A global epidemic of loneliness is spreading rapidly. 20% of the UK population claims to be always or often lonely, 3 out of 4 people fin the US are affected by loneliness, a quarter of Japanese men over 60 don't have a single friend or family member they can talk to, and there is an alarming rise of youth across borders who are feeling joyless, useless, and alien in their own homelands. This is a growing health disaster: loneliness has been shown to significantly increase the risk of early death, heart disease, stroke, and much more. Medicine and the high tech industry are working on "loneliness pills" and other high tech software fixes, but we're increasingly afraid that they've missed the point and are wasting time chasing symptoms. This week we explore the systemic causes of why we all feel so alone and look towards a world where we make the dramatic shifts to our social insitutions, governments, economic relationships, and very culture so we can begin to repair the frayed seams of our great big collective family.

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Chapters

00:31 Loneliness: Stats and Figures

09:36 Getting to the Source

14:39 America: Declining Social and Civic Engagement

20:25 America: Suburban Sprawl and the Commercialization of Social Life

25:49 China and the Big Money Machine

33:28 Japan: Relationless Society

38:41 Hikikomori

56:13 Individualism and Social Media

1:05:06 David's 5 Points to Get Your Life Together and Stop Loneliness in its Tracks

1:21:50 What Can We Do?

Recommended Reading

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On Parasocial Relationships

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Sources

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Published 21-02-2019 01:25