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The Problem With...

The Problem With Gen Z: Elliot Bewick

The Problem With...

James Smith

Society & Culture

4.99.5K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2026

⏱️ 81 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Elliot Bewick joins James Smith to reveal the problem with Gen Z. This generation is currently trapped in a quiet crisis where skyrocketing anxiety rates and plummeting fertility are threatening the future of social stability. Bewick explains why modern connectivity has become a dangerous trap that trades genuine competence for manufactured authenticity. 👁️ Try Neutonic: https://www.neutonic.com/jamessmith 🧪 Check your Test: https://www.manual.co/smith 📝 Business Mentoring: https://www.jamessmith.business 🏋🏼‍♂️ Online Coaching: https://www.jamessmithacademy.com He explains: ◼️ Why skyrocketing suicide and anxiety rates are destroying mental health ◼️ How Instagram turned human connection into a predatory and exhausting status game. ◼️ What happens when there are no incentives to work ◼️ How the West has become obsessed with victimisation Timestamps 00:00 The Crisis Facing Gen Z 03:15 The Problem With Content Ideation 05:07 The Reality of Gen Z Mental Health 07:56 How Young People Climb Status 09:39 The Impact of COVID on Gen Z 12:37 Modern Social Media Status Hierarchies 17:02 The Trap of Manufactured Authenticity 20:48 The Ethics of Steroid Disclosure 25:09 Why Jiu-Jitsu Cures Body Dysmorphia 31:25 Performative Difficulty vs True Hardship 39:58 The Looming Loneliness Epidemic 43:51 Why Modern History Was Worse 48:10 The Trench Visualization for Perspective 54:26 The Practice of Secular Grace 59:51 Hard Work vs Generational Privilege 01:01:51 The Global Housing Crisis Reality 01:05:01 The Pending Depopulation Crisis 01:07:08 Why Men Are Losing Purpose 01:11:18 The Rise of Masculinity Outlaws 01:16:00 Modern Career Opportunities for Gen Z 01:19:17 How to Build a Legacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

If you're going to have to buy a house that's 12 times your annual salary, when they're also

0:05.1

matching that with a cost of living crisis in terms of food and whatever else, why wouldn't you

0:10.3

go out and buy the expensive matcher or splash on the new iPhone? People criticize us all the time

0:15.5

for having these superficial goods, but you kind of might as well.

0:19.3

Elliot Buick is the host of the NextGen podcast.

0:22.5

James and Elliot discuss why the West victimized themselves if Gen Z are actually lazy.

0:27.3

And...

0:27.6

Elliot Buick, what is the problem with Gen Z?

0:29.8

I think we get spoken about a lot, but perhaps not cared about.

0:33.0

Even the term Gen Z.

0:34.4

It does get used more as a marketing tool.

0:36.9

Anxiety rates have been absolutely skyrocketing the last decade.

0:40.4

The suicide rate increased almost three times more of my generation than it did for people

0:45.6

after the Great Depression.

0:47.5

The Great Depression.

0:48.7

The most worrying part is young men.

0:50.8

We've stripped away masculinity completely and all of these important parts of identity

0:56.3

that give people a feeling of purpose. When you outlaw masculinity, only the outlaws are going

1:02.9

to be brave enough to be masculine. To me, the thing tying all of this together is...

1:09.7

It's at this very moment here that I could have got thousands of pounds to sit here and promote a greens powder that doesn't do anything. But instead, I decided to pay for every aspect of this podcast myself and just ask you that if we're in the UK, USA, UAE, to please try and get a can of Newtonic. Australia, we're coming incredibly soon, we're in the manufacturing process, and for any of you that can, please do try our Newtonic creatine sticks. They are the shit. You can head to Newtonic.com to see what's available to you, and I will let you now get back to the episode. Elliot Buick, what is the problem with Gen Z? Well, depending on what you look at, it might be easier to ask what's not the problem with Gen Z.

1:44.4

There's so much going on.

1:45.9

And if you look at something like our mental health that people love to bag on about,

...

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