her reply, there is no sag in zero g. and guys, don't bother hoping the bikini will just -- >> lift off. >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> piers morgan is next. tonight, the moment we've all been waiting for, three years in the making. >> boy, you're good. you are good. >> thank you. >> and i'm not just -- it's good. >> she's back. oprah and gayle king and dr. sanjay gupta. we're teaming up to battle an epidemic that's hit 60 million americans. it's loneliness and it's not just in your head. it could be affecting your health and could shorten your life. tonight, they're here live for the hour with a simple remedy and it all starts right now.

here with me now, gayle king and cnn's chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. >> hello, piers. >> hello. >> this is a really important issue. sanjay, you came up with the concept for this for the magazine. explain why and explain the key findings. >> well, for me sort of thinking about this issue was in many ways thinking about what anybody could do to try to combat something we see every day. as a doctor i was sort of realizing if someone had a cardiac arrest, for example, you might know to go over and start pumping on their chest. when we see somebody who's suffering, maybe from loneliness, someone who's off to themselves, doesn't seem to really be interacting in some way, we usually tend to avoid even more. so what was the cpr of that? that was the sort of question. and that's how this started. there was also this idea that loneliness overall was increasing in this country, and

possibly becoming associated with all these other physical findings. key finding, loneliness by itself more than obesity, more than chronic alcohol use, more than air pollution, leads to early death. >> quite incredible here. pollution increases your risk or early death by 6%, obesity 23%, excessive alcohol 37%. research has found that loneliness can increase your risk by a whopping 45%, more than those other three. gayle, i was astonished by that. >> i was, too. when he first brought it to the magazine. it's the type of thing nobody wants to talk about. people would rather say they're depressed than lonely. if i say i'm lonely you think i'm a loser, i don't have any friends, nobody likes me, you think what's wrong with me. when he brought this idea to us and said if we could just encourage people to talk to each other. and it was so in the dna of the magazine. oprah's all about connecting people with just a simple word of saying hello. >> amazing reaction to this. >> yes. we just launched yesterday.

>> right. some amazing statistics in terms of response to people? >> oprah facebooks a lot, she's on instagram a lot. she's had more hits talking about this than anything else she's ever posted. it's definitely struck a nerve. >> we'll have oprah on to discuss this. the bottom line, people with strong ties to family, your words, sanjay, friends or co-workers have a 50% greater chance of outliving those with fewer social connections. again an extraordinary statistic. >> the thing is we used to believe for a long time it was simply because if you had friends they were more likely to check in on you, encourage you to go to the doctor, take care of your health. but it seems to be more than that. people who are lonely or even perceive themselves to be lonely, perceive social isolation as it's called, they actually have changes in the body both within the brain and the body. the brain perceives threats that aren't there. they live with these high stress levels all the time.

they don't sleep as well. >> is it just an emotional pain, or is it also a medically diagnosable physical pain? >> well, it is a physical pain as well. what i mean by that, let me be precise, the areas of the brain that are responsible for physical pain, those are the same areas of the brain that will light up in someone who has chronic loneliness. they feel physical pain by all intents and purposes. so they are really suffering in that regard. but they also because of the increased inflammation, because of the suppressed immune system, they're more likely to die early and have all these different problems. >> you've got this video campaign, just say hello. we'll have a look at it now. >> when was the last time you said "hello" to a stranger passing you on the street, to a friend you hadn't seen in years? >> hi. friend you hadn't seen in years? >> hi. >> hi. >> how you doing? >> hello. >> oh, hello there. >> just imagining how most of my viewers would feel if oprah

