Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel

You know, we have a dear friend who every year goes on a hiking trip with one of her high school buddies still.

Or, you know, whatever your

Your however you do that, those social engagements, you know, I talk to my friends that tends to be while I'm driving because I can't stand driving.

So it's a way of connecting or, you know, we host once or twice a week, you know, dinner, whether it's a Friday night dinner or some other dinner just to get together with people.

Now, you may or may not have that, and we know that the eating alone phenomenon, unfortunately, is going in the wrong direction.

We're having too much of it and not enough social life.

The other thing you can do are what are called weak relationships, which are sort of casual interactions where there might be some overlap, either by chance, you happen to be sitting next to someone on an airplane or a train or what have you, or, you know,

You keep going to the same coffee shop, you can talk to the barista and engaging them, not artificially, you know, just talking to them.

One of the great researchers of these things called weak social interactions is a woman, and she describes how she got into the field.

from one of the popular stores.

She asked her about the cupcakes.

She got talking about the cupcakes.

And she felt, you know, by the end of it, she was like, wow, I feel like really good.

And she went in and began doing a lot of systematic research.

She switched her whole research focus to these relationships and their importance.

And she

I think we underestimate.

We often, you know, trying to buzz through life and be efficient and not talk to people.

And it turns out that if you just talk while you're doing these things, you know, it's not like you're a barista can't both talk to you and make your latte or whatever you're having.

And those relationships actually give you a little boost.