Can you live without a smartphone?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A year ago Times columnist James Marriott ditched his smartphone to escape the endless notifications from his apps. How has he managed without a device many of us feel is indispensable? And could it be a more desirable future?
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Guest: James Marriott, Columnist, The Times.
Host: Luke Jones.
Producer: Edward Drummond.
Further reading: I’m a digital native — can I survive without my smartphone?
Photo: Jude Edginton for The Times Magazine.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode of The Story is sponsored by Uber. These days, it is pretty easy to tap an app and |
| 0:05.9 | grab a ride or a car service, but they're not all the same. Uber has been helping to set the |
| 0:11.1 | standard on driver protections and benefits, offering flexibility to their drivers around when, |
| 0:17.1 | where, and for how long they work. Eligible Uber drivers also have access to holiday pay, a pension scheme, new parent payments, and for how long they work, eligible Uber drivers also have access to holiday pay, |
| 0:22.0 | a pension scheme, new parent payments, and even fully funded Open University courses. In fact, |
| 0:27.8 | they were the first major app-based operator to provide this range of benefits. And they also |
| 0:32.8 | support sustainable choices with Uber Green, where passengers in London can choose a fully electric ride |
| 0:39.1 | at the touch of a button at no additional cost. So the next time you're looking to tap an app, |
| 0:45.1 | think about the driver too. Tap Uber. Go to Uber.com forward slash driver protections to learn |
| 0:50.1 | about the benefits and protections that Uber has introduced for drivers. |
| 0:54.4 | This episode of The Story is brought to you by PWC, who are experts in helping businesses get to grips with emerging technologies, such as Gen A.I. |
| 1:05.1 | PWC's research shows that around 40% of business decision makers say integrating Gen AI with their existing systems and processes |
| 1:13.6 | is proving to be an obstacle. But here's where the incredible team at PWC come in. |
| 1:20.6 | They've empowered more than 5,000 technologists within their firm to solve clients' business challenges. |
| 1:26.6 | They were recently named the Microsoft Partner of the Year award winner for Building with AI, |
| 1:33.3 | and they were named a leader in the IDC MarketScape Worldwide Cloud Professional Services |
| 1:38.3 | 2024 vendor assessment. |
| 1:41.3 | PWC has strong alliances with many leading technology companies, which combined with their |
| 1:47.6 | own in-depth industry understanding, tech skills and capabilities, enables clients to use |
| 1:53.7 | emerging technology responsibly and securely to solve their most critical business problems. |
| 2:00.2 | This is human-led, tech-powered. |
| 2:02.6 | Learn more at pwc.co.uk. |
... |
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