DEEP DIVE: Gaia Bernstein on Gaining Control Over Addictive Technologies

DEEP DIVE: Gaia Bernstein on Gaining Control Over Addictive Technologies

From What Fresh Hell: Parenting, Relationships, and Making Life Better, with Two Funny Moms by Margaret Ables and Amy Wilson

July 20, 2026 · 33 min

About this episode

The episode features Gaia Bernstein discussing the impact of addictive technologies on screen time and parenting.

This month, our "Deep Dive" is into some of our past episodes about screen time: the effects it has on our kids, how tech companies engineer their devices to be as addictive as possible, and how we can allow our kids to enjoy screens with supportive limits. How do we untangle ourselves from technology? We give ourselves a hard time for not being able to put our screens down, but the platforms we use are designed to be addictive. It's not our fault. ⁠Gaia Bernstein⁠'s new book: ⁠Unwired: Gaining Control Over Addictive Technologies⁠ shatters the illusion that we can control how much time we spend on our screens by the force of willpower, timers, or yelling. Margaret and Gaia discuss: The psychological forces that make us keep scrolling What Big Tech and Big Tobacco have in common Why screen time limiters and other similar methods don't work Here's where you can find Gaia: ⁠https://gaiabernstein.com/⁠ Twitter: @BernsteinGaia Buy Gaia's book Unwired: ⁠https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9781009257930⁠ We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website…

People in this episode

Hosts: Margaret Ables, Amy Wilson

Guest: Gaia Bernstein

Topics covered

  • screen time
  • addictive technologies
  • parenting
  • technology limits
  • mental health

Keywords

  • screen time
  • addiction
  • parenting tips
  • technology
  • mental health
  • Gaia Bernstein
  • Unwired

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Big Tech, Big Tobacco, What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood

Books & works: Unwired: Gaining Control Over Addictive Technologies

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