Lonely fans

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Lonely fans"

Podcast: Today, Explained (Vox)
Date: June 26, 2026
Hosts: Noel King
Guests: Lana Issa (loneliness influencer), Faith Hill (staff writer, The Atlantic)

---

Overview

This episode explores the rise of "loneliness influencers"—primarily young women who candidly share their solitary lifestyles on social media. Rather than framing loneliness as a problem, these influencers often present being alone as a fulfilling choice, challenging cultural assumptions about happiness, friendship, and connection. The episode includes an in-depth interview with Lana Issa, a prominent loneliness influencer, and analysis from Faith Hill, a journalist who has reported on this trend and broader issues of loneliness and gender.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Who Are Loneliness Influencers?

• Introduction of the Phenomenon: Young women who gain sizable online followings by sharing quiet, honest portrayals of their solitary lives.

  • Unlike traditional influencers, they don’t boast vacations or luxury but document mundane, peaceful routines.
  • Example: Videos captioned "pov: you live alone in NYC and have no friends" ([00:27]).

• Motivation and Intent (Lana Issa)

  • Lana describes her content as “just generally a normal night in my life,” emphasizing the comfort and joy she finds in solitude ([03:59]).
  • She aims to subvert the expectation that being single, friendless, or child-free equates to being unhappy.

• Quote:

  “I really wanted to kind of convey a normal life of somebody that doesn't have this big great fun social life ... just watch a girl enjoying her peace.”
  — Lana Issa ([03:59])

---

2. Lana Issa’s Story and Perspective

• Background:

  • Grew up enjoying solitude and reading, struggled to fit in during childhood, found peace in embracing her personality as an adult ([02:55]).

• Content Creation and Philosophy:

  • Her videos intentionally play with audience expectations: presenting titles like “life with no friends, no kids, no marriage” to prime viewers for something sad, then revealing her genuine contentment ([05:19]).
  • She receives responses from diverse viewers—single women, older generations, even people with families who find her quiet life aspirational.

• Quote:

  “Throughout the video, I always try to highlight the things that I'm really enjoying and how peaceful it is ... my actual reality, which is like, I like this.”
  — Lana Issa ([05:33])

---

3. Audience Reaction and Meaningful Connections

• Unexpected Audience:

  • Includes not just lonely young women, but older viewers reflecting nostalgically and overstretched parents seeking vicarious calm ([06:23]).

• On Social Media as Substitution for Real Life:

  • Lana responds selectively to comments and sets boundaries to maintain her peace. She notes that social media cannot replace real social connection ([08:05], [09:07]).

• Quote:

  “Reading comments is not the same thing as having people around you … my creativity and my life thrives a little bit more when I spend a little bit less time on social media.”
  — Lana Issa ([08:05])

---

4. Fulfillment, Friendship & Loneliness

• Alone but Not Lonely:

  • Lana is open to friendships in the future but content until she finds the right ones ([09:18]).
  • Describes moments, like attending a horror film alone, when fleeting loneliness arises, but emphasizes these are rare and manageable ([11:31]).

• Quote:

  “If I got to the point where I was genuinely having those thoughts very, very often ... I would put the effort into finding friends. I just haven't gotten to that point yet and I don't know if I will.”
  — Lana Issa ([11:31])

---

5. Sociological and Cultural Analysis (Faith Hill, The Atlantic)

• The Bigger Picture:

  • Faith Hill contextualizes loneliness influencers as part of society’s “loneliness epidemic,” but points out that for many, this content offers escapism or fantasy rather than solace ([17:11], [18:29]).
  • Many followers are busy women—mothers, wives—who crave silence and time alone in contrast to their chaotic lives.

• Quote:

  “For some people, the appeal was actually in kind of the fantasy of it ... in the way that some people look at influencers posting about these fabulous, exotic vacations they can’t afford to take.”
  — Faith Hill ([18:29])

---

6. Loneliness: Gender and Societal Trends

• Focus on Male versus Female Loneliness:

  • Discussion of how public discourse often frames male loneliness as a crisis while overlooking or minimizing female distress ([20:08]).

