From Coddling to Crisis. Today, we trace the trajectory of student fragility from playgrounds to classrooms. Welcome to Heterodox Out Loud. In today's episode, our host, John Tomasi, talks with social psychologist and best-selling author Jonathan Haidt about his new book, The Anxious Generation. The book delves into the increasing levels of anxiety and emotional distress experienced by teens today. During their discussion, Haidt emphasizes the significant shift from a play-based childhood to a smartphone-centric upbringing, which has led to a rise in mental health issues, particularly after the adoption of Instagram in 2012.

The pair will explore how these changes have affected higher education and campus life. They will discuss the reinforcement of emotional reasoning, fragility, and self-censorship fostered in academic settings. Together, they will examine the critical issues and potential pathways for creating robust, supportive, and intellectually vibrant university communities. Join us to learn more about this critical topic.

In This Episode:

Exploring the Anxious Generation's college experience
The impact of technology on mental health
The role of community in university settings
Challenges of identity and independence in college
How to foster viewpoint diversity and respectful discourse

Follow Jonathan on X here: https://twitter.com/JonHaidt

About Jonathan:

Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 and taught for 16 years in the Department of Psychology at the University of Virginia. Haidt's research focuses on exploring the intuitive foundations of morality and how it varies across cultures, including the cultures of progressives, conservatives, and libertarians. His aim is to help people understand, live, and work with each other despite their moral differences. Haidt has co-founded several organizations and collaborations that apply moral and social psychology to achieve this goal, including Heterodox Academy, The Constructive Dialogue Institute, and EthicalSystems.org. Haidt is the author of The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, as well as The New York Times bestsellers The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion and The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure (co-authored with Greg Lukianoff). He has written more than 100 academic articles, which have been cited nearly 100,000 times. In 2019, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was chosen by Prospect magazine as one of the world’s “Top 50 Thinkers.” Haidt has given four TED talks and since 2018, he has been studying the impact of social media on the decline of teen mental health and the rise of political dysfunction. His latest book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, was published by Penguin Press on March 26, 2024.

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