Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel

Close friends, five to 15.

150 is really the number of people you can keep track of.

That's the capacity of our brain, basically.

There are some people,

And I'm a sort of quasi expert on Ben Franklin because I'm obsessed by him.

You know, he corresponded with well over a thousand people across his lifetime writing letters before email made it easy.

Right.

Handwriting letters to people, some about science, some about printing, some about politics and negotiations and diplomacy.

But he created all sorts of societies to bring people together.

The American Philosophical Society, all the, you know, the firemen, insurance companies, subscription lending libraries.

And he was a guy who believed in sociability and creating social relationships and mutual support.

Lots of things we can do in that regard.

And, you know, you point out changing physician visits so that they're more communal.

Often works.

Community health care workers creating a community of people who push each other to be healthy and to do the right thing.

All of these are critical.

And the best proof, and with that I'm going to shut up, there is, you know, one of the most important... I doubt that.

Harvard Adult Development Study.

Now, there's no more boring title than that for a research study, but it started in the late 30s, early 40s, following Harvard sophomores, and to see how they developed and what made them develop for success.

It included John Kennedy, the editor of the Washington Watergate, Brent Bradley.