Your Undivided Attention

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Episode 99

What Can We Do About Abusive Chatbots? With Meetali Jain and Camille Carlton

Sewell Setzer’s mom, Megan, is suing Character.ai for the role it played in her son’s death. The outcome could force the company–and potentially the entire AI industry–to change its ways. Today on the show, one of Megan’s lawyers, Meetali Jain, breaks down how the case could lead to systemic change.
November 7, 2024

Episode 98

When the "Person" Abusing Your Child is a Chatbot: The Tragic Story of Sewell Setzer

Megan Garcia lost her son Sewell to suicide after he was abused and manipulated by AI chatbots for months. Now, she’s suing the company that made those chatbots. On today’s episode of Your Undivided Attention: journalist Laurie Segall’s interview with Megan for her new show Dear Tomorrow.
October 24, 2024

Bonus

Is It AI? One Tool to Tell What’s Real with Truemedia.org CEO Oren Etzioni

AI has unleashed a flood of synthetic media onto the web, making it more difficult than ever to tell what’s real. So Oren Etzioni made a free, non-partisan, non-profit tool to detect AI-generated content. Oren talks to Tristan about the fight to restore a sense of reality online.
October 10, 2024

Episode 96

’A Turning Point in History’: Yuval Noah Harari on AI’s Cultural Takeover

Historian Yuval Noah Harari says that we are at a critical turning point. One in which AI’s ability to generate cultural artifacts threatens humanity’s role as the shapers of history. History will still go on, but will it be the story of people or, as he calls them, ‘alien AI agents’?
October 7, 2024

Episode 96

We Have to Get It Right’: Gary Marcus On Untamed AI

Computer scientist Gary Marcus has been called AI’s loudest critic, and he predicts AI’s exponential curve will soon flatten out. He also thinks we’re unprepared to handle the AI we already have. In this episode, Gary discusses his AI skepticism and what we need to do to get this rollout right.
September 26, 2024

Episode 95

AI Is Moving Fast. We Need Laws that Will Too.

As companies race to roll out more capable AI models–with little regard for safety–the downstream risks become harder to counter. On Your Undivided Attention this week, our policy director Casey Mock outlines a new legal framework to incentivize better AI development through product liability law.
September 13, 2024

Esther Perel on Artificial Intimacy

[This episode originally aired on August 17, 2023] AI is harming our relationships, warns acclaimed psychotherapist Esther Perel. What would it look like for technology to strengthen our social bonds, rather than depriving us of the nuance that allows us to connect?
September 6, 2024

Episode 94

Tech's Big Money Campaign is Getting Pushback with Margaret O'Mara and Brody Mullins

Today, the tech industry is the second-biggest lobbying force in Washington, but that wasn’t true even ten years ago. How did we get here? And where are we headed next? Tristan and Daniel discuss how big tech has changed American lobbying with historian Margaret O’Mara and journalist Brody Mullins.
August 26, 2024

SPOTLIGHT

This Moment in AI: How We Got Here and Where We’re Going

It’s been a year and half since Tristan and Aza laid out their vision and concerns for the future of artificial intelligence in The AI Dilemma. In this episode, the guys discuss what’s happened since then and where we could be headed next.
August 12, 2024

Episode 93

Decoding Our DNA: How AI Supercharges Medical Breakthroughs and Biological Threats with Kevin Esvelt

AI has been a powerful accelerant for biological research, rapidly opening up new frontiers in medicine and public health. But that progress can also make it easier for bad actors to manufacture new biological threats. In this episode, Tristan and Daniel sit down with biologist Kevin Esvelt to discuss why AI has been such a boon for biologists and how we can safeguard society against the threats that AIxBio poses.
July 18, 2024

Episode 92

How to Think About AI Consciousness with Anil Seth

Will AI ever start to think by itself? If it did, how would we know, and what would it mean? In this episode, Professor of Neuroscience Anil Seth and Aza discuss the science, ethics, and incentives of artificial consciousness.
July 4, 2024

Episode 91

Why Are Migrants Becoming AI Test Subjects? With Petra Molnar

In response to the growing global refugee crisis, governments are employing novel AI and surveillance technologies to slow the influx of migrants. But will this rollout stop at the border? Tristan and Aza sit down with immigration lawyer Petra Molnar to discuss how borderlands have become a proving ground for high-risk AI technology.
June 20, 2024

Episode 90

Former OpenAI Engineer William Saunders on Silence, Safety, and the Right to Warn

