Following on the heels of the successful Narrative Medicine Colloquium plan, I  have submitted a proposal to the Duke Institute for Health Innovation pilot projects program, for a Voices of Duke Health listening booth and podcast.

I want people - staff and visitor alike- to leave Duke Health thinking, "They listened to me."

Erin read my proposal, and had me listen to Really Long Distance, a segment from This American Life, about a "phone booth in Japan that attracts thousands of people who lost loved ones in the 2011 tsunami and earthquake."

In the Harvard Business Review, former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy writes about the loneliness epidemic and the workplace.

At work, loneliness reduces task performance, limits creativity, and impairs other aspects of executive function such as reasoning and decision making. For our health and our work, it is imperative that we address the loneliness epidemic quickly.

I finished reading that article, which urges companies to  "create opportunities to learn about your colleagues's personal lives," after I submitted my Voices proposal. I think I'm onto something.