{"id":7247,"date":"2026-06-10T12:33:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T16:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/?p=7247"},"modified":"2026-06-10T12:33:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T16:33:23","slug":"former-senator-ben-sasse-sounds-alarm-over-male-loneliness-epidemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2026\/06\/former-senator-ben-sasse-sounds-alarm-over-male-loneliness-epidemic.html","title":{"rendered":"Former Senator Ben Sasse Sounds Alarm Over Male Loneliness Epidemic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gage Skidmore \/ Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ben Sasse may have left his position as a Nebraska Senator, but that hasn\u2019t stopped him from trying to serve the public. Now, he\u2019s bringing attention to what he sees as a growing epidemic of loneliness amongst young men. Sasse brought up his concerns in a 90-minute interview<\/a> during The Trinity Forum in Washington, DC. Sasse cited data that shows the number of people who state they have no close friends has quadrupled since the 1990s. He noted a particular disparity among men, with\u00a0a study<\/a>\u00a0by Harvard professor Arthur C. Brooks that found that amongst 60-year-old men, 60% referred to their wife as their best friend, while only 30% of women said the same. \u201cAnd what’s obvious in that data is that women are better than men, on average, at forming new friendships when disruption occurs. And men are much less good, on average, at forming new friendships when disruption occurs. And we’re entering a world where disruption is going to be ubiquitous,\u201d\u00a0he warned.<\/p>\n

Facing death from his stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis, Sasse shared his gratitude for the male friendships that have come alongside him. Yet he said friendships like the ones he\u2019s formed are becoming rarer. \u201cThere’s no thickness that binds you together like something that feels more foxhole-ish, because you really needed each other. So, the richer we get, the stranger it will be to have lasting friendships,\u201d he said. He warned that as more people delay marriage and starting families, it delays formation of deep relationships, which sometimes means they may never come.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Sasse has discussed the impact of loneliness on the nation. In 2018, he published Them: Why We Hate Each Other \u2014 and How to Heal<\/em><\/a>. The book focused on what he described as the \u201cthe evaporation of social capital\u201d \u2014 the satisfactions of work and community.\u00a0In the book, Sasse discussed that despite technology allowing more connection than ever through social media, it has become a false connectedness, with loneliness becoming the nation\u2019s \u201cnumber one health crisis.\u201d\u00a0One example of a loss of connection in society is a loss of a shared culture. When there was less TV programming, it wasn\u2019t uncommon for as many as 70% of US families to watch programs like \u201cI Love Lucy.\u201d The plethora of options in today\u2019s society, however, means that even the most popular shows are only capturing a small percentage of the nation. For Sasse, the solution is rebuilding the American social infrastructure, where community and hospitality once again become normalized. What that will look like, particularly for young men, remains to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben Sasse may have left his position as a Nebraska Senator, but that hasn\u2019t stopped him from trying to serve the public. Now, he\u2019s bringing attention to what he sees as a growing epidemic of loneliness amongst young men. Sasse brought up his concerns in a 90-minute interview during The Trinity Forum in Washington, DC.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":7250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFormer Senator Ben Sasse Sounds Alarm Over Male Loneliness Epidemic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ben Sasse warns of a loneliness epidemic among young men, urging renewed friendship, family and community to rebuild social ties today\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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