Jul 23, 2026 · 1 hr · 11 segments
America is experiencing an epidemic of loneliness: marriage and birth rates, the number of close friendships, time spent with friends, and community involvement more broadly are all in decline. Phil…
Phil LevinGuest
Brink LindseyHost
He is the co-founder of Live Near Friends, which we'll talk about more, a founding member of Cul-de-Sac, which is a set of co-living communities.
Were you on another career track before you made this pivot? And then tell the pivot of how you got interested in housing and making housing something beyond single family housing, which has become the utterly dominant norm in American life.
I was working in the developing world, trying to get people mobile banking on their phone.
So back around 2010, let's say, you had roughly, everyone at that point had a mobile phone, but only about 20% of people had bank accounts.
And so the idea was you could use the mobile phone as a way to get people financial services.
And actually, when you live in a bunch of different countries, you actually really feel like you're in a community.
The expat community becomes your community and they take care of each other because no one has family there.
I sort of came back to the U.S. at that point and actually felt the absence of community.
Had you grown up in a you know, tighter knit community or big family or, or, or is this not come out of your own, you know, biography?
You know, I, I grew up in sort of the traditional American suburbs and a very loving family and nice neighborhood, you know, but nothing, nothing out of the norm.
Um, and, uh, so, you know, but there's a real sort of turning point for me and really the change in my career is I met my wife, Kristen.
She's a professional behavioral scientist, um, So studies what makes people happy and healthy.
He is the co-founder of Live Near Friends, which we'll talk about more, a founding member of Cul-de-Sac, which is a set of co-living communities.
Were you on another career track before you made this pivot? And then tell the pivot of how you got interested in housing and making housing something beyond single family housing, which has become the utterly dominant norm in American life.
I was working in the developing world, trying to get people mobile banking on their phone.
So back around 2010, let's say, you had roughly, everyone at that point had a mobile phone, but only about 20% of people had bank accounts.
And so the idea was you could use the mobile phone as a way to get people financial services.
And actually, when you live in a bunch of different countries, you actually really feel like you're in a community.
The expat community becomes your community and they take care of each other because no one has family there.
I sort of came back to the U.S. at that point and actually felt the absence of community.
Had you grown up in a you know, tighter knit community or big family or, or, or is this not come out of your own, you know, biography?
You know, I, I grew up in sort of the traditional American suburbs and a very loving family and nice neighborhood, you know, but nothing, nothing out of the norm.
Um, and, uh, so, you know, but there's a real sort of turning point for me and really the change in my career is I met my wife, Kristen.
She's a professional behavioral scientist, um, So studies what makes people happy and healthy.
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