Lonely? There's an app for that... but should there be?

By Brittany Luse,

Liam McBain, Jasmine Romero, Neena Pathak, Barton Girdwood, Veralyn Williams

Published February 24, 2025 at 9:12 AM EST

We're back with "All the Lonely People," a series diving deep into how loneliness shows up in our lives.

This week: can tech cure our loneliness? Companies like Meeno (an AI relationship coaching app), Peoplehood (a platform that organizes guided group conversations), Timeleft (an app which matches strangers for dinner), and Bumble for Friends all say they want to help people make more and better connections. But do we need tech solutions to what may partially be a tech problem? Brittany sits down with Sam Pressler, who studies community and social connection at the University of Virginia's Karsh Institute of Democracy, and Vauhini Vara, veteran tech reporter and author of the upcoming book Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age, to break it all down.

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Brittany Luse

Brittany Luse is an award-winning journalist, on-air host, and cultural critic. She is the host of It's Been a Minute and For Colored Nerds. Previously Luse hosted The Nod and Sampler podcasts, and co-hosted and executive produced The Nod with Brittany and Eric, a daily streaming show. She's written for Vulture and Harper's Bazaar, among others, and edited for the podcasts Planet Money and Not Past It. Luse and her work have been profiled by publications like The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vulture, and Teen Vogue.

Liam McBain

Liam McBain (he/him) is an assistant producer on It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders. He's interested in stories at the margins of culture.

Jasmine Romero

Neena Pathak

Barton Girdwood

Veralyn Williams

Veralyn Williams (she/her) is a Peabody and Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist who has been asking hard questions about our world since she picked up her first microphone in 2004. Now she brings her skills (and ears) to her role as executive producer of programming at NPR.