Hey there podcast listeners. Today on the show one last summer repeat before we unleash

our ferocious fall schedule. This episode is perhaps even more relevant now than when

we first put it out in February of 2020. That was just before the COVID pandemic radically

reshaped our public lives and our personal lives. This episode is called, is there really

loneliness epidemic? We'll give you a few updates at the end of the episode as always thanks

for listening. So Eric when you read an article that says you know more than half of all

Americans say they regularly experience ex-emotion or only 12% of Americans feel such and such.

What is that experience like for you as a sociologist? Right so about half the time I think

wow that's pretty interesting and about half the time I'm pulling out my hair thinking

no don't don't say that. Eric Kleinemberg is a professor of sociology at New York University.

Unfortunately what I find is that journalistic reporting will use survey data when it's useful

for the story and they kind of don't care that much about whether the data underlying

it is reliable. And what's wrong with survey data? A lot of survey data is based on a sample

that's not really worth generalizing from a lot of surveys ask questions that will work

for a particular time and place but might not work very well after that which means you

can get a snapshot of a moment in time but not really a dynamic portrait of something over

time. Would you like an example of how survey data gets used in the media? Okay here's

an example. A top doctor calls it a national health crisis not obesity or heart disease.

A condition that is so common you actually may not think of it as a mental health problem.

Loneliness that's right loneliness. People who struggle with loneliness end up living

shorter lives and they also are to increase risk for heart disease depression dementia anxiety

and a host of other conditions. And that is the top doctor who rang the alarm on what

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