We've spent four months searching to find stories of extreme solitude and what brought these humans to such fates. As you can imagine, by definition, the loneliest people on earth don't have much connection to the outside world, and are close to impossible to contact. With many leads over the last few months that led us nowhere, we finally found three people who were willing to let us into their unique lives, and hopefully take us closer to understanding the nuanced concept of loneliness. Loneliness is a universal phenomenon, right? We've all felt it a little bit at some point. But the evidence really suggests that beyond just our psychology, loneliness is affecting our physical health, it's affecting the way our bodies function, it might even be affecting our longevity and how much we live. So it's a real public health crisis. To find these people, we're traveling to the northern mountains of Italy. We are going far. I've been on a train for seven hours and we're still an hour drive away from where the man lives. The forests of Sweden. We are meeting up with a 20-year-old guy who has been living in the woods for three years. And the islands of Greece, whose sole inhabitant of one of its islands we couldn't even make direct contact with. We took a leap towards these three adventures in the hopes that despite their years and for one of them decades of solitude, that they'd still welcome us into their homes. Our goal is to understand these people's lives and what they've had to overcome. While people in busy cities around the world can suffer from loneliness, how are some surviving on their own? And what can we learn from humans who have spent so much time in solitude? * Northern Italy * Okay, let's go find our man. Somewhere in the woods. We can't drive further, so the rest part we will have to walk. We brought a whole block of cheese and some salami. We got some wine too. Fine wine. Local wine. Because he lives without running water or electricity. I'm assuming he doesn't have a fridge. That's his house. There's one local here that is taking us to the house and then he's going to leave us. Oh my God. Wow. Are you kidding me? Is he hiding behind the tree? Buongiorno. Buongiorno. Wow. Good Morning! You want to shake my hand? They are dirty. Good Morning, how are you? Good Morning. - Miss
- Nice to meet you. Let's go. He has so much life in his eyes. Like for real he's so energetic. I want to know everything about him now. This is his home with his sheep. Hi guys. Flaminio has lived alone at the edge of the mountains for over 50 years. His contact with the outside world was close to non-existent for decades, but in recent years has had one man as a connection to the nearby village. A village that he himself hasn't been to in over 20 years. Why his solitude has been so extreme and what his life looks like today is a complete mystery to us. And although he had originally seemed reluctant to have us come visit, as we arrived, he welcomed us into his world. Maybe we can all seat down here. Welcome in! Don't be frightened! And although we brought wine as a gift for him, he clearly had other plans. He wants to open the wine straight away. Oh, we're opening the wine? Yeah. Okay. 9am is always a good time to open a bottle of wine, right? Of course. I can't remember if I ever drank in wine 10am in my life ever. Come on, come On! Cut the bread! Open it! Quickly, Thomas. Quickly, dude. He's being so slow right now. It's really frustrating him. Flaminio, thanks a lot for having us. What are you saying? Thank you! Thanks for having us here. To do what? Don't come anymore or I'll make you work! I can't believe we're freaking drinking wine for breakfast right now. Come on I'm getting tired! He's tired and he wants to eat and drink? - Yeah.
- It's 9am. Come on! Or you'll drop to the ground! Cheers! This is a horrible idea. Cheers to France... America... And Sweden! All right, all right. *3 days later* Before we take you further into Flaminio's world, we wanted to introduce you to our second character. We are meeting up with a 20-year-old guy who has been living in the woods for three years. I feel like all of us wish we were survival experts, but in reality, it would all last about a week. If Modern society collapsed. I'm just going. Now I know where he lives. I'm coming to you. Here's the video he sent us. So, this is how it should look like when you arrive. It sounds like he's muffled his voice. Yeah, it sounds like he doesn't want us to find him. Yeah. He's parked the car here, and then he just pointed toward the forest here. - Are you kidding?
- No, no. This is the right direction. - You're f***ing with us, right?
- No, I'm not f***ing with you. - Wait, really?
- He's not coming to get us? Where did he point? Well, he pointed to this direction out in the forest. This is the alley we're going to go into. Dude, it's this one. Okay. Follow me. He was saying that way. That was his intuition. Stefan wanted us to cross the street. - You wanted to trust him.
