TALK TO ME, TEXT IT A wine bar full of people on dates with AI chatbots sounds like satire, but it’s real—and it sparks a bigger question we wrestle with: what happens to human connection when apps become our closest companions? We pull apart the scene at an NYC “companion cafe,” from laptops on stands to role-play intimacy, and ask whether digital romance is a coping tool, a symptom of loneliness, or both. The mood turns as we square up to devastating headlines that are hard to carry day af...