Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee · 2026-01-18 · 121 min · 23,730 words

How Smartphones Are Rewiring Our Brains, Why Social Media is Eradicating Childhood & The Truth About The Mental Health Epidemic with Jonathan Haidt (Re-release) #613

Listen to the original audio · Transcribed with NVIDIA Parakeet · Timestamps stay in sync with the live audio

Children are programmed to play, and there's a biological purpose for that play. A smartphone is an experience blocker. Once a kid has it, it's so enticing they're just not going to have many of those experiences that they need to wire up their brains properly. The more you think about it as giving your kid a play-based childhood, instead of just taking away the phone-based childhood, the easier it's going to be. Hey guys, how are you doing?

Hope you're having a good week so far. My name is Dr. Rongan Chatterjee and this is my podcast, Feel Better, Live More. Today's episode is about a topic that I am truly passionate about. the introduction of social media and smartphones into all aspects of our lives, and what impact this is having on us individually, collectively, and perhaps most urgently what impact this is having on our children.

Jonathan Haidt is one of the world's leading psychologists. He is a professor of ethical leadership at New York University's Stern School of Business and the author of four best-selling books, including his latest, The Anxious Generation, How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. Now this conversation first came out in 2024 and ended up being one of the most shared podcast episodes in the UK that entire year. And the reason I've decided to re-release it right now is because for the first time in a long while, there is a real sense that something might actually be changing in the UK.

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