Hey, it's Robin Hilton from NPR Music.

Many years ago, I helped start the Tiny Desk concert series.

And right now, NPR is looking for the next great, undiscovered musician to perform behind

the famous desk.

Think you've got what it takes?

Submit a video of you playing an original song to the Tiny Desk Contest by February 10th.

Find out more and see the official rules at npr.org slash tiny desk contest.

This is fresh air.

I'm Tanya Mosley.

Recently, my guest, writer Derek Thompson, took his family out to dinner and notice that

while the restaurant was bustling, he and his family were the only people actually

sitting down to eat. Every few

minutes, a flurry of people would walk in, grab bags of food, and walk out. The restaurant's

bar counter had become, as he puts it, a silent depot for people to grab food to eat at home

in solitude. In February's issue of the Atlantic, Thompson writes about the phenomenon he calls

the antisocial century. More people are choosing isolation over hanging out with others,

and we can't blame at all on COVID-19. This trend started before the pandemic. The problem is

that humans by nature are social beings, and the consequences of isolation are stark.

Our personalities are changing as well as our politics and our relationship to reality.

Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said, we're in the midst of a loneliness epidemic.

Derek Thompson is a writer for the Atlantic and the author of the work in progress

newsletter. He's also the author of the book's Hitmakers and On Work, Money, Meaning,

...