winfrey passed by "hello". >> don't be surprised if she does that. >> does she do that? >> yes, of course. piers, we should say that you can ask her when she joins us. she's going to be joining us with skype. we're working on this campaign with skype. that's part of the way you can say hello, by the way, just skyping with people. >> listen, i've got three son who live in england, for example. i think without skype it would be incredibly difficult to hold down a job in a different country to my sons. but because of skype it's almost like you're in the room. we're going to discuss the social aspect of that technology in a later segment. that in itself can bring up its own problems. let me ask you, gail, you ever lonely? you're such a gregarious character by nature. have you had periods of genuine loneliness? >> i had to think about this. i actually did. there's a difference between being alone and being lonely. >> absolutely. >> i don't mind moments when i'm alone. >> i like it but i don't want a whole lot of alone time. i don't want a whole lot of alone time. just this past weekend i had one of those weekends, piers, where

you don't leave the house at all. i did bathe bit didn't leave at all. and i thought, my phone hasn't rang all weekend. and i thought, now, that's kind of odd. >> i would have called you. >> not one person called me, nor did i call anybody else. but by sunday night i was thinking, is there anybody i want to talk to? but i don't really feel times that i feel lonely. i really don't. i really haven't had it yet. >> sanjay, have you? >> yeah. i've had periods where i've been lonely. and i think you go through periods of life where you're very busy, and so you don't recognize it as much. but all of a sudden you take a step back and take a breath and think wow -- >> does lonely mean you're sad, sanjay? >> i think that's a really interesting point. there must be degrees of this. there's loneliness for mourning a loved one. if you lose a spouse, for example, there can't be a greater loneliness than what you feel. if a friend dies or leaves the country or you're away from your

kids, that must be a category of loneliness. but is that really what we're talking about here or are these big numbers about the number of people who just are on their own? >> right. so at any given time there's about 60 million people who fall into some category of loneliness, either melancholy because of some loss or chronic loneliness. chronic loneliness is chronic, it's not just something that is a weekend or after mourning the loss of something or someone. this is something that just goes on and on and on. you literally have no one that you talk to. there were people that i to there were people that i interviewed for this article who said it is toxic, it is unceasing, it is brutal. and when they're describing it like that you get an idea of how painful that type of loneliness is. there were people i talked to who said they hadn't spoken to anybody in two weeks. >> in two weeks. >> in two weeks. >> you know what, guys, it's easy to do that, though. you go to the airport these days, you can do it at a kiosk. go to the drugstore, check out all by yourself. you can go to the bank and use an automated machine. >> work from home.

>> you can order anything you really need online. >> without talking to people. >> without going to old-fashioned stores. >> sanjay, two weeks is a long time. >> that's a long time. the thing is we humans are tribal creatures. evolutionarily we survived and thrived because we were tribal. we took care of each other. so i think from an evolutionary standpoint when you start to lose that social contact, your brain reacts to that. you get sort of relegated to the perimeter. >> amazing thing here. harvard medical school followed nearly 45,000 people who had heart disease or were at high risk of developing it. over four years, they tracked the participants' health and they found that those who lived alone were more likely to die from heart attack, stroke, or other heart-related problems than those who lived with others. we've also got a graphic which is based on your research, sanjay. when you've got a good circle of friends it has the opposite effect on your health. it can be beneficial. fewer colds, lower blood pressure, less stress, better sleep, improved cognition. i mean again, really remarkable findings. because you would never attach

all this kind of thing, good or bad, to simply having good company. >> right. and we've gone probably in the other direction. we've sort of diminished the importance of actually having these social connections. but it's a simple thing to do. and saying hello is sort of that window into people's loneliness that can help address a lot of these problems. it's not a fancy new medication, procedure or blockbuster drug, it's a hello and it can make a huge difference. >> piers, everybody can do that. that's what i thought was a genius of what sanjay brought to us. it's so easy and simple to do, everybody can do it. when was the last time you said hello to somebody you didn't know? >> i'm about to do just that, gail. i'm going to say hello to somebody very, very, very important. as you know. because her name is oprah. we're answering your questions tonight. tweet us @piersmorganlive. when we come back, the great

oprah winfrey tells us how stars are getting involved in the just say hello campaign. hello, oprah. she can hear me. >> she's on skype. [ sniffles, coughs ] shhhh!

