Nov 17

How to survive awkward encounters

We all know what awkwardness feels like. It's that jolt of discomfort when the social script breaks down, and no one knows what to do next. But what if awkwardness isn’t a flaw to fix but a window into how we live together? Sean’s guest today is Alexandra Plakias, associate p ... Show More

56m 52s

Nov 10

Truth in an age of doublethink

We use “Orwellian” to describe everything from campus dust-ups to authoritarian crackdowns. But what did George Orwell actually stand for, what did he get wrong, and what can we learn from him about our age of surveillance capitalism and distraction? Sean’s guest is Laura Beers, ... Show More

52m 16s

Nov 3

The case against free will

We all think of ourselves as authors of our lives. The difference between our happy ending and someone else’s tragic one are the choices we each make. But what if none of that’s true? Sean’s guest today is Robert Sapolsky, a biologist and neuroscientist at Stanford University and ... Show More

58m 50s

Dec 2022

Is This the End of Social Media? With Ian Bogost

Ian Bogost, author and professor at Washington University in St. Louis, talks with Jon about the demise of online social networks. In a recent Atlantic article, “The Age of Social Media Is Ending,” Bogost examines the platforms’ dipping trajectory and argues that people just a ... Show More

43m 37s

Nov 2022

Social Media Is Dead

We’re living through the end of something. Facebook is the site where your older family shares racist memes, Twitter seems only capable of talking about itself, and Instagram can’t compete with TikTok. What started with Friendster and MySpace, social media, once felt like a total ... Show More

47m 4s

Jul 2023

Peak social media: The ads machine

Mark Zuckerberg used advertising to turn Facebook into the first global social media giant, boasting 3bn users around the world. But today there are questions about the business model that has powered it for the past 15 years, and what Zuckerberg’s new focus on building the Me ... Show More

27m 5s

Oct 2023

The Truth About Social Media Platforms

For the FULL story, preorder my memoir “Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything” here: https://bit.ly/semiwelladjusted Go to HelloFresh.com/50dearfresh and use code 50dearfresh for 50% off plus free shipping! Over 95 million photos and videos are posted on Instagram daily ... Show More

21m 2s

Jul 2023

Peak social media: The power of influencers

Social media today is less about making friends and more about following popular content creators. While those creators are starting to hold some power over the platforms themselves, they’re also looking to become less reliant on the platforms that have enabled them to find fa ... Show More

26m 42s

Jul 2023

Peak social media: The debate over young users’ mental health

There’s a growing feeling that social media is bad for us: bad for society and bad for our wellbeing. That trend has culminated in a new wave of legislation in the United States aiming to address social media’s impact on young people’s mental health. But in this episode, Elain ... Show More

26m 13s

Jan 2022

Social Media – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The rise of social media in the early 2000s grew into something none of us could have imagined! But does too much of a good thing become a bad thing? A tool that connects others from across the world also brings people down. In this episode, Jon and Alex talk about the ... Show More

50m 32s

Mar 2024

The Battle for Attention: Streaming Vs. Social

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss the battle for time in the attention economy of streaming and social media. They parse through the latest data on how people spend their time and wonder whether streaming services are in danger of losing relevance with young mil ... Show More

32m 27s

Apr 2022

Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover

Three major stories could change the way we get our news. The multi-million-dollar streaming service CNN+, once billed as the broadcaster’s future, has shut down after less than a month. Over in Silicon Valley, Elon Musk has signed a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. And the UK ha ... Show More

27m 50s

Aug 2023

Peak social media: The future

In the final episode of this Tech Tonic season, FT correspondents weigh in on the trends that will determine the future of social media. From Meta’s Threads to artificial intelligence, we ask how platforms will look and feel in years to come. The FT’s deputy Lex editor, host E ... Show More

21m 17s

The end of social media