Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Cheers was a sitcom hit in the 80s thanks to a theme tune
promising that the fictional bar was a place "where everybody
knows you name". Venues like pubs - away from our homes and
workplaces - are vital for building our social networks and
making our lives richer, easier and more fun.  


But these so-called "Third Places" are in danger. Neighborhood
hangouts are closing and membership of clubs, associations and
unions is falling. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam has
been watching this worrying decline across a lifetime and warns
that we need to act before it's too late.  


Robert is author of Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of
American Community and The Upswing: How America Came Together a
Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again. He also inspired the
2023 film Join or Die. 


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