The Armen Show

Carrie James and Emily Weinstein are the authors of “Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing (and Adults Are Missing). How are teens navigating a networked world? What are they doing on their smartphones, and what does their response say about the current moment? Is there something more than addiction to screens and connectivity going on? On episode 362, I discuss these topics with Dr. Emily Weinstein and Dr. Carrie James, co-authors of Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing (and Adults Are Missing). Dr. Emily Weinstein is a senior researcher at Project Zero and a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dr. Weinstein studies the intersections of networked technologies with the social, emotional, and civic lives of adolescents and emerging adults. Her research on digital technologies draws on a variety of methodological approaches, including digital post analyses, interviews, surveys, focus groups, and experiments. Dr. Weinstein’s published work appears in interdisciplinary journals, including New Media & Society, Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of Adolescent Research, and International Journal of Communication. In Spring 2022, she is teaching the new course, Digital Dilemmas: Adolescents Behind Their Screens (T510A). Outside of her academic research, Emily regularly works with schools and families to reimagine supports for digital life. She is also a longtime collaborator of Common Sense Education, where she has worked on the development of free programs and resources related to digital citizenship. She holds a Master’s degree (Ed.M.) in Prevention Science and Practice and a Doctorate (Ed.D.) in Human Development and Education, both from Harvard University, and a B.S. from Cornell University. Carrie James is a Research Associate and Principal Investigator at Project Zero. A sociologist by training, her research explores young people’s digital, moral, and civic lives. Over the past decade plus, Carrie has led research and educational initiatives focused on ethical issues in digital life, civic engagement and participatory politics in a connected age, and cross-cultural online learning experiences.  For many years, Carrie worked closely with Howard Gardner and colleagues, conducting research on digital ethics. Past projects include: The Good Play Project, a MacArthur Foundation-Funded initiative focused on digital ethics and the Good Participation Project, a MacArthur Youth and Participatory Politics Research Network study of youth civic participation and civic education in a networked age. Carrie co-directs Digital Dilemmas and Reimagining Digital Well-Being With and For Youth with Emily Weinstein. These initiatives emphasize approaches that center teens’ perspectives and experiences, and involve them as co-designers of interventions to support their digital well-being. In collaboration with Common Sense Education, we have produced new classroom resources, including a core set of thinking routines and dilemmas for digital life. Carrie’s publications also include Disconnected: Youth, New Media, and the Ethics Gap (The MIT Press, 2014), and numerous articles in peer-reviewed education and media journals. She holds a M.A. (1996) and a Ph.D. (2003) in Sociology from New York University. Links: Carrie’s Bio | Emily’s Bio | Behind Their Screens

How are hierarchies formed, maintained and challenged? My guest on the topic of hierarchies, as well as the categories of dominance and prestige, is Dr. Kaylene McClanahan, postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. She joins on episode 361 of The Armen Show. Kaylene McClanahan is a social scientist who researches social hierarchies. She received her PhD from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. Kaylene is a proponent of reproducible science and an avid R user. She also posts about R, hierarchy research, and academic life on Twitter. Kaylene has taught Negotiations to MBA and executive audiences. Links: Personal website | Twitter | Research on Google Scholar

Jennifer Jacquet is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies and Director of XE: Experimental Humanities and Social Engagement at NYU. She is also deputy director of NYU’s Center for Environmental and Animal Protection. Her research focuses on animals and the environment, Agnotology, and attribution and responsibility in the Anthropocene. She is author of The Playbook: How to Deny Science, Sell Lies, and Make a Killing in the Corporate World, a work of ‘epistolary non-fiction’ that makes the business case for scientific denial. She also wrote Is Shame Necessary about the evolution, function, and future of the use of social disapproval in a globalized, digitized world. She is the recipient of a 2015 Alfred P. Sloan research fellowship and a 2016 Pew fellowship in marine conservation. Links: Jennifer’s Website | Twitter | The Playbook

