Cover of The Coddling of the American Mind

Book · 2018 · Social Science

The Coddling of the American Mind

How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

by Greg Lukianoff, Jonathan Haidt · Recommended by 32 people on 17 podcasts

#27 of 13,382 books, ranked by how many different people bring it up on podcasts

mentions
88
people
32
podcasts
17
episodes
78
critical mentions
0

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My colleague at NYU, Jonathan Haidt, wrote this fantastic book called The Coddling of the American Mind, and we have an epidemic or an emerging epidemic in teen depression...
Scott Galloway · The Megyn Kelly Show · Sep 2021 Listen at 53:54

What they say about it

Grouped from 88 mentions
  • Impact of social media on teens“social media's impact on young people”
    6
  • Calls it a great book“fantastic book called The Coddling of the American Mind”
    4
  • Discusses campus culture and ideas“what's going on at college campuses”
    3

The best things said about it

6 of 88 · every mention
Recommended
There's a great book about that from Jonathan hate called the uncod the coddling of the American mind and it's all about social media's impact on young people and particularly women because young women experience a a much like from the advent of social media there's a a a ramped up market increase in self harm suicidal ideiation depression bullying.
Joe Rogan The Joe Rogan Experience · Oct 2025
Discussed
He wrote The Coddling of the American Mind, which is a huge bestseller. Everyone loved it, learned a lot.
Megyn Kelly The Megyn Kelly Show · Nov 2023
Discussed
There's a book called the coddling of the american mind by jonathan height and he talks about young girls and depression yes gigantic uptick in depression that directly coincides with the invention of the iphone.
Joe Rogan The Joe Rogan Experience · Sep 2020
Discussed
Jonathan is also the author of the New York Times best sellers The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion and the absolutely brilliant and just game-changing The Coddling of the American Mind, which he co-wrote with Greg Lukianoff.
Megyn Kelly The Megyn Kelly Show · May 2022
Discussed
Especially with The Coddling of the American Mind and now The Anxious Generation, I'm now talking about how to help kids shift from a defend mode, out of performance mode, into a more human and real childhood.
Jay Shetty On Purpose with Jay Shetty · Jun 2024
Discussed
I just read um intering book that was written a few years ago called the codling of the American mind and a basically talking about what's going on at college campuses which we're seeing now all this you know this outrage and different things.
Aaron Rodgers The Tucker Carlson Show · May 2024

Where and when it comes up

Mentions per year

Counted mentions by episode date. Our archive is deeper for recent years; 2026 so far.

How it comes up

Recommended means the speaker tells listeners to read it.

Most mentions, by podcast

Top 9 of 17 shows

32 people who brought it up

Most recommendations first

Also: Pamela Paul · Peter Boghossian · Tracy Dennis-Tiwary · Tulsi Gabbard · W Keith Campbell · Jonathan Haidt · Greg Lukianoff · Andrew Huberman · Jimmy Carr · Jordan Peterson · Aaron Rodgers · Abigail Shrier · David French · David Kipping · Emily Jashinsky · Jay Shetty · Josh Homme · Rikki Schlott · Rob Kurzban · Scott Barry Kaufman

Why people recommend it

The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt examines how well-intentioned safetyism and cultural shifts, combined with the rise of social media, are setting younger generations up for psychological distress and failure. On several episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience, Joe Rogan recommended the book to guests like Katee Sackhoff, Sam Altman, and members of The Black Keys, emphasizing how it documents the alarming uptick in self-harm and anxiety among young women following the advent of social media. On The Tim Ferriss Show, Chris Sacca included the work in his recommended reading list to understand modern generational shifts, while Ana Kasparian told Chris Williamson on Modern Wisdom that she loved the book for the clarity it provided regarding moral foundations and personal biases. Pamela Paul also highlighted the book during an interview on The Book Review, noting its exploration of how bad ideas and safetyism compromise a generation. Additionally, Josh Szeps recommended the title to listeners of The Joe Rogan Experience. Across all these appearances, the book is recognized as a crucial warning siren regarding the mental health crisis among adolescents and the societal impacts of modern digital culture.

