Jonathan Haidt

The fear that comes in in the 1990s of abduction now makes us think that a good mother is one who protects her child. And a lot of the burden of this really falls on mothers. The criticism, I mean, the mommy wars, you know, anything a mother does, someone's gonna criticize it as being the wrong thing. Fathers, we're kind of let off the hook there.

You know, if I let my son take risks, people are gonna say, oh, he's teaching him to be tough. You know, whereas mothers, it's much riskier because someone's gonna judge you. And so once you get all this criticism, a lot of women, I think, are sort of pressured into overprotecting, hovering, always being there. So I think that's part of it.

You know, if I let my son take risks, people are gonna say, oh, he's teaching him to be tough. You know, whereas mothers, it's much riskier because someone's gonna judge you. And so once you get all this criticism, a lot of women, I think, are sort of pressured into overprotecting, hovering, always being there. So I think that's part of it.

You know, if I let my son take risks, people are gonna say, oh, he's teaching him to be tough. You know, whereas mothers, it's much riskier because someone's gonna judge you. And so once you get all this criticism, a lot of women, I think, are sort of pressured into overprotecting, hovering, always being there. So I think that's part of it.

The key psychological idea I want to give your listeners is called anti-fragility. If you think your child is fragile, you're going to overprotect them, wrap them in bubble wrap, never let them get hurt, never let them take risks. But if you do that, then you keep your kid fragile. And those are the kids who showed up beginning in 2014 on campus, Gen Z. But if you understand that we're mammals...

The key psychological idea I want to give your listeners is called anti-fragility. If you think your child is fragile, you're going to overprotect them, wrap them in bubble wrap, never let them get hurt, never let them take risks. But if you do that, then you keep your kid fragile. And those are the kids who showed up beginning in 2014 on campus, Gen Z. But if you understand that we're mammals...

The key psychological idea I want to give your listeners is called anti-fragility. If you think your child is fragile, you're going to overprotect them, wrap them in bubble wrap, never let them get hurt, never let them take risks. But if you do that, then you keep your kid fragile. And those are the kids who showed up beginning in 2014 on campus, Gen Z. But if you understand that we're mammals...

who are programmed to take risks, watch kids play naturally. Once a kid learns how to ride on a skateboard, they don't just ride back and forth. They try harder things. They try a bigger hill. They go downstairs. They go downstairs railings. Why are they doing that? Because their brain is pushing them to test the limits. That's how they learn. That's how you get strong.

who are programmed to take risks, watch kids play naturally. Once a kid learns how to ride on a skateboard, they don't just ride back and forth. They try harder things. They try a bigger hill. They go downstairs. They go downstairs railings. Why are they doing that? Because their brain is pushing them to test the limits. That's how they learn. That's how you get strong.

who are programmed to take risks, watch kids play naturally. Once a kid learns how to ride on a skateboard, they don't just ride back and forth. They try harder things. They try a bigger hill. They go downstairs. They go downstairs railings. Why are they doing that? Because their brain is pushing them to test the limits. That's how they learn. That's how you get strong.

That's how you get resourceful. That's how you learn to manage risk on your own. You have to fall down. You can't have a child without falling down and scraping yourself and banging your head sometimes. Obviously, we want to watch out for concussions. I'm all in favor of bike helmets. But... If we're protecting our kids in ways that block them from having experience, then we are harming them.

That's how you get resourceful. That's how you learn to manage risk on your own. You have to fall down. You can't have a child without falling down and scraping yourself and banging your head sometimes. Obviously, we want to watch out for concussions. I'm all in favor of bike helmets. But... If we're protecting our kids in ways that block them from having experience, then we are harming them.

That's how you get resourceful. That's how you learn to manage risk on your own. You have to fall down. You can't have a child without falling down and scraping yourself and banging your head sometimes. Obviously, we want to watch out for concussions. I'm all in favor of bike helmets. But... If we're protecting our kids in ways that block them from having experience, then we are harming them.

We're giving them a vitamin P deficiency, you might say. Our kids are antifragile. They have to take risks. They have to get hurt. They have to be excluded sometimes. You don't want them being bullied over days, but they have to experience conflict and criticism and exclusion at school. They have to experience that. And it hurts us. We don't want that to happen. So we jump in.

We're giving them a vitamin P deficiency, you might say. Our kids are antifragile. They have to take risks. They have to get hurt. They have to be excluded sometimes. You don't want them being bullied over days, but they have to experience conflict and criticism and exclusion at school. They have to experience that. And it hurts us. We don't want that to happen. So we jump in.

We're giving them a vitamin P deficiency, you might say. Our kids are antifragile. They have to take risks. They have to get hurt. They have to be excluded sometimes. You don't want them being bullied over days, but they have to experience conflict and criticism and exclusion at school. They have to experience that. And it hurts us. We don't want that to happen. So we jump in.

We're always there for them. And we're blocking their development.

We're always there for them. And we're blocking their development.

We're always there for them. And we're blocking their development.

True, but I think it's about to turn around. You tell me. So one of the key ideas in my book is collective action. Mm-hmm. The reason we fell into this so quickly is that once a few kids got a smartphone and social media, that put pressure on all the other kids to get it because they don't want to be left out.