Many of us are worried about our health, but just how big of a role do our social lives play?

As a predictor of mortality, the quality of your social relationships is more important than

whether you smoke. It's Wednesday December 6th and yep still riding that science

Friday Wave. I'm Sci-Fi producer Shishana Bucksbound. For many people, as

they age, their physical health becomes a bigger priority, but there's often an important

part people might skip over. Their social well-being. Here's Ira in conversation with Dr.

Linda Wade, sociologist at the University of Chicago,

and head of the National Social Life Health and Aging Project,

in front of a live audience

in collaboration with WBEZ and Mindworks at Chicago's Studebaker Theater.

Doctors might prescribe new medications, scans, diets, lifestyle changes, but there's often one big factor missing from these conversations

are social well-being.

Do you see friends and family often enough?

Do you have close bonds with those people?

Can you open up to them when you need to?

Is your marriage or your romantic partnership satisfying.

My next guest has asked thousands of participants between the ages of 50 to 100,

those kinds of questions and more over the course of what, years and she's found that these social aspects of

our lives play a very big role in our long-term health and well-being as we age.

Let me introduce her to you. Dr. Linda Wade is a professor of

sociology at the University of Chicago and head of the National Social Life

Health and Aging Project, she's based here in Chicago.

...