Tech & oneliness: Reclaiming Connection in the Age of Artificial Intimacy - EP10
The In-Between Tech and Trust PodcastShow Notes
🎙️ With Monika Jiang – Researcher, Writer & Community Curator
Summary In this episode of the in-between trust podcast, Eva Simone Lihotzky speaks with researcher and community curator Monika Jiang about the layered relationship between oneliness, trust, and technology. Together, they explore how artificial intimacy, digital environments, and emotional proximity are reshaping the way we connect — with each other and with ourselves. Monika shares her thinking on the historical roots of oneliness, the limitations of digital intimacy, and what it takes to design communities that truly foster belonging. This episode is an invitation to slow down, listen closely, and rebuild the emotional fabric that trust depends on — across human and digital space.
🔑 Takeaways Oneliness is a historical concept of interconnectedness
Loneliness and trust are deeply entangled
Technology can create artificial intimacy — not always connection
Trust is built through presence, difference, and shared space
Human relationships require emotional complexity, not convenience
Communities thrive when they embrace tension and paradox
Leaders must create space for difficult emotions
Digital intimacy is real, but different — and needs design
Consistency builds trust in community, not grand gestures
Trust is a practice of faith, not a checklist
🎙️ Sound Bites "Trust is a tricky thing." "Oneliness feels like a living motion." "Community needs embracing differences."
⏱️ Chapters 00:00 Exploring Oneliness and Trust 05:03 The Impact of Technology on Connection 09:55 Digital vs. Human Connection 14:54 Designing Intimate Communities 19:41 The Role of Leaders in Fostering Trust 24:36 Navigating Truth in Relationships 29:26 The Future of Trust and Community
🔭 Keywords oneliness, trust, community, technology, connection, loneliness, digital intimacy, leadership, emotional fabric, AI
💻 Links in-between trust on Instagram: @inbetween_trust
More about the oneliness project: https://www.monikajiang.org More about Monika Jiang: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monika-jiang/ More about The House of Beautiful Business: https://houseofbeautifulbusiness.com
More from The In-Between Tech and Trust Podcast
🎙️with Christopher Trummer, MD Venture Lab Quantum / Semicon, TUM Venture Labs
🎙️ Moran Cerf, Neuroscientist and Professor, Columbia Business School Moran Cerf, a neuroscientist and professor at Columbia Business School, studies what happens in our brains when we talk, decide and get persuaded, and lately what happens when the other side of the conversation is AI. His research shows AI can read people remarkably well: from recordings of speed dates, it predicted who liked each other better than human observers did. The same skill worries him: we raise our guard when a person tries to sell us something, but not when AI does it in much the same way.
🎙️ with Martin Soltau, Co-CEO, Space Solar Solar power collected in space and beamed down to Earth sounds like science fiction (it did to the space sector too, until reusable rockets arrived). Martin Soltau, Co-CEO of Space Solar, is building it in the UK, and he is confident about the technology: NASA demonstrated power beaming in the 1970s. The part of his timeline he can't engineer is trust: how quickly regulators and the public accept energy that comes down from orbit.
🎙️ Sten Saluveer, Growth & Innovation, Telia
🎙️ Noah Wetzel, Photographer