• Young Women’s Mental Health:

  • Despite educational success, young women are experiencing rising rates of anxiety, depression, and even suicide attempts. Persistent sexism and pay inequality remain acute after graduation ([21:57]).

• Quote:

  “A woman with a bachelor’s degree still makes less than a man with a bachelor’s degree on average, within the same field of study ... sexism is still very real.”
  — Faith Hill ([21:57])

  • There’s a historical tendency to expect women to ‘soldier on’ through difficulties, making women’s distress less newsworthy ([24:10]).

• Quote:

  “Men die quicker, but women are sicker ... women are more likely to endure a lot of chronic illnesses and to sort of soldier on with their pain unnoticed. We might not be taking that as seriously.”
  — Faith Hill ([24:10])

---

7. Where's the Hope?

• Room for Optimism:
  • Increased attention is being paid to the needs of young adults, much of which is relevant to both genders ([25:30]).
  • There’s a growing societal understanding that young adulthood is a uniquely hard developmental stage.

---

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• Embracing Solitude

  "I'm wearing pajamas and I'm about to go get ice cream for dinner. I'm already having an early night. So I figured I would bake a cake because why not?"
  — Lana Issa ([03:59])

• On Boundaries with Social Media

  “The moment I close my phone, my apartment's quiet, I'm still alone.”
  — Lana Issa ([08:05])

• On Solitude as Aspiration

  “Thank you for sharing your calm and quiet life. It's a needed break from the chaos of my life."
  — Comment cited by Faith Hill ([18:38])

• Cultural Blindspot

  “There’s also something a bit grim about you saying we sort of expect women to have a hard time and therefore it's less of a news story.”
  — Noel King ([25:05])

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:01–01:00: Introduction to loneliness influencers
• 02:42–11:31: In-depth interview with Lana Issa
• 16:51–27:01: Analysis with Faith Hill, discussion of trends, statistics, and gender differences

---

Episode Tone and Language

• The conversation is direct and candid, mixing Lana's honest self-reflection with Noel's curiosity and Faith's thoughtful analysis.
• The episode balances empathetic storytelling (Lana’s personal peace) with a critical, research-backed discussion of societal trends and gendered expectations.

---

Summary:
"Lonely fans" delves into the rise of loneliness influencers who celebrate solitude, unmasking both personal truths and wider social contradictions around loneliness and individual fulfillment. The episode reveals that for many, being alone can be a source of joy rather than despair—and that cultural perceptions of loneliness, especially among women, are overdue for a rethink. Both guests argue for nuanced, compassionate perspectives in a world increasingly attuned to the complexities of connection and self-reliance.

Transcript

[Noel King]

A new type of online influencer just dropped, or so we're told. Loneliness influencers. These young women don't brag about their vacations or their possessions. They've gained big followings just from posting videos about being alone.

[Lana Issa]

Being a content creator is so fucking lonely. Are you lonely? I'm lonely sometimes.

[Noel King]

Not quite like that, no. These videos are often much quieter and they're captioned with things like pov.

[Lana Issa]

You're a single and child free girl

[Noel King]

that has no friends and lives alone. And it's a Saturday night pov. You live alone in NYC and have no friends. So this is how you spend your night after work. They say they aren't unhappy.

[Lana Issa]

It's been two years since I last had a friend or any romantic feelings for anyone and I've never been happier.

[Noel King]

Hmm. Coming up on Today Explained, we're going to ask her some questions.

[Podcast Announcer]

Support for this show today comes from Anthropic, the team behind Claude. Claude is the AI for minds that don't stop at good enough. It's the collaborator that actually understands your entire workflow and thinks with you. Whether you're debugging code at midnight or strategizing your next business move. Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter with deep research. Claude's research capabilities go way deeper than basic web search, comprehensive research, reliable analysis with proper citations, turning hours of research into minutes for problems worth solving. You can get started with Claude at Claude AI todayexplained. That's Claude AI todayexplained. Support for Today Explained comes from Fetch. Fetch is pet insurance. If you hadn't figured it out. Do you have a pet? According to a study from a pet insurance company from a few years ago, every six seconds a pet owner in the US gets hit with a vet bill over $1,000 and it almost never comes at a convenient time. So check out Fetch. You get paid up to 90% of vet bills. You can use Fetch for any vet in the US and Canada. Every vet is in network. Go to fetchpet.com save right now for your free quote. That's fetchpet.com sa. Tell you

[Lana Issa]

today explain Mr. Today explain.

