Episode

10/20 Social Media Breaking Our Brains; Civil Unrest In Haiti w/ Dr. Nicholas Kardaras & Eugene Puryear

October 20, 2022

Emma hosts Dr. Nicholas Kardaras to discuss his recent book Digital Madness: How Social Media Is Driving Our Mental Health Crisis-and How to Restore Our Sanity. Then, Emma is joined by Eugene Puryear, co-host of the Breakthrough News show, to discuss the recent civil and social unrest in Haiti. Emma first runs through updates on FED policies bringing a big win for predatory payday lenders and a whole lot of bad stuff otherwise, before diving into the turmoil in the UK with PM Liz Truss stepping down just 44 days into her term. Doctor Nicholas Kardaras then joins as he and Emma get right into looking at remote schooling during the pandemic as the full melding of education and technology, with COVID coming at the tail end of a decade-and-a-half-long decline of mental health coinciding with a massive increase in screen time and immediately seeing rates of depression triple and rates of screentime double. After a brief conversation on the greater proof of correlation between screentime and rates of loneliness and feelings of isolation (with a very clear generational trend), they dive into how the whistleblowing of Frances Haugen brought to light how actively aware Facebook/Instagram was of the impact of their platforms on driving these conditions, and why the greater toxicity of these platforms isn’t due to their unique algorithms (which really rely on the same playbook as any other platform) but their popularity. Wrapping up, they tackle the biggest policies the US government could take in breaking up the power of Big Tech and creating accountability for the impact of their products, exploring what a repeal of Section 230 would mean, what an anti-trust approach would entail, and the actual endpoints of their toxic programming. Then, Eugene Puryear gets right into parsing through the political developments in Haiti since the assassination of President (by decree at that point) Jovenel Moïse, somehow bringing about an even less legitimate reign of US-backed Ariel Henry, and solving none of the issues of unrest and state deterioration – instead pushing even more neocolonial policies onto a people who have been failed by a century out US interventionism. After a quick history of US intervention in Haiti, Puryear and Emma tackle the particular failure of the Biden Administration’s treatment of Haiti, with their promotion of Henry largely stemming from his acceptance of their abusive policies to Haitian migrants – something that already forced the resignation of a US Special Envoys for Haiti. They wrap up the interview by parsing through what we can do to push US legislators towards developmental and state-building policies grounded in Haitian autonomy.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Matt and Brandon as Valerie from AZ calls in to discuss Mar-a-Lago modding, Sandy from Ontario dives into her city’s politics, and Ben Shapiro discusses the difference between fake Jews (Israel Haters) and real Jews (Ben Shapiro disciples). Lara Logan and Eric Bolling discuss the shadow of the end of days that looms over America, and Chris from Hawaii dives into the evolution of the manosphere and the integral nature of projection and fear to that community’s rhetoric. The crew also dives into DeSantis’ entrapment of formerly-incarcerated people into voter fraud and Matt Walsh’s devastating denouncement of anime. Vaughn from Washington discusses American education and its failure to confront uncomfortable issues, plus, your calls and IMs!
Check out Nicholas’s book here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250278500/digitalmadness
Check out Breakthrough News here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiinSjWS3E0vtAa3DCvp7iA

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