How has the most connected society in history also become the loneliest? Why do people, even after

they have their basic needs met, with all the tools we have available, why are we not only unhappy,

but largely depressed? Welcome back to the ground up show. Today's episode is my 20-minute edited

conversation with Johann Hari, author of the New York Times best-selling book, Lost Connections.

In it, he sets out across the world speaking with leading experts on depression, anxiety, and loneliness

to discover both how we've gotten to this place and more importantly, how we as individuals

and a society can start to turn the tide.

To get the full 40-minute interview as well as other extended interviews

and my exclusive AMA podcast, sign up at patreon.com slash Matt Diavella. Enjoy the show. All right, so why don't we start out with a little bit of an intro about yourself and about your work?

I really, I wrote my book Lost Connections because there were these two mysteries that were really hanging over me for years.

I think I was quite afraid to look into them in some ways.

The first mystery is I'm 40 years old and every year that I've been alive, depression and anxiety have increased

here in the United States, in Britain and across the Western world, right? And I kept asking

myself, why? Why is this happening? Why are so many more of us each year that passes finding it

hard to get through the day, right? And I guess I wanted to understand that from because of a more

personal mystery. When I was a teenager, I remember going to my doctor and explaining that I had this feeling like pain was leaking out of me.

So I put it at the time.

And I felt very ashamed of it.

I felt confused by it. I didn't understand why it was happening. And my doctor told me a story that I now realised you're speaking to the leading scientists in the world on this,

was oversimplified, right?

My doctor said, we know why people feel like this.

It's just because of a problem in your brain.

...