Every mention

88 counted mentions · 28 passing or ad reads below
Joe Rogan it's I mean if you read Jonathan haes book The Cod of the American mind have you read it great book 26
Discussed
“No. And also it's like the psychological aspect of being controlled by paying attention to other people's lives is very weird and it's you know, Jonathan Haidt wrote a great book about it called The Coddling of the American Mind about the impact of social media and particularly on young girls.”
Recommended
“There's a great book about that from Jonathan hate called the uncod the coddling of the American mind and it's all about social media's impact on young people and particularly women because young women experience a a much like from the advent of social media there's a a a ramped up market increase in self harm suicidal ideiation depression bullying”
Discussed
“Like if you look at Jonathan hate's book, have you ever read his book um the coddling of the American mind? No. It's all he's great. It's all about social media and then self harm with girls.”
Discussed
“Jonathan Hate wrote a book about um social media's impact, the coddling of the American mind and it's it shows very clearly the invention of social media and then self harm”
Recommended
“there's a great book called the um what is it the American mind uh the Jonathan hate book what is it called uh the coddling of the American mind”
Discussed
“and jonathan hate talked about that in his book the coddling of the american mind um it's it's very clear that it's very damaging”
Discussed
“it's like Jonathan hates work um um the coddling of the American mind it shows like there's a real Spike”
Recommended
“jonathan hate has a great book about it called the coddling of the american mind they show the uptick in girl self-harm”
Discussed
“jonathan hate about that you know he talks about the the concept of free-range kids about he lets his children wander it was jonathan hate right was right the coddling of the american mind um he lets his kids wander around new york city like he lets his kids walk home from new york city”
Recommended
“it's I mean if you read Jonathan haes book The Cod of the American mind have you read it great book”
Recommended
“and a guy named jonathan hate and he wrote a book called the coddling of the american mind and it's all about that”
Discussed
“Jonathan hausted that in the codling of the American mind there's a direct correlation between the invention of social media and its ubiquitous use and self harm amongst kids particularly girls”
Discussed
“and there's so like Jonathan hate wrote a great book about it the coddling of the American mind and he talks about the negative aspects of social media”
Discussed
“according to jonathan hate in the coddling of the american mind he talked about that that higher suicide rates self-harm um all that stuff the bullying online bullying young girls are the victims of that more than”
Discussed
“uh jnan haes book the um coddling of the American mind is about that and one of the things it highlights is self harm amongst girls ramps up considerably somewhere around 2008 2009”
Recommended
“There's a a book called The Coddling of the American Mind by this guy named Jonathan Haidt and inside that book he talks about how there's a spike related to in suicides and self-harm particularly among girls that's directly related to the invention of social media.”
Recommended
“if you've read um you know jonathan hate have you read his book the coddling of the american mind”
Discussed
“there's a book called the coddling of the american mind by jonathan height and he talks about young girls and depression yes gigantic uptick in depression that directly coincides with the invention of the iphone”
Discussed
“and you know there's a book called the coddling of the American mind by Jonathan hate”
Recommended
“You've read Jonathan heights work about it I've read only the American mind you should read it Julie Wang E”
Recommended
“and Jonathan hate wrote a great book called the coddling of the American mind great book”
Discussed
“but he wrote a book called the coddling of the American mind and part of the book was about the influence of social media and what is happening”
Discussed
“have you read any of Jonathan hates stuff the coddling in the American”
Discussed
“well i had jonathan haight on the podcast who wrote this book the cobbling of the american mind”
Discussed
“well his book the coddling of the American mind I'm in that right now I just finished his other one and I'm working on that one and a lot of it has to do with social media”
Recommended
“the two books that uh i've been reading recently uh one of them we discussed on the podcast we did on monday but the other one is the cobbling of the american mine i'm into that now and it's it's fantastic”
Chris Williamson he coddling of the American mind thaty yeah that's a great book 9