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do. just say hello to a person that you hadn't even thought of saying hello to. >> just a few of the stars who have joined oprah, gail and sanjay, to battle america's loneliness epidemic. joining me now is oprah winfrey, editor of "o" magazine. she joins us by skype, communicating with us in a technological way. i'm here with gail and sanjay. i think we should greet oprah in the way she would like. hello! >> hello! >> oprah, how are you? >> i'm fantastic. you know what is interesting about this? i have probably done 100 of these, but i'm always on the other side of the camera. we with the oprah show in like 2000 ott something were the first people to ever use skype. and i remember when it was still crackling and people looked like they were on mars. this is exciting. >> or like moving in slow motion. it wasn't quite synced up. >> it looks very cool.

>> you look good. >> also talking of anniversaries, which i'm just about to, it's three years, oprah, since you helped me launch this very show. >> wasn't that nice of me? >> it was damn nice of you. i've been thanking you on air ever since. you were incredibly kind and generous to me. >> yeah. since that time everybody else who launches a show says, but you did piers. >> that's right. it is so true. there's only one me, oprah. let's talk about loneliness, oprah. when i interviewed you, one of the things that really struck me was two things, really. you'd been through some very tough times in your life and were frank and honest about them. when i asked you how many people you would consider to be really good friends you said probably less than five, one of whom who is sitting with me, gail. have you had periods of real genuine loneliness in your life, do you think? >> absolutely not. as i was listening to you all, i was thinking first of all that

45% figure is really striking. and it makes me sad. and i think this effort on the part of the magazine is a way to try to change those figures for people who do feel symptoms of loneliness. but gail will tell you, steadman will tell you, that i am really happy being with myself. >> with yourself and your thoughts. >> and my thoughts. >> she is very happy. >> gail will say, what are you doing? are you being alone with your thoughts? i really get recharged from being alone. i spend a lot of time. steadman's on the road a lot so i spend a lot of time with myself and the dogs. and i really enjoy that. because i feel -- i never feel like oh, gee, i don't have anybody to do anything with. and i spend more time alone than anybody would even imagine. >> really? like what? how long could you go without

any other contact? >> piers, she could live in a house and never turn on a tv. >> really? >> oh, i can't imagine. but it's true. i've been to her house sometimes and she doesn't even know how to turn on the tv. like where's the remote? she's just not one of these people that's a big tv watcher. so it's not something that she's just saying. it's true. >> but oprah, is that because of your huge fame and success and so on that you get so many people who want a piece of you all the time when you're out and about doing your thing that actually you really pride yourself on having time to yourself away from all that? >> i think it's that. but i also think that as a little girl growing up, i was my grandmother's only grandchild growing up. and i made peace with myself at an early age. and i was really content with myself and with books. now, i'm content being alone. but if you put me alone and there were no books around and there was no way to have any kind of engagement with the

outside world through books, that would be a very sad situation for me. >> this campaign, oprah, just say hello, we saw a lot of stars there. you're using your star power as always to hook in the biggest names. what is, from your point of view, keath poithe key point of campaign? >> the key point is to let people know that there is power in your being able to just say hello. thank you to rita wilson for that. >> rita wilson wrote the song for us. >> i love rita wilson. >> yeah. >> listen to that. there's power in just -- it sounds cliche' to say that if you just smile at someone or pay attention to someone. i can't remember if i shared this with you three years ago when we talked about the greatest lesson that i learned from "the oprah winfrey show." i learned that early on is that every human being, you can back me up on this, dr. gupta, every human being is looking for one

thing, and that is to be validated, to be seen and to be heard. and what i learned on the oprah show is that all the interviews that i did, although thousands of them and multiple subjects, at the end of almost every interview in one form or another somebody would always lean in and say, was that okay? was that okay? and i started to see that pattern. and what i realized is that everybody is looking for the same thing. no matter if it's politicians, senators, presidents, beyonce' in all of her beyonce'ness, we're all looking to know did you see me, did you hear me, and did what i say mean anything to you. so just saying hello is a way of validating even a stranger. >> and oprah, do you actually go around practicing what you preach? i can't imagine you walking down the street barking hello at

