'Our Kids Are the Least Flourishing Generation We Know Of'

In this April 2025 episode of The New York Times' 'The Ezra Klein Show,' host Ezra Klein interviews Jonathan Haidt about the rapid spread of school cellphone restrictions — by that point adopted in some form by more than a dozen U.S. states, including California, Florida, and Ohio — and about Haidt's broader argument that a shift from a play-based to a phone-based childhood is associated with declines in measures of adolescent flourishing. The conversation also takes up emerging concerns about generative-AI companion apps marketed to children, extending Haidt's smartphone-and-social-media argument to newer technology. Much of the episode covers the practical coordination problems parents and schools face in restricting phone use, questions about how strong the underlying evidence is, and what Haidt frames as the broader stakes of a childhood increasingly organized around screens rather than unsupervised, in-person play.

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