Discussed
“coddling of the American mind [ __ ] like that the professors yeah are feeling this”
Discussed
“I mean of course I'm actually just listening right now to um uh Jonathan height the codling of the American mind and and they talk about like he's he's talking about like all the safetyism stuff where essentially it has these actual uh like negative outcomes”
Recommended
“he coddling of the American mind thaty yeah that's a great book”
Discussed
“so the Jonathan height and Greg Luciano thing about the cuddling of the American mind and there's this onset of um increases in anxiety amongst girls around about the time that social media was introduced”
Discussed
“so uh Jonathan height and Greg Luciano's work about the cuddling of the American mind”
Discussed
“jonathan heights work on that in the cuddling of the american mind was so scary”
Discussed
“jonathan hates uh the coddling of the american mind which i'm halfway through at the moment is really fascinating and terrifying around this”
Recommended
“There's some interesting insights from The Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt, and any parents or fledgling parents with teenage children should probably consider reading it”
Recommended
“have you read the coddling of the American mind no so that book is about is seminal by Jonathan hate it's about a seminal for what you're talking about now”
Jordan Harbinger this book was really good by the way and you already know that because you wrote it 2
Recommended
“this book was really good by the way and you already know that because you wrote it”
Recommended
“Well yeah look if these people have just read the coddling of the American mind available at a store near you”
Scott Galloway my colleague at NYU Jonathan height wrote this fantastic book called The coddling of the American mind 2
Recommended
“my colleague at NYU Jonathan height wrote this fantastic book called The coddling of the American mind”
Recommended
“My colleague at NYU, Jonathan Haidt, wrote this fantastic book called The Coddling of the American Mind, and we have an epidemic or an emerging epidemic in teen depression...”
Megyn Kelly and we have another great one coming up on monday um next week we've got jonathan haight who wrote the book… 7
Discussed
“He wrote The Coddling of the American Mind, which is a huge bestseller. Everyone loved it, learned a lot”
Discussed
“he wrote the coddling of the american mind and he he was talking about how we have to stop with the helicopter parenting”
Discussed
“who wrote the coddling of the american mind on my show yesterday”
Discussed
“Jonathan is also the author of the New York Times best sellers The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion and the absolutely brilliant and just game-changing The Coddling of the American Mind, which he co-wrote with Greg Lukianoff”
Discussed
“So let's start with cuz I love The Coddling of the American Mind. It just had such great insights and it it covered a lot of stuff that I'd been covering on the news”
Recommended
“and we have another great one coming up on monday um next week we've got jonathan haight who wrote the book the coddling of the american mind oh my god it's incredible if you haven't read that book”
Discussed
“This yeah, I should have mentioned this up top, but you are also co-author of Coddling of the American Mind with Jonathan Haidt, which is one of the most famous books in the past 10 15 years.”
Ana Kasparian I think that you know one thing that has really given me some clarity about what drives people is Jonathan… 1
Recommended
“I think that you know one thing that has really given me some clarity about what drives people is Jonathan Height's work uh when it comes to moral foundations I love that book I loved codling of the American mind too that was an excellent book as well”
Ben Shapiro Well, that's another the other Jonathan Haidt book, The Coddling of the American Mind, which is amazing. 1
Recommended
“Well, that's another the other Jonathan Haidt book, The Coddling of the American Mind, which is amazing.”
Bill Maher Have you ever had Jonathan Haidt on your show? Yeah. His book, The Coddling of the American Mind, is exactl… 1
Recommended
“Have you ever had Jonathan Haidt on your show? Yeah. His book, The Coddling of the American Mind, is exactly about that. And he believes that you should let your kids roam around”
Brendan Schaub Have you read Jonathan hates books on that Jonathan hate who he's been on my podcast Kalyn knows him I thin… 1
Recommended
“Have you read Jonathan hates books on that Jonathan hate who he's been on my podcast Kalyn knows him I think maybe Kalyn talked to him too I believe but he wrote a book called the coddling of the American mind and part of the book was about the influence of social media and what is happening”
Chris Sacca anxious generation and coddling of American mind and generations by Jee twangy who works with Jonathan heig… 1