Whistleblower William Saunders quit over systemic issues at OpenAI. Now he’s put his name to an open letter that proposes 4 principles to protect the right of industry insiders to warn the public about AI risks. On the show this week, Tristan and Aza sit down with Saunders to discuss.
June 7, 2024

Episode 89

War is a Laboratory for AI with Paul Scharre

Today’s battlefields have become laboratories for the use of AI weaponry and drones. From Ukraine to Gaza, weapons systems with increasing levels of autonomy are being used to kill people and destroy infrastructure. So what does this mean for the future of warfare? Author and former Pentagon policymaker Paul Scharre joins the show to discuss.
May 23, 2024

Episode 88

AI and Jobs: How to Make AI Work With Us, Not Against Us with Daron Acemoglu

Tech companies say that AI will lead to massive economic productivity gains. But as we know from the first digital revolution, that’s not what happened. Can we do better this time around?
May 9, 2024

Episode 87

Jonathan Haidt On How to Solve the Teen Mental Health Crisis

Suicides. Self-harm. Depression and anxiety. The toll of a social media-addicted, phone-based childhood has never been more stark. It can be easy for teens, parents, and schools to feel like they’re trapped by it all. But in this conversation with Tristan Harris, author and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt makes the case that the conditions that led to today’s teenage mental health crisis can be turned around – with specific, achievable actions we all can take starting today.
April 11, 2024

Episode 86

Chips Are the Future of AI. They’re Also Incredibly Vulnerable. With Chris Miller

Beneath the race to train and release more powerful AI models lies another race: a race by companies and nation-states to secure the hardware to make sure they win AI supremacy.
March 29, 2024

Episode 85

Future-proofing Democracy In the Age of AI with Audrey Tang

Is there a vision of our future where AI can help our democracies thrive rather than just survive? With election season underway, Taiwan’s Minister of Digital Affairs, Audrey Tang, returns to the podcast to discuss how to create a resilient democracy in the age of AI.
February 29, 2024

Episode 84

U.S. Senators Grilled Social Media CEOs. Will Anything Change?

U.S. Senators took social media CEOs to task in a recent hearing, leading to astonishing moments — including Mark Zuckerberg’s public apology to families who’ve lost children following social media abuse. Our panel of guests untangle the political theater from the political progress.
February 13, 2024

Episode 83

Taylor Swift is Not Alone: The Deepfake Nightmare Sweeping the Internet

Ninety-six percent of deep-faked images and videos are sexually explicit and non-consensual. Legal scholar Mary Anne Franks and journalist Laurie Segall discuss the AI-enabled rise in deep fake porn, and what we can do about it.
February 1, 2024

Episode 82

Can Myth Teach Us Anything About the Race to Build Artificial General Intelligence? With Josh Schrei

What can tales of mythology and magic teach us about the AI race? Mythologist Josh Schrei explains how looking at foundational cultural stories could guide ethical tech development.
January 18, 2024

Episode 81

How Will AI Affect the 2024 Elections? with Renee DiResta and Carl Miller

2024 will be the biggest election year in world history. In this episode, two experts give us a situation report on how AI will increase the risks to our elections and our democracies.
December 21, 2023

Episode 80

2023 Ask Us Anything

You asked, we answered. This has been a big year in the world of technology. There are still so many questions in our minds, and we know you have a lot of questions too. So we created this episode for you to ask us anything!
November 30, 2023

Episode 79

The Promise and Peril of Open Source AI with Elizabeth Seger and Jeffrey Ladish

As AI development races forward, a fierce debate has emerged over open source AI models. So what does it mean to open-source AI? Are we opening Pandora’s box of catastrophic risks? Or is open-sourcing AI the only way we can democratize its benefits and dilute the power of big tech?
November 21, 2023

Episode 78

A First Step Toward AI Regulation with Tom Wheeler

Tristan and Aza discuss President Biden’s executive order on AI with Tom Wheeler, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
November 1, 2023

Episode 77

No One is Immune to AI Harms with Dr. Joy Buolamwini

Dr. Joy Buolamwini, the founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, argues that the most urgent risks from AI are algorithmic bias, discrimination, and the concentration of power in tech companies.
October 26, 2023

Episode 76

Mustafa Suleyman Says We Need to Contain AI. How Do We Do It?

