Loneliness is a universal experience, for each of us at some point in our lives. Journalist Ros Thomas travelled the world to investigate, and find the antidote.

Ros spent a year travelling around the world to research something all of us have experienced — loneliness.

She met an old man who had learned to thrive through crushing grief with the help of a small, desktop robot.

Ros visited a share house in Sweden where pensioners live with young asylum seekers, who care for each other like grandparents and grandchildren.

And she explored her own early and devastating experience of loneliness — when her father abandoned the family when Ros was a tiny child.

This episode of Conversations touches on loneliness, isolation, being a friend, social connection, community modern history, life story, fatherhood, absent fathers, personal stories, family dynamics, fathers, solutions to loneliness, the loneliness epidemic, Churchill Fellowship and connection.

Robin MacDonald is a coach and we talk about what coaching is and what it can do for you