[Noel King]

Lana Issa is 24 years old. She has a good job in software sales and she lives in and works from a very nice apartment somewhere in Canada. In her videos online she spends a lot of time by herself. Now this is something that she's used to.

[Lana Issa]

In elementary school I was always like I was never one of the more popular kids. I was never anti social. Like I definitely tried to talk to the other kids. But I think I always had my own little interests and I would, I was always a really big reader. So I would like sit in the library and like read or whatever. But I find that like the kid that would always like run away and like read in a corner was never really the most, I guess was never the most accepted hobby.

[Noel King]

So she did the thing in high school where she tried to be less of a reader, lol. And more of a cool girl, but she felt like she was faking it.

[Lana Issa]

But I think I kind of ended up in an area where you would make surface level friends that don't really like you for who you are because you're pretending to be someone you're not. And I think that those type of experiences led me to just kind of be someone that really enjoys their time alone and yeah, just like generally a girl enjoying her life.

[Noel King]

Now this girl enjoying her life is being called a loneliness influencer. In her videos she posts about being single and, and child free and having no friends. Lana, what am I going to be seeing when I watch one of your videos?

[Lana Issa]

Just generally a normal night in my life. I think when I first started filming these videos, I had no intention of making it like an aesthetic vlog or anything like that. I really wanted to kind of convey a normal life of somebody that doesn't have this big great fun social life. So I wanted to just kind of show something a little bit different. Like what does a life look like as someone that doesn't really have this great big social life, is not really interested in dating and generally prefers nights in. So if you were to watch a Friday night in my life, you'd essentially just watch a girl enjoying her piece. I'm wearing pajamas and I'm about to go get ice cream for dinner. I'm already having an early night. So I figured I would bake a cake because why not?

[Noel King]

And you're embracing it. You're not saying, I'm 24, I'm single, I don't have friends to hang out with tonight, and I feel wretched, you're saying, and I'm happy about it.

[Lana Issa]

That's exactly it. And that's exactly what I was. That's the goal of it. When I initially started making these videos and I kind of was like formatting these titles and like how I want it to look, I was like, I really want the title of the video to kind of be like wham, bam, bam of like a bunch of things that I don't have. So people think that they're about to watch this, like very sad routine of somebody that like is not enjoying their life.

[Noel King]

Life with no friends, no kids, no marriage. I left my apartment this week.

[Lana Issa]

Life with no friends, no kids, no marriage.

[Noel King]

Weight gain, feeling off cooking and eating my cravings. Life with no friends, no kids, no marriage.

[Lana Issa]

How I ended up like this. Throughout the video, I like always try to highlight the things that I'm really enjoying and how peaceful it is. I know what I've learned, I know what I've been through. I have a very strong understanding of how obviously all of that has correlated into who I am today. And I'm currently at peace. I'm happy with my life, I'm happy with what I'm working on. It was always like a little play on, like the expectation of how people might feel if they're single and live alone and don't have a great big social life versus like my actual reality, which is like, I like this. And from the response that I've gotten, especially from women, there's a lot of like minded people out there that also like this life, you know.

[Noel King]

Yeah, you have something like 200,000 followers, which is a lot of people watching what you do. What have you heard from people? Why do you think you're growing?

[Lana Issa]

I think there's definitely two types of viewers. I kind of noted, like when I started these videos, I had no idea who I would like, what type of audience I would kind of cater to. I actually thought I would get like girls in their 20s who also don't have a lot of friends. Like that's really what I thought my audience would be. But it actually grew into something a lot cooler and just like a lot of different lifestyles. Like I have viewers that, you know, are married and have families, but think this is so fun and like relaxing because it makes them think of what their life was like before and they love their family in their current lives, but they also love their previous life. Right. Which is the goal. Like I think you should try to make the most of every stage of your life. And I really like those type of viewers. And then there's also the women who live similar lifestyles and love the representation or they love seeing I'll have like a millennial or like a little bit older audience base that is like really happy to see the younger generation kind of embracing this, focusing on yourself, prioritizing yourself, your career, your goals over relationships, especially romantic relationships, and just like finding yourself. I and I, I see like so much knowledge, like a wealth of knowledge in those women and I Love it when they leave comments about their life stories or, like, what they experienced to lead them to this and how they're so happy to see that, like, the newer or, like, not the newer, but the current generations kind of learn these lessons without going through, like, the, I guess, the big fallout. You know what I mean?

