Hi everybody and welcome to my home. This is my home as I always remind you. This is the Fireside Chat

Which I have virtually every week of the year with you

completely non-scripted

spontaneous chance to

Talk to you and take your questions. So

You get to know me a little better and at least I get to know what you're thinking

And it's a wonderful thing as we enter a new year and I hope it's a blessed year for you

So I'll tell you what's on my mind

I read at the end of last year. I read I mean it was amazing

For some reason it was just piece after piece Wall Street Journal and other and other newspapers

About how many Americans are lonely

And it's it's actually an epidemic in the United States the number of lonely people now that doesn't mean alone

There are people who live alone and they're not lonely not everybody who is alone is lonely and not and then for that matter

There are married people who are also lonely because they're not in a good marriage and

They're lonely but overwhelmingly

There is a correlation between being alone and being lonely even though I acknowledge that there are

Exceptions not but it's more than that. It's also not having close friends

Not having relatives either that you're in touch with or that are near you or that are in touch with you

There's a vast number there are a vast number of Americans who don't speak to their parents

Which is a separate subject. I should really cover that

I want to get that. I want to cover that one day about

adult children who don't speak to a parent

...