Steve Magness is a world-renowned expert on performance. He is the author of the new book Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and The Surprising Science of Real Toughness. He is the coauthor of Peak Performance, The Passion Paradox, and the author of The Science of Running. Collectively his books have sold more than a quarter-million copies in print, ebook, and audio formats. Magness has served as an executive coach to individuals in a variety of sectors. His work serves on applying the principles of which he writes. In addition he’s served as consultant on mental skills development for professional sports teams, including some of the top teams in the NBA. His writing has appeared in Outside, Runner’s World, Forbes, Sports Illustrated, Men’s Health, and a variety of other outlets. In addition, Steve’s expertise on elite sport and performance has been featured in The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Guardian, Business Insider, and ESPN The Magazine. Steve received his undergraduate degree from the University of Houston and a graduate degree from George Mason University. He currently lives in Houston, Tx with his wife Hillary. Once upon a time, he ran a mile in 4:01 in high school, at the time the 6th fastest high school mile in US history.

What kind of bigger-picture understanding can come with traveling to parts of the world and immersing yourself in the culture or activities, and connecting in-depth with locals? How can one’s internal confidence affect connection and physical linkage with others along the way? We cover these topics and more with attorney and world traveler Karin Lang on episode 358 of The Armen Show. Whether it is going to a region of Europe, or a region of Southeast Asia, Karin tells us of some of the stories and takeaways of switching things up and heading to a place that calls you. When you have a calling that has a sense of urgency or immediacy to it, where another person does not have that same feel, it is up to you to reach for it. Karin has already done this in the travel category a few times, as we discuss on the show, and is on the way to more exploring of this type. A later topic of discussion in our talk is related to confidence and self-esteem, which then links with our covering of sexual relations and what it takes to make the connection better or stronger for both participants. Though it can take place without such understanding, one person may be left out of the full experience that comes with physical connection, which isn’t a great way to leave things. One clear link we speak of in this episode is that of our hard-hitting nature, which can rub some folks the wrong way, but does allow us to have an existence free of many niceties that are actually limiting constructs. Though few will be interested in having a life with a lot of directness and rougher moments, those who can handle those are set for some special times.

How do we think about minds that are not human? How do we look at recent efforts in technology that have come out with platforms able to compete with humans on certain tasks? Science writer Philip C. Ball joins us on episode 357 of The Armen Show to discuss these topics from his book The Book of Minds: How to Understand Ourselves and Other Beings, from Animals to AI to Aliens. “Philip Ball is a freelance science writer. He worked previously at Nature for over 20 years, first as an editor for physical sciences (for which his brief extended from biochemistry to quantum physics and materials science) and then as a Consultant Editor. His writings on science for the popular press have covered topical issues ranging from cosmology to the future of molecular biology. Philip is the author of many popular books on science, including works on the nature of water, pattern formation in the natural world, colour in art, the science of social and political philosophy, the cognition of music, and physics in Nazi Germany. He has written widely on the interactions between art and science, and has delivered lectures to scientific and general audiences at venues ranging from the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) to the NASA Ames Research Center, London’s National Theatre and the London School of Economics. Philip continues to write regularly for Nature. He has contributed to publications ranging from New Scientist to the New York Times, the Guardian, the Financial Times and New Statesman. He is a contributing editor of Prospect magazine (for which he writes a science blog), and also a columnist for Chemistry World, Nature Materials, and the Italian science magazine Sapere. He has broadcast on many occasions on radio and TV, and is a presenter of “Science Stories” on BBC Radio 4. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, sits on the editorial board of Chemistry World and Interdiscipinary Science Reviews, and is a board member of the RESOLV network on solvation science at the Ruhr University of Bochum. Philip has a BA in Chemistry from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Physics from the University of Bristol.” “Understanding the human mind and how it relates to the world that we experience has challenged philosophers for centuries. How then do we even begin to think about ‘minds’ that are not human? In recent decades, the mind – both human and otherwise – has been explored by scientists in fields ranging from zoology to astrobiology, computer science to neuroscience. Taking a uniquely broad view of minds and where they might be found – including in plants, aliens, and God – The Book of Minds pulls these multidisciplinary pieces together. In so doing, it offers for the first time a unified way of thinking about what minds are and what they can do, arguing that in order to understand our own minds and imagine those of others, we need to move on from considering the human mind as a standard against which all others should be measured.” Links: Personal Website | Philip’s Books | The Book of Minds on Amazon | Twitter