Recommended
“anxious generation and coddling of American mind and generations by Jee twangy who works with Jonathan height informed me more about our generation”
Heather Berlin so in small doses so that the whole thing there's this actually a great book all the coddling of the Americ… 1
Recommended
“so in small doses so that the whole thing there's this actually a great book all the coddling of the American mind about how you know we're protecting our kids so much”
Josh Szeps it's uh the coddling of the american mind people haven't read it it's really good 1
Recommended
“it's uh the coddling of the american mind people haven't read it it's really good”
Pamela Paul my pleasure Pamela Jonathan height is the co-author along with Greg ganof of the coddling of the American m… 1
Recommended
“my pleasure Pamela Jonathan height is the co-author along with Greg ganof of the coddling of the American mind how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure”
Peter Boghossian and hi just published that a book coddling of the American mind and yeah and and and 1
Recommended
“and hi just published that a book coddling of the American mind and yeah and and and”
Tracy Dennis-Tiwary I think his work on you know, I think his book the coddling of the American mind is a very important and in… 1
Recommended
“I think his work on you know, I think his book the coddling of the American mind is a very important and interesting one.”
Tulsi Gabbard His book uh The Coddling of the American Mind is a great one. 1
Recommended
“His book uh The Coddling of the American Mind is a great one.”
W Keith Campbell you know jonathan hates book is fantastic about that the um coddling of the american mind 1
Recommended
“you know jonathan hates book is fantastic about that the um coddling of the american mind”
Jonathan Haidt I started rereading Stoicism at the same time as I was working on the book The Coddling of the American Mind. 5
Discussed
“And so we wrote an Atlantic article called the coddling of the American mind. We turned that into a book in 2017. We went much deeper.”
Discussed
“I started rereading Stoicism at the same time as I was working on the book The Coddling of the American Mind.”
Discussed
“I have a quote on this in in the coddling the American mind where he talks about you know the the move to protect students from um from bad feelings”
Discussed
“you know when i when greg and i put out the book the the coddling of the american mind some researchers challenged us and said oh you don't know what you're talking about”
Discussed
“Well so so the you know the book that the book that I just put out in September with Greg Luciana off the coddling of the American mind”
Greg Lukianoff I think because of my first book or my last book Coddling of the American Mind, people think that what Heig… 4
Discussed
“I think because of my first book or my last book Coddling of the American Mind, people think that what Height and I are saying is that for most of my career until 2013 like”
Discussed
“So originally Ricky reached out to us because she read our uh my book with Jonathan height coddling of the American mind um and said this is exactly right.”
Discussed
“Well, uh, first thing is that we took this, you know, head-on in coddling of the American mind. We we said we didn't apologize for the research and we made the point that when it comes to the different ways that males and females um exercise aggression”
Discussed
“Yeah, no, that's a that's a change that happened very fast and it's the whole reason why I wrote the book Coddling the American Mind with my friend Jonathan Haidt is because it wasn't a subtle shift on campus.”
Andrew Huberman and Jonathan Haidt, who wrote The Coddling of the American Mind. 2
Discussed
“But I think between what you're saying and what Jonathan Haidt, who was on this podcast, the author of 'Anxious Generation,' 'Coddling of the American Mind,' professor at NYU, etc., has said, I'm starting to really believe that, yes, the human brain can focus on past, present, or future, or some combination, but that something about the architecture of our”
Discussed
“and Jonathan Haidt, who wrote The Coddling of the American Mind.”
Jimmy Carr I suppose the problem is that thing what's that book um is it Jonathan hate the the codling of the American… 2
Discussed
“I suppose the problem is that thing what's that book um is it Jonathan hate the the codling of the American mind the idea of going if there's no freedom for kids anymore”
Discussed
“I suppose the problem is that thing that what's that book um is it Jonathan hate the the codling of the American mind”
Jordan Peterson Because, you know, Jonathan Haidt wrote The Coddling of the American Mind. 2
Discussed
“Jonathan height wrote um the codling of the American mind”
Discussed
“Because, you know, Jonathan Haidt wrote The Coddling of the American Mind.”