[Podcast Announcer]

Yeah.

[Lana Issa]

Yeah. So it's been very cool to see the different type of people that kind of watch this. These type of videos.

[Noel King]

Do you respond to people who leave comments on your. On your videos?

[Lana Issa]

I don't respond to as many people as I'd want to. I try to respond to, like, questions or, you know, I like comments that are, like, very, very descriptive and, like, share, like, a compassionate story about their life that I truly, like, feel and resonate with. But I draw, like, a pretty serious line with, like, how much time I'm spending scrolling through social media. That is a very, like. I'm sure this will lead into your next question, but do I feel like my social life is getting fulfilled by social media? The answer to that question is no, I do not feel like it is getting fulfilled by social media because the moment I close my phone, my apartment's quiet, I'm still alone. And because I had gotten to such a point where I was at, like, so much peace in my life when I started filming these videos, I almost felt like reading way too many opinions would disrupt my peace a little bit. I think that my creativity and, like, just like, generally my life thrives a little bit more when I spend a little bit less time on social media. So I don't have the time to respond to everybody. No.

[Noel King]

Okay. So online is not a satisfying social life. What is your social life then?

[Lana Issa]

I'm not saying it's not a satisfying social life. I'm saying that it doesn't replace what a social life would be.

[Noel King]

Ah, okay. Okay.

[Lana Issa]

And I think that's kind of the accusation or people's takeaway from my. My videos is they're like, well, you, you know, get these type of. You're putting your life out there, getting a bunch of responses on it. That's probably replacing a social life for you. But I spent two years alone before I ever filmed a video. Reading comments is not the same thing as having people around you. You know what I mean? And not 100% opposed to, like, making friends or anything like that ever again. It's more so like, I just went through, like, some hard times, and obviously I was trying to find myself. I didn't want to go through hard times and then jump into Other friendships where I feel like I'm doing the same thing of pretending to be someone I'm not and accepting treatment that I don't think, you know, is aligned with what I'm looking for. And I would be open to making friends again in the future. It was just about, like, finding myself and enjoying my life and making sure that those friends that I find in the future are 100% right for me and I'm right for them, and we actually fulfill each other's lives instead of bringing any negativity or anything like that to each other. So it's basically just spending, you know, a lot of time by myself. I have a really close relationship with my family, but I don't rely on them for social media interaction. I just, like, enjoy speaking to my family, and I would in any way, but just making the most of my life alone until I meet the right people.

[Noel King]

A lot of what you're showing in your videos does not seem all that. I mean, I'm not one of the people that looks at your videos and thinks, oh, my goodness, how awful there was one. There is one thing about your videos, though, that made me incredibly sad. You went to see the movie Obsession by yourself. Obsession is the scariest movie ever made.

[Faith Hill]

Bear, I love you so, so, so, so, so much. I don't think I could live without you.

[Noel King]

I tried to crawl into my friend's body. I got so scared watching that movie. And you're sitting there in a theater and you're like, white knuckling it. I'm imagining alone are there. So that was a moment for me where I'm like, this girl needs a friend. Are there moments for you where you're like, I really. I really wish I had had a friend there. I really do need to go out and meet someone so I don't have to watch Obsession alone.

