This wonderful programme explored what loneliness can do to a person, but also for a person
• Theory of Everything
• Lauren Laverne
There are things we are happy to talk about all the time – immigration, for instance (though a broad swath of the media and political class will insist they can't), or climate change (ditto). But are we talking enough about loneliness and the equal-but-not-necessarily-the-same phenomenon of aloneness? *Benjamen Walker's **Theory of Everything podcast* was happy to take a look. This week's episode was titled, When You're Lonely, Life is Very Long, and it was wonderful, although considering the content, the description might seem too effervescent somehow.
Writer Olivia Laing, adrift in New York a few years back, explored what loneliness can do to a person, but also for a person. "A solidarity of the solitary," she called it, as she described a wordless encounter with a homeless man in a cafe in the city. She followed loneliness down its dark rabbit hole, noting its connection with artists. "Our classic sense of somebody who is extremely lonely is the hoarder," she said, studying the lives of artists Henry Darger and Andy Warhol, both noted hoarders. "There is something of a gift in loneliness," she decided.
"You grow up when you leave behind your roommates or move out of your parents' home," said sociologist Eric Klinenberg. Forget marriage and kids as the marker of adulthood, aloneness is a modern rite of passage, but it requires certain conditions, such as a welfare system. "It is our interdependence that makes our independence possible," he concluded. He has a book out, naturally.
The most fascinating segment belonged to Danish photographer Tina Enghoff, who spent years photographing the homes of people who had died alone – and whose bodies remained undiscovered for weeks. "Even the flies died, so you know we are talking a long time here," she said grimly of one such apartment.
Best guest of the week: Neneh Cherry. Back with a new album, Blank Project, she played a storming live session on *Lauren Laverne's show* (6 Music), despite the case of bronchitis that had her hacking part-way through the interview. Later, she popped up on Field Day radio with *Tom Baker* (no, not that one), sandwiched between tracks by Don Cherry and Marvin Gaye, chatty on her Buffalo Stance days. Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.
• Theory of Everything
• Lauren Laverne
There are things we are happy to talk about all the time – immigration, for instance (though a broad swath of the media and political class will insist they can't), or climate change (ditto). But are we talking enough about loneliness and the equal-but-not-necessarily-the-same phenomenon of aloneness? *Benjamen Walker's **Theory of Everything podcast* was happy to take a look. This week's episode was titled, When You're Lonely, Life is Very Long, and it was wonderful, although considering the content, the description might seem too effervescent somehow.
Writer Olivia Laing, adrift in New York a few years back, explored what loneliness can do to a person, but also for a person. "A solidarity of the solitary," she called it, as she described a wordless encounter with a homeless man in a cafe in the city. She followed loneliness down its dark rabbit hole, noting its connection with artists. "Our classic sense of somebody who is extremely lonely is the hoarder," she said, studying the lives of artists Henry Darger and Andy Warhol, both noted hoarders. "There is something of a gift in loneliness," she decided.
"You grow up when you leave behind your roommates or move out of your parents' home," said sociologist Eric Klinenberg. Forget marriage and kids as the marker of adulthood, aloneness is a modern rite of passage, but it requires certain conditions, such as a welfare system. "It is our interdependence that makes our independence possible," he concluded. He has a book out, naturally.
The most fascinating segment belonged to Danish photographer Tina Enghoff, who spent years photographing the homes of people who had died alone – and whose bodies remained undiscovered for weeks. "Even the flies died, so you know we are talking a long time here," she said grimly of one such apartment.
Best guest of the week: Neneh Cherry. Back with a new album, Blank Project, she played a storming live session on *Lauren Laverne's show* (6 Music), despite the case of bronchitis that had her hacking part-way through the interview. Later, she popped up on Field Day radio with *Tom Baker* (no, not that one), sandwiched between tracks by Don Cherry and Marvin Gaye, chatty on her Buffalo Stance days. Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.