The Oprah Podcast

When Your Kids Won’t Put Their Phones Down, with Oprah & Addiction Specialist Dr. Anna Lembke

03 Mar 2026

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Description

Millions of parents and educators are in an overwhelming struggle to get children and teens to put their smartphones down or stop watching a screen on a tablet. To uncover what is at the root of an issue that is wreaking havoc at home and at school, Oprah sits down with Dr. Anna Lembke, a psychiatrist and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. Dr. Lembke, author of the New York Times mega-bestseller Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence, explains why smartphones and tablets should be thought of as providing “digital drugs,” while describing the devastating impact these “drugs” are having on the still-developing brains of young people. Dr. Lembke and Oprah answer questions from mothers who are desperate for help managing their children’s screen addictions. Plus - British actress, Royal Family Member and education advocate Sophie Winkleman joins from London to talk about why she believes tech in schools has been disastrous for students and is destroying the education system from within. 'Dopamine Nation' by Anna Lembke Chapters: 00:00:00 - Welcome Dr. Anna Lembke, author of “Dopamine Nation” 00:03:00 - Reframing digital media as a drug 00:08:30 - Smart phones are modern day hypodermic needles 00:09:15 - Addiction definition 00:12:10 - Kids experiencing craving and withdrawal 00:17:00 - Mom of 2 girls wants to know if they are addicted 00:27:15 - Managing teens devices 00:36:15 - How to help college-aged kids 00:42:00 - Actress Sophie Winkleman on ed tech 00:45:00 - Screens in schools 00:48:00 - Distracted kids don’t know how to learn 00:50:00 - Regulating tech for kids Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@Oprah?sub_confirmation=1 Follow Oprah Winfrey on Social: https://www.instagram.com/oprahpodcast/ https://www.facebook.com/oprahwinfrey/ Listen to the full podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0tEVrfNp92a7lbjDe6GMLI https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oprah-podcast/id1782960381 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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When Your Kids Won’t Put Their Phones Down, with Oprah & Addiction Specialist Dr. Anna Lembke

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet

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