To reap the benefits of AI, we’re going to need to get good at saying no to certain forms of progress for the first time. Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Inflection AI, calls for containment as we approach a historic technological threshold, urging regulation before it’s too late.
September 28, 2023

Spotlight

Inside the First AI Insight Forum in Washington

Tristan and Aza were invited to speak at Senator Chuck Schumer’s historic AI Insight Forum last week. What are their big takeaways, and what effect do they predict this closed-door meeting will have?
September 18, 2023

Spotlight

Spotlight on AI: What Would It Take For This to Go Well?

Tristan and Aza share some inside takes on a Silicon Valley workshop they convened on AI endgames… and some other recent developments that offer reason for hope, and for concern.
September 11, 2023

Episode 75

The AI ‘Race’: China vs. the US with Jeffrey Ding and Karen Hao

It’s a common counterpoint: “But what about China? We can’t let China get ahead.” In this episode, experts Jeffrey Ding and Karen Hao explain the realities of Chinese AI development and assess the stakes for the multi-national race.
August 31, 2023

Episode 74

Esther Perel on Artificial Intimacy

AI is harming our relationships, warns acclaimed psychotherapist Esther Perel. What would it look like for technology to strengthen our social bonds, rather than depriving us of the nuance that allows us to connect?
August 17, 2023

Episode 73

Protecting Our Freedom of Thought with Nita Farahany

We’re on the cusp of an explosion of cheap, consumer-ready neurotechnology - and it’s all going to be supercharged by AI. Legal scholar Nita Farahany talks us through the current state of neurotech, and explains why we need a new legal framework around “cognitive liberty” to protect the last frontier of privacy: our thoughts.
August 3, 2023

Episode 72

Social Media Victims Lawyer Up with Laura Marquez-Garrett

Social media was humanity’s ‘first contact’ moment with AI. If we’re going to create laws that are strong enough to prevent AI from destroying our societies, we could benefit from taking a look at the major lawsuits against social media platforms that are playing out in our courts right now. Attorney Laura Marquez-Garrett is literally on the front lines of the battle to hold social media firms accountable for the harms they have created in young people’s lives. Listener warning: there are distressing details within the episode.
July 21, 2023

Episode 71

Big Food, Big Tech and Big AI with Michael Moss

In the next two episodes of Your Undivided Attention, we take a close look at two respective industries: Big food and social media, which represent dangerous “races to the bottom” and have big parallels with AI. Our first guest in this pairing is the bestselling author Michael Moss. We discuss how we can leverage the lessons learned from Big Food’s coordination failures, and whether it’s the responsibility of the consumer, the government, or the companies to regulate.
July 6, 2023

Episode 70

What Can Technologists Learn from Sesame Street? with Dr. Rosemarie Truglio

On this episode of Your Undivided Attention, Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin speak with Dr. Rosemarie Truglio, the Senior Vice President of Curriculum and Content for the Sesame Workshop, the non-profit behind Sesame Street. What happens when app creators consider what lifelong human development looks like in terms of the tools we make? And what philosophies from Sesame Street can help us steward the power of AI and social media to influence minds in thoughtful, humane directions?
June 22, 2023

Spotlight

How Zombie Values Infect Society

Zombies are the perfect metaphor to explain something Tristan and Aza have been thinking about lately that they call zombie values. In this Spotlight episode, we talk through some examples of how zombie values limit our thinking around tech harms. Our hope is that by the end of this episode, you'll be able to recognize the zombie values that walk amongst us, and think through how to upgrade those values to meet the realities of our modern world.
June 8, 2023

Episode 69

Feed Drop: AI Doomsday with Kara Swisher

Kara Swisher challenges Tristan Harris on the so-called ‘AI Doomsday’ in a wide-ranging discussion. If you enjoy their conversation and want to hear more of Kara’s interviews with folks like Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman and others, you can find episodes of ON with Kara Swisher here: https://link.chtbl.com/_XTWwg3k
June 2, 2023

Episode 68

The Tech We Need for 21st Century Democracy with Divya Siddarth

Democracy in action has looked the same for generations. What would an upgrade look like - not just for democracy, but for all the different places that democratic decision-making happens? On this episode of Your Undivided Attention, we’re joined by political economist and social technologist Divya Siddarth, one of the world's leading experts in collective intelligence.
May 25, 2023

