Episode 200

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Published on:

15th Apr 2026

Why Is the Most Connected Generation Also the Most Lonely?

Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave Conley ask Kathryn what today’s moment will teach future generations and what scares or gives her hope; she cites AI, future access to clean water, and especially human connection, arguing technology and social media can both unite communities and isolate people into judgmental, exclusionary spaces, reducing empathy. She describes small acts of community—like baking muffins for neighbors—that led to reciprocal connection, and says everyone can create community by reaching out. In a lightning round, she predicts the four-year degree won’t be the default by 2035, says hiring is more about who you know than certifications, and that hobbies teach more than jobs. They discuss parents’ pre-phone era, using history to avoid repeating mistakes, “protopia,” and later the hosts reflect on phones, social media addiction, climate change claims, and cultural separations versus community.

Timestamps:

  • (00:00) From 27 looking ahead to 45 – human connection scares and inspires more than AI or clean water
  • (05:09) Four-year degree won’t be default by 2035 – hiring will favor who you know over certifications
  • (09:36) Hobbies teach more than most jobs – parents’ pre-phone era shows what we lost
  • (18:01) Small acts like baking muffins create reciprocal community – anyone can start by simply reaching out

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Transcript
Alex:

Two things can be simultaneously true: the most connected generation

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in history is also the loneliest—and

Kathryn has been holding BOTH of those

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facts at once the entire conversation.

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Now she says which one wins.

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Dave: So I now I know you have

a love of history so many of.

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So, so much of work was decided because

of moments in history, decisions that

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were made in 19 44, 19 78, 19 94, 2008.

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When you look at where we

are right now and imagining

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yourself 45, at at 45, not 27.

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Like, what are we gonna be looking

back and learning from today?

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What's, what's the, what's,

what's today look like for you?

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And, what, what scares you?

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What gives you hope?

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Kathryn: I think, I think what scares

me a little bit is, it's definitely.

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AI to an extent.

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seeing robots walk, walk with

our first lady down, that,

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that's a little frightening.

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I think access to, to clean

water scares me in the future.

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Is that gonna happen?

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I don't know.

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and I think also like the biggest thing

that simultaneously gives me hope and

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gives me fear, depending on which way it

falls out, is, is like human connection

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Dave: Hmm.

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Kathryn: Like, we've seen obviously

how social media and, and just

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technology in general has exponentially

grown in the last 20 years.

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Like even, And how it's

brought communities together

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that would never be together.

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How it's also absorbed people into, an

insular space or like a judgmental one.

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Like one where, and I've seen especially

like more gen, gen Z folks of like,

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you don't belong in this community,

you don't belong in this space.

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You're not allowed here.

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This is reserved for us.

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And to, to an extent for that.

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There is like, yeah, I get it.

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Like, this is for you, and, and there

should be spaces for people to be, but,

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but I think we've gotten so intense.

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Maybe this, I'm sure that's definitely

controversial, but we've gotten

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so, I guess blame me or just.

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Protective over who we are and where

we are and what our thoughts are,

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that there's not a lot of empathy

and there's not a lot of community.

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I think if there's one thing that I

learned from my degree, from all of

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my learning, and also just living

in life and in my community that

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I have, is just the value of, of.

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Being empathetic of, of sharing what

you've got, like to whatever extent,

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showing up for people, giving them your

time, giving people extra food, like, and,

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and this is like for anyone, I mean, I,

I like at the beginning of the summer.

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It's funny, speaking of community,

my friend, I'm going on a tangent

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here, but my friend, she sends out a

monthly newsletter it, she mails it

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to everyone, which is like so awesome

to receive mail For me, that's like,

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I'm excited to open and not just

another credit card advertisement.

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And she includes like little articles.

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she writes it all herself.

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One month she, she wrote something

entirely in code and we all

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had to decipher her code in

order to read that newsletter.

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Like she's a genius.

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but one of them was at the beginning

of the summer last year, and it was a

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summer bucket list, and it was just like.

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Learn a new skill, learn a trick, go

jump into a body of water, whatever.