- He was literally going to send us the opposite direction. I'm sorry. For those of you who have been with us for a while, you'll know that Matt, one of the originals of Yes Theory, stepped away for a while. He needed a break for his mental health. And he explains where he's been and why he needed this break in this video linked in the description. While away, he wrote our Yes Theory book, which he poured blood, sweat, and tears into and finished. We'll be proudly releasing this book on November 19th in less than two months. After this year, however, he has decided to officially step away from videos. But, in Yes Theory fashion, we decided that we cannot let him leave without a last run of discomfort. And so, as a celebration of our friendship and what he's brought to this channel and community, he'll be joining us in adventures over the next few months. He has also launched a podcast on our podcast channel called Matt's Going Away Party, where he brings everyone closer to how things have gone for us behind the scenes more than ever before and goes into details of why he left. This story about loneliness is his first video of his final series of trips with Yes Theory. We're literally going straight into the woods with the direction of "Go Straight". We are literally wandering into a forest after driving for hours through farmland. You see him? There's someone over here. Unless it's just some other random person. I don't think so. Yeah. There's somebody here. Hello, hello. Oh, hello. Hi. Hello. How are you? Hi, doggy. How are you? Wow. How is it going? Hi. Hi, Staffan. Tomas. Tomas. And you just walked out from the forest and found us. Could you sense us? Yeah, I heard you. It was Matt. You're not so sneaky. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Is this it? Wow. Oh, my God. Wow. It's a bit of work. Wow. Dude. This is incredible. Erik Granqvist is a young Swede who spent the last several years building his dream cabin alone in the woods of Sweden with the dream of learning how to become fully self-sufficient. He only initially started to document his journey on the side, but his YouTube channel about his unique endeavors has now reached tens of millions on the platform, a channel you may have come across yourself. Finding a young person who spent as much time in solitude yet seems to be enjoying it is rare these days. And as he doesn't speak much in his own videos, we were very eager to understand his choices and how he handles the solitude. When did you start this? Yeah, when I was just about to turn 18. 18? So, 17, and then now I'm 22. So, a little bit more than four years. I mean, how much of this did you know how to make before you started? Well, probably like nothing. Really? Yeah. So, you literally learned hunting, building a house, and filming. Yeah. All at once. Yeah, I had to. And you're 22 years old. Dude. Can we check it out? Yeah, of course. Of course. So, here's the door that I made. The door. What? It's like a Viking door. It smells amazing in here. Every piece we see in here, you created or brought here in some way. Yeah. About 99% of all the materials is either created by me from this land or that I've reused. It's just the nails and the concrete for the fireplace and stuff like that I bought. So, it didn't cost that much, actually. Really? Wow. So, when you were 18, you were majoring in science, you said. - Yes.
- In high school. And you decided to completely leave it to start building this? Yeah. Was there a moment that that happened? So, everybody expected me to just keep on studying and stuff like that. So, I felt a little bit stuck in that path. And then I saw this documentary film about Dick Preneke who built his own life in Alaska. There's a documentary, Alone in the Wilderness, and that really got me inspired because he just basically just moved out there and then he could just live off the land. And that was a huge inspiration for me to just, you know, that it is possible to do it. And I was like, oh, my grandfather, he has land and forest. Why can't I do that? And then I just went extreme and basically did it. 7 days later. 7 days later.
* Greece * Our final character was our most uncertain one in our biggest adventure. Well, we are approaching Mrs. Rinio's island, and it's much bigger than I thought it was, actually. She's got a lot of space for being on her own. I'm getting a little nervous now that we're approaching and we don't know if she's there and if she's going to be interested in seeing us. Mrs. Rinio lives alone on an island in Greece, and she's been alone here for a decade. Why she's alone and how she survives on the island is unclear. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we weren't able to contact her. So we'd be flying all the way to remote Greek islands, taking ferries. This is the ferry to get to the island that we're leaving from. Welcome aboard! And chartering a sailboat. Thomas. All the way to her, only in the hopes that she'll actually be there and be willing to receive us. Thank you. The strangest approach I think I've ever done to a home before of a stranger. Throw ourselves in. Yeah. She doesn't know we're coming, so... Row, row, row the boat, gently down the... Shut the f*** up. We're arriving at an elderly woman's home by a little raft, and she doesn't know we're coming. I hope she welcomes a visitor, like that's a good thing for her. Not an annoying thing. This is so bizarre that we are just here. It's like a pirate entering now. I also immediately feel like I'm in her home. Mrs. Rinio? - How are you?
- Fine. - Did we wake you up?
- No, it's fine. - Are you sure?
- I'm sure. She was sleeping. Sit, sit, sit. I'm coming. Yes, yes, yes. Hello. How are you? Hello. I'm Lamprini, how are you? Good, Good. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Hello, how are you? Fine, fine. And this is Cory. Cory. Is he your Daughter? Daughter means daughter in Greek. Well, love that for me. We brought you this as a gift along with some other things, So let's put them in the shade, so they don't get spoiled. Thank you very much. We thank you. - It's burning, actually.