Aaron Rodgers I just read um intering book that was written a few years ago called the codling of the American mind and a… 1
Discussed
“I just read um intering book that was written a few years ago called the codling of the American mind and a basically talking about what's going on at college campuses which we're seeing now all this you know this outrage and different things”
Abigail Shrier did you read Jonathan Heights book the coddling of the American mind yeah it was on your show that I really… 1
Discussed
“did you read Jonathan Heights book the coddling of the American mind yeah it was on your show that I really like this light bulb went on”
David French And you know, not to refer too much to Jonathan, but there's in in his book, The Coddling of the American M… 1
Discussed
“And you know, not to refer too much to Jonathan, but there's in in his book, The Coddling of the American Mind with my dear friend Greg Lucanoff was really important in and one of the ways that I that really helped open my eyes and helped me put a finger on what was happening was offering this contrast like”
David Kipping Because just just social media, you know, we talked about this the other day, the Jonathan hates book, The… 1
Discussed
“Because just just social media, you know, we talked about this the other day, the Jonathan hates book, The Coddling of the American Mind, that shows self harm, particularly among girls, p the suicidal ideiation, all the different things that happened to them, anxiety and depression, all rises with the invention of social media.”
Emily Jashinsky That was a follow-up to a really great book you wrote as well called The Coddling of the American Wine with… 1
Discussed
“That was a follow-up to a really great book you wrote as well called The Coddling of the American Wine with John Height. And that's a really important book.”
Jay Shetty But especially with 'The Coddling of the American Mind' and now 'The Anxious Generation,' I'm now talking a… 1
Discussed
“But especially with 'The Coddling of the American Mind' and now 'The Anxious Generation,' I'm now talking about how to help kids shift from a defend mode, out of performance mode, into a more human and real childhood.”
Josh Homme I mean the pressures that people have is a book Jonathan hate wrote called the coddling of the American min… 1
Discussed
“I mean the pressures that people have is a book Jonathan hate wrote called the coddling of the American mind that discusses the issue that kids are having today with cell phones and depression and because of social media use and that especially girls so many girls are cutting themselves and self-harm suicides way up dude”
Rikki Schlott my co-author um his previous book is the coddling of the American mind which concentrated quite a lot on pa… 1
Discussed
“my co-author um his previous book is the coddling of the American mind which concentrated quite a lot on parenting and its impact on politics and gen z”
Rob Kurzban I mean this is one of these things where you start taking this mismatch idea seriously we like oh this real… 1
Discussed
“I mean this is one of these things where you start taking this mismatch idea seriously we like oh this really matters because we're these barely you know we barely came down from the trees”
Scott Barry Kaufman a lot of people feel unsafe around ideas, around words, you know. Oh, uh, that's become a thing in the youn… 1
Discussed
“a lot of people feel unsafe around ideas, around words, you know. Oh, uh, that's become a thing in the younger generation as as as Jonathan Height and Greg Luciano have talked a lot lot about in coddling of the American mind.”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker5
Discussed
“There's actually a chapter in Jonathan Haidt's book Coddling of the American Mind called the decline of play where we've just we've we it's harder I think for a child to explore and try on different ideas because they're caught up in this game to try and get into college.”
Discussed
“Jonathan Height wrote the book about uh not just the coddling of the American mind, but what was the other one? Anxious Generation. the basically talking about how social media was primed to destroy young women first,”
Discussed
“have you read Jonathan hates book coddling of the American mind absolutely yeah great book and I think that speaks and that was the book I gave away in our gift bag at the all-in summit this year”
Discussed
“well i finally started reading uh cod the coddling of the american mind and you know some of these college protests”
Recommended
“and we defined it based on the coddling of the american mind i don't know if you're familiar with that book but i'm jonathan hype jonathan height and greg lucanoff and um so they really go into like the psychology behind what's sort of happening on university campuses right now”

