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This Is Now: Friendship in the Age of Loneliness

Research has shown that people with close friends are happier, healthier, and live longer than people who lack strong social bonds. Despite this, the average American hasn’t made a new friend in the past five years.

Why— when we are seemingly more connected than ever before— can it feel so difficult to create and maintain strong friendships? Why do we spend only four percent of our time with friends?

Millennial workplace expert and friendship visionary Adam "Smiley" Poswolsky proposes a new solution for the mounting pressures of this modern life: focus on your friendships.

In an hour-long interview with journalist-in-residence Angie Coiro about Friendship in the Age of Loneliness, this wonderful author offers practical habits and playful reminders on how to create meaningful connections, make new friends, and deepen relationships. Smiley will help you revisit your relationship with technology, encourage you to prioritize real-world experiences, send snail mail, and really see your friends. In doing this, he shares the key to a good life—a happier, healthier, longer, richer life.

Written in short, digestible, action-oriented sections, this book reminds us that nurturing old and new friendships is a ritual, a necessity, and one of the most worthwhile things we can do.

"Smiley is a friendship visionary, snatching friendship out of the once-a-month-happy-hour box we tend to place it in and teaching us how to pump our friendships with fresh life. At our core we are social, but technology has alienated us from our roots. Smiley brings us back home."

— Dr. Marisa Franco, psychologist and friendship expert

"With loneliness looming as one of the greatest public health concerns of our era, Adam Smiley Poswolsky has written an antidote that is right on time. ”

— Julie Lythcott-Haims

**Please consider joining with a book or donation to support the production of this event and make it possible for us to continue bringing you great conversations. Registration will close one hour before the event; please reserve your spot early to guarantee access, as registrations are limited.**