Americans are sad and lonely, and we don't feel like we belong. With depression and "deaths of despair" on the rise, over half of us say that no one knows us well—a truly alarming statistic that doesn't bode well for our future. As if matters weren't bad enough, we're not just sad and alone—we're becoming more mean to each other, and it's likely part of the same cycle of pain. With fewer human connections in our lives, more of us seek belonging in our venally angry civic life, so this crisis of belonging also fuels extremism for which violence is increasingly a downstream outcome. What if, at its core, the loneliness, bitterness, and anger is a failure of our society's moral compass?

We asked The God Squad to read David Brooks' Atlantic piece "How America Got Mean" before this conversation, but whether you've had a chance to read it or not, you're going to be inspired by this conversation.

Meet the God Squad, the brains behind our series "God Squad: Improbable conversations for people of faith and no faith at all (because talking politics wasn't hard enough). Joining us for this edition of God Squad:

Joining us for this God Squad are Father Tim Holeda of St. Thomas More Co-Cathedral, Dr. Gary Shultz of First Baptist Church, Rev. Betsy Ouellette-Zierden, Joseph Davis Jr. of Truth Gatherers Community Church, Rabbi Paul Sidlofsky of Temple Israel. The Reverend Dr. Latricia Scriven of St. Paul's United Methodist Church facilitates the conversation.

Find bios for our participants and a full program description online here.

The Village Square is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Funding for this podcast was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This program is part of a larger project "Healing Starts Here" funded by New Pluralists. Learn more about our project, and other inspiring grantees here.