Also mentioned in the same episodes

Other mentions (28: passing, ad reads, own books)
Passing
“The same person that wrote the coddling of the American mind.”
Own book
“Gen Z is very bad at risk taking. Now let me make clear, none of this is a criticism of them. Building on what Greg and I argued in the Codling of the American Mind, we overprotected the hell out of them.”
Passing
“He's the author of a number of books, The Coddling of the American Mind, The Righteous Mind, The Happiness Hypothesis, and most recently, The Anxious Generation, which is the focus of our discussion today.”
Passing
“we had a guest on this podcast Jonathan height who's written the book anxious generation the codling of the American mind”
Passing
“Jonathan height will be here to talk about his new book The coddling of the American mind”
Passing
“Jonathan height joins us now he has co-written a book with Greg lukianov called the codling of the American mind how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure”
Own book
“and the the graphs that we have in the book in chapter seven of our book are stunning”
Passing
“I would guess it was probably about The Coddling of the American Mind. I don't know if I'm not even sure what year it was, yeah.”
Own book
“and at the same time I was working on this book The Calling the American mind and so like half my mind was like you know the world's going to blow up we're going to have war with North Korea and you know Donald Trump is going to be unstable and and my wife is going to Korea with my”
Own book
“At the same time, I was writing The Coddling of the American Mind, which was all about what was happening to Gen Z and young people.”
Own book
“but Greg and I did write about this in the coddling of the American mind that um there is a long-term transition over Generations as when life is hard and families are big”
Own book
“um you know even listeners who might have read the cing the American mind or might know about the importance of play there's really interesting research”
Own book
“my book The coddling of the American mind had just come out and back then people were beginning to sense”
Own book
“that's what Greg lukanov and Ricky schlot their new book The cancelling of the American mind is about”
Own book
“so I think we hit a low Point um in the fall in such a way that I'm actually optimistic that things are going to change because I've been concerned about these issues in universities the culture issues since 2014 2015 when Greg lukanov and I wrote Our First Atlantic article titled the coddling the American mind”
Own book
“My co-author’s previous book, 'The Coddling of the American Mind', delved deeply into how parenting impacts politics and Gen Z.”
Own book
“And he's the author of "Unlearning Liberty", co-author with Jonathan Haidt of "Coddling of the American Mind" and co-author with Rikki Schlott of a new book coming out in October that you should definitely pre-order now called "The Canceling of the American Mind"”
Own book
“All of the stuff that started on campus in 2015, Greg and I wrote about it in The Coddling of the American Mind.”
Passing
“he has brilliantly discussed these topics in his writing including in his book the coddling of the american mind and in his recent long article in the atlantic titled why the past 10 years of american life have been uniquely stupid”
Passing
“so you've been thinking about the human mind for quite a long time you wrote the happiness hypothesis the righteous mind the coddling of the american mind”
Own book
“and so anyway greg's ideas about how we were teaching students to think in distorted ways that led us to write the coding the american mind which wasn't primarily about social media either it was about you know this sort of a rise of of depression anxiety”
Passing
“like i remember talking to the assistant had he pulled down a copy of jonathan hate off the off the bookshelf and was like i'd love to teach this in my class when i i really want to make this happen I want to teach you know so you know more more than i was sort of or maybe just”
Passing
“the guy who played uh oh hi mark Greg his name is he wrote that book that they made the movie”
Own book
“well so so the you know the book that the book that I just put out in September with Greg Luciana off the coddling of the American mind”
Own book
“so you know the subtitle of our book it's called the coddling the American mind how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure”
Own book
“so so in chapter 3 of the coddling Greg and I look at identity politics”
Own book
“we cover some of the research in chapters 8 & 9 of the coddling the American mind”
Own book
“So the coddling of America matters the title we didn't make it up it was made up by a really brilliant editor at the Atlantic Don Peck”

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