Robinson Crusoe

The Surprising Truth About America's Friendship Crisis

Plain English with Derek Thompson, 2 June 2026.

Laurie Santos relays historian Faye Bound Alberti's reading of Robinson Crusoe as an illustration of how the cultural meaning of solitude has changed: in that novel, being cast away was portrayed as a moment of spiritual enlightenment and self-discovery, contrasting sharply with the modern film Cast Away, where isolation drives the protagonist to madness. The contrast supports Alberti's argument that loneliness as a distressing concept is a largely 19th-century invention.

Listen to this episode ↗︎