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‘There are real consequences to our physical and mental health’

Katty Kay speaks to Dr Vivek Murthy, former US Surgeon-General about the challenge posed by loneliness and isolation in the modern world.

Dr. Murthy, the first person of Indian descent in the post, was appointed during the second Obama administration. He then returned in 2021, serving until the beginning of this year.

The Surgeon-General’s job is to provide the American public with the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and reduce the risk of illness and injury. They also oversee the country’s 6,000 public health professionals who respond to national health threats and public health crises.

It was during his second term, under the Biden administration, that Dr. Murthy first started expressing concern about the impact of social media on the mental health and wellbeing of young people. He described the loneliness epidemic of social isolation as a risk to public health akin to smoking and diabetes.

In this interview, he examines the scale of the challenge posed by loneliness and how artificial intelligence, or AI, on the one hand is being used to tackle it, but may also be simultaneously adding to the problem.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the Â鶹Éç. You can listen on the Â鶹Éç World Service, Mondays and Wednesdays at 0700 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out twice a week on Â鶹Éç Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Katty Kay
Producers: Ben Cooper, Aiden Johnson and Ilyas Kirmani
Editor: Justine Lang

Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewÂ鶹Éç on social media.

(Image: Surgeon General Vivek Murthy Credit: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)