Spotlight

AI Myths and Misconceptions

A few episodes back, we presented Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin’s talk The AI Dilemma. The talk resonated - over 1.6 million people have viewed it on YouTube as of this episode’s release date. However, now that so many people have watched or listened to the talk, we’ve found that there are some AI myths getting in the way of making progress. On this episode of Your Undivided Attention, we debunk five of those misconceptions.
May 11, 2023

Episode 67

Talking With Animals... Using AI

Despite our serious concerns about the pace of deployment of artificial intelligence, there are use cases for the technology that can help us better understand ourselves and the world around us. Your Undivided Attention co-host Aza Raskin is also co-founder of Earth Species Project, a nonprofit dedicated to using AI to decode non-human communication. In this episode, Aza presents the machine learning breakthroughs that will soon make talking to animals a possibility - and the ethical implications that come with it.
May 4, 2023

Episode 66

Can We Govern AI? with Marietje Schaake

When it comes to AI, what kind of regulations might we need to address this rapidly developing new class of technologies? What makes regulating AI and runaway tech in general different from regulating airplanes, pharmaceuticals, or food? Answers to these questions are playing out in real time. Our guest Marietje Schaake, a former EU Parliamentarian, argues that if we wait for more AI harms to emerge before proper regulations are put in place, it may be too late… and she traces the path forward for effective governance, both in the U.S. and elsewhere.
April 21, 2023

Spotlight

The Three Rules of Humane Tech

In our previous episode, we shared a presentation Tristan and Aza recently delivered to a group of influential technologists about the race happening in AI. In that talk, they introduced the Three Rules of Humane Technology. In this Spotlight episode, we’re taking a moment to explore these three rules more deeply in order to clarify what it means to be a responsible technologist in the age of AI.
April 6, 2023

Episode 65

The AI Dilemma

At Center for Humane Technology, we want to close the gap between what the world hears publicly about AI from splashy CEO presentations and what the people who are closest to the risks and harms inside AI labs are telling us. We translated their concerns into a cohesive story and presented the resulting slides to heads of institutions and major media organizations in New York, Washington DC, and San Francisco. The talk you're about to hear is the culmination of that work, which is ongoing.
March 24, 2023

Episode 64

TikTok's Transparency Problem with Marc Faddoul

A few months ago on Your Undivided Attention, we released a Spotlight episode on TikTok's national security risks. Since then, we've learned more about the dangers of the China-owned company. More people in Western governments and media are saying that they used to believe that TikTok was an overblown threat. As we've seen mounting evidence of national security risks play out, there’s even talk of banning TikTok completely. But is that the best solution? If we opt for a ban, how do we, as open societies, fight accusations of authoritarianism? On this episode of Your Undivided Attention, we're going to do a deep dive on these questions with Marc Faddoul, the co-director of the nonprofit Tracking Exposed who studies TikTok’s algorithm.
March 2, 2023

Episode 63

Synthetic Humanity: AI & What’s At Stake

It may seem like the rise of artificial intelligence, and increasingly powerful large language models you may have heard of, is moving really fast… and it IS. But what’s coming next is when we enter synthetic relationships with AI that could come to feel just as real and important as our human relationships.... And perhaps even more so. In this episode of Your Undivided Attention, Tristan and Aza reach beyond the moment to talk about the risks and possibilities of this powerful new AI, and the new paradigm of humanity and computation we’re about to enter. It’s obvious we need ways to steward these tools ethically. So they also share their ideas for creating a framework for AIs that will help humans become MORE humane, not less.
February 16, 2023

Episode 62

The Race to Cooperation with David Sloan Wilson

It’s easy to tell ourselves we’re living in the world we want – one where Darwinian evolution drives competing technology platforms and capitalism pushes nations to maximize GDP regardless of externalities like carbon emissions. It can feel like evolution and competition are all there is. But what if that’s not the whole story of evolution? On Your Undivided Attention, we speak with evolutionary theorist, author, and professor David Sloan Wilson about his work documenting where an enlightened game – one of cooperation rather than competition – is possible.
February 2, 2023

Episode 61

Ask Us Anything: You Asked, We Answered

Welcome to our first-ever Ask Us Anything episode. We thought it’d be fun at the end of the year to engage our community of listeners by answering your questions. When we created this podcast, the goal was to explore the incredible power technology has over our lives and how we can use it to catalyze a humane future. Three years and a global pandemic later, we’re more committed than ever to helping meet the moment with crucial conversations about humane technology - even as the tech landscape constantly evolves and world events bring more urgency to the need for technology that unites us and enhances our well-being. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions and comments for us. We’ll carry your amazing suggestions and ideas forward with us in 2023.
December 29, 2022