[Lana Issa]

You know what in the theater was, like, actually fine. I found that, like, because it was such a full theater and there was, like, so much, like, so many people were being, like, funny. Like, nobody was being annoying. But there was a lot of, like, reactions, and, like, it was very funny. So it felt interactive. I will say, like, when I left, it would have been fun to, like, debrief what I just watched with people, because I was like, oh, my God, that was so. That was so creepy. Like, I have actually seen a lot of horror movies in my life. I was not expecting that to be that genuinely creepy. So, yeah, I get what you're saying. I wouldn't say that was one of those instances where I truly felt like I wish there was someone else here. But I get what you're saying. It would have been cool if there were people around me that I could chat with. There are moments, yeah. Sometimes I live in a lake town and sometimes I'll drive downtown on a nice beautiful Saturday night or something. Like I mentioned earlier, patios are full. I'm like, that would be cool. But those are just fleeting moments typically. And I think if I got to the point where I was genuinely having those thoughts very, very often and like feeling so ready to like share experiences and moments with other people, I would put the effort into finding friends. I'm not saying it'll be easy. I just haven't gotten to that point yet and I don't know if I will. I never try to say this is the way it is and it'll be like this forever, but I'm okay right now. You.

[Noel King]

She is Lana Issa. She's been called a loneliness influencer. Our next guest has written about these young women, and they are mostly women, and she says this is part of a broader problem. Support for Today explained comes from ShipStation. AI is only as smart as what you put into it. And the breakthroughs, the ones that actually make your life easier, only happen when the AI is built for exactly what you need. Shipstation's AI isn't a general purpose tool. It's specialized and trained on decades of real shipping data and billions of actual orders. Shipstation is an end to end order fulfillment platform for e commerce. ShipStation adapts to your unique business, letting you know when stock is low, recommending the best carrier selections and rates, and automating tasks to save you time. Also, you can stay one step ahead. Their features eliminate the need for multiple tools in your workflow like inventory syncing across your sales channels, a branded returns portal that helps turn returns into revenue, automatic rate shopping, plus integrations with accounting and CRM software. The sooner you switch, the sooner you start saving time and money. Get started with Shipstation today and get 60 days [e-mail] with code today. That's shipstation.com code today shipstation.com code today taxes and fees applied.

[Podcast Announcer]

Support for the program comes from pipedrive. Sales teams can often spend a huge chunk of their time on administrative tasks rather than selling, building relationships and closing deals required to maintain a strong business. That's where pipedrive comes in. A simple, intelligent CRM tool for small and medium businesses with smart automations that handle repetitive stuff like follow up reminders, deal updates and activity logging. Plus you can customize these automations to fit your unique sales process and AI features will analyze your pipeline. It'll flag stall deals, surface what needs attention and tell your team what to do next without having to go looking for it. You can switch to a CRM built by Salespeople for Salespeople and join the over 100,000 companies already using Pipedrive. With this link you can get an exclusive 30 day free instead of the usual 14 day trial. No credit card or payment needed. Just head to pipedrive.comexplained to get started. That's pipedrive.comexplained and you can be up and running in minutes.

[Noel King]

Foreign.

[Podcast Announcer]

Comes from Anthropic in case you were wondering who's behind Claude, that's anthropic. Claude is the AI for minds that don't stop it. Good enough is that you? It's the collaborator that actually understands your entire workflow and thinks with you. Have you been looking for that? Whether you're debugging code at midnight or strategizing your next business move, Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problem problems that matter with deep research. Claude's research capabilities go way deeper than basic web search. Comprehensive reliable analysis with proper citations turning hours of research into minutes. We love a proper citation, don't we? Plus you can connect Claude to your professional tools like GitHub, Jira, HubSpot, Notion, Google Workspace and watch it become your command center with context from over all your work. That means Claude has context from your calendar, emails and all of your go to tools for problems worth solving. Get started with Claude. Claude AI todayexplained. That's Claude AI todayexplained.

[Lana Issa]

It's that pivotal moment. It's impossible to explained. Unstoppable.

[Faith Hill]

Hi, I'm Faith Hill. I'm a staff writer for the Atlantic.

[Noel King]

In the first half of the show, we talked to a young woman who has made a name for herself as a loneliness influencer. I know that you've written about this trend. We asked her what she thinks is going on. You kind of took a 3,000 foot perspective. What do you think is going on here?

[Faith Hill]

Yeah, I mean, I think sort of my first, you know, impulse when I heard about this kind of genre of video that people are watching is, you know that there's a lot of people spending a ton of time alone. We've heard a lot of people talk about, you know, loneliness epidemic.

