Mary, can you tell us a little bit about your relationship to your phone?

Oh, gosh.

It's fraught.

It's very fraught.

Welcome to how to.

I'm Courtney Martin.

I want to start today's episode by sharing a wild statistic with you.

The average American unlocks their phone 150 times a day. 150 times a day. I mean, really think

about that for a minute. There is nothing else in our lives that is so instrumental to every

aspect of our existence, professional,

social, parasocial, and there's nothing else in our lives that is so palpably compulsive.

We reach for it without thinking. We tap on our favorite icon without intention. It's normalized

at this point, obviously, but that doesn't mean it should be. And I know what you're

thinking, I've heard this conversation before, keep screens out of the bedroom, turn off notifications,

throw your phone off a bridge and embark on a life free of digital distractions, that kind of thing.

But what I promise you is that if you listen to the next 30 or so minutes of

conversation, you really are going to have a chance at rewiring your nervous system when it

comes to that addictive little portal in your pocket. We've got a unique expert today who you'll

meet in a minute. But first, I want to introduce you to our guest, someone I

know very well and love very much, my sister-in-law, Mary. I am a poet and a creative director. I am the

creative director at Milkweed Editions, and I design the books there and sometimes edit them. I live in

Elserrido, California, a few blocks away from Courtney, where I'm very lucky to be married to her

...