recent

1:09.6

graduates, and I was asking them what are the biggest challenges you all face?

1:14.4

And of course they bring up figuring out what to do with my life or what I should major in.

1:19.6

But the topic that kept coming up over and over was loneliness.

1:24.0

And this is from a generation of kids who are, you know, they still have roommates,

1:28.5

they live in close proximity, they're in a college town,

1:31.0

there's so much that they can do, so many activities going on.

1:34.2

But that was, I was surprised how often the topic of loneliness came up as this is one of the big

1:40.2

struggles that we're facing.

1:42.0

And I don't think it's just them.

1:43.4

It's so interesting to ask this question about whether we're feeling more lonely or

...

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