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The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

Brain Rot Emergency: These Internal Documents Prove They’re Controlling You!

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

FlightStory

Education, Society & Culture, Business

4.517.8K Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2026

⏱️ 141 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How is Tiktok rewiring your brain? Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and Harvard physician Dr Aditi Nerurkar reveal how tech addiction and short-form video are ROTTING your brain, and why AI chatbots could cause the next global addiction CRISIS!  Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist at NYU Stern and the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Anxious Generation. Dr. Aditi Nerurkar is a world-renowned expert in stress, burnout, and mental health, and best-selling author of ‘The 5 Resets’.  They explain: ◼️The "brain hacking" secrets tech companies use to hook you ◼️Why short-form video is shattering the global attention span ◼️The link between phone-based childhoods and the teen mental health crisis ◼️How TikTok causes a 40% drop in memory accuracy ◼️Why you must delete addictive slot-machine apps to reclaim your focus Enjoyed the episode? Share this link and earn points for every referral - redeem them for exclusive prizes: https://doac-perks.com  00:00 Intro 02:26 The Largest Threat To Humanity Right Now—And Why No One Wants To Admit It 06:31 How Short-Form Videos Are Rewiring Your Brain For The Worse 09:26 What Your Phone Is Doing To Your Sleep, Heart, And Stress Levels 16:15 Why Short-Form Content Is Quietly Killing Deep Thinking 19:07 What’s Really Happening In Your Brain When You Scroll 26:24 What Happens When You Quit Social Media—And Take Back Control 30:00 The Real Danger Behind Meta, Snapchat, And TikTok 36:05 The Dark Side Of Snapchat: Cyberbullying And Predators Exposed 41:23 Oxytocin, AI Chatbots, And What This Means For Your Brain 55:20 What If Your Business Depends On Social Media—Is There Another Way? 01:00:28 Why So Many People Feel Lost—And How Tech Plays A Role 01:06:16 Ads 01:07:17 The Simple Test To Know If You’re Addicted To Your Phone 01:26:08 What Is “Popcorn Brain”—And Do You Have It? 01:28:04 Brain Rot: Why Adults Can Recover—But Teens Might Not 01:31:45 Why Australia Banned Social Media For Under-16s—And What Happens Next 01:43:16 Ads 01:45:33 Why Parents Can’t Sue Social Media Companies—And What This Law Protects 02:04:29 How Technology Is Eroding Our Sense Of Meaning 02:08:39 How To Reclaim Meaning And Joy In A Hyper-Digital World 02:14:14 The 3-Second Brain Reset That Breaks The Scroll Cycle Follow Dr Aditi: Instagram - https://linkly.link/2aYTX  Website - https://linkly.link/2aYTZ You can purchase Aditi’s book, ‘The 5 Resets’, here: https://linkly.link/2aYTd  Follow Jonathan: X - https://linkly.link/2aYTq Website - https://linkly.link/2aYTs  You can purchase Jonathan’s book, ‘The Amazing Generation’, here: https://linkly.link/2aYU7  Independent research: https://stevenbartlett.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/DOAC-Attention-Discussion-Independent-Research-further-reading.pdf The Diary Of A CEO: ◼️Join DOAC circle here - https://doaccircle.com/  ◼️Buy The Diary Of A CEO book here - https://smarturl.it/DOACbook  ◼️The 1% Diary is back - limited time only: https://bit.ly/3YFbJbt  ◼️The Diary Of A CEO Conversation Cards (Second Edition): https://g2ul0.app.link/f31dsUttKKb  ◼️Get email updates - https://bit.ly/diary-of-a-ceo-yt  ◼️Follow Steven - https://g2ul0.app.link/gnGqL4IsKKb  Sponsors: Wispr - Get 14 days of Wispr Flow for free at https://wisprflow.ai/DOAC   Function Health - https://Functionhealth.com/DOAC to sign up for $365 a year. One dollar a day for your health Pipedrive - https://pipedrive.com/CEO

Transcript

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0:00.0

One thing I've learned from interviewing a lot of founders and building companies myself is that

0:03.5

trust is the real currency of business. It's the thing that gets customers to buy, partners to say yes,

0:08.5

and investors to back you. But as you grow, trust stops being just a feeling and becomes something

0:13.1

you have to prove. Because the bigger you get, the more exposed you are, customer data,

0:17.4

security expectations, regulations, all of it. And the risk of one small mistake

0:21.1

becomes incredibly significant. And if you've ever tried to scale while keeping on top of all of that,

0:26.6

you'll know it can become a full-time job. But our sponsor Vanta automates your compliance

0:31.3

processes and brings compliance, risk and customer trust together through their AI-powered platform.

0:36.8

And the company's already using Vanta,

0:38.7

say they spend 82% less time on audits because of Vantas platform. So if your organization wants to

0:44.4

inject time back into building and growing, make sure you head over to vanta.com slash diary. That's

0:49.9

vanta.com.com slash diary. You are actively rewiring your brain for the worst by engaging with social media, high volume,

0:58.1

quick videos.

0:59.1

And the social media executives don't let their kids use this stuff because they designed

1:03.1

it to be addictive.

1:04.1

And they know that millions and millions of kids have been cyberbullied, sex-storited,

1:08.4

many have committed suicide.

1:09.6

So I'm getting angry.

1:10.6

And then from the medical perspective, it's rewiring your body, increasing your risk of heart disease, and PTSD. We've moved too far into the virtual world, and the results are catastrophic. People are spending roughly about six and a half hours a day on their phones. What do we do about this? Well, here's the amazing thing. We actually can control our fate.

1:29.4

So we are joined by a social psychologist and a Harvard physician to dive into the technology

1:34.2

addiction and brain rot crisis billions are facing worldwide. And how we can counter its devastating

1:39.8

mental health effects. You have to reclaim your attention because without the ability to pay attention

...

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