This episode asks: how do we stay human inside each of the social media platforms?

I trace the ways some of the platforms undermine my values: from Meta and its documented harms, to TikTok’s dopamine machine, to Substack’s conflicted role in the attention economy. I bring in Shoshana Zuboff’s theory of surveillance capitalism, the story of Cambridge Analytica, teen suicides linked to Instagram, and a chilling case of a man’s fatal entanglement with a Meta AI.

This is an episode about radical ethics. It’s about what we consent to, what we refuse, and how we choose to connect in ways that don’t hollow us out. Mostly it's about responsibility. I walk through my decisions platform by platform, and why podcasting has become my chosen container.

What you will hear

• What “surveillance capitalism” means, and why it threatens democracy
• The blurred line between influence, manipulation, and consent online
• Meta’s record: Cambridge Analytica, teen mental health, and AI experiments gone wrong
• Why TikTok and reels destroy our dopamine balance
• Why Substack works for me—and where it fails on anti-censorship
• The lure and limits of LinkedIn, BlueSky, and YouTube
• Why podcasting is my chosen space: no ads, no algo, no intrusion
• Web3: I forgot to mention this in the podcast! Web3 social is an area of active research for me and while I’m not sharing my work on Forecaster or Base it’s in the works. This is where we own our work.

Timestamps

• 02:00 Why the container matters as much as the content
• 04:30 Surveillance capitalism (Shoshana Zuboff)
• 06:00 Not all data use is surveillance, but the line blurs
• 09:20 The escalation: clicks → biometrics → behaviour shaping
• 11:00 Substack as a model, but also its flaws
• 13:40 Meta’s record: misinformation, Cambridge Analytica, teen suicides
• 15:17 Meta AI harms: the New Jersey stroke patient case
• 19:00 X as cesspool, TikTok as dopamine hijack
• 25:00 Why feeds are different from algorithms
• 28:00 LinkedIn, Blue Sky, YouTube—different shadows
• 35:00 Substack’s anti-censorship stance and my conflict
• 42:00 Why podcasting: intimacy without intrusion
• 46:00 Closing: real life is local

Links mentioned

• Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: Book link
• Cambridge Analytica scandal (Facebook fined $5B, 2019): Wikipedia
• Research on Instagram and teen mental health / suicide risk: Wall Street Journal coverage
• Meta AI and the New Jersey man’s death (stroke patient case): Reuters
• GenAI Content Risk Standards leak (Meta, 2025): Reuters
• On TikTok’s dopamine effects and algorithm design: Brown University
• Robert Reich’s Substack (“Coffee Klatch”): Robert Reich Substack
• Research on YouTube radicalization: Data & Society report

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