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And this like totally

open to interpretation.

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You can do whatever you want.

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And then one of the items on

the list was like, give back

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to your community in some way.

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And, I decided to make

muffins for my neighbors and

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I just put 'em at their door.

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And then I came home a couple of

weeks later, to find my neighbor

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downstairs who I'd never talked

to and also famous for New York to

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never interact with your neighbors.

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She gave me, a handmade beeswax

candle that her mom made.

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and it was just so sweet.

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She gave me a nice note.

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She said like, let's hang out whenever.

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and there was just like.

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Obviously a feeling like, oh, I know

these people now and they know me

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and I've shared something with them,

they've shared something with me.

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And I think that is, I wanna

see more of that in the future.

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And I think that there are communities

that are going in that direction.

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There are communities

that are already there.

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But, I would love to see

people kind of adopt.

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that mentality and I, I'm looking

forward to that and I'm, I'm gonna

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try and push for that to whatever

poss possible extent I can.

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And I also think that that is

something that is so easily

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controllable in everyone's lives.

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Everyone can reach out to someone,

everyone can create that community.

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Mm-hmm.

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Jerremy: love that so much.

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All right, Kathryn we're gonna

hit you with some lightning round.

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Kathryn: Okay.

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Hit.

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Jerremy: listened to a million podcasts.

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You know how this works.

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Faults, the four year degree is

still the default path in:

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Kathryn: False

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Jerremy: I hope so too.

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Kathryn: VI two.

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Jerremy: sentence.

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The thing companies do not

want job seekers to know is,

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Kathryn: it doesn't matter

what training you have.

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Jerremy: yeah, used to say all the

time, I was like, it's all about who you

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know, and it's all about who knows you.

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I.

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Kathryn: Yeah.

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Jerremy: And

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Kathryn: Doesn't matter what

certification you've got.

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Jerremy: A big one.

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That's a

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Kathryn: Yeah.

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Jerremy: Holy smokes.

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Okay.

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What teaches you more about

yourself, your job, or your hobbies?

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Kathryn: Hobbies.

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Jerremy: Finish this sentence.

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deal my parents had was

better than mine because?

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Kathryn: Because they had, they

had more time and they had less.

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Phones.

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They had less phones, less

internet, less access to each other.

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Like it was like you just called someone

up and asked them to meet somewhere

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and then they would, you would just

hope that they would meet you there.

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That's crazy to me.

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Like how, what did you guys do?

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Dave: we literally just left a, I mean, we

would really just call them and be like.

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Hey, let's meet at the mall.

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And that, that was it.

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No,

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Kathryn: That's amazing.

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I was rewatching,

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Dave: each other.

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Yeah.

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Kathryn: I was rewatching

Mad Men, a few months ago.

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I love that show so much and it, I, I

mean, it's crazy to me that you just

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like couldn't get ahold of someone

if you didn't have a phone near you.

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You had to locate one and, and

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Dave: the crazy

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Kathryn: didn't know where you were.

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Dave: Totally.

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And, and on top of that, even if you

called somebody like they might be

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on the phone, so it could be busy.

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Like you still, you would,

it was like, it's busy.

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It's like you'd have to call back.

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It's crazy.

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Jerremy: What a world.

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Dave: the deal your parents had is that

they didn't have phones, which I, I love.

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but what, what makes your deal better?

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Kathryn: I think our deal, I mean, maybe

this is a cop out answer, but we have

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more time on, we have the reverse of time.

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I'm, I'm using time in different

context, but we have more history, more

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knowledge of what happened before us.

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We have their context

now, which I think is.

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Is helpful.

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It is really helpful right now.

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Jerremy: Yep.

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Kathryn: I think we've, and the counter

to it all is we have the access, we

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have it all at our fingertips now,

just a matter of what we do with it.

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But, but we've got it all here,

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Jerremy: yeah.

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Great answer.

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Great answer.

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There's a book called.