random strangers. but i'm sure they'd love you to. >> the word, piers, barking puts it in a different connotation. >> i didn't mean it quite like that. you know what i mean. it's all very well to sort of ordinary people doing it. but oprah winfrey going around saying hello could be slightly alarming if you weren't ready for it. >> this is what i do do. i try to give people eye contact unless i am on my way to someplace and i know that giving eye contact is going to change the situation. so i think being able to give somebody eye contact, acknowledgement, a nod, now i will do more than a nod because now people will say, i thought you had that hello campaign. so now i've got to do more than just nod. >> we have opened the door for you. just say hello! >> oprah, obviously since you gave up your hugely popular show, you've now got even more

people forming you on facebook, instagram, twitter. got 23 million people on twitter alone. that gives you this huge, huge collection of people, many of whom you don't know at all other than through social media. from your experience with social media, is it a force for good or is it also in a certain way a cover for people perhaps not to interact in the way you just suggested? >> oh, i think it's both. i think it certainly is a tool that if you choose to use it as a force for good you can. and as we all know from time to time, you get those twitter and facebook thugs who want to use it for something that's less than the most positive. but i have found it to be extraordinary in being able to connect to people. just before i came on here i've been tweeting every five minutes saying i'm going to be on piers! >> i know you can hardly contain your excitement. it was quite palpable from your tweeting.

>> no, but i think a good point to make here is, you can start this conversation, piers, on social media. but at some point we're encouraging you to engage. so reach out to somebody through social media. but at some point pick up the phone, pay someone a visit, make sure that there is a face-to-face interaction. >> i would say, too, didn't mean to interrupt, gayle, but i think that what you were asking me earlier about my own sense of being alone and loneliness. i don't have that because i have always been the kind of kid who was content with myself. i think that's just my nature. that's not something that happened to me because -- >> do you know lonely people, oprah? >> do i know lonely people? no, i really don't. because i'm just saying hello to them. i'm reaching out to them. and so they wouldn't have any reason to be lonely. >> i only ask because gayle, supposedly your best friend said she went a whole weekend recently, and nobody contacted

her at all. where was oprah in her friend's hour of need? >> london. >> i was in your town. gayle, didn't i e-mail you like three or four times? >> yeah. >> how's your british accent coming along, oprah? >> it's not so good. i was actually interviewing russell brand who told me not to embarrass myself anymore. >> did he say that to you? >> yeah. russell brand said was that your idea of an english accent? pathetic, oprah, pathetic. >> i want to play a little clip from jerry seinfeld on last night's "tonight" show. it sort of plays into all this. >> talking is over. i have to talk? oh, my god, i've got to talk? do i have to talk to this person now? talking is work. you've got to make facial expressions that go with what you're saying, different hand gestures. you got to suck air in, you got to blow it out. talking is over. it's obsolete. it's antiquated. i feel like a blacksmith up here

sometimes, to tell you the truth. if you want, i could text you this whole thing. we could get the hell out of here. [ cheers and applause ] >> e-mail, text, we love it. because when we communicate to another person, we want them to know, i could have called you and i chose not to. [ laughter ] >> see, oprah, you said you e-mailed gayle repeatedly but never picked the phone up. it's an interesting point there. when i was thinking about this when i came in today, the amount of people who i now communicate with almost exclusively through texting or e-mail because of time differences and so on. it's just easier, isn't it, oprah, to do that? should people embrace that and say, you know what, it's a form of communication? or is the personal interaction of hearing a voice, seeing somebody, shaking a hand, saying hello like you said actually in the end more important? >> well, i think that it depends upon what you're talking about.

