Wide Angle

Let's be clear: I am an AI skeptic. I run into so much of AI as a teacher it's not even funny. Not just from students but in workshops, newsletters, and nearly every tools I use whether it is Photoshop, Canva, YouTube, Descript, or Capcut. The shenanigans by Meta, Anthropic, and OpenAI, however, worry me. In this podcast I take up some of these contentious issues. But my guest, Tyron Devotta, a former journalist and still a prolific writer isn't fazed by this. His novel will be out shortly--and since he uses AI extensively as an 'editorial assistant'--I pick his brains on how he uses it. I also use excerpts from two podcasts, and one book:⁠On the Media with Brooke Gladstone⁠⁠The Ezra Klein Podcast⁠The book: Jonathan Haidt's ⁠Anxious Generation

Remember The Matrix? That 1999 cult sci-fi movie starring Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne. There's something happening today, here in 2025, that feels slightly like that synthetic world. Not just social media, but now with AI becoming part of every digital space, we could be trapped inside a simulated, controlled world and not realize it. So in this podcast I wanted to shed some light in those parallels in which we users --heavy users, I should say-- of social media are often echoing what others are saying, reluctant to express our individuality, simply 'Liking,' sharing, and re-posting material that crosses our path. It's also a call to reflect on what values and digital skills we are passing on to the children.

For about 1,250 hours a school year, our students' phones are turned off, and they're not in their pockets either! It's how we make sure the 'attention hackers' can't get through. There's plenty of evidence that this model of education is best for our youth. (Do listen to a podcast called 'Your Undivided Attention' for more on this.) In this episode I talk about how this phone-free environment makes teaching and learning such a joy at Benjamin Franklin High School. We are not the only school to adopt this. Coram Deo, a school in Texas. Its principal calls school 'a place of digital rest.' I also feature Jonathan Haidt who challenges schools to conduct a larger experiment with phones. Listen to how he frames it. By coincidence, his book, The Anxious Generation is out this week. To place all of this in a wider context, consider how Congress in the US, and the EU, are finally getting out of their slumber and holding social media companies' feet to the fire. But it's a little too late, and there is plenty of pushback. This means we ought to come out stronger and tell these companies what we expect of them. Perhaps this podcast is one such an attempt. I hope you enjoy the show. Do listen to "Your undivided attention," too, if you have the time. And thanks for listening, and subscribing.

Hello, and welcome to a brand new podcast. Yes, it's about tech, but a different side of tech. Think of it as the technology that wraps us around its little fingers. It’s called Wide Angle because I'll be probing those blind spots in those platforms, apps and systems we use. Those pesky issues that come up from behind us and …. jolt us. I'm phasing out my class podcast, Radio 201, a podcast I began at the height of the pandemic. I hope you like Wide Angle, and will subscribe. Thank you! Angelo Fernando