Building Real Connection in an Age of Loneliness
The search for "where to make friends" has skyrocketed 82% since 2004. Let that sink in for a moment.
In my recent conversation with Dane McCarthy, founder of The Athletic Clubs, he shared something that honestly hurt my heart: we've gone from spending nearly an hour daily with our closest friends to just 10 minutes in 2025. I don't know about you, but that feels like a crisis worth addressing.
What I love about Dane's approach is that it's simple. Rather than creating a "friendship club" (which, as he points out, is totally "cringe"), he's built a system where connection happens organically through consistency. When you join an Athletic Club "squad," you're committing to show up twice weekly with the same people and the magic of mere exposure does the rest. Those unexpected friendships that form between people who might never have connected otherwise? That's the whole point.
I think about my own trivia ‘squad’ (yes, we literally call ourselves that) that meets every Monday night in NYC – that regular touchpoint has been one of the most meaningful parts of my city life. We're all searching for this kind of real connection, and Dane's work reminds me that it doesn't have to be complicated. It just has to be consistent.
Perhaps what gives me the most hope is Dane's observation that despite what media tells us about growing division, his day-to-day experience shows something entirely different: "People are getting along. You get people around each other, they look after each other and then they support each other."
In a world desperate for glimpses of hope, these everyday moments of human connection are quietly building the future we're all longing for – one workout, one squad, one in-person interaction at a time.