Oct 6, 2026 · 24 min · 10 segments
Living in any big city has its moments of loneliness — but according to some studies, D.C. might be the loneliest city in the U.S. *Washingtonian* recently covered D.C.'s loneliness epidemic, and…
And when I was young, I remember thinking, "I can't wait to get to a city, city so that I can, you know, not experience what feels like the backdrop of crushing loneliness all the time." If you would've told me that people moving to a, like, a real city, a city with lots of people, a dense city, that they would still be experiencing the kind of loneliness that I grew up really trying to escape, that would've really surprised me.
That, like, moving to a city like DC, you might also still have to deal with the difficulty of meeting friends, meeting partners, and just feeling lonely even in a city where there's always somebody above you or below you or, you know, a neighbor or something like that.
And I think, you know, you look at pop culture, you look at these big city shows.
And you think, "Oh my gosh, I'm gonna be this grown-up with this group of friends who goes to brunch every Saturday and just a call away all the time." And for many people, that's just TV.
And when I was young, I remember thinking, "I can't wait to get to a city, city so that I can, you know, not experience what feels like the backdrop of crushing loneliness all the time." If you would've told me that people moving to a, like, a real city, a city with lots of people, a dense city, that they would still be experiencing the kind of loneliness that I grew up really trying to escape, that would've really surprised me.
That, like, moving to a city like DC, you might also still have to deal with the difficulty of meeting friends, meeting partners, and just feeling lonely even in a city where there's always somebody above you or below you or, you know, a neighbor or something like that.
And I think, you know, you look at pop culture, you look at these big city shows.
And you think, "Oh my gosh, I'm gonna be this grown-up with this group of friends who goes to brunch every Saturday and just a call away all the time." And for many people, that's just TV.
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