Episode 60

Can Psychedelic Therapy Reset Our Social Media Brains? with Rick Doblin

When you look at the world, it can feel like we're in a precarious moment in our ability to relate to one another and cooperate. That's why we’re talking to Rick Doblin, the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS – a non-profit focused on educating and researching the benefits of using psychedelic therapy to address PTSD and promote humane ways of relating worldwide. Both MAPS and Center for Humane Technology want to understand what helps minds heal and be free. Given the perma-crisis we face, it’s provocative to think about a tool that, when prescribed and used safely, could help us overcome rivalrous dynamics out in the world and on social media. If we rescue our hijacked brains, we can heal from the constant trauma inflation we get online, and shrink the perception gap that splits us into tribes. We invite you to keep an open mind about a different kind of humane technology as you listen to this episode.
December 15, 2022

Episode 59

Real Social Media Solutions, Now with Frances Haugen

When it comes to social media risk, there is reason to hope for consensus. Center for Humane Technology co-founder Tristan Harris recently helped launch a new initiative called the Council for Responsible Social Media (CRSM) in Washington, D.C. During this event, Tristan sat down with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, a friend of Center for Humane Technology, to discuss the harm caused to our mental health and global democracy when platforms lack accountability and transparency. The CRSM is bipartisan, and its kickoff serves to boost the solutions Frances and Tristan identify going into 2023.
November 23, 2022

Spotlight

Humane Technology on 60 Minutes

The weekly American news show 60 Minutes invited Center for Humane Technology co-founder Tristan Harris back recently to discuss political polarization and the anger and incivility that gets elevated on social media as a matter of corporate profit. We're releasing a special episode of Your Undivided Attention this week to dig further into some of the important nuances of the complexity of this problem.
November 10, 2022

Spotlight

Elon, Twitter and the Gladiator Arena

Since it’s looking more and more like Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, will probably soon have ownership of Twitter, we wanted to do a special episode about what this could mean for Twitter users and our global digital democracy as a whole. This is the second part in a two-part conversation about Twitter that we’ve had on Your Undivided Attention about Elon Musk’s bid for Twitter and what it could mean in the context of the need to go in a more humane direction.
October 27, 2022

Episode 58

They Don't Represent Us with Larry Lessig

This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're doing something special. As we near the election, and representation is on our minds, we're airing a talk by Harvard Law professor and Creative Commons co-founder Larry Lessig. In what ways does our government not represent us — and do we not represent ourselves? How might we revive the relationship between the will of the people and the actions of our government? Join us.
October 20, 2022

Episode 57

Stepping Into the Metaverse with Courtney Cogburn and Jeremy Bailenson

The next frontier of the internet is: the metaverse. How might we learn from our experience with social media, in order to design a humane metaverse? This week on Your Undivided Attention, we talk with two pioneers who are thinking critically about the development of the metaverse — Dr. Courtney Cogburn and Professor Jeremy Bailenson.
October 6, 2022

Episode 56

Fighting With Mirages of Each Other with Adam Mastroianni

We often think our ideological differences are far greater than they actually are. Which means: we’re getting mired in polarization based on warped visions of each other. This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're talking with Adam Mastroianni, a postdoctoral research scholar at Columbia Business School who studies how we perceive and misperceive our social worlds.
September 22, 2022

Spotlight

Addressing the TikTok Threat

TikTok is now the most popular app for teens in the United States, and is influenced by China — our main geopolitical rival. This week on Your Undivided Attention, we bring you a bonus episode about TikTok. Co-hosts Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin explore the nature of the TikTok threat, and how we might address it.
September 8, 2022

Spotlight

How might a long-term stock market transform tech? (ZigZag episode)

Social media companies are stuck in classic multipolar traps. They must compete for our attention, so that when TikTok introduces an even-more addictive feature, Facebook and Twitter have to mimic it in order to keep up, sending us all on a race to the bottom of our brainstems. One experiment in enabling companies to transcend multipolar traps is the Long Term Stock Exchange — a U.S. national securities exchange serving companies and investors who share a long-term vision. This week on Your Undivided Attention, we’re airing ZigZag’s conversation with Long Term Stock Exchange founder, Eric Ries.
August 25, 2022