You may have thought of the bond market as a relatively calm and uncompetitive location where the idea of getting big profits is not as common, but Bill Gross did not see it that way. In The Bond King: How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost It All, author Mary Childs takes us through his story of growth and scenarios along the way. She takes us through the story, and we also cover her Planet Money podcast, here on episode 356 of the show. “From the host of NPR’s Planet Money, the deeply-investigated story of how one visionary, dogged investor changed American finance forever. Before Bill Gross was known among investors as the Bond King, he was a gambler. In 1966, a fresh college grad, he went to Vegas armed with his net worth ($200) and a knack for counting cards. $10,000 and countless casino bans later, he was hooked: so he enrolled in business school.The Bond King is the story of how that whiz kid made American finance his casino. Over the course of decades, Bill Gross turned the sleepy bond market into a destabilized game of high risk, high reward; founded Pimco, one of today’s most powerful, secretive, and cutthroat investment firms; helped to reshape our financial system in the aftermath of the Great Recession—to his own advantage; and gained legions of admirers, and enemies, along the way. Like every American antihero, his ambition would also be his undoing.To understand the winners and losers of today’s money game, journalist Mary Childs argues, is to understand the bond market—and to understand the bond market is to understand the Bond King.” Mary Childs is an American financial journalist, and non-fiction writer. She is co-host for Planet Money. She graduated from Washington and Lee University. She reported for Barron’s, the Financial Times, and Bloomberg News.

Welcome back guest Rebecca Faith Lawson to the show on episode 355, as we have a discussion live with the backdrop of the beach sands in place. We spoke here on Playa Del Rey Beach about the topics of authenticity, following your beliefs, not getting thrown off by others, perfectionist views, and more. The topic of not taking in outside noise was interesting, as we have to be cautious of the input that we take in from the world. We only have one time around here to make our decisions, and don’t want to be thrown off by the external. Rebecca models with Modern Muse Models in Florida, and also enjoys working with kids. It’s great for us to connect where we are built for, and to reach out from a base of what we are into. Links: Instagram | Modern Muse Modeling

Welcome to episode 354 of the show, live in person at Los Angeles Swim Week, which was having its first run-through in the LA area. Not only did we get to speak with art director and creative consultant Robby Devine on the show, but we had surprise guests Sydney Marcus and Amanda Clair join us late into the episode. There is something great about the live episodes, and this one was no exception. We went into mindset, the value of giving people a full opportunity without having suspicions attached to it, and the idea of how things can grow when allowed to come from a mind of abundance. Having attended various events that Robby has had important parts in, along with seeing his connective and warm ability in person, a talk like this is a delight for me, and we would be glad to have Robby (and our surprise guests) back on the show in the future.

Attorney Jamie Susskind joins on episode 353 of the show, where we discuss his latest book The Digital Republic: On Freedom and Democracy in the Twenty-First Century. Jamie Susskind is also author of the award-winning bestseller Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech (Oxford University Press, 2018), an Evening Standard and Prospect Book of the Year. Future Politics was awarded the 2019 Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book Prize. Jamie is an author and barrister. He has held fellowships at Cambridge and Harvard Universities, and at the Berggruen Institute. Jamie writes and speaks about technology, politics, and law. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The Times, Wired, the Daily Telegraph, Fast Company, and the New Statesman.