- Should we take our shoes off? And what? Stain the concrete? Are out of your mind? Don't put anything out for us. How are you doing Mrs. Rinio? How was your day today? Too hot. We are too hot. Wow. Yeah, we're just very grateful that she's this welcoming. Like, just starting with that. Thank you very much for opening your home for us so warmly. Oh, for goodness sake. I thank you for coming out of nowhere just to see me. Oh, she's like, I thank you for coming out of nowhere, like from everywhere in the place to just see me, so I thank you. I grew up here. My parents lived here. When my father was about to die He asked me to come and look after the island. And I promised him that I would. And I did not betray him and since 2000 I've been here. Hello, my friends, as we continue learning about these highly unique individuals, I quickly wanted to tell you about the sponsor enabling today's video, BetterHelp. As feelings of loneliness have turned into an epidemic around the world, our mental health quickly gets affected afterwards. We are more connected than we've ever been, yet many of us still feel isolated and lonely. Whether or not you have a clinical mental health condition, therapy can give you tools to approach life in a very different way. BetterHelp's mission is to make therapy more affordable and more accessible, no matter where you are in the world. It's a platform that makes finding a therapist super easy. And by filling out a few questions, BetterHelp can match you with a therapist in as little as a few days. And the best part is, if your current therapist isn't a perfect fit for you, you can easily switch to another therapist for free. So, as asking for help is often the hardest first step, you can do so by clicking the link in the description below and get matched with a therapist today, or simply go to betterhelp.com/yestheory to begin your journey within. Clicking the link not only allows you to begin asking for help yourself, but also gives you 10% off your first month. Now back to the adventure. * Northern Italy * How long have you been living like this? About 45 years in here. But before I left with the sheep 52 years ago I was 23 years old. I was thrown out of my house when I was 23 years old. - Why?
- I have never known. But I don't go to the town anymore. On January 31st it will be 20 years since I've been in the town. They ask if you feel lonely sometimes. Not really. At night sometimes I feel a little lonely. A little sad maybe. But in the morning when I see my sheep, It all feels better. I felt bad a few years ago but I no longer feel so bad. Oh, are his sheep his closest friends? The Sheep? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. The male sometimes kicks me. I have to be careful. How has he been able to, I guess, find peace being alone? Because I think ultimately, you can be surrounded by people and still feel lonely. They say that loneliness can be felt even when you are surrounded by people. Even worse. There are people That treats you like a rag. That's why you chose this life? I wouldn't change it with anyone. What kind of interesting ways has he found to spend his time? I like to read books, but in the summer I don't have time. I only read manuals Physics, Mechanics, technical drawings. I've also set out to study Chinese. - Chinese?
- Yes. Now he's saying that he's learning Chinese? What? Chinese? -They are amazed that you are learning Chinese
- Is he the most interesting man in the world? In Chinese, drinking wine is... Means drinking wine. Are they passionate about skiing? I'm inventing skis with brakes. - For real?
- Yes! Don't go to school! Tell him I want to go to school of Flaminio. He wants to go to Flaminio's school. He's invented skis with brakes. Who else has done that? Nobody has done that. Wow. Oh, man. Whoa. Wow. - He's da Vinci.
- Yeah. Do you like garlic? I'll give you garlic. Take the garlic! No, no, you take it. It's actually the only thing I can't eat on the planet. I'll use them in November. What? Wow. This is so waggy. Come along! He's already moved on to the next thing. We are in his world now. Oh, this is where he sleeps? Wow. I feel like I'm traveling back in time. Look at that spider. Oh, my. Leave it there! I need it. Is it a spider? Because he gets the mosquitoes. I think so. Genius. He's way ahead of every single one of us. We're thinking this is a problem. This is his mosquito repellent. My god. I ruined the Spiderweb! He walks straight into the spider's net and it's attached to his head now. There's no concern for it. * Sweden * It just feels so peaceful here. Like, it feels like my body just went from zoom. Like, on a different level. I mean, you're not going on the internet or anything? Like, there's no TV? No, I don't have any electricity. Obviously, I have a phone on me. But no, there's not always reception. - Yeah.
- Connection here. I'm curious about what people around you thought. Like, your friends. Did you feel any kind of judgment or did you feel very supported? - Like, I was crazy.