Episode 55

The Invisible Cyber-War with Nicole Perlroth

What happens when our most critical infrastructure can be deactivated and controlled simply through bugs in its software? Cyber-security expert Nicole Perlroth guides us in an exploration of the global cyber arms race.
August 4, 2022

Episode 54

An Alternative to Silicon Valley Unicorns with Mara Zepeda & Kate “Sassy” Sassoon

What’s the alternative to the Silicon Valley unicorn? What might it look like to design an ownership and governance model that incentivizes humane technology? This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're talking with Mara Zepeda and Kate “Sassy” Sassoon of Zebras Unite.
June 30, 2022

Spotlight

Conversations With People Who Hate Me with Dylan Marron

A few weeks ago, we aired an episode with Dylan Marron — creator and host of the podcast, Conversations With People Who Hate Me. This week on Your Undivided Attention, you’re getting a full episode of Conversations With People Who Hate Me.
June 16, 2022

Episode 53

How Political Language Is Engineered with Drew Westen & Frank Luntz

Democracy depends on our ability to choose our political views. But when the language we use to talk about political issues is designed to influence our beliefs, are we choosing our views, or is our language choosing them for us? This week, Your Undivided Attention welcomes two Jedi Masters of political communication — Drew Westen and Frank Luntz.
June 2, 2022

Episode 52

Transcending the Internet Hate Game with Dylan Marron

The social media game must be radically transformed. And, we can also decide to step out of the game, and do something different. Our guest on this week’s Your Undivided Attention is a master at doing just that. Dylan Marron has been called by Jason Sudeikis "a modern Mr. Rogers for the digital age."
May 19, 2022

Episode 51

How To Free Our Minds with Cult Deprogramming Expert Dr. Steven Hassan

In an era of likes, followers, and echo chambers, how can we become aware of undue influence and gain sovereignty over our minds? Our guest this week is Dr. Steven Hassan, an expert on undue influence, brainwashing, and unethical hypnosis.
May 5, 2022

Spotlight

A Bigger Picture on Elon & Twitter

If Elon Musk owns Twitter, what are the risks, and what are the opportunities? In order for Twitter to support democracy — and Musk’s goal of becoming a multi-planetary civilization — we need a radical redesign that goes beyond free speech. Note: this conversation was recorded on April 21, 2022, 3 days prior to an official announcement that revealed Elon Musk and Twitter reached a purchase agreement for $44 Billion.
April 25, 2022

Episode 50

What Is Civil War in the Digital Age? with Barbara F. Walter

What are the generator functions for civil war in the digital age, and how do we prevent them? This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're joined by Barbara F. Walter — ​​one of the world's leading experts on civil wars, political violence, and terrorism, and the author of How Civil Wars Start: And How To Stop Them.
April 21, 2022

Spotlight

What Is Humane Technology?

How do we develop the wisdom we need to responsibly steward exponential technology? This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're introducing one way the Center for Humane Technology is attempting to close the wisdom gap — our new, free, online course, Foundations of Humane Technology.
April 7, 2022

Rerun

Digital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang

Audrey Tang, Taiwan's Digital Minister, helps us imagine a world where every country has a digital minister and technologically-enabled legislative bodies.
March 24, 2022

Episode 49

The Dark Side Of Decentralization with Audrey Kurth Cronin

These days, there's enthusiastic talk about the possibilities of decentralized technologies, like cryptocurrencies and 3D printing. But decentralization is cast in a different light when we're talking about decentralized weaponry. This week on Your Undivided Attention, security expert Audrey Kurth Cronin guides us in an exploration of decentralized weaponry throughout history, how social media is a new decentralized weapon, and how to wisely navigate these threats.
March 10, 2022

Episode 48

The Invisible Influence of Language with Lera Boroditsky

One of the oldest psycho-technologies we have is language. How do the words we use influence the way we think? Further, how can we inoculate ourselves from their undue influence — and consciously design language that helps us meet our most complex challenges? This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're grateful to have cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky.
February 24, 2022

Episode 47

How Science Fiction Can Shape Our Reality with Kim Stanley Robinson

Science fiction can prepare us for the impending future, and empower us to shape it. Join us for a conversation with one of the greatest living science-fiction writers — Kim Stanley Robinson.
February 10, 2022

Episode 46

Here’s Our Plan And We Don’t Know with Tristan Harris, Aza Raskin, and Stephanie Lepp

How have we evolved our understanding of our social media predicament? How has that evolution inspired us to question the work we do at Center for Humane Technology?
February 3, 2022

