Jess Janz: Dining By Your Lonesome - January 26, 2026
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What does the statistic about solo dining in the U.S. reveal?
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Almost 20% of people in the U.S. ate their most recent meal alone, up 10% from 20 years ago. So if more people are doing it, is solo dining freedom or is it loneliness? Is eating a meal by your lonesome a social alarm bell that we're all ignoring? Well, that is what we're going to discuss here with Jess Janz, a writer and facilitator of the event, Dinner with Strangers.
Is solo dining a sign of freedom or loneliness?
Jess, welcome to the program.
Thank you so much for having me.
So gut check question. When you hear this stat that like almost one in four people, at least in the U.S., ate their last meal alone, what is your gut reaction to it? Or do you think, hey, that makes total sense?
Well, I kind of go both ways. I mean, my gut initial reaction is like, oh my gosh, that sounds so sad. And then I kind of talk it back being like, okay, well, I eat alone a lot or if I'm traveling or like, you know, maybe they just caught a bunch of people on their way back from somewhere.
How does Jess Janz's personal experience shape her views on eating alone?
Like it's just a Tuesday night out and you're out of groceries. Like they're, in and of itself, eating alone is not problematic. But the fact that it's spiking so significantly is probably telling us something. And I think part of that has to do with and when we think about like so much conversation around loneliness, too, that like I think we're not ritualizing regular things like just going out for dinner when it's not this like big Instagrammable thing. We're not like getting together with people on a regular basis as much as we used to. So, yeah, that's my initial. It's upsetting. I don't know.
I think that's right. Like kind of splitting it into two. On the one hand, going to a restaurant alone, it kind of takes courage because you're out in public. People might look at you and think you're alone. My ex-wife and I were once at a restaurant and the host called Norbert for one. It's a sad name to be alone with.
Oh, no.
What role does social interaction play in our dining habits?
But Norbert, it takes a lot of courage to travel alone, to eat alone like that. I think that's part of being an adult, an individual. That's one thing. And then there's people who just are alone all the time. They're eating meals at home alone. They're eating meals out alone. They aren't socializing enough, and that's kind of what I want to dig into here, and I think that's the problem, like this loneliness versus, I don't know, intentional solitude, if you will.
Yeah, because I think about this a lot of like, we don't have spaces where it's okay to go alone. Like that are social spaces where you do show up alone and then end up meeting people. Like I feel like in England or like in the UK, they have like pub culture. Like it's okay to just go, I'm going to run down to the pub and See what happens and you kind of intermix and intermingle. And in North America, we don't have that culture. It is that like Norbert for one, how sad, but we would never go like, oh, does Norbert want to come shoot this crap? I can't say that.
How do cultural differences affect perceptions of dining alone?
Oh, well done. Well done. We're on the radio. You did that right.
out. I was like, woo, we're not just hanging out. You know, like, are we inviting Norbert? Like, maybe that's the deeper, that's like the next layer to this of like, how are we interacting with the Norbert for ones around us when we're out for dinner? And of course that it's like, you might be celebrating an anniversary. Maybe that's the only night a week that you and your partner have to like catch up and connect and like That's OK. But are we in general in the way that we move through our communities and in our neighborhoods, like interacting and like inviting more people to speak with us, whether it's sitting down for dinner is a significant commitment of time. Uh, but I think, I think that we kind of practice individualism in the way that we move through our day to day.
And that's like another element to this of like, are we, we look at Norbert and we're like, you're so sad, but we're like, okay, am I interacting with Norbert at any point throughout my movement throughout the neighborhood?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What does the statistic about solo dining in the U.S. reveal?
0:02–0:48
2
Is solo dining a sign of freedom or loneliness?
0:48–1:20
3
How does Jess Janz's personal experience shape her views on eating alone?
1:20–2:11
4
What role does social interaction play in our dining habits?
2:11–3:09
5
How do cultural differences affect perceptions of dining alone?
3:09–4:23
6
What are the Dinner with Strangers events and their purpose?
4:23–6:05
7
How can eating alone lead to unexpected social encounters?
6:05–7:15
8
What benefits can arise from intentionally dining solo?
7:15–9:48
Speakers
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