[Lana Issa]

Dr. Vivek Murthy, the US Surgeon General, says loneliness is an epidemic. It can have profound effects on mental health as well as heart disease, stroke and dementia. Social isolation can be as deadly as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.

[Faith Hill]

So I thought maybe people were getting sort of social connection through these, you know, videos from a safe distance rather than spending time in person with people. And I think, you know, maybe there's some of that going on. But I also realized as I was looking through these videos and reading all the comments, that a lot of the people commenting, you know, seem to have a lot going on in their lives socially. So much so that, you know, they were sort of busy and exhausted and burned out, overextended. For some people, the appeal was actually in kind of the. The fantasy of it, like, in the way that some people, you know, look at influencers posting about these, you know, fabulous, exotic vacations they can't afford to take.

[Noel King]

My husband is bored without me and always wants me around. On the other hand, I absolutely love my time without him as someone with

[Faith Hill]

a husband and two kids and a crazy, busy life. Thank you for sharing your calm and quiet life. It's a needed break from the chaos of my life. I think, you know, a lot of people have a very complicated relationship to solitude. It's definitely true. There's a lot of people, you know, spending a ton of time alone these days and, you know, people partying less and ordering in more. But also, you know, people are working long hours, a lot of people taking care of family members without much help. Many people are sort of torn between these needs for social connection and solitude.

[Noel King]

People are looking at the loneliness influencers thinking, wow, I wish I had a Friday night to myself once in a while with nothing to do. Does that mean that this is perhaps not as sad as it appears on its face?

[Faith Hill]

Yeah, you know, I don't think it's all sad. I think. I mean, my heart goes out to people who are needing more solitude as well as more social connection. You know, I think most people probably don't have the perfect balance, and I can relate to that myself. You know, I feel like I either have too many plans, too much going on, or not enough. So, you know, I think it's. It's not necessarily all happy, but I do think it doesn't mean that there are just so many people out there who are only getting social connection through these videos. Like, I think there's something a little more complicated going on.

[Noel King]

It's worth noting that most of these influencers are women, young women. And the reason that we wanted to talk to you is because you have written about a kind of dovetailing situation where we understand in the U.S. now, men to be in crisis. We've all heard about the male loneliness crisis, men's achievements in education, college graduation, men not being the breadwinners anymore. You wrote a very interesting piece that basically said actually women are in crisis as well.

[Faith Hill]

Yeah. So, I mean, as you're saying, I've just been hearing so much about men, and especially young men being in crisis. And I think there's a lot of reasons we should take that seriously, and I do. But I felt like in young women were kind of being flattened into just like a comparison point where, you know, instead of people talking about how on some measures young men are struggling more than they used to, it kind of got twisted into young men are struggling more than women. And in that kind of conversation, women become like this sort of symbol for flourishing. There's kind of this image of like the thriving girl boss, you know, the one who is going to college, graduating college, entering the workforce on these conventional measures of success, you know, doing so well. But if you actually look at some of these statistics, you know, young women are struggling a lot on a lot of these measures, and in some cases, you know, more than young men. And so I don't think it needs to be a suffering competition, but I did think, like, part of the story was not kind of coming through.

[Noel King]

In what ways are women struggling? Tell me about it.

[Faith Hill]

Women have for a long time reported depression and anxiety at higher rates than men. That is getting worse. It seems like mental health on a lot of different measures, different kinds of stress and distress and suicidality. Young women are reporting that at higher and higher rates. It seems to be getting worse over time. But it turns out that women actually attempt suicide at higher rates than men do on a average. And the reason that mormen die of suicide is that they're more likely to use lethal means such as firearms. I think a lot of times this conversation, you know, it really revolves around, like, college attendance rates and women are, you know, attending and graduating college at higher rates than men. But a woman with a bachelor's degree still makes less than a man with a bachelor's degree on average, within the same field of study. So, you know, when I talk to people for this story, researchers and therapists, you know, I heard that a lot of young women are kind of in for a rude awakening when they graduate from school. They've kind of been in this bubble where they did feel like they could grow and thrive and they were taken seriously. But, you know, that doesn't last for a very long time for most people. And then, you Know, you go out into the real world where, you know, sexism is still very real. And a lot of women are working in, you know, workplaces where they realize they're not taken as seriously or the people around them who are in positions of power are all men. I think that's a difficult realization

[Lana Issa]

based

[Noel King]

on everything you've just said. Both men and women are struggling. If you look at the metrics. It isn't about the metrics. If you look at suicidality, both groups having trouble. Education, both groups having trouble. Why? If women and men are both in crisis, arguably we can use this term. Why did men pull focus?

