Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of Left Podcast. This is a sample of our recent bonus episode usually only available to members.

These episodes are comprised of our crew of researchers, Amanda, and myself all getting together

for a roundtable discussion on topics that we find interesting. So here's a few minutes for free so you can

know what all the fuss is about.

That's what brings us to our last topic of the day. The Wall Street Journal wrote the article,

Can you solve loneliness? These startups are betting on it.

And, and I, you know, without even getting into the details, I just thought the idea of a business

focused on alleviating loneliness or being a person who is patronizing such a business.

It has the same problem as focusing really hard on trying to be happy because focusing on trying to be happy.

Because focusing on trying to be happy

is usually the surest path to frustration

because happiness is the feeling you get

when the necessary prerequisites for happiness are fulfilled, but you're actually too busy enjoying yourself

to think about whether you're happy or not. And so if you're like going to a place where you're like I'm going to

solve my loneliness, I'm going to solve my loneliness, it's just questionable how

that's really going to play out. But the practitioner who is running this anti-loneliness, it's hard to tell actually, it seems like it has a

non-profit and for-profit arm and this person says things like our sense of loneliness is

literally making us sick. There's this chemistry of sadness permeating all of

our cities right now. it's up to us to shift that chemistry.

And then I imagine her saying, continuing on, like, so I hope that when you go back to sit alone in your studio apartment

where you don't know your neighbors much less talk to them you'll remember

what you've learned here today right the structures of our society are the cause of our

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