- Really? Was I, like, dropped as a child or something like that? Are you going to do it by hand? Like, with hand tools? Like, who does that nowadays? But a lot of people were supportive. Of course, my family and stuff like that. But the idea behind it was that I really didn't want to be dependent on really anything. Like, when you use a chainsaw, you have to be dependent on gas. So, with hand tools, you only have to really be dependent on your own energy. The biggest perk of it all was gaining all the skills. The knowledge that's about to, like, go away in our generation. And it's interesting now because you're essentially a social media star. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. That's a little bit interesting. Because I didn't have, you know, Instagram or anything when I started. I was quite against it. Now that I've done it, I've seen also, of course, the advantages to it. My biggest inspiration now is to inspire people like the way I got inspired by the documentary that I watched. So, now I want to, like, do the same thing, hopefully. Nice, dude. You say that you don't have to rely on anyone else then. Does that make you feel alone or lonely in any way? No, not actually that lonely. But I have to say that I was a little bit lonely just about one year ago. When I've been out there, you know, like, three plus years. Then I started to feel like, okay, I'm a bit alone out there. So, now I actually have a girlfriend. So, that's pretty nice. But there's also, of course, a difference between being alone and feeling lonely. Like, I didn't really feel lonely, but I was, of course, alone. I mean, I love that. I think there's solitude and loneliness don't have to come together. There are people who are lonely who are surrounded by people who live in cities. Who even have friends and they still don't feel like they can be themselves in that group and feel lonely. A little bit of a pitch. Let's say things go a little haywire. Four of us get in a car. If we drive up here and, you know, happen to come to this exact spot, is there an extra room by any chance? No. We'll build it right next to you. And we'll feel safe with Eric in Eric's hands because I don't know how to do sh**. Yo, Eric, did you catch any boar? What an experience and what a life to choose. I think many do have this intuition that too much technology is not good for us. And anytime you come back out in nature, it's this breath of fresh air we all experienced. This is where we've been. This is what was home for so long. Cities have amazing qualities and benefits, but you need to balance it with time out in nature like this. This is the feel. Carrots, onions. What else do you grow here? Potatoes. Beets. Salad. Beans. I thought carrots and beans grew in cans or just grocery stores. I thought they just came out of grocery stores. Interesting. Now we're going to cook some food. So if you two want to chop some firewood. It would be an honor. You're the best talent. Erik. We're in heaven guys with our dad who's here. Our dad is somehow younger than all of us, but he's taking great care of us. Eric, you have very good daddy qualities. Staffan, You didn't have to make this weird. We're all having a good time. Now he's leaving. Now he's gone. Now he's leaving. He's like "I can't deal with this anymore". * Greece * My father had this as a cafe then he gave it up But now it looks more like a stable. But I am content here. I like it a lot. I don't care how it looks. After her father passed away, she just came here and stayed here. With her husband, not by herself. And then her husband also died. And that made her also a bit emotional. Now I'm saying it. Has she been living alone the last five years? Seven or ten? Is it ten? Who comes? My son. Ah, your son comes here. Yes, he stays for two or three months and then he leaves again. Did she ever contemplate leaving the island? When your husband passed away did you ever think about leaving the island? And go where? You didn't want to, huh? Do you feel lonely or...? No? No. Wow. I'm not afraid, nor do I care that I am alone. What does a day in her life look like here? What do you do in 24 hours? How do you start your day? I get up at 2 in the morning. Really? She wakes up at 2 a.m. But I can't see outside to do anything. But she doesn't see anything outside. At 5 o'clock I go to the animals, at six it's dawn and I can see. I go and stay there until 12 at noon. I feed them, clean their water. I clean the stables and come back and sleep all day. Sweetheart! The more time we spent with these three incredible humans, The more fascinated we became. They've all experienced loneliness, but somehow eventually found peace, joy and laughter in the simple daily tasks around them. Their sense of purpose in taking care of their animals or building and lots of time spent outdoors seems to have greatly contributed to that lightness in their spirits. She seems to be quite content being here alone. Does she have any advice for people that might be experiencing loneliness? Not to feel alone. It's happiness to be in one place. As long as you can care for yourself. To think of nothing but themselves and the world. Their children, their family, and to be happy whether you're rich or poor. To not overthink it. Just be grateful for a piece of bread. She's got the loveliest smile. It reminds me of my grandma. He says you have the loveliest smile and you remind him of his grandmother. You look very happy here. I am happy, and why shouldn't I be happy? If my children are well, what else do I need? Oh, wow. This is where he makes the food. What is this? He studies Chinese and he writes on the wall to practice. Wait. This is to grind wheat. He seems fully self-sufficient because he grows his own food. He's got a stream of running water. Go on, try it! They say it's raining tomorrow. Oh, that's the coolest thing I've heard. You can just look at the sky and know it's going to rain tomorrow. It is true, tomorrow there is a storm. I saw it before, yes. - He's right.
