Brian Ler on WNYC, and now we'll wrap up today's show with a call in about your third spaces.

What? What's a third space? Some of you know that term. It comes from urban sociologist Ray Oldenberg's book called

The Great Good Place. He describes it as public places on neutral ground where people can gather

and interact. It's not a new concept, but there are new wrinkles for this post-pandemic era.

So listeners, what do you do when your workday is over? Where do you go and you're not at the office and you're not at home? Where is your third space?

212-433 W-NYC, 212-433-9692. So if your home is your first space and your office is your second space,

where is that third space where you find community and socialize? Are you an active member of

your church-mask or synagogue? Maybe you frequent a particular bar or coffee shop. We could cite

the old TV show, Cheers, which was all those people's third

space, right? Is there a community center where you regularly meet new people as well as

catch up with other regulars? 212-433 WNYC on where is your third space in 2024? And I hope we get callers. We'll try to look for callers of

different ages, different generations, different decades of life, because I think there is a lot of

age-determinant third space differences these days. 212-433, WNYC. if you're in your 20s, do you have a third space?

If you're in your 50s, do you have a third space?

If you're in your 80s, do you have a third space?

We ask this today because one of the greatest problems American society is facing, according

to so many people like our Surgeon General, is an

epidemic of loneliness.

Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek-Murthy, released a general advisory last year.

He was on the show talking about it, raising the alarm on the impact of loneliness and isolation

on our health.

And according to him, the toll of disconnection

...