TED Talks Daily "The minister of loneliness" | Sarah Kay
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Nov 28, 2025 
In this captivating performance, Sarah Kay, a renowned spoken-word artist, explores the whimsical concept of a 'minister of loneliness.' She imagines a world connected by tin-can telephone strings, fostering curiosity and camaraderie. Kay introduces a nationwide buddy system for accountability and shares playful social rituals that encourage communal joy. Touching on intergenerational connections, she envisions therapy as a shared service and the minister's charmingly awkward adventures in love. Ultimately, she celebrates the small wonders of human connection.
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Tin-Can Telephone Nation
- Sarah Kay imagines a Japanese minister who installs tin-can telephone lines between windows to fight loneliness nationwide.
- The poem sketches daily life after this change, from knotted conversations to shared grief and improvised visits.
Small Pairings, Big Connection
- Connection can be engineered through small, reliable pairings rather than mass digital networks.
- Sarah Kay shows how enforced proximity and simple rituals reframe loneliness as a shared, manageable problem.
Presence Over Productivity
- Prioritizing human connection can temporarily disrupt economic productivity but revives communal life.
- The poem suggests that a society focused on presence trades efficiency for sustained attention to each other.