i think for business purposes and for shorthand you can get a lot of things done through e-mail. which i'm also so fascinated by. i have all these girls that are in school, and it's surprising to me every time i can skype or i can facetime with them and they're like, come on, get over it, momo. but i get fascinated, where do those little words come from? they travel through the sky and they end up there. but i also feel that being able to pick up the phone, which i still do, gayle and i have been speaking to -- on the phone to each other since we were 21 and 22. and still continue to do that. >> do you two ever argue, by the way? do you ever like have real screaming arguments? >> oh, screaming is not a part of my life, no. >> no. no. >> i don't scream at anybody. you would be hard-pressed to

find -- i can name in my life the number of people i've screamed at. >> go on then. >> i will not name them. >> i will. >> go ahead, gayle. throw me a bone here. one person you've screamed at. >> neither one of them are a part of my life anymore. >> only two people? >> in my entire life. >> that's amazing. >> i'm not a screamer. are you a screamer? >> i've screamed at more than two people. probably even have today. >> that's sort of not what just say hello is about. about oprah screaming. however, i do think this is fascinating, though. as oprah just said, someone who doesn't get lonely. but yet you really do see the benefits of a campaign like this. because when sanjay came to us with the statistics about how debilitating this is for a lot of people, we all jumped on board immediately with that. including oprah.

>> the reason i'm skyping with you all i see the benefit. the man asked me, gayle, did i get lonely. >> and i hear that. i hear that. >> i don't want you two falling out now after all this time. >> but then he's going into who were you screaming at. >> it might be you in a minute if you keep talking to oprah like that all hell could break loose. sanjay, you'll referee here. let's not have a dispute between gayle and oprah live on air. there is a serious point. >> i'm trying to get back to that, piers morgan. >> i find it fascinating oprah's only screamed at two people. a bombshell revelation. >> now he's going to track them down. >> sanjay, let's talk about the impact of this campaign. i think it's a fantastic campaign, by the way. i salute all three of you for running this and getting so much heat behind it. as gayle was saying, huge attraction now on oprah's social media networks and so on.

sorry, oprah? >> i'm stunned myself it's the most response ever. i'm stunned by that. because i only did a few tweets about it. it's amazing. >> sanjay, if you know somebody that you think is lonely, what is the best way to try and make them less lonely? other than just saying hello, what else can be done? >> don't minimize just saying hello. the reality is there's so much avoidance behavior that takes place. right now people who are watching, they know somebody likely who lives in their building or at their workplace or something who they would say that's a lonely person, describe them as a loner, whatever it may be. right now the typical sort of thing that happens, they just get avoided. they get ignored. so the idea is that just saying hello isn't where it ends, it's where it begins. >> i have to make us slightly more lonely now. because oprah has to leave us. >> where are you going? >> you've been an absolute star. >> where are you going? >> where are you going? >> i'm going home.

>> okay. >> i'm going home to be with my thoughts. >> okay. sanjay and i will hold it down. we'll represent. >> you've extended your stay with us much longer than i anticipated as you did last time i interviewed you. you've been very kind again. >> she must like you, piers. >> we have a natural rapport. >> sanjay gupta, thank you for bringing this fabulous idea to us. i just want to echo what you said, that it starts with hello and being able to extend yourself. i think for everybody who's watching around the world, piers, isn't this amazing? you're around the world every night? >> it is. it is amazing, oprah. >> it is. it's amazing. everybody who is watching around the world, if there's somebody that you've been thinking, gosh, i wonder how that person's doing. or you see somebody and you think, wow, i wonder if i went up and said hello to them, maybe that might make a difference in their day. and just say, how are you doing? hello. how are you doing? >> well, oprah, ironically i'm now going to have to use

a different word, which is goodbye. but it's been fantastic having you. and i really appreciate your time. thank you very much indeed. >> thank you. >> bye. >> thanks, sanjay. >> what a lovely lady oprah is. gayle and sanjay, stay here. when we come back we'll talk about things that makes a person feel disconnected. but first we'll talk to steve martin in the classic "a lonely guy." al was way too good to believe. >> do you have a table for dinner? i'm alone. >> follow me, sir. any time.an talk tos and then, i got 200 gigs of cloud storage -- free -- so i can get my photos and stuff almost anywhere. others charge for that. surface is such a great deal. i feel like i should tell somebody.

