Support for KQED Podcasts comes from San Francisco International Airport. Now you can experience

premium valet parking to make your airport visit even smoother. Learn more at flysfo.com slash valet.

Support for KQED podcasts comes from the San Jose Museum of Art. Photographer Paw Ho-Hare explores

homeland and family among her Hmong American community. See the

imaginative landscape. Learn more at SJM-U-S-A-R-T dot org.

From K-Q-E-D.

Music From KQBD in San Francisco, I'm Nina Kim.

Coming up on forum, adolescence has always been turbulent, but what happens when

you mix in early puberty, digital information overload, and a world that feels increasingly

unsteady? Journalist Matt Ricktle says we're living through a radical shift in how we come of age.

In his new book, How We Grow Up, Ricktle draws on neuroscience and conversations with young people and their families to explore what's behind a rising adolescent mental health crisis.

And he says, it's not just about the phones.

Richter joins us after this news. Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. Do you remember your adolescent years? Or maybe you're in them now.

Pulitzer Prize winning science writer Matt Rickdle says what adolescents are going

through today is profoundly different from what previous generations experienced. The stage starts

earlier, lasts longer, and comes with vast amounts of digital information and marketing that create

unprecedented challenges for today's teens. Rickdle in trying to understand why rates of anxiety and depression among young people are climbing,

says no understanding is complete without revisiting the purpose of adolescence itself.

Matt Richtel joins me now. Welcome to Forum, Matt.

Hi, Minna, how are you?

Glad to have you and doing really well.

What made you come to that realization, Matt, that you needed to look into the science on the purpose of adolescence?

...