David Cooper (host)

Do I start at season one and then I got like 10 years of TV ahead of me?

Do I start, do I do them piecemeal like only the best seasons?

How do I get into a show?

The volume of work is baffling.

All right, big picture here.

Has Survivor just entertained us across these 50 seasons?

Or has it shaped how we think about competition, identity, what it means to outwit, outplay, outlast in real life?

I do think you might be hyping this up a little too much as saying that survivors are a window into our soul.

But you know what?

I'm going to give those seasons you mentioned a watch and maybe I'll come to agree with you.

Hartley Jaffein is a health sciences professor at McMaster University.

Hartley, I've enjoyed this chat.

Thank you so much for being on the show.

Thank you again for having me, David.

Here's what we'll discuss in a few moments' time.

Could the secret weapon against loneliness be a paperback, a novel?

After the break, a surprising new study suggests daily reading may protect older adults from isolation, sometimes even more than social activities.

So you might want to bring granny to the bookstore, not the bingo hall.

But before you do, you'll want to know why.

We'll explain it in a moment.