But do you have any sense as to why Europe?

I do.

And You know, it being a magazine article and not a scientific journal paper, there's a lot of compression here.

But, you know, you can you can find a quick summary in the article.

You know, one of the regional factors is simply that Europe is close to the Arctic.

And in fact, part of it is connected.

And so the Arctic is warming faster than anywhere on the planet.

Yeah, sounds familiar, right, Eric?

Globally, there are more single people than ever before, a fact researched by Eric Klinenberg, a professor of sociology at New York University and the author of a book called Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone.

So when I started the research project that became Going Solo, I was under the impression that living alone was an American phenomenon.

I was stunned to learn that the United States is a laggard and not a leader when it comes to living alone.

Living alone, it requires wealth.

It requires social security.

So a good welfare state can make a big difference.

You know, if you know that you have access to healthcare or home care or good public transit or social infrastructure in your community that allows you to engage the world productively, you don't necessarily need to live with other people.

Women have greater financial and social independence, and longer life expectancy means more people spend years living on their own after the death of a partner.

Were the lessons learned after that?

Well, so that was the experience, Teeth.

That's not just the temperature.

That's what it feels like to be in Chicago.

And so, you know, we We learned during these heat events that it's not just temperature, it's also humidity and the dew point.

And in fact, when I look at the temperature from France this week, I think it's very much like what happened in Chicago, maybe a little bit less humidity, but the elevation in temperature from what you're accustomed to in June is striking and dangerous.

Did we learn our lessons in Chicago? I mean, yes and no.

Again, is 1995 only etched in the minds of people of Chicago or all the United States?

And, and that's a streak in my family as well, you know? Um-

It, it's what's so interesting to me, though, is like wh- when I think of you be, you know, because of the TV show and my kids and, and s- seeing the way that you somehow relate to people through the camera, I, I never would've guessed that y- you know, you prefer to do anything other than just have deep, deep engagements with people and to like take them in.

There was this kind of magical way in which like, you know, you invite people to go deep, and they can do that.

And I mean, I guess I know it as a s- sociologist, and we'll, may- we'll talk about this later, that y- yeah, it's not really about the quantity of relationships.

You know, it's like l- life and meaning and your feeling of connection is about the quality of those relationships, and so you don't need to be with people all the time.

But in my mind, you know, you're just someone who likes that in- interaction.

And it's, and on the flip side, by the way, you know, I wrote this entire book, Going Solo, about the fact that more people live alone in the world than ever before.

Mm-hmm.