Episode · The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett · 2026-02-16
Books mentioned on Brain Rot Emergency: These Internal Documents Prove They’re Controlling You!
How is Tiktok rewiring your brain? Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and Harvard physician Dr Aditi Nerurkar reveal how tech addiction and short-form video are ROTTING your brain, and why AI chatbots could cause the next global addiction CRISIS!
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Anxious Generation
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt is a preeminent exploration of how the great rewiring of childhood through smartphones and social media is driving an epidemic of mental illness among young people.
Discussed“In your book Anxious Generation, Jonathan, you the subtitle here is how the great re-wiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness.”
Where to get it
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When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows...
Discussed“Steven Pinker has a book out last year called When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows. It's about the immediate change in a social system when private knowledge”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (4) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Own book The Anxious Generation
“Because I wrote a whole book called The Anxious Generation, focusing on teen mental health. That was the mystery that popped up in the mid-2000s.”
Own book The Happiness Hypothesis
“So in my first book, The Happiness Hypothesis, um there's I there's a metaphor in there. It's It's about 10 ancient ideas and I use a lot of metaphors to explain ancient ideas”
Own book The Anxious Generation
“Jonathan, you've just written this book, which is now out, called The Amazing Generation. And it's beautiful.”
Own book The 5 Resets
“And also the five resets, which is a book we talked about before on the show, rewire your brain and body for less stress and more resilience.”