Speaking

Rebuilding connection in a world designed for disconnection

We’re living through a crisis of connection. Americans are spending more time alone, reporting fewer close friendships, and feeling less connected to their neighbors and communities. While we often treat loneliness as a personal problem, much of what makes connection difficult is built into the way we live. Our neighborhoods, homes, workplaces, schedules, and technologies make it increasingly easy to move through life without really knowing the people around us.

As Executive Director of the National Cohousing Alliance, Trish Becker-Hafnor works at the intersection of housing, belonging, and social connection. Drawing on two decades of experience building and studying community, she shares lessons from cohousing, intentional communities, mutual aid, and ordinary neighborhoods about what actually helps people connect.

Audience members will leave with a new way of thinking about loneliness and belonging, along with practical ideas for creating more connection where they live, work, and gather. We don’t all need to move to an intentional community, but we can learn from people who have spent decades figuring out how to build one.

The Future of Us is a hopeful invitation to reconsider how we live and how much richer life can be when we make more room for one another.