The city is a contradictory amalgamation of crowds, love, and loneliness. The bustling crowds and the ever-present loneliness that penetrates every inch of one's being seem to coexist seamlessly. In her diary of 1929, Virginia Woolf described a sense of inner loneliness that she thought might be illuminating to analyse, adding: "If I could catch the feeling, I would: the feeling of the singing of the real world, as one is driven by loneliness and silence from the habitable world."

However, can loneliness truly prompt someone to contemplate grander questions? How should we live if we are not tightly entwined with another person? Can intimacy cure loneliness?

In this episode of friends from Columbia University discuss memorable as well as lonely moments in New York City, as well as their varied experiences of love and intimacy in this  ...