Even before the pandemic, three in five Americans reported feeling like they are left out, poorly understood and lacking companionship.

Communities with low social connectedness have higher rates of crime, lower educational achievement, and poorer physical health than more connected communities. As Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone documented more than 20 years ago, a frayed social fabric also makes governing much harder.

NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben talks to the author about how much worse things have gotten in the two decades since his book came out and what makes things him optimistic about the future.

Putnam's latest work is The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again.

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