Episode 45

Is World War III Already Here? Guest: Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster

The nature of warfare has changed so fundamentally, that we're currently in a war we don't even recognize. It's the war that Russia, China, and other hostile foreign actors are fighting against us — weaponizing social media to undermine our faith in each other, our government, and democracy itself. Here to shed some light on what might be considered WWIII is General H. R. McMaster, who served as the 26th National Security Advisor of the United States.
January 13, 2022

Episode 44

A Fresh Take on Tech in China with Rui Ma and Duncan Clark

Who do you think the Chinese government considers its biggest rival? The United States, right? Actually, the Chinese government considers its biggest rival to be its own technology companies. This week on Your Undivided Attention, Rui Ma and Duncan Clark join us for a surprising conversation about technology in China.
December 10, 2021

Episode 43

Behind the Curtain on The Social Dilemma with Jeff Orlowski-Yang and Larissa Rhodes

How do you make a film that impacts more than 100 million people in 190 countries in 30 languages? On the heels of The Social Dilemma‘s 1-year anniversary, we’re going behind the curtain on the film — with Director Jeff Orlowski-Yang and Producer Larissa Rhodes.
November 11, 2021

Episode 42

A Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen

We are now in social media's Big Tobacco moment. And that’s largely thanks to the courage of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.
October 18, 2021

Spotlight

A Whirlwind Week of Whistleblowing

In seven years of working on the problems of runaway technology, we’ve never experienced a week like this!
October 6, 2021

Episode 41

Making Meaning in Challenging Times with Jamie Wheal

What helps you make meaning in challenging times?
September 30, 2021

Spotlight

The Facebook Files with Tristan Harris, Frank Luntz, and Daniel Schmachtenberger

On September 13th, the Wall Street Journal released The Facebook Files, an ongoing investigation of the extent to which Facebook's problems are meticulously known inside the company — all the way up to Mark Zuckerberg.
September 21, 2021

Episode 40

The Power of Solutions Journalism with Tina Rosenberg and Hélène Biandudi Hofer

What is the goal of our digital information environment? Is it simply to inform us, or also to empower us to act?
September 3, 2021

Episode 39

Do You Want To Become A Vampire? with L.A. Paul

How do we decide whether to undergo a transformative experience when we don’t know how that experience will change us? This is the central question explored by Yale philosopher and cognitive scientist L.A. Paul. 
August 12, 2021

Episode 38

You Will Never Breathe The Same Again. Guest: James Nestor

When author and journalist James Nestor began researching a piece on free diving, he was stunned. He found that free divers could hold their breath for up to 8 minutes at a time, and dive to depths of 350 feet on a single breath.
July 22, 2021

Episode 37

A Facebook Whistleblower: Sophie Zhang

In September 2020, data scientist and Facebook employee Sophie Zhang posted a 7,900-word memo to the company's internal site, describing the anguish and guilt she experienced in attempting to rein in fake activity on the platform.
July 9, 2021

Episode 36

A Problem Well-Stated Is Half-Solved with Daniel Schmachtenberger

We’ve explored many different problems on Your Undivided Attention — addiction, disinformation, polarization, climate change, and more. But what if many of these problems are actually symptoms of the same meta-problem, or meta-crisis? And what if a key leverage point for intervening in this meta-crisis is improving our collective capacity to problem-solve?
June 25, 2021

Episode 36

[Unedited] A Problem Well-Stated Is Half-Solved with Daniel Schmachtenberger

We’ve explored many different problems on Your Undivided Attention — addiction, disinformation, polarization, climate change, and more. But what if many of these problems are actually symptoms of the same meta-problem, or meta-crisis? And what if a key leverage point for intervening in this meta-crisis is improving our collective capacity to problem-solve?
June 25, 2021

Episode 35

Mr. Harris Zooms to Washington

Back in January 2020, Tristan Harris went to Washington, D.C. to testify before the U.S. Congress on the harms of social media. A few weeks ago, he returned — virtually — for another hearing, Algorithms and Amplification: How Social Media Platforms’ Design Choices Shape Our Discourse and Our Minds.
May 10, 2021

Episode 34

Can Your Reality Turn on a Word? Guest: Anthony Jacquin

Can hypnosis be a tool to help us see how our minds are being shaped and manipulated more than we realize? Guest Anthony Jacquin is a hypnotist and hypnotherapist of over 20 years, author of Reality is Plastic, and co-runs the Jacquin Hypnosis Academy. He uses his practice to help his clients change their behavior and improve their lives.
April 29, 2021

