Is Dr. Jonathan Haidt right?

True Thirty with Joey Dumont

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Is Dr. Jonathan Haidt right?

Joey Dumont

Oct 07, 2024

Transcript

Brad Berens wears a few different hats: he's a strategic advisor and senior fellow at the Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg, Principal at Big Digital Idea Consulting, serves on a variety of boards, and has spent many years working in digital media. He's also a science fiction novelist and writes a weekly newsletter, The Brad Berens Weekly Dispatch on Substack, and also on LinkedIn. He has a Ph.D. in Shakespeare studies from U.C. Berkeley, where he was an award-winning teacher.

Brad joined me to discuss Dr. Jonathan Haidt’s newest book, The Anxious Generation, How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.

Brad is a longtime friend and colleague from my time in the world of advertising. And over the years, he has made it clear that he is “Less than impressed” with Dr. Haidt’s many books and conclusions in the field of social psychology.

In today’s chat, Brad quickly points out that Dr. Haidt’s title alone is flawed - because there is no “Epidemic of Mental Illness” nor is there any causal data to back up this very controversial claim.

During our time together, I admit my biases… and do my best to defend my years-long intellectual crush on Dr. Haidt…in spite of Brad’s cogent and valid concerns about the book’s lack of unidirectional causality, specific to its title and theoretical positioning in the field of social psychology.

As usual with my time with Brad, I had a blast, and learned a ton. I hope you enjoy this episode, too.

Brad Berens’ Socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradberens/

And The Brad Berens Weekly Dispatch:

Discussion about this podcast

True Thirty with Joey Dumont

True Thirty, with Joey Dumont is a podcast that discusses and debates our society's most politically compelling topics through the lens of slow journalism. Each show is investigated with a focus on narrative as well as discovery. We believe that the complexity of culture cannot be crammed into six-minute television segments, or snippets and memes on social media, where ideology and entertainment is now the priority.

On the program, you’ll hear the opinions of subject matter experts who'll explore the tangled topics of our day. Our collective goal is to help people better understand one another, not win a battle. After listening, you'll be reminded that a proper debate is not about victory, but that of inquiry, education, and viewpoint diversity. So tune in and talk amongst yourselves. You may even learn a thing or two.

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