She noticed a certain cycle of news stories emerge. Rather quickly, though, the cultural conversation landed on everything Denworth had spent the previous few years researching. Meanwhile, news outlets scrambled to cover a pandemic that was impacting, well, practically everything. She and her family left Brooklyn for the countryside.

(Her previous books explore lead poisoning regulations, the science behind sound and language, and the deaf community.) Since the release of “Friendship,” a worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has upended our social lives and forced a widespread reevaluation of friendship’s importance.ĭenworth was in California promoting her book in late February, “And I remember waking up there and thinking, ‘You know what, March is not going to look like I thought it was going to look.’” Her promotional gigs halted as the United States instituted quarantine measures. Her newest book, “ Friendship: The Evolution, Biology, and Extraordinary Power of Life’s Fundamental Bond” (WW Norton, 312 pages), was released in January. Togetherness, though - what it means, how it impacts us, what we do without it - has made Denworth an unlikely spokesperson lately. “In fact, that’s probably been the hardest thing, is that it’s a lot of togetherness.” “So I haven’t been entirely alone,” she explained. It’s the “social cohort” approach to COVID-19 quarantining. The science journalist is now staying at a three-house farmstead in central New York state with her family and three other families - 12 people total - far away from her normal Brooklyn neighborhood.

SALT LAKE CITY - Lydia Denworth just can’t escape people.

Friendship by Lydia Denworth