- He's right? Yeah. Look at the clouds... - How does he know?
- From the clouds. ...they go up. If they go up, it's raining. If they go down, it doesn't. What is he doing? He's going to tell us the time. 11:35. Yeah, exactly 11.35. Exactly. What? Is that correct? - That's correct!
- Perfect. Wow. He just read the time from the sun. One, Two, Three. He can come up with the craziest things. Like he's got an invention for everything. But also just like these ancient methods. The way that he sharpens his knife and the way that he creates flour. All of these things. We just don't do it anymore ourselves. But because he's fully self-sufficient and doesn't go into town. He's had to find a way to do it here. Shocked that he was on the minute. I thought he would be like 11.30 maybe. Like around 11.30. He said 11.35 and it was exactly 11.35. It feels like it's your babies. He says you treat them like your babies. They are my babies. Her bucket looks exactly like our logo. What? I swear. I thought she had our logo for a second. What is she going to do now? We're going to collect the cacti. These ones you can eat. Ah. Mmm. Mmm. Wow, that's fresh. Mrs. Rinio. Fantastico. Can you say subscribe? Subscribe. Yes, yes, yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Perfect. We do need people to subscribe actually. We're hoping to hit 9 million this year. So help us to get to 9 million before the end of the year. What did you say you were going to give us? - Tsipouro
- Tsipouro. Do you like it? Yes, we do. What did she say? If we want to drink Tsipouro, the liquor. Every elderly person I've met has offered me liquor. I don't know what's going on here. You want to smell it. It's pure alcohol. Yes. That's why she made me smell it. Very good. I'll get you to drink and you can stay here. She said, I'm going to get you drunk so you can stay here with me. To hang out. Ahh. Wow. - Oh my God.
- Wow, wow, wow. Thank you. You're not going to drink? She says not drink. You're young, you're all going to drink. Seek Discomfort is no longer the theme of the channel, it's I drink with elders, elders. Eat! Eat! Okay. Trote! Trote. Mmm, whoa. Did you try that? Yeah, yeah, it's delicious. Cheers for all. Cheers for you. Wow. Oh my God. You're kidding me dude. Just dig in, just eat like crazy. Wow, that's so good. And these are the best potatoes to eat right from the ground, they're so much more delicious. Yeah, they're so tasteful. It's like a whole other world. Absolutely love it. Being in this environment for many years, how has it impacted you as a person? Actually, it's made me less shy, strangely enough. Back in the day I had more social anxiety and stuff like that. So strangely enough, by removing me completely from other people, I actually gained more confidence. I think probably it's because I got the confidence that I can do stuff with YouTube and stuff like that. I think I've grown more confident and more able to speak with people and express myself. The table is getting cleaned up, yeah? Nice to meet you man, thank you so much for letting us into your world. This is such a privilege. Write down in the comment section "I want the coordinates". No, no, no, no coordinates. Meeting people like Erik, who are so uniquely on their own path, forces me to look at my own life and wonder what aspects I could be more intentional about. Ending up alone is sadly not always a choice. But it is possible to embrace moments of solitude and find our way back, more connected to who we really are. I came to the realisation that it is better to have people around. But it's also a good life lesson to be on your own. I felt a lot of really true happiness of being on my own. Be well. I'll miss you, but you're my heart. He says he has you in his heart and he'll miss you. Me too, me too. My mermaid, Thank you for coming and keeping me company. I'll call you from time to time. Bye, Mrs Rinio. Be well. Goodbye. If you've ever felt lonely, or even feel lonely today, I'd encourage you to take a page from Mrs Rinio's book, whom, in the middle of a nap, opened her door to strangers. Despite being alone most days and weeks, she's clearly found a way to be more open to whatever life brings her. Strangers visiting, or no one at all, she welcomes it, with curiosity and a sense of humour. That open spirit, with the pride she feels to fulfil her promise to her father of safekeeping the island, is definitely what I believe has kept her so joyful all these years. Grazie mille. Grazie mille. Ciao! Flaminio to me seems like someone who's had to overcome a lot of sadness, yet found peace through his work with his sheep and kept his mind busy with his inventions. My personal belief is that there is something beyond what we know and what we see that connects us. A collective consciousness of sorts. The longing for connection is therefore a universal human truth. Loneliness is a natural symptom of feeling disconnected from our own sense of humanity and from others. Some of us may see connection more than others, but ultimately, no matter who you are or where you live, I hope that you remember that there are people out there waiting to make a friend just like you. Don't let a chapter of sadness make you believe otherwise.