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good morning, apartment. good morning, doorway. good morning, ceiling. good morning, floor. ready to start the day. here it is. instructions to fit in have everybody like you and always be happy. step one, breathe. okay. got that one down. step two. greet the day, smile and say -- >> good morning, steve! >> a clip from the very popular "lego" movie with a pretty good cure for loneliness. back with me gayle king and sanjay gupta.

great fun with oprah there. a lot of great serious points. >> i think you've done a great job of pulling great clips to illustrate what we're talking about today. >> we have the best team in show business, you know that. >> i might differ with you on that. i'm thinking "cbs this morning." >> of course you are. here's a very serious point, sanjay, from all of this. in your research you worked on a theory that i've seen explored many times on the show. which is that many mass shootings in america involve people who are described as loners, and indeed many criminal acts of that kind are committed by people who are loners. is a loan -- loner the same as somebody who is lonely? >> not necessarily. there are people who self-impose. they become loners because they choose to become that way. and that doesn't mean lonely people necessarily have chosen that way of life. and as gayle and i have talked about from the very beginning, most people who are lonely are not at all violent. there's not an absolute or any kind of correlation really there at all.

what struck me, though, when i was talking to some of these experts around these school shootings, we know people who are mentally ill are more likely to be victims of crime rather than perpetrators, but this idea of loner or loneliness or some sort of social isolation kept coming up over and over again. and that was what really in some ways sparked this whole thing. what was it about that feeling of loneliness? >> you can't help thinking, sanjay, if people were able to pick up on people behaving in that way, appeared to be loners and try and interact with them -- i'm sure they do, but tried harder, you could perhaps avoid some of these tragedies happening. because it's the disconnection sometimes and then the blurring of fantasy and reality that comes from it. >> when you're lonely and you're not interacting with people you lose social context. >> playing video games, other things. >> whatever it may be, what would otherwise be a harmless,

innocuous thing, you're on the outside looking in you're stressed all the time. you don't sleep well at night. your cortisol levels are always high. these things have a toll on your body and kwour mind. >> gayle, what do you think of this? >> in this age of instagram and twitter, we're posting the great things we do. no one's going to send you a picture, piers, of laying in bed in a fetal position or where they just don't feel particularly good about themselves. what gets me is you can be a very well-known, outgoing, social person and still feel that you don't have any friends. that you are still not connected. >> you can be surrounded by people. >> that's exactly right. you can be surrounded by people and feel i'm all alone. that's the people we're trying to talk to today. i have a friend of a friend who had a baby recently. she said, you know, i have a great husband. i love the children. it was her second baby. she said s, but i'm just feelin

very lonely. how could you be feeling lonely? i just want somebody who will talk to me. now when you look at this woman on the outside, she looks great. she's attractive. she's successful. her marriage looks great from the outside looking in. but here is somebody who's lonely. that's the people that we're talking about today. >> let's take a short break. i want to bring in somebody actually who can give us a first person account of what it feels like to be lonely. a young woman who seems to have it all like you were describing there but feels the real pain of loneliness. i want you to hear what she has to say and to get your reaction. but something about spending this time together, sailing past ancient glaciers in alaska... talking under a universe billions of years old... makes you realize how old time is and how short life is. she can take all the time she wants. princess cruises, come back new. ♪ go! [ male announcer ] it's chaos out there. but the m-class sees in your blind spot...

