Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Kids Can Choose Fun and Freedom in a Screen Filled World

The Oprah Podcast

Harpo

Society & Culture

4.6 • 711 Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@Oprah BUY THE BOOK! Catherine Price and Jonathan Haidt’s newly announced book, The Amazing Generation: How To Choose Fun And Freedom In A Screen Filled World will be available December 30, 2025 wherever books are sold. It is also available for pre-order now. “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” by Jonathan Haidt, published by Penguin Press, is available wherever books are sold. For more information about how to join Jonathan Haidt’s movement and for more resources including a phone-free schools action kit and policy map, please go to the website below. https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/ Catherine Price’s book, “How to Break Up with Your Phone” is available wherever books are sold. In this episode of “The Oprah Podcast,” Oprah talks to bestselling authors Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price who share their perspectives on how young people can reclaim their childhoods from the grips of technology. Jonathan’s book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness has been on the New York Times bestseller list for over a year. Catherine Price is the award-winning science journalist and author of How to Break Up With Your Phone and The Power of Fun. During this conversation, both Jonathan and Catherine offer solutions and hope for parents and teens who are struggling with the negative impact of smartphones and social media. We will also hear from several teenagers who have come up with their own creative ideas to avoid falling into the smartphone trap. Learn more about Catherine Price Sign up for her How to Feel Alive Substack newsletter Follow @catherinepriceofficial on Instagram Learn more about the Luddite Club: https://www.theludditeclub.org/ Follow Oprah Winfrey on Social: https://www.instagram.com/oprah/ https://www.facebook.com/oprahwinfrey/ Listen to the full podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0tEVrfNp92a7lbjDe6GMLI https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oprah-podcast/id1782960381 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everybody and welcome to the Oprah Podcasts.
0:03.8	I just want to say thank you for taking the time to be with us
0:07.0	because we're talking about a lot of good things here
0:09.7	that I sincerely hope can enhance your own life.
0:15.0	Many of you have either bought or maybe heard
0:17.8	of Jonathan Heights's mega bestselling book, The Anxious Generation.
0:22.9	And if you haven't heard, then you're late to the party,
0:26.9	because this is a book that all parents are using to help them navigate
0:30.5	the firestorms going on in their homes about smartphones and social media for their children.
0:38.3	On this episode, I'm talking with social psychologist and number one New York Times bestselling
0:43.6	author Jonathan Haidt, who offers solutions and hope for parents and teens who are struggling
0:49.3	with the negative impact of social media and smartphones. I am incredibly optimistic that we are going to roll this back.
0:57.0	The phone-based childhood only arrived 12 years ago.
1:00.3	We can get rid of it, and I think we're going to.
1:02.6	We're joined by Catherine Price, an award-winning science journalist
1:05.9	and author of several best-selling books, including How to Break Up with Your Phone
1:10.2	and The Power of Fun.
1:12.9	I've heard from young people who say that their entire childhoods were stolen from them,
1:16.9	that they basically feel like they have no memories of their teenage years because they spent all of their time on their phones.
1:22.8	We'll hear from teens who've come up with their own practical and creative ideas to avoid falling into the
1:29.1	smartphone trap. And I was in my bed watching TikTok for eight to ten hours every day. So I reached
1:35.1	a breaking point and I powered off my smartphone and I put it in a box in my parents' room.
	...

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