Rerun

The Stubborn Optimist’s Guide Revisited with Christiana Figueres

[This episode originally aired May 21, 2020] Internationally-recognized global leader on climate change Christiana Figueres argues that the battle against global threats like climate change begins in our own heads.
April 22, 2021

Episode 33

Mind the (Perception) Gap with Dan Vallone

What do you think the other side thinks? Guest Dan Vallone is the Director of More in Common U.S.A., an organization that’s been asking Democrats and Republicans that critical question. Their work has uncovered countless “perception gaps” in our understanding of each other.
April 15, 2021

Spotlight

Coded Bias with Shalini Kantayya

The film Coded Bias follows MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini through her investigation of algorithmic discrimination after she accidentally discovers that facial recognition technologies do not detect darker-skinned faces. Joy is joined on screen by experts in the field, researchers, activists, and involuntary victims of algorithmic injustice.
April 8, 2021

Episode 32

Come Together Right Now. Guest: Shamil Idriss

Shamil Idriss, CEO of the organization Search for Common Ground, shares the lessons of peacebuilding from his work in Niger, the Balkans, and Rwanda. Technology and social media are creating patterns and pathways of conflict that few people anticipated or even imagined just a decade ago. And we need to act quickly to contain the effects, but we don't have to reinvent the wheel.
April 1, 2021

Episode 31

Disinformation Then and Now. Guest: Camille François

Camille François, Chief Information Officer at the cybersecurity company Graphika and an affiliate of the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, and other disinformation researchers have been fighting two battles over the last decade: one to combat and contain harmful information, and one to convince the world that these manipulations have an offline impact that requires complex, nuanced solutions.
March 18, 2021

Episode 30

The Courage to Connect. Guests: Ciaran O’Connor and John Wood, Jr.

It’s no revelation that Americans aren’t getting along. But Braver Angels is working to address this problem. The organization brings Americans together to bridge the partisan divide, offering tools and running workshops that convince Republicans and Democrats to meet but not necessarily in the middle.
March 4, 2021

Episode 29

A Renegade Solution to Extractive Economics with Kate Raworth

Kate Raworth, the “renegade economist” and creator of Doughnut Economics, explores how we can transform the world by changing the models for how we value it. Check out our conversation.
February 11, 2021

Episode 28

Two Million Years in Two Hours: A Conversation with Yuval Noah Harari

Yuval Noah Harari is one of the rare historians who can give us a two-million-year perspective on today’s headlines. In this wide-ranging conversation, Yuval explains how technology and democracy have evolved together over the course of human history, before exploring nearly unimaginable possibilities for where we might go from here.
January 15, 2021

Episode 27

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? A Civic Vision for the Internet with Eli Pariser

Eli Pariser, co-director of Civic Signals, co-founder of Avaaz, and author of "The Filter Bubble," has been thinking for years about how to create more functional online spaces and is bringing people together to solve that problem.
December 23, 2020

Episode 26

Are the Kids Alright? Guest: Jonathan Haidt

Jonathan Haidt, NYU social psychologist, has spent the last few years trying to figure out why we are in the midst of a teen mental health crisis. He believes social media is to blame.
October 27, 2020

Episode 25

Your Nation’s Attention for the Price of a Used Car. Guest: Zahed Amanullah

Zahed Amanullah, counter-terrorism expert at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, explains how the very tools that extremists use to broadcast messages of hate can also be used to stop them in their tracks.
October 6, 2020

Spotlight

The Social Dilemma

A new documentary, The Social Dilemma comes out on Netflix today, September 9, 2020.
September 9, 2020

Episode 24

Facebook Goes ‘2Africa.’ Guest: Julie Owono

Julie Owono, Executive Director of Internet Without Borders, discusses Facebook’s “2Africa” subsea cable project and the risks of tech companies leading us into an age of “digital colonialism.”
September 2, 2020

Episode 23

When Media Was for You and Me with Fred Turner

Fred Turner, a professor of communications at Stanford University, discusses how media can make us feel more reflective, more patient, and more tolerant.
August 5, 2020

Episode 22

Digital Democracy is Within Reach with Audrey Tang

Audrey Tang, Taiwan's Digital Minister, helps us imagine a world where every country has a digital minister and technologically-enabled legislative bodies.
July 23, 2020