The changing nature of the way that we work presents a health ramification that very few people are talking about, and it's the subject of today's episode.

Welcome to the Affordable Care Podcast, the show that knows that you can afford anything, but not everything.

Every choice that you make carries a trade-off.

And that doesn't just apply to your money, it applies to any limited resource that you need to manage, your time, your focus, your energy, your attention.

So, what matters most?

That is the subject of every podcast episode. I'm your host, Paula Pant.

Today we're going to talk about something that is under-discussed. If you are a remote worker, you've probably noticed that you don't socialize with your colleagues quite as much.

That's not specific to you. It's part of an increasing epidemic of loneliness that is happening in modern society.

And that loneliness has major health consequences, which ultimately impact our productivity, our net worth, our ability to hit our goals, to make money, to be the best possible versions of ourselves, right?

To lead this fulfilling life that is really the ultimate end goal of financial independence or early retirement, right?

It's about living a more optimized life. And an optimized life involves having really meaningful friendships.

And that is increasingly difficult in today's world.

So, to discuss this, we've invited Dr. Marissa Franco to join us. Dr. Franco researches the science behind friendships and connection.

And in our upcoming interview, we talk about why loneliness is a modern epidemic, what that means when it comes to our productivity, our health, our happiness, and what we can do about it.

So, here is Dr. Marissa Franco.

Hi, Marissa. Hi, Paula. It's great to have you here. So good to be here.

You write and research about friendship, the topic of friendship. What I'm interested in learning, and I think what the afford anything community is interested in hearing about, is how friendship can be developed and sustained in a world of remote work when more of us are working from home.

And in a world of side hustles where whether or not you work from home, you probably have a primary job, you also have side hustle, you also have maybe kids, maybe you have an elderly parent, so you've just got, you're just very, very busy, and you don't have time to go with your friends on Friday night, like you could when you were 22.

So I want to cover all of that, but first let's start with why friendships matter. Friendship is community is so central to both our physical and our mental health.

I was just reading a meta-analysis as one does the other day, and actually it found that lack of social network made people more vulnerable to contracting PTSD than did the severity of the trauma itself.

So that was wild, and I think if you've heard anything about connection, there's this commonly suspected statistic that loneliness is as toxic as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, but there's also three different types of loneliness, only one intimate loneliness that can be fulfilled by a spouse and intimate loneliness as a desire for a close intimate connection.

But there's also relational loneliness, which is a desire for someone as close to you as a friend, and then there's this collective loneliness, which is a desire for a group working toward a common goal.

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