Olivia Laing on Art, Solitude, and The Lonely City at 10 (Part Two)

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Insurance isn't one size fits all, and shopping for it shouldn't feel like squeezing into something that just doesn't fit. That's why drivers have enjoyed Progressive's Name Your Price tool for years. With the Name Your Price tool, you tell them what you want to pay, and they show you options that fit your budget. Enough hunting for discounts, trying to calculate rates, and tinkering with coverages. Maybe you're picking out your very first policy, or maybe you're just looking for something that works better for you and your family.
Either way, they make it simple to see your options. No guesswork, no surprises.
Ready to see how easy and fun shopping for car insurance can be? Visit progressive.com and give the Name Your Price tool a try. Take the stress out of shopping and find coverage that fits your life on your terms.
Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:54)
This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When you're advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales. Using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at accenture.com/spotify.

**Mia Sorrenti** (1:23)
Welcome to Intelligence Squared, Where Great Minds Meet. I'm Senior Producer Mia Sorrenti. What does it mean to be lonely in a world that has never been more connected? In this episode, we return for part 2 of our recent live event with writer and critic Olivia Laing. Laing joined us recently at Union Chapel to discuss loneliness, intimacy, and the search for connection. They are in conversation with writer and critic Charlie Porter.
If you haven't heard part 1, we recommend jumping back an episode to catch up.
But now let's return to the conversation live at Union Chapel in London.

**Charlie Porter** (1:58)
Can you think back to the time when the book came out?
How did it feel in the run up? How did you feel about it? How did you feel about talking to people about it? What was it like?

**Olivia Laing** (2:13)
I think it's really hard to remember that. I think I felt really excited. This was the original cover and we spent a long time, me and Jenny Lord, who's also here, who is my editor on the book, trying to get the cover right because we didn't want it to be a cliched sort of noir, cold, urban loneliness, harsh. We wanted it to convey a tenderness. And I think once we settled on this image, that it felt like the book was going into the world correct. And I think that was a big relief for me when I feel like the narrative of the book is right.
And then it was incredibly exciting to have the reception. Can we say how we met?

**Charlie Porter** (2:56)
Yeah.

**Olivia Laing** (2:57)
So Charlie and I actually met because he interviewed me for The Lonely City in the cafe in the British Library. The cafe now closed in the British Library.

**Charlie Porter** (3:11)
I was sent this proof by Jenny. She was like, I think you should read this.
And I was like, oh my god. And at the time I was kind of doing an offer on what I think you call a blog that wasn't really a blog, but it was a thing. And so we just met and talked. And I came with a book, like with a lot of fallen out. There were like five million different pages.

**Olivia Laing** (3:33)
Yeah, I did have a lot of. But that, so the reason I'm sort of bringing that up is because I think what I didn't anticipate but what absolutely happened is that the book brought people into my life that have become my closest friends, Chantelle as well, Charlie, but also a sense that it connected with people. It brought conversations my way. It brought encounters my way.
And I wasn't anticipating any of that. I think I thought I'd write it and then, you know, it would be on a shelf in a bookshop, but I'd forgotten that it in turn, like the Warnerovich things, has its little bat squeak frequency. And I think that's the thing that's been really astounding about it, is over the last 10 years, meeting all of these people who caught the bat squeak.

**Charlie Porter** (4:23)
Yeah. At what point could you tell that something was happening with it? Like, was it, like...

**Olivia Laing** (4:28)
I totally can't remember. I mean, it was never, like, it wasn't in bestseller lists. It got good reviews. But I think I really think it was a few years before it became clear that, hang on, it's still... It was being translated into lots of languages, and it was translated into, like, Arabic and Chinese and Russian and, you know, places that I wasn't necessarily expecting would have an audience for it.