Hi everyone, I'm Susie Weiss, and I've noticed there's just simply not enough podcasts in the world. So I'm launching my own. Let's go. Let's go, baby. Second Thought is a weekly show about pop culture. The stuff everyone's been binging, arguing about, obsessing over. Here's the thing about heated rivalry. I mean, even the most devoted swifties, I think we can agree, not our best work. We'll be hosting thoughtful conversations with culture's most important figures. Talk about genius.

Talk about generational talent.

Coming to headphones near you on can agree not our best work. We'll be hosting thoughtful conversations with culture's most important

figures. Talk about genius. Talk about generational talent. Coming to headphones near you on April 17th,

with a first guest you won't want to miss. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

Just before this call, I was actually on the phone with a good friend of mine who's a principal

of a school in Philadelphia, and he said, we have to find a place between the Wild West

and the yonder pouches. Both of those extremes are not helpful, right? Neither of those

help prepare kids to thrive in a future digital world. Welcome to how to. I'm Courtney Martin. All right, so it's back to school season. I don't know

if your experiences like mine, but I feel like I cannot get away from one conversation in particular.

It's a parent chit chat during drop off. It's in the newspapers and opeds. It's really everywhere.

And it seems like we're all asking, how far are we willing to go to keep our kids off of smartphones?

Schools are trying everything, right?

Detention, suspension, they're sticking phones in those weird old yonder pouches that strike me as very like dystopian novel. Now, this debate over kids

and addictive screens is nothing new, right? We've been having the conversation for years,

but public alarms seem to sort of reach a fever pitch this past spring with the publication

of Jonathan Heights, The Anxious Generation. So in the book, which of course is a big bestseller because parents were totally freaked out,

Haidt argues that social media is almost solely to blame for the skyrocketing prevalence of

Gen Z mental health issues.

It's a big claim, right?

He suggests no smartphones before high school, no social media before 16.

When my fifth grader watches videos by her favorite YouTube creator, Mariah Elizabeth.

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