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you're an emailing, texting, master of the digital universe. but do you protect yourself? ♪ apparently not. when you access everything, you give everyone access to everything about you. but that's ok. while you do your thing... [ alert rings ] we'll be here at lifelock, doing our thing. watching out for things your credit card alone can't. [ alert rings ] and relentlessly protecting your identity. get lifelock protection and live life free. [ alert rings ]

the thing is, there's some things people don't admit because they just don't like the way it sounds. like, i'm getting divorced. >> i'm lonely. i am. the loneliness is palpable. >> a poignant moment from "sex and the city" carrie bradshaw saying it out loud she's lonely. back with me gayle king and sanjay gupta. also a senior account competitive from pci communications fighting her own battle with loneliness. frances, welcome. >> thank you for having me. >> i'm looking at somebody clearly successful, young, beautiful, all things going for you. why are you lonely? >> it comes about by just everyday hustle and bustle. and even though i have a great

family and great girlfriends, i think over time we just kind of disconnect ourselves. and i just on occasion you'll go through periods of life where it just feels like you're very isolated from everyone around you. i travel a lot. i work long hours. and slowly but surely over time you just become disconnected. >> is this something, frances, that you feel you can tell people? do you tell your friends or family, i'm feeling lonely? or as we discussed earlier, is there a weird stigma around the word "lonely" or "loneliness" that means people don't really talk about it? they prefer to say i'm feeling down or depressed? >> right. well, i feel like i can talk about it because i have zero filter whatsoever [ laughter ] i do feel that especially amongst type a, career-driven

women, that talking about being lonely or feeling disconnected is very taboo. i think that there's very much a stigma that surrounds especially this cohort of women. because it kind of points to, well, if you're lonely then you don't have it all. you really haven't achieved it all. so it's not talked about. it's not discussed. and even when it is, it's talked about in a very passive way, a very kind of oh, yeah i'm feeling very melancholy today and life goes on. it's really not addressed whole-heartedly. >> gayle, is it a problem that affects more women than men, do you think? >> i think that question would be for sanjay. >> i think the numbers are higher for women than men. it varies by age group as well. people in their 40s seem to be affected the most by this. i don't know what the demographic breakdown was in that age group. but women slightly more but men are affected by this as well. it's very hard to measure for a lot of the reasons frances is talking about. people don't talk about this

openly. there's a researcher in the article who's probably done the most research on this. to get some of this data it involves actually having people share some very private part of their lives. >> i'm so impressed with frances. number one, frances, bravo to you for talking about it. we were so thrilled when you agreed to do an interview in the magazine. she's very articulate, very smart. now that we've seen your face on the piers morgan show, people will recognize you. are you worried about that? did you have any trepidation coming on and showing your full face? >> no. >> and you look good. were you worried? >> absolutely not. i feel it's extremely important that we talk about this. i had a lot of friends and colleagues and peers reach out to me when they heard i was part of this and say, i have felt this way, too. bravo for bringing this to the surface. i really hope that people who see the magazine article or maybe see what's being talked

about on twitter or even at home tonight that it really gets the wheels in their brain turning. and it encourages them to pick up the phone and talk to that old friend. or you didn't want to go to that friend's wedding this summer. go. have those person-to-person relationships. get back in touch with people. because really, we're only given so much time. >> just checking my phone, we're getting an extraordinary response. probably the same oprah and you gayle when you ran the article. people saying how to deal with loneliness is insightful. often taboo or stigma subject. bravo for speaking about it. interesting question, sanjay, from a guy called richey, d. richey, maybe a woman. i can't tell from here. what of the younger generation don't seem to communicate except through social media? is technology a disadvantage? it could work both ways. what if you're not tech savvy at all and you feel excluded from

the wider group at school or college, whatever it may be? >> it could cut both ways. i don't want to minimize social media. i think social media as gayle said as well can be a really interesting beginning step to profound social connections. there's a stat that john shares, online marriages, marriages that started online actually had a better rate of success than marriages that didn't start online. i thought that was an interesting statistic. >> i think so, too. >> it has to be followed up with some genuine social connection. and by the way, piers, looking somebody in the eye -- we talk about skype, we joke around. but you get to look your sons in the eye when you're skyping them. that's very different than texting. >> my youngest is an example. he's 13. he likes to come in from school, call me on skype and just hang around in the background. he'll go away and have tea. today he was with me for an hour and a half. he's physically there for about 20 minutes. he likes doing that.

