257: The Human Cost of AI: What Is It All For?

No Small Endeavor with Lee C. Camp

Lee Camp

Philosophy, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 555 Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We’re building smarter, faster tools every day, but are they helping us live better lives or just accelerating us in the wrong direction? In part two of The Human Cost of AI, Lee C. Camp shifts from diagnosing the forces behind the AI revolution to discerning how we might live well within it. Drawing on voices from neuroscience, theology, and philosophy, this episode explores three essential questions around purpose, human dignity, and agency. At stake is nothing less than authentic human flourishing in a technological age. Guests in this episode: Carissa Carter, Scott Doorley, Josh Brake, Rosalind Picard, Baratunde Thurston, Joe Vukov, and Carlos Whittaker. Key Ideas: -Clarify Your Purpose In a culture obsessed with speed and efficiency, we must ask why we are using AI and whether it serves meaningful living or misdirected progress. -Reimagine What’s Human As machines replicate language and reasoning, we are invited to rediscover human dignity through embodiment and relationship. -Practice Courageous Agency Even without control over systems, we can resist, choose differently, and cultivate habits that align technology with the common good. ⁠⁠⁠Show Notes, Resources, and Transcript⁠ for abridged episode 2 of The Human Cost of AI⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Join NSE+⁠⁠⁠ — our subscriber-only community — for ad-free listening, member-only bonus content, and early access to live show tickets. Your membership helps make No Small Endeavor sustainable. No Small Endeavor: An award-winning podcast that asks what it means to live a good life. Through conversations with leading thinkers across theology, philosophy, psychology, politics, and the social sciences, we explore human flourishing, meaning and purpose, faith and culture, science and religion, virtue and character, religion and spirituality, community, and the practices that help shape a good life grounded in truth, beauty, and goodness. Follow ⁠⁠⁠@nosmallendeavor⁠⁠⁠ Host Lee C. Camp: Lee has worked as a professor of theology & ethics for more than 25 years, teaching and writing on topics of faith & politics, inter-religious dialog, and human flourishing at the intersection of theology, moral philosophy, and social sciences. Follow ⁠⁠⁠@leeccamp ⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Lee C. Camp. This is no small endeavor, exploring what it means to live a good life.
0:09.1	Their goal is to make the thing stickier. And they know that one of the best ways to do that is to hack your psychology.
0:17.5	This is part two of our two-part series, The Human Cost of AI.
0:21.6	These technologies are very, very powerful, and what we're building with them is speeding along tracks that we can't quite see until something has gone wrong.
0:31.6	In part one, we discussed the forces behind an AI revolution that is shaping the ways we think, feel,
0:38.8	behave from the public square to our most intimate relationships.
0:43.1	So how should we navigate the brave new world in which we find ourselves some potential answers
0:48.8	coming right up?
0:50.5	It doesn't have will or agency or tell us, but as soon as you pick it up, the design of that tool shapes your will and agency in a certain direction.
0:59.8	Across the globe, researchers are finding that increased social media use is affecting people's happiness.
1:06.1	So, why do so many of us feel like we can't log off, even when we want to?
1:11.3	The Happiness Lab podcast is going straight to the source.
1:15.0	Host Dr. Laurie Santos sits down with the authors of the 2026 World Happiness Report to
1:20.8	unpack this year's most significant and surprising findings.
1:24.7	From global trends in young people's well-being to the social pressures that
1:28.9	keep the rest of us glued to our feeds, Dr. Santos breaks down the science in ways that could
1:34.5	change how you use these platforms. I'm a long-time fan of the work of Professor Laurie Santos,
1:40.6	Professor at Yale. I've used her work for years in some of my own classes, and I happily
1:45.8	recommend her podcast. Again, it's called the Happiness Lab, and you can listen to the
1:50.4	Happiness Lab wherever you get your podcasts now.
1:54.6	Are you curious about the hidden side of everything? Then I have a podcast for you. I'm Stephen Dubner, host of Free Economics Radio.
2:03.2	Each week we hear from some of the most fascinating scholars and thinkers as we tackle big topics,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Lee Camp, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Lee Camp and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.