Together, Vivek H. Murthy
Together, Vivek H. Murthy
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Together
The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World

Author: Vivek H. Murthy

Narrator: Vivek H. Murthy

Unabridged: 10 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 04/07/2020


Synopsis

The book we need NOW to avoid a social recession, Murthy’s prescient message is about the importance of human connection, the hidden impact of loneliness on our health, and the social power of community.Humans are social creatures: In this simple and obvious fact lies both the problem and the solution to the current crisis of loneliness. In his groundbreaking book, the 19th surgeon general of the United States Dr. Vivek Murthy makes a case for loneliness as a public health concern: a root cause and contributor to many of the epidemics sweeping the world today from alcohol and drug addiction to violence to depression and anxiety. Loneliness, he argues, is affecting not only our health, but also how our children experience school, how we perform in the workplace, and the sense of division and polarization in our society.But, at the center of our loneliness is our innate desire to connect. We have evolved to participate in community, to forge lasting bonds with others, to help one another, and to share life experiences. We are, simply, better together.
The lessons in Together have immediate relevance and application. These four key strategies will help us not only to weather this crisis, but also to heal our social world far into the future.
Spend time each day with those you love. Devote at least 15 minutes each day to connecting with those you most care about.Focus on each other. Forget about multitasking and give the other person the gift of your full attention, making eye contact, if possible, and genuinely listening.Embrace solitude. The first step toward building stronger connections with others is to build a stronger connection with oneself. Meditation, prayer, art, music, and time spent outdoors can all be sources of solitary comfort and joy.Help and be helped. Service is a form of human connection that reminds us of our value and purpose in life. Checking on a neighbor, seeking advice, even just offering a smile to a stranger six feet away, all can make us stronger. During Murthy’s tenure as Surgeon General and during the research for Together, he found that there were few issues that elicited as much enthusiastic interest from both very conservative and very liberal members of Congress, from young and old people, or from urban and rural residents alike. Loneliness was something so many people have known themselves or have seen in the people around them. In the book, Murthy also shares his own deeply personal experiences with the subject--from struggling with loneliness in school, to the devastating loss of his uncle who succumbed to his own loneliness, as well as the important example of community and connection that his parents modeled. Simply, it’s a universal condition that affects all of us directly or through the people we love—now more than ever.

About Vivek H. Murthy

Dr. Vivek H. Murthy served as the 19th Surgeon General of the United States appointed by President Barack Obama.  As the Vice Admiral of the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, he commanded a uniformed service of 6,600 public health officers globally. During his tenure, Dr. Murthy launched the TurnTheTide campaign, catalyzing a movement among health professionals to address the nation’s opioid crisis. He also issued the first Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health, calling for expanded access to prevention and treatment and for recognizing addiction as a chronic illness, not a character flaw. An internal medicine physician and entrepreneur, Dr. Murthy has co-founded a number of organizations: VISIONS, an HIV/AIDS education program in India; Swasthya, a community health partnership in rural India training women as health providers and educators; software company TrialNetworks; and Doctors for America. Dr. Murthy received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard and his M.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Yale. He completed his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and later joined Harvard Medical School as faculty in internal medicine. His research focused on vaccine development and later on the participation of women and minorities in clinical trials.  Dr. Murthy resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife and two young children.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Hannah on January 31, 2025

something missing After a while, I started wondering if something was wrong with me because I like being alone and being on my own, and I rarely feel lonely. I kept wondering if I’m supposed to be lonelier. I felt like an outlier in the book. I began to question if I should go back into therapy to ex......more

Goodreads review by Peter on May 09, 2021

Vivek Murthy was the US Surgeon General from 2014 to 2017. After his term had ended, he decided to write a book about one of the main health scourges he had encountered while travelling around the country. Not smoking, or the opioid crisis, but loneliness. Murthy was shocked by the number of lonely p......more

Goodreads review by Leah on July 12, 2020

Good book, very anecdotal, lots of stories... Talks about how COVID right now is changing us and the social needs that we have as humans. It's made me more empathetic and understanding to people that suffer from loneliness and the lack of human social connection. Connection is so important to our live......more

Goodreads review by Paul on June 11, 2020

Heavy on theory, light on the practical. I was impressed by this former US Surgeon General on a Freakanomics podcast promoting this book about the epidemic of loneliness in the world. He’s surely doing a public service by shining the light and lightening the stigma from something that’s very real an......more

Goodreads review by Mark on May 23, 2020

I’ve given this book a low rating mainly for the structure and format of the writing, not necessarily the content itself. The content is fine (little new information here if you’ve read anything on the topic previously), but the structure of chapters renders the book sinfully dull. I think this coul......more