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Progress that I read and, and it's

essentially about kinda like what you

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just referred to of like, Hey man,

let's use all the history of the path,

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the past just make everything better.

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It's like, it's, it's history guys.

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It's not, it actually happened.

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So take some information and.

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Analyze it and go, let's not

make those mistakes again.

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What do you think about that?

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Like, that didn't work.

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Like we know it didn't work.

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Kathryn: Yeah.

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Jerremy: like, I don't know, like

invading a Middle East country, like,

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Kathryn: Right.

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Dave: What a,

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idea.

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Kathryn: Almost like we

shouldn't do that one again.

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Jerremy: yeah, like how many,

how many times that worked?

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never, not what, so

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Kathryn: Yeah.

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Jerremy: again.

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Kathryn: Alright.

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Mm-hmm.

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Jerremy: So fun.

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Dave: think the word you're, I just

think the word you're looking for.

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I always love the idea of Utopia.

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It's like everything's amazing and

it's actually a little creepy when

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I think about it, but the word I got

turned onto was Protopia, and that

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Kathryn: Ooh.

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Dave: the world a little bit

better than you found it.

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Kathryn: Mm-hmm.

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That's awesome.

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Yep.

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Jerremy: Yeah,

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Kathryn: That's it.

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Jerremy: I'll dig that.

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Kathryn you're the legend.

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Thank you so much for popping on and

for being here and giving our listeners

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insights and wisdom into your life and

the life of so many other individuals that

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just are going to resonate with message

and your voice, and your experiences.

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So thank you.

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Kathryn: Thank you for talking to me.

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This has been really fun

and really appreciate all

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the, all the good questions.

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This was really awesome.

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Loved it.

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Jerremy: Freaking dope.

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You rock.

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Thanks so much.

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Kathryn: Thank you.

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Dave: What did you learn?

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Jerremy: Phones are the

bane of our existence.

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That's what I learned.

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Dave: Right.

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Jerremy: Dog Kathryn's over here.

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Like, phone sucks.

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Social media sucks.

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Like I feel you.

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I I mean, it's, who was the

guest recently that was like, we

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shouldn't, we, I, we shouldn't

have social media for a long time.

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Like we should kind of ban it like

he was pro banning social media.

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And I'm over here like, yeah, I, I get it.

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like.

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We kind of should in a way

or, or do something with it.

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I don't know, make it more

of a barrier to entry.

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But I mean, then of course like then

you're telling private companies what

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they can and cannot do with their time

and their resources, and so I get that.

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It's like, man, whew.

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Social media, dopamine and

the addiction to devices dog.

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That is, that is the downfall

of humanity right now.

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there's a, I actually need

to rewatch this movie.

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I, I've been thinking about a lot.

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I, I'm gonna try to hit, hit it

up this weekend, maybe even today.

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there's one of the time machine

movies, there's been a bunch, right?

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There's one that's, there's one

that's time machine movies, and

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the guy goes super far into the

future, he falls asleep, right?

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Or whatever.

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And.

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It's the accelerator, right?

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This zooms forth.

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And so he, he goes to this world

and it's our world, whatever,

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a thousand years in the future.

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And there's these monsters that like that

run around that are humanoid monster,

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like they're humanesque looking, but their

necks are like huge rolled over things.

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Because they were always looking

down at their phones and like,

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we, we, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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We end up, right?

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Like as human civilization, we end

up evolving to like a different

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skeletal structure because we

always look down our phones.

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Aren like, yeah, bro.

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Exactly.

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The face you're making to our

listeners, Dave's like cringing.

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Dave: tell me

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Jerremy: a

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Dave: that is.

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I'll watch it too, and we'll

do a movie review next week.

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God, that is freakish.

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I thought you were gonna say Idiocracy,

and I'm like, yeah, that's a,

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Jerremy: Greatest film of all time.

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And it's literally a, it, it,

dude, it's a documentary homie.

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It is crazy to me.

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Crazy.

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I, I actually thought of that movie

when Kathryn was talking 'cause

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she's like, yeah, our friend.

