“Across a garden from where Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and I are sitting, people are having Sunday lunch in The River Cafe. Walking into the room you hear the rise and fall of conversation and laughter, friends and families connecting over food. At age 37 Vivek was appointed as the youngest Surgeon General of the United States by President Obama and is now serving a second term with President Biden. During Covid in his gap between terms as Surgeon General, he might have researched illnesses – cancer, heart disease and diabetes but instead he chose what he saw as another epidemic of our time- loneliness. He is a Surgeon General who sees love as a foundation for good public health. How rare to hear the word love as a solution to a diagnosis. He sees food as an antidote to loneliness, believing loneliness is like hunger and like thirst. I am privileged today to talk with and listen to the Surgeon General and to hear how as a doctor, a father, a husband a child and now my friend. Food is connection and food is love.”Listen to Ruthie’s Table 4  in partnership with Moncler – out now. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.