Jonathan Haidt Strikes Again + What You Vibecoded + An Update on the Forkiverse
January 16, 2026
AI Summary
5 min read🎙️ The Voices & The Context
- The Format: Casual tech news podcast blending interview, listener stories, and banter-filled discussions on AI and social media.
- The Key Players:
- Hosts: Kevin Roose (NYT tech columnist) and Casey Newton (Platformer), with sharp chemistry—witty jabs, shared excitement over experiments, and self-deprecating humor.
- Guest: Jonathan Haidt, anxious generation author and anti-social media activist, returning for deep-dive research updates.
- Guest: PJ Vogt (Search Engine co-founder), joining for Forkiverse segment.
- The Vibe: Fun and energetic, mixing educational insights on teen mental health with geeky enthusiasm for AI tools and a playful community experiment.
🗝️ Key Themes & Topics
The episode dives into social media's dangers, AI coding breakthroughs, and decentralized social networking, blending alarmism with optimism.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **🎙️ Introduction: Jonathan Haidt**
- 2 (00:35) **Will.i.am's CES Vehicle Reveal**
- 3 (02:33) **Social Media Nudification News**
- 4 (05:01) **Haidt on Causation Evidence & Mechanisms**
- 5 (09:17) **Evolution of Harm Thesis**
- 6 (11:21) **Consumer Product Safety Argument**
- 7 (13:26) **Haidt's Activism Shift**
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
This week, Jonathan Haidt, author of “The Anxious Generation,” returns to the show to discuss new research about how social media is harming teens and what it’s been like to become the face of a global movement against the platforms. Then, we asked what you were building with Claude Code, and you blew us away. We’ll share some of our favorite projects that you sent us. And finally, we’re joined by PJ Vogt, the host of “Search Engine,” to talk about our early adventures in the Forkiverse and what we’ve learned so far about running a social media network.
Guests:
- Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and author of “The Anxious Generation"
- PJ Vogt, host of “Search Engine”
Additional Reading:
- Mountains of Evidence
- Meta’s Internal Research
- An NYT Event in LA - Trump: The First Year of His Second Term
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