Healing Arts is a global campaign by the Jameel Arts & Health Lab in collaboration with the World Health Organization
Healing Arts is a global campaign by the Jameel Arts & Health Lab in collaboration with the World Health Organization
Wednesday 27 May 2026 | 7:30PM Brooklyn Academy of Music, 651 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY
A.I. is About to Solve Loneliness. That’s a Problem.
A.I. Is About to Solve Loneliness. That’s a Problem
A Live Call-in Radio Show
An adaptation of the essay by Paul Bloom
Directed by Bryan Doerries
AI companionship can soothe loneliness, but can technology meet our human need for connection, as painful and messy as it can be? Psychologist Paul Bloom probed that quintessentially modern question in “A.I. Is About to Solve Loneliness. That’s a Problem,” published in 2025 by The New Yorker. Now, actors Bill Murray (Lost in Translation, Rushmore), Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window at BAM), and Lois Smith (East of Eden, Five Easy Pieces) will perform Bloom's article in a live call-in radio show, presented by Theater of War On The Radio on stage at BAM’s Harvey Theater.
The reading will be followed by a discussion led by Kai Wright (WNYC’s Notes from America, The Guardian’s Stateside) and Bryan Doerries (Artistic Director, Theater of War), featuring calls from listeners. Audience members will also be able to participate in the discussion following the conclusion of the radio broadcast.
This special evening concludes the spring season of Theater of War On the Radio, a series that combines readings of timely news stories by all-star casts with listener call-ins. The reading, discussion, and listener calls will be broadcast live from the stage of the Harvey Theater on WNYC and wnyc.org.
Theater of War Productions presents charged performances of seminal texts—led by acclaimed actors such as Frances McDormand, Jeffrey Wright, Willem Dafoe, David Strathairn, Paul Giamatti, Lois Smith, Oscar Isaac, Damian Lewis, Bill Murray and others—for audiences with something at stake in order to catalyze crucial dialogue about pressing issues. Its projects often take place in homeless shelters and jails, military bases and hospitals, housing projects, churches, public parks, and rival gang territories, but also in cultural spaces such as BAM, Lincoln Center, DeBalie, the Greek National Opera, and the Red Steps in Times Square. Each of its events is designed to be an authentic, community-driven exchange that culminates in a guided audience discussion. For more info, please visit theaterofwar.com.
