You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity

every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. In a complex world full of both grief and joy, poet Sarah Kay reflects

on curiosity and connection with a spoken word performance for you

today. She imagines the responsibilities a so-called minister of loneliness might have and what that

might mean for the world we live in. In the country of Japan, in the month of October 2020,

more people died by suicide than had died from COVID-19 in all of 2020 up to that point.

In response, the Japanese government instituted a new position

of a minister of loneliness.

The minister of loneliness has abolished email.

He is installing tin cans on every window cell

with a piece of string to someone else's window.

Not several, just one.

Each person, of course, does not need a lot of people to speak to,

just the one, but the one must be reliable,

must be available when needed.

We are employing a buddy system now.

Every day is a field trip to the adulthood museum,

and we don't go home until everyone has been accounted for.

The way you find your buddy is a nationwide game of guess who,

where you sing the song that is always stuck in your head.

Describe the movie you can't get through without crying,

the hardest you've ever laughed,

...