The Lonely American January 10, 2010

Tom Hall, WYPR host of Choral Arts Classics and Arts and Culture Contributor for Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast, moderates a discussion about loneliness and its impact on modern society with Dr. Jacqueline Olds and Dr. Richard Schwartz, authors of The Lonely American: Drifting Apart in the Twenty-first Century (2009). Their work follows up on Robert D. Putnams Bowling Alone, which brought wide attention to Americas vanishing sense of community and our sense of isolation from one another. Olds and Schwartz demonstrate how our cultural focus on productivity and being busy isolates us, creating a vicious cycle of loneliness that has a negative impact on civic engagement. Olds and Schwartz are both Associate Clinical Professors of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and also the authors of Overcoming Loneliness in Everyday Life and Marriage in Motion.

Official Website: http://www.americantowns.com//events/the-lonely-american