Your Undivided Attention
Co-hosts Tristan Harris, Aza Raskin, and Daniel Barcay explore the unprecedented power of emerging technologies: how they fit into both our lives and a humane future. Join us every other Thursday as we confront challenges and explore solutions with a wide range of thought leaders and change-makers.
Your Undivided Attention is produced by Executive Producer Sasha Fegan and Senior Producer Julia Scott. Our Researcher/Producer is Josh Lash.
Episode 110
Echo Chambers of One: Companion AI and the Future of Human Connection
AI companion chatbots can feel human—but they're really platforms designed to maximize engagement, risking artificial intimacy and addictive intelligence. MIT’s Pattie Maes & Pat Pataranutaporn join the show to discuss better paths forward.
Episode 109
AGI Beyond the Buzz: What Is It, and Are We Ready?
What does it mean to ‘feel the AGI?’ In this episode, Aza and Randy unpack why debates on intelligence distract us from urgently needed conversations about governance, incentives, and readiness—before the AGI wave crashes ashore.
Episode 108
Rethinking School in the Age of AI
AI has upended school as we know it. In this episode, Daniel and Tristan talk with Maryanne Wolf and Rebecca Winthrop about how tech has broken the old model of education—and how we might build something better.
Episode 107
Forever Chemicals, Forever Consequences: What PFAS Teaches Us About AI
AI could unlock vast technological potential—if we do it right. Rob Bilott, who fought chemical giants over toxic PFAS, shares a cautionary tale: how the harms of new tech can go unchecked, and why we must align innovation with safety before it’s too late.
Episode 106
Weaponizing Uncertainty: How Tech is Recycling Big Tobacco’s Playbook
From Big Tobacco to Big Tech, powerful industries have perfected the art of manufacturing doubt about their harms. In this episode, historian Naomi Oreskes reveals the playbook corporations have used throughout history to weaponize uncertainty, fund fake experts, and shift blame to individuals—and what it all means for AI.
Episode 105
The Man Who Predicted the Downfall of Thinking
Forty years ago, Neil Postman warned that “we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death.” He was writing about TV, but his insights feel eerily prophetic in our age of smartphones, social media, and AI. In this episode, we explore Postman’s ideas and what they can teach us.