[Faith Hill]

Women, I think, you know, as an overall population, tend to be like a fairly high functioning one. In this narrative, I talked to someone who had trained as a medical sociologist and she told me a saying that they used to use in this field, which was men die quicker, but women are sicker, you know, which in that context meant that women are more likely to endure a lot of chronic illnesses and to, you know, sort of soldier on with their pain unnoticed. And we might not be taking that as seriously because. Because I think, you know, the idea that women are struggling isn't necessarily a new one or a super surprising one to a lot of people. I think men having a hard time is kind of. It's more of a news story, you know, and we have become perhaps kind of a nerd to women's distress in this way. Hmm.

[Noel King]

There is, I think there's a lot of hope to be found in the interventions on behalf of men. I really do. There's also something a bit grim about you saying we sort of expect women to have a hard time and therefore it's less of a news story. And I believe you, I really do. But I wonder, when you, as you found yourself covering this, where do you find the hope here?

[Faith Hill]

I do think people are thinking about really important issues when it comes to young adults in particular. And I am heartened that we're talking about, you know, this age group a lot. I think there's been a lot of concern lately about like Gen Z and, you know, a lot of what we're talking about when we talk about young men struggling actually also applies to young women. So I think we're onto some of the right things and if we could just sort of open up the conversation a little bit, I do think there's, you know, attention being paid to a lot of important stuff. And I think for a while, you know, there was a ton of talk about teens struggling and a lot of talk about like older adults struggling. So, you know, I wrote another piece about young adulthood a while back that was kind of just really about the idea that young adulthood actually is a really hard developmental phase. And when I published that article, I think, you know, for a lot of readers, it seemed to be somewhat of a surprise. That was kind of the hook was like, young adults are struggling too. And I think even just since I've written that, people have talked more about young adults struggling. So I do think people are starting to take that seriously and understand that this is an age group that might need help.

[Podcast Announcer]

Foreign

[Noel King]

She's Faith Hill, but not that Faith Hill. She is the Atlantic writer. Kelly Wessinger produced and Amina El Saadi edited today's show. David Tadashore engineered and Gabriel Donatov checked the facts. The rest of our team includes Hadi Muakdi, Miles Bryan, Peter Balan, Rosen, Patrick Boyd, Danielle Hewitt, Ariana Espuru, Dustin Desoto and Sean Ramas. Firm management Avishai Artsy, Jolie Myers Executive Producer Miranda Kennedy. We use music by Breakmaster. Cylinder Today Explained is distributed by WNYC and the show is a part of the Vox Media Podcast network. For more podcast.voxmedia.com listen ad free by signing [e-mail] members I'm Noel King. It's Today Explained. We all do it. You have a night for yourself, but don't like the sound of the silence.

[Lana Issa]

So you turn on the TV just for the ambiance.

[Noel King]

It's a little trick that helps you feel like you've got company and aren't alone.

[Faith Hill]

And other insurers, well, they may make

[Noel King]

you feel alone, but when you switch

[Lana Issa]

to geico, you've got claims reps available

[Faith Hill]

around the clock, so whenever you need, you'll have people around to help.

[Noel King]

And let's turn on the washing machine

[Lana Issa]

just for good measure.

[Faith Hill]

Isn't that soothing? It feels good to have support.

[Podcast Announcer]

It feels good to geico.

[Noel King]

Support for this show comes from Fetchpet Insurance.

[Faith Hill]

Do you have a pet?

[Noel King]

Every six seconds, a pet owner in the US gets hit with a vet bill of over $1,000 and it's almost always an unwelcome surprise. That's where Fetch pet insurance comes in. Fetch is the most complete pet insurance get paid back up to 90% of vet bills. You can use any vet in the US and Canada. All vets are in network. Go to fetchpet.comsave right now for your free quote. That's fetchpet.comsave.