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Today on Word of Mouth, why being alone can be bad for your health. New research says loneliness can be as damaging as smoking or obesity. And we’ll hear from musician Andrew Bird, who says he needs solitude to create his music. Also, a new documentary traces the filmmaker’s losing battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease. We’ll also find out why solar power may (finally) be ready to hit the mainstream, and we’ll meet the youngest delegate at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

For decades now, solar power has stood as the great hope for those looking for alternative energy sources. Back in the early 1980s, some predicted that solar power would produce one million watts of energy annually within 10 years. Three decades later, homes and buildings that use solar energy are expensive to construct and still in the minority.

But Jon Luoma, an environmental journalist and author of several books, including Hidden Forest: Biography of an Ecosystem, says solar power is about to hit the mainstream – for real this time. As part of our "next green thing" series, we aked Jon to bring us up to date on solar's technological advances. He wrote about this topic for Yale Environment 360.

(Photo by Powerhouse Museum)

In September of 2002, Ben Byer was a 31-year-old actor and playwright living in Chicago, married with a young son, when he was diagnosed with the fatal neurodegenerative disease ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. There’s no known cure for ALS, and 90 percent of those who get it die within five years.

The disease left his hands too weak to hold a pen. So Ben began keeping an audio and video diary, which soon turned into a documentary film project. He travelled the world, grasping for a cure to the mysterious disease – everything from a controversial stem cell surgery, to traditional Chinese herbs, to vitamin supplements, to vibrating beds.

His film is an exploration of his own mortality, and our society’s treatment of the sick. Ben Byer died last month. His sister, Rebeccah Rush, produced the film, called Indestructible, and she joins Word of Mouth to tell us more about her brother.

Watch the trailer for Indestructible below:

(Photo of Ben Byer floating in the Dead Sea by Roko Belic)

We humans are a social species. But 60 million Americans say they feel so isolated, it’s a major source of unhappiness in their lives. That troubling finding is even more startling when we consider how loneliness can impact our health, and speed up the aging process. For the body, the effects of isolation are comparable to high blood pressure, smoking and obesity.

John Cacioppo is co-author, with William Patrick, of Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection, a new book that brings us up to date on the effects of isolation on the body and the brain. Cacioppo is also president of the Association for Psychological Science and professor at the University of Chicago.

Test yourself on the UCLA loneliness scale

We also meet a musician who finds isolation fuels his creativity. In 2002, Chicago violinist and songwriter Andrew Bird moved out to a family farm in western Illinois and converted an old barn into a studio and living space. Isolated from people, his band, even the radio, he found his music developing into something he never expected. The piece was produced by Jonathan Menjivar, and originally aired on Studio 360.

Andrew Bird will be performing at the Portsmouth Music Hall on October 8th. Click here for more information. And below, watch Andrew Bird perform his song "Spare Ohs" on the streets of Paris, as part of the series "Concerts à Emporter."

(Photo by le père)