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Yeah, our friends, they're awesome

and they're amazing and they're

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not really having a lot of kids.

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I'm like, dang it.

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'cause Yeah, bro is like,

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Dave: I asked that.

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I was

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Jerremy: I, I know.

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Dave: you making babies?

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I

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Jerremy: Yeah.

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Dave: your mother wants babies.

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Uh, you to have babies.

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Jerremy: Yeah, dude.

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Exactly.

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It is like we all need, we all need to be

pumping out of 4,700 kids because we're

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actually great parents and we love and

we care and all the things and, and we're

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not 'cause we need to have jobs and money.

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And then the people that have no jobs

and money that we're supporting, other

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tax benefits are making all the babies.

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And it's like that, that is a movie,

a videocracy and it's like spot on.

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Dave: Oh my God.

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Jerremy: Crazy.

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Crazy.

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Anyway, wild, wild talent.

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What about you, man?

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What did you learn or what'd

you hear, or what'd you see?

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Dave: Yeah, I wrote down

the phones thing too.

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Um, but she all, you know, like the.

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Is the right word, duality of

it, like the pros and the con

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or like the, the dark side.

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And the light side of it was, was also

she said, you know, like, we're also the

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most connected and most well-informed.

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And I'm like, oh wow.

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Yeah.

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True, true dad.

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And but at what cost?

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Because she also said, know, like the

things that really, really concern her.

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Well, one was climate and I, I, I know

we're gonna have a great series on,

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on climate and climate change and the

rest of it, like, I think a lot of

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people, well, you know, like most people

would say, yeah, of course, you know,

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man is having, what do they call it?

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Anthropomorphic, anthrop.

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I don't know, man, man is definitely

causing change to the world.

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Right.

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Jerremy: Yeah.

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Dave: I think the, the debate has

always been, it's like, well, how much?

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And then, and then what do we do about it?

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And you know, like there's a.

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it gets religious, which is problematic.

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Right?

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And then you get, you know, so

anyways, but she's like, it's really

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drilled into her like, I'm, I'm,

I shouldn't live on the coasts.

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And I'm like, well, turns out

every political leader who's made

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any money has a beachfront place.

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So like, really?

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Who are you gonna, who

are you gonna listen to?

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You're gonna listen to Barack Obama who

was, who was preaching climate change,

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who has a place on the beach or even.

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Jerremy: Yeah,

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Dave: President Al Gore

lives on the beach in Malibu.

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So tell me, tell me again about

how much he actually believes

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in, in, in climate change.

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Jerremy: bro, that's a flipping great.

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Wow.

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Dave: right,

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Jerremy: Wow.

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Do we even need a series on it?

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I think you just solved it

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Dave: yeah,

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Jerremy: kind of, right?

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Kind of.

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Dave: yeah,

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Jerremy: Um.

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Dave: it's a.

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It's, it's, it's politically elite

and elitist to really talk about

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those things and not talk about the

things that actually make a difference

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as far as like, you know, our, our

globe and what things are going on.

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And she also talked about sort of like

the, what was interesting is that she

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not only put value on like separateness,

like those people, I'm gonna use it,

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you know, kind of using her words.

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It's like those people need

their own space and place.

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And I, I'm thinking that it.

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What she was talking about was, you know,

like groups breaking off, you know, it's

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like, okay, we need the, you know, we

need a, um, a, uh, special interest group

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around, you know, LGBT or, or, you know,

based on skin color or that kind of stuff.

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Um, and like she, she grew up in a lot

of that, and I think that there's been

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a big backlash to that, so, in that.

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You know, like that also creates

a separation that I think

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rubs people the wrong way and

causes a lot of issues as well.

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and you know, like that's something

I didn't really grow up with.

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Like we, I didn't really think about

like, you know, those people over there.

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It was sort of like the group humanity.

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But then she, she coupled that

with the desire for more community.

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So it's that, that those inherent

contradictions that I keep

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hearing, which is like, okay.

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Climate change and I shouldn't,

you know, uh, live on the coasts.

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And oh, by the way, well, the rich people

are living on the coasts and you know,

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like we have all the information and

we're totally connected via our phones.

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And phones are a huge problem

and we want more community.

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But we have community, but we don't.

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So like there's this, there's

this inherent like, um.

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Confusion isn't the right word.

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Uh, there is a duality.

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There's, there's like, she is so smart.

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She's keeping separate things

that are true to her, that

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feel like polar opposites to me

in her head at the same time.

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And it makes sense.

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And so I'm, I'm learning

like, what is her language?

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Like what's the internalness of

that and what does that mean?

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I don't know.

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I, I, like, there's a, there's more

questions by what she brought up

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than answers for me, and I like that.

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Jerremy: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I dig that man.

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I dig that.

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I dig U DC Conley.

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We're gonna watch the time

machine soon, just sent into

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the IMBD, got a six out of 10.

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Fun fact, I, I used to have a drinking

game with my buddies where we would rake,

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uh, A-I-N-B-D movie and for every point

you got off, you would drink a beer.

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And so we play like, so it, it would

count, like if you said like a 6.7

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and it got a seven, that's 0.3

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points, right?

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So it's a point, it's a third of a beer

and so you play it like with 10 games.

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Uh, 10 rounds or whatever, and

then, you know, so like, that's,

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that was the game that we played.

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Dave: Love it.

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Jerremy: So let, let's see if you can

guess what, let's see if you can guess

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what, what did it get on a one to 10,

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Dave: what's that?

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Jerremy: the time machine.

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Let's see if you can guess.

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You gotta play the game.

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What did it get on A one from a one to 10.

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Dave: Oh, I would say a solid eight.

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When

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:

Jerremy: right, that's

two beers for Dave Conley.

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:

I got a six

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:

Dave: Oh, I got a six.

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:

Jerremy: there.

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:

You.

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Dave: well my challenge is I

will definitely watch this.

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:

We will definitely come back

and do a, a movie review on it.

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We'll do a special drop in.

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:

Jerremy: Cool.

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:

Dave: my challenge to you is, uh, to find,

uh, the, like the:

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There was, there was, there was one

back in my day that I watched, so I

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wanna, I kind of wanna kind of wanna

do this like back to, yeah, they had

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:

movies way back when, but you know.

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We

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Jerremy: That's,

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Dave: and those were a pain in the ass.

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Jerremy: yeah.

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Send, send that to watch that one.

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Dave: Yeah.

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All right.

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Cool.

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:

All right.

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Wrap us up.

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Jerremy: So listeners, team,

family, friends, fans from around

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:

that globe, which is round.

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:

We're heading back to the moon.

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That needs to be something

we gotta talk about too.

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Good grief.

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There's so many cool things happening

and also so many wild things happening.

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:

So many insane things happening,

but it's all happening.

428

:

Life is beautiful.

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:

Life is delicious.

430

:

It's what we make it.

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:

It's what we think and what we

believe and what we perceive.

432

:

Thank you so much for listening to another

episode of Solving America's Problems.

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:

Give us a five star review, please,

and thank you and share this episode in

434

:

any other episodes with your friends,

your family, and on the social media

435

:

thing, because apparently that's what

people do and that's how they hang out

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:

and that's how they consume content.

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We wanna be great content for the

world of the people that do consume it.

438

:

Thank you for listening.

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:

Have an amazing rest of

your day, night, week, year.

440

:

The sun is always shining somewhere.

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About the Podcast

Solving America's Problems
Solving America’s Problems isn’t just a podcast—it’s a journey. Co-host Jerremy Newsome, a successful entrepreneur and educator, is pursuing his lifelong dream of running for president. Along the way, he and co-host Dave Conley bring together experts, advocates, and everyday Americans to explore the real, actionable solutions our country needs.

With dynamic formats—one-on-one interviews, panel discussions, and more—we cut through the noise of divisive rhetoric to uncover practical ideas that unite instead of divide. If you’re ready to think differently, act boldly, and join a movement for meaningful change, subscribe now.