Do you know your neighbors?

Kanika Mehra is the Gen Z. creator behind Airplane Mode - an Aspen Institute project bringing young people back to third spaces and offline connection. She came up with the idea after thinking about why gathering has become so hard, particularly for her generation. Her answer might surprise you: she believes that the paradigm for gathering has simply disappeared.

In this conversation, we talk about serendipity - the unexpected, magical connections that only happen when you're open to the world around you - and what we're losing as technology decides, in advance, who we are and what we'll find.

This Week's Analog Assignment: Leave the house with nothing but (as my mother used to say) your two long arms. Take a walk. Let the world in. See what or who finds you.

Connect with Kanika: Follow Kanika's work at the Aspen Institute's Center for Rising Generations and keep an eye out for Missed Connections - coming soon.

Subscribe to The Analog Hour wherever you listen. analoginadigitalworld.net | @analoginadigitalworld (IG)

Here's something nobody tells you about making friends as an adult: it's not that you've forgotten how. It's that nobody told you where to go.

Maggie Arai spent years answering that question. As founder of happier - a Toronto community that hosted 60+ events and grew to 10,000+ members in 18 months, and Founders Who Give a F*ck, a membership community for ambitious women founders - she's learned firsthand about what people actually need when they walk into a room full of strangers.

In this conversation, we talk about the difference between a network and a community, why consistency matters most when forming relationships, and a phrase that should be trending: social health.

This Week's Analog Assignment: Let one small interaction be enough this week. Chat with a neighbor. Skip the self-checkout and say hello to the human cashier. You don't need it to become a friendship. You just need it to happen.

Connect with Maggie: Founders Who Give a F*ck: fwgaf.com

Subscribe wherever you listen. analoginadigitalworld.net | @analoginadigitalworld (IG)

Was it always this hard to make friends?

In school, connection felt effortless. Then we graduated - and suddenly it wasn't as straightforward as it used to be.

Adele Bloch says our increasing sense of isolation can't simply be labeled as a loneliness crisis. Instead she calls it: a courage crisis.

Adele is a community builder, coach, and founder of Dining with Strangers and The Board Walks SF - a weekly Saturday morning walk series she hosted for over 100 consecutive weeks in San Francisco, bringing strangers together for deep, meaningful conversation.

After years of hosting 300+ events and coaching people through social and relationship blocks, Adele has developed a practical, warm framework for rebuilding connection as an adult - starting with one simple question: what type of connection are you actually missing?

In this conversation:

• "Ambient social connection" - what it is and why we've lost it
• Why we're in a courage crisis, not just a loneliness crisis
• The phone as social crutch - and how to get through "five seconds of courage"
• The four friendship buckets: do stuff friends, comfort friends, deep talk friends, ambient connection
• Connection as a muscle: it's not something you have or don't have

This Week's Analog Assignment: Think about Adele's four friendship buckets. Which one are you missing most? This week, take one step toward filling it. Go to one event. Text someone you've been meaning to see. Say hello to your barista/neighbor/the person you lock eyes with on the subway and actually mean it. Just one rep.

Connect with Adele:

• Website: adelebloch.com
• Instagram: @adeleblochjourney
• Twitter/X: @adele_bloch
• The Board Walks: theboardwalks.com