What's wrong with Bowling Alone?

Is there really a loneliness crisis?

Jerusalem Demsas and Matt Yglesias read Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone, the 2000 classic that diagnosed America's collapse in community life. They argue about how bad the loneliness problem really is today, and whether Putnam's diagnosis about the loss of associational life actually holds up. They also get into Putnam's uneasiness about telling people to go to church, whether social capital really explains crime and civic health, what happened to the arguments the left already won, how much television and phones are to blame, and more.

(00:00) Why we're reading Bowling Alone in 2026
(05:14) Bowling alone is more concerned about church attendance
(12:08) Does social capital explain anything?
(17:00) Television, the internet, and the usual suspects
(27:26) How American associational life reorganized
(36:53) Has cooperation actually declined?
(43:57) Voting, civic engagement, and what counts
(55:57) The arguments the left already won
(01:05:21) Why do young people who are doing fine feel so bad?
(01:12:58) "Get off your phones" and other bad prescriptions

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The Argument is produced by Justin Zuckerman, fact-checked by Eli Richman, with music by Breakmaster Cylinder and art by Ben Tousley.