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On a 2025 episode of the “What Now? with Trevor Noah” podcast, Noah’s guest was Robert Putnam, the Harvard professor who published the classic Bowling Alone 25 years ago.
It was relevant then and even more relevant today. Putnam shows how civic life has eroded badly in the United States. “Social capital,” or the civic trust and bonding we once had, has plummeted. He uses the decline of bowling leagues as a central metaphor: Americans still bowl, but increasingly alone rather than in organized leagues of groups coming together to do an activity.
The show unpacked how Trump exploited social isolation in the 2024 election by creating a new club of sorts. He made millions of disenchanted people, across demographic lines, feel heard. From the white nationalists to unchurched Black men without a college degree, he wanted, as Noah noted, to just dance with people at a rally and not talk about public policy.
Trump offered belonging. Democracy should too. The social/interpersonal bonds are what keep the “bowling league” together, committed, and in it for the long haul.
The collective we–Democrats, Republicans, and Independents– should carve out a small amount of time regularly -an hour a week or month—to make sure we’re doing something together—not just complaining about the state of affairs on social media.
Putnam’s career argument is the urgent need, as a whole society, to restore bonding and bridging experiences with other people outside of your silo. His prescription to restore the modern day bowling league–not literally but the utility of it– includes three action steps:
(1) Go young. It will be the Millennial and Gen Z generations that figure out the new bowling league, likely a mix of IRL and new tech platforms.
(2) Go local. Needs to happen where people live, so they can have common problems and solutions.
(3) Go moral. Universal morality like the Golden Rule or another tenet that is about the civic “we,” not “me, me, me.”
Reconnecting people to each other is the required pretext to reviving Americans' sense of civic duty, and a more respectful — and productive– agenda for government.
Leaders have to take the lead, within each political party and between them. Efforts like Builders are leading the way. But ultimately Putnam's bonding and bridging has to come from us at the neighborhood and community level.