Something to listen toWorkload & wellbeing
An Antidote to Loneliness
A 50-minute podcast episode on why loneliness harms health, and the small things that help
Why it’s worth your time
This Hidden Brain episode makes the case that loneliness belongs in the same conversation as smoking, exercise and sleep. Recorded in 2020 between his two stints as Surgeon General of the United States, Vivek Murthy explains why loneliness tends to feed itself and what helps break the cycle, including at work. The ideas are small enough to try with a colleague the same day.
Reaching a colleague who might be lonely
- Listen to the episode.
Before the practical part, Murthy covers his listening tour, his own lonely school years and why the feeling feeds itself. The practical part comes near the end. It works on a commute or a walk. The episode includes a discussion of suicide, flagged before it starts.
- Ask one colleague how they're doing, and listen.
Pick someone who's had a tough week or works mostly alone. Ask, then give them your full attention for a few minutes without trying to fix anything.
You“How's your week actually going?”
Good moments for this: after a week of working alonewhen a teammate goes quietin your first weeks on a new team
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Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
Murthy says it often shows up as anger, irritability, anxiety or a low mood, so a colleague who seems prickly may be isolated.
What might make this harder
Murthy's moai, a small group that commits to meeting on a schedule, can work at work too. Suggest a regular half hour with two peers in similar roles elsewhere in the company.
Questions people ask
What is the Hidden Brain episode An Antidote to Loneliness about?
Vivek Murthy, then a former U.S. Surgeon General, talks with Shankar Vedantam about loneliness as a public health problem, how it feeds itself, and what helps: knowing yourself, solitude, steady friendships and service. Hidden Brain re-ran the 2020 conversation in 2022.
How do I deal with loneliness at work?
Start small: give one colleague your full attention this week, and set up one regular conversation that doesn't depend on chance. Murthy argues that helping someone else can ease your own loneliness too.
Is loneliness bad for your health?
Murthy cites Julianne Holt-Lunstad's research associating loneliness with a shorter lifespan, and describes chronic loneliness as a stress state that can raise the risk of illnesses like heart disease; Vedantam adds that lonely people appear to face a higher risk of heart disease and other conditions. The research shows an association, and loneliness is one factor among many.
What it says, and how it holds up
Vivek Murthy didn't set out to study loneliness. On a listening tour early in his first term as Surgeon General, he kept hearing it underneath other problems: parents whose neighbors stayed away after their son died of an overdose, Flint residents who felt abandoned, doctors who said they felt interchangeable. Loneliness, he came to think, was hiding inside complaints that sounded like something else.
Vedantam draws out how it works. Murthy describes loneliness as a signal, like hunger, that helps briefly and harms when it lasts, and as a spiral: lonely people grow warier, turn inward and start to believe they aren't likable, which makes reaching out harder. He's open about his own lonely school years and about a relative who died by suicide. The remedies are modest: understand and accept yourself, take a few minutes of solitude or gratitude, keep a standing call with a couple of friends, and serve someone else, even just by listening.
Recorded as the pandemic began, the conversation has some talk of distancing that has dated, and Hidden Brain notes the transcript may follow an earlier version. It has less to offer a team that already feels close but is simply overloaded. And if loneliness has turned into hopelessness, the show points US listeners to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
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Picked by Truest and described in our own words. The original belongs to its creator. Last updated October 9, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.