Can you guess what is worse than some of our most feared public health epidemics（传染病）, including smoking, drinking, and obesity（肥胖）? I'm talking about the top of this chart right here. The answer is "consuming depressing（压抑） TED（泰德） Talks." No. The real answer is a lack of social connection. And I think part of the solution is in sports fandom.

  Or at least it was for me, if I can tell you a bit of my story. I was born（承担） and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska. So my introduction to sports were things like fishing and mushing sled dogs, if you can believe that. Yeah, and off-road vehicles. Notice the official Alaskan（阿拉斯加人 a阿拉斯加的） helmet（头盔） I'm wearing. I also spent a lot of time here.

  This was "Far and Away," my favorite bar. I'm down there in the bottom right, if you can zoom in for a second. Yeah. My father went on this long streak（条纹） of unemployment and heavy drinking leading up to me entering school. So you could kind of say I was raised in bars. So I share this with you.

  So you understand what produces someone like this. This is me in high school. And yeah, I am missing（未击中） some teeth there. Still hadn't figured（ 认为） out the helmet（头盔） thing. Just one year removed from this accident, and yet another incident（事件） to my face. I had a doctor tell me that my surgically repaired lip would likely slough off and die, but no big deal.

  Don't worry, you can just disguise（假装） it by growing a mustache. I was 16 years old. I still can't grow a mustache today. But don't get me wrong, I had a good childhood. But I did long for something more, and I wasn't prepared for what came next. I was also afraid that I might repeat my father's pattern of addiction（沉溺）.

  So I raced out of Fairbanks at the first opportunity and moved to Seattle（西雅图（美国城市））. So now we've established（建立） I was raised in bars, I'm missing teeth, and I can't grow a mustache. So can you imagine the culture shock（ 震动） when I moved to this giant and modern city? I felt so scared and small and foreign. There are only 13 people per square mile in the Fairbanks metro area. And in Seattle there are 684 people per square mile.

  And yet despite（不管） all these people around me, I felt alone. I was alone. I didn't have a single friend in Seattle. And then I attended one of the greatest sporting events in Seattle history. An event that changed the course of my life lead to a career in sports. And this stage right here with you today.

  The perpetually struggling（ 努力） Mariners（水手） were in the playoffs for the first time in franchise（特权） history. And just their luck, they had to play the 22-time World Champion New York Yankees. With the game on the line, with the season on the line, they found themselves down one in extra innings. For three hours, I'd been on this emotional（感情的） roller coaster, all in concert with 57,000 other people. And then this happened. And they all won pitch（程度） on the way to Edgar Martinez.

  What-- on the line（排成一行）, that'll let me line（排成一行） for Aubrey Schiff. Here comes Joy（欢乐）. Here is Junior to third base. They're going to wave him in. The throw to the plate will be laid to Mariners regarding（把…看作） the play for the American League（同盟） Championship（锦标赛）. I don't believe it.

  It just continues. My, oh, my. I still get chills（寒冷） watching that. I swear（宣(誓)）, I high-fived hundreds of people that night. I hugged perfect strangers. For me, just weeks removed from my Alaskan childhood, it was a feeling I did not know existed.

  It was much more than the thrill of victory（ [C] 胜利）. Finally, and almost instantly（立即）, I felt a part of this giant and impossible city. I belonged. Do you know that feeling? I've spent my career researching it alongside（ 在旁边） a team of social scientists and quants. We study what is today and what can be in the future of sport and entertainment.

  As a part of that work, we've come to the conclusion that sports fandom is not about excitement or championships or an excuse（借口） to drink beer, although-- no, it's about belonging. It's a means（方法） to an end. Just as the Mariners did for me all those years ago, it's a pathway（路） to community and connection. So why does this matter? A meta-analysis of 16 independent longitudinal studies shows that poor social relationships are associated（交往） with a 29% increase in the risk of heart disease and 32% chance risk of stroke（打）. Even more disturbing（ 令人不安的）, social isolation（隔绝） and chronic（ 慢性的） loneliness can increase your likelihood of developing dementia by 50%.

  So my loneliness（孤单） started to fade（褪色） with that Mariners（水手） game, but it was nothing compared to my collegiate experience at the University of Washington（华盛顿）.