i like him doing that. it's like he's in the room. >> my son's in china and i skype with him quite often. it's very different than picking up the phone to be able to see face-to-face. piers this has happened to all of us. you're on an elevator with a group of people. we all are looking at our smart phones. you can be on the elevator with six different people and no one is communicating. one of the things i like that we did in the magazine, we give you different things. encourage you different ways to engage with people. so i tried this today at the hearst building. i said to the group in the elevator, do you guys want to hear an elevator joke? they were like, sure, go ahead. what did one elevator say to the other elevator? >> go on. >> i think i'm coming down with something. see, isn't that good? >> well, it's terrible. poorest joke i've ever heard. >> it's terrible that it's funny. >> if it makes you feel happy. it probably bonded the rest of the elevator. >> it did. >> gayle king's elevator joke. >> it will be told in many elevators tomorrow. >> frances, thank you so much for joining us. you've been a delight to have on the show. >> thank you so much.

>> i wish you all the best. i'm sure that loneliness will be tinged now by your vast new popularity. >> thank you. i appreciate it. >> when we come back let's take questions from people at home. tweet us with @piersmorganlive. ♪ just say hello ♪ other times, not so much. so it's good to know that mazola corn oil has 4 times more cholesterol blocking plant sterols than olive oil. and a recent study found that it can help lower cholesterol 2 times more. take care of those you love and cook deliciously. mazola makes it better.

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introducing cardioviva: the first probiotic to help maintain healthy cholesterol levels without a prescription. cardioviva. how can you be lonely with gayle king singing next to you? >> don't you file like a room without a room? >> twitter and facebook, huge response. julia garforth says, yes, i'm suffering from ill health and have been for almost two years.

sanjay, an interesting question. roseann holiday tweeted to say, i always feel a little bit down in winter. how much do the seasons play on people's moods? right now if you're in one of these storm areas like new york and you've had these snowstorms, if you're at home alone and can't get out for days on end, that in itself could make you feel very lonely. >> we can't help those people. >> not here at the table. but there is this concept that you know that's going to end at some point. presumably it's going to end at some point for those people. that's a very different brush on loneliness versus people who just don't have any light at the end of the tunnel. they don't see this getting better any time soon. yeah, there are seasonal-affected disorder where when you have shorter days, you won't be in as bright a mood, but that goes away.

this is more a chronic lone loneline loneliness. >> it's so simple the campaign, just say hello. what a great idea, to just say hello to people who may just want to hear someone say hello. not for yourself, what about for other people? >> hello, how you doing, however you want to do it. the point of the whole campaign is just to make a connection with someone. someone that you know and you haven't talked to in a while, or more importantly, someone you don't know that you think could use some engagement. >> this is also for the people who are saying hello as well. people receive the greeting but the greeter themselves. >> just say hello is not just about if you're feeling lonely, it's the other way around. >> you've done something for somebody. you've done that chest compression. >> let's take a break and come back for the final segment. i'm not lonely at all in here.

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gayle king and sanjay gupta back with me now. i also want to thank our special guest oprah winfrey. we've really hit a nerve here on helping you guys with just say hello. thank you for being so forthright on such an important issue. let me give you a couple plugs. sanjay, your show is saturday on

cnn, and gayle, weekdays on cbs. good to see you. thank you for getting oprah again. gayle is my go-to for oprah. anderson cooper starts right now. good evening. two big breaking stories tonight. new intelligence involving threats to air travel, and a potential, potential break in fighting that has turned the center of ukraine's capital kiev into a fiery battleground. take a look at these pictures that we just got. >> incredible images from the