Exposing the Biggest Modern Lie You've Already Fallen For
Kosher Money
Living Lchaim
4.9 • 842 Ratings
🗓️ 15 October 2025
⏱️ 79 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In our 100th Kosher Money episode, we chat with Richard Simon, a guy who went completely offline for a year. What he learned might totally change how you see your phone.
We were promised connection and convenience, but most of us just feel more anxious and distracted. In his book Unplug, Richard talks about how our devices quietly steal our focus and shape our lives without us even realizing it.
If you’ve ever felt glued to your phone, this episode might be the nudge you need to finally take a break.
Get the book: https://amzn.to/4naAcPc
Contact: author@richard-simon.com
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► MONEY HALACHA – Real people have real money questions & Money Halacha has real Torah answers. Get short, practical 1–4 minute halacha clips straight to your phone every week via WhatsApp: https://MoneyHalacha.com/Join
► COLEL CHABAD – Our brothers and sisters in Israel need us more than ever. Every dollar makes a difference at https://colelchabad.org/koshermoney so please give what you can. Thank You!
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
01:29 The Moment Richard Realized He Was in Control
03:23 People’s Outrageous Screen Time
03:50 Forgetting What Life Was Like Before Phones
04:49 What Happens to Our Brains When We Use Our Phones
06:00 How Richard’s Smartphone Affected His Career
07:09 Attention Residue
11:09 You CAN Be More Focused
12:33 This MLB Player’s Big Decision
16:50 Why Get Rid of Your Phone Completely?
20:30 BitBean – Bringing Your Big Ideas to Life
21:23 Twillory – Look Good & Feel Good
22:48 Letting Go of Technology Frees Your Mind
28:00 How to Break Up With Your Phone
33:35 The Awareness of Phone Addiction
35:27 The Challenge of Giving Up His Smartphone
37:15 What Richard Used Instead of His Apps
39:05 How His Wife Was Influenced
39:53 Should We Give Our Children Smartphones?
47:02 Girls vs. Boys – Conversations and Smartphones
47:46 Money Halacha – Weekly Halacha Clips
49:06 Colel Chabad – Feeding Thousands of Families
50:21 How the Corporate World Is Unplugging
52:10 The Different Smartphone Breakup Styles
53:40 Addiction vs. Self-Control
54:19 Saving Money by Going Phone-Less
55:05 What Richard Did With His New Free Time
57:20 Quietness Leads to the Best Results
59:42 Why People Struggle to Let Go of Their Phones
1:00:01 The First Step to a Healthier Relationship
1:04:55 Pros and Cons of ChatGPT
1:07:40 What Richard Would Tell His Younger Self
1:08:22 How He Helps People Work on Their Phone Addiction
1:10:31 Ways to Make Using Your Phone Less Tempting
1:12:38 Richard’s Must-Have Book
1:13:27 How to Contact Richard
1:13:38 Why Richard Doesn’t Have Social Media
1:15:02 Richard’s Next Book? + Recs
1:16:39 Outro: Contest & New Winner
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Reminder: This episode or description is not financial advice. Always do your own research.
Kosher Money is the bi-weekly podcast from Living Lchaim, hosted by Eli Langer.
#DigitalDetox #PhoneAddiction #FocusAndSuccess #ProductivityTips #AttentionEconomy #MindfulLiving #DeepWork #SelfImprovement #KosherMoney #LivingLchaim #JewishPodcast #FinancialFreedom #PersonalGrowth #SuccessHabits #TimeManagement #MentalClarity #DigitalMinimalism #RichardSimon #SmartphoneAddiction
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Nick Castellanos, for people who aren't familiar with professional baseball, he was drafted by the Detroit Tigers, he decided he was going to get rid of his smartphone entirely. |
| 0:09.0 | He had a focus on the field that he never had before in his life. |
| 0:12.0 | And all of a sudden, first half of the year, he's the best hitter in baseball. |
| 0:17.0 | He goes to his first All-Star game, starting for the National League, and he ends up winning the Silver Slugger Award at the end of the year in 2021. |
| 0:24.9 | And he looked back on all this, and he pointed to him getting rid of his smartphone as being one of the biggest reasons. |
| 0:30.5 | I spoke to an ER doctor at Children's National in D.C. |
| 0:35.2 | And she was saying, like, we have people with gruesome injuries to, like, |
| 0:38.4 | their legs from sports. They're about to go into surgery and they won't let go of it. We're |
| 0:42.9 | trying to tear the phone out of their hands and they won't let go. If you're right now currently |
| 0:47.4 | in fifth or sixth grade and now in your late 20s, in that range, it really isn't your fault. |
| 0:55.3 | It was a big social experiment that completely went wrong. |
| 0:59.4 | Our phones are the most powerful tools humanity has ever built. |
| 1:03.6 | And yet, they might also be the most destructive. |
| 1:06.7 | They're in our pockets when we wake up, when we eat, when we're with the people we love. |
| 1:12.2 | My guest today is Richard Simon, a brilliant chew from Baltimore who decided to do something |
| 1:17.6 | radical. |
| 1:18.6 | He broke up with his phone. |
| 1:20.6 | He lived for a year without it. |
| 1:22.5 | And what he discovered about life, relationships, and freedom is something everyone needs to hear. Richard, what was the |
| 1:29.3 | first moment you realized your phone had more control over you than you had over it? Definitely when |
| 1:35.4 | kids came into the equation. We had our first child, me and my wife in 2016. Although I always |
| 1:43.0 | had a difficult